City's quest to create image entwined with bombing

About two weeks before the Oklahoma City bombing, local business leaders eager to raise the town's profile hired a team of publicity specialists. Their assignment: Find a way to put the community on the map.

The New York public relations team designed a plan to boost the city's image and business prospects with writers' junkets, a speaking tour for the mayor and a campaign to tout successful entrepreneurs.

Then came April 19, 1995. Oklahoma City suddenly was all too terribly on the map for millions of Americans inundated with heartbreaking scenes from the bombing that killed 168 people. Now, one year later, the city's quest to establish a national image has become inalterably entwined with the terrorist attack -- and that, ironically, has created new opportunity. "It made people aware of who we are and where we are," said John Reid, marketing manager at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. "Those are two things we constantly hear. It can't help but be effective." "No question doors have opened now more liberally," said Gov. Frank Keating, who has used the visibility gained during his dawn-to- dusk TV presence after the bombing to recruit business -- an agenda he says he began before the explosion. "Because Oklahoma presented itself so well in the tragedy, the sense of community, the professional standards ... there have been many companies throughout the U.S. that wanted to speak to me and take a look at Oklahoma," Keating said. Since taking office in January 1995, the governor has been on the road 115 days, about half that time trying to drum up business for Oklahoma. During those trips, he frequently gives interviews about the bombing of the federal building. "For those of us who lost friends," he said, "it's appropriate and essential to try and see that some good come from this evil." Some relatives of bomb victims, however, say it smacks of opportunism, and they were angry not to be included in last fall's "Thank You America" tour, a four-city trip in which Keating and other political leaders paid tribute to out-of-state rescuers. "There's a limit to how much you can milk the bombing," said Frosty Troy, editor of the weekly Oklahoma Observer. "A lot of people would like to get this behind us." In promoting Oklahoma, the governor often works with Development Counselors International, the public relations firm hired by the Greater Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce and the state Commerce Department. It has doggedly tried to spin positive post-bombing stories, courting hundreds of reporters with dispatches detailing good economic news, commemorative caps for a new stadium, thank-you letters from the chamber and a pro-business video, produced before the explosion. It also issued a new video release -- timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary -- summarizing the city and state's 1995-1996 accomplishments: groundbreaking on a minor-league baseball stadium, Southwest Airlines' new reservations center, a new American Online center, plans for a new downtown hotel. "The last thing you want is for anybody, No. 1, to exploit the tragedy and No. 2, be seen as exploiting the tragedy," said Rob DeRocker, the Development Counselors International's vice president. "At the same time, you do have the opportunity to tell a story you wouldn't otherwise get." "You don't walk around with a victim medal around your neck," he said. "If CNN is on your doorstep and you've got a choice of just letting them tell the victims' story and looking at the site around the building and sending back pictures of sad Oklahoma City ... or saying there's another story ... isn't that a matter of good stewardship?" What this all means for Oklahoma's economy remains to be seen. "I'm not going to suggest as a result of the tragedy, people are going to locate in Oklahoma," said Ron Rosenfeld, state commerce secretary. But, he said, "they may have moved us to a short list because of what they saw on TV." And, Rosenfeld added, now when state officials call on companies, instead of being referred to real estate managers, "we see presidents and chairmen." Dennis Donovan, senior vice president of a New Jersey-based company that advises corporations on locations, said Oklahoma City is on the right track. "Turning a disadvantage into an advantage is smart," he said. "Oklahoma City has got resources that the outside world doesn't know exist. The one thing they know is tragedy. Why shouldn't they know a heck of a lot more?" Even some relatives of bomb victims agree. "I know some other family members may see it as going overboard, but it doesn't offend me," said Phillip Thompson, whose mother, Virginia, died in the blast. "They're talking about the work ethic, our response, our ability to go forward. ... They're talking about good things Oklahoma has to provide. I have no problem with that."

Copyright 1996
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