Northwest must hire Melinda Dennis as spokesperson

By on December 28th, 2009 In Best Practices

Watching the Today Show this morning I was struck by this interview with Melinda Dennis, a passenger on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 when a Nigerian national allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device on board.

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Dennis says all the right things from a PR perspective. She said she’d continue to fly, praised the flight crew, encouraged others to fly and even wrapped up the experience as a positive lesson for all of us. Wow.

Northwest should give Ms. Dennis free flights for the rest of her life in exchange for going on all the talk shows to talk about her experience. This is a good lesson for PR folks as well. There’s nothing like a great customer testimonial, especially when it’s delivered by an attractive and articulate person.

Comments

Linda Capcara Says:
December 28th, 2009 at 9:27 am

I couldn’t agree more. I was on the treadmill this morning watching it trying to work off the to die for banana cheesecake my sister made for Xmas dinner and I thought to myself “where in the heck did they find her?” She was SUPER impressive. They said she has a fiance in Phoenix. Maybe she’ll move to the Valley someday.

Stephen Norton Says:
December 28th, 2009 at 9:33 am

I saw Ms. Dennis’ appearance on Weekend Today, and again this morning. I, too, was struck by her tone, demeanor and articulate and insightful remarks.

In fact, I “googled” her this morning, as I was curious if she perhaps worked in communications. I only found news reports and your blog commentary.

If she she does not work in the profession, it would seem that she could…glad to know I was not the only one with this perception of her performance…

Johnny Speakright Says:
December 29th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

Wow, are we falling all over someone *just* because they have the ability to string together a sentence or two without an ‘um’ or ‘dang’ or ‘dude’? Cripes, people. It’s called vocabulary. She’s intelligent. We all can do it. Learn new words in 2010.

Pedro Alicea Says:
February 21st, 2010 at 4:09 pm

Johnny Speakright;

You down-play her ability to speak correctly and eloquently but I challenge you to find 10 people in a single area that can do it. I live in the Washington DC area and even here, too many people take the English language (before people starting shouting immigrants, this includes caucasians born here in the USA as well) with a grain of salt and speak incorrectly. Try going thru one single day without people utilizing slang and I will be impressed. As for her, I am glad and impressed that she is able to speak properly. It’s refreshing.

married not dead Says:
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Well, there’s something else going on besides vocabulary. Her voice is lovely. Also, there’s a CNNLiving piece on “passengers who flew with accussed christmas day bomber”. There’s a photograph of her from waist up which shows her wearing a lacy camisole under a flattering sweater. She’s apparently a tall lady who is quite well endowed. The word bombshell is my word for 2010.

Mike Hoskins Says:
June 18th, 2011 at 7:10 pm

Being a college friend of Melinda’s, I’d have to agree that she is indeed an intelligent and very articulate woman. I’m grateful she came out of this, and with the ability to speak so eloquently on the topic and be so insightful and positive about the situation.

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