Don’t you think there is something singularly pleasurable about the great and the good making complete arses of themselves?
Think of Richard Branson banging on about how he deplored lateness in people, which drew predictable and justified brickbats from long-suffering commuters on his train line. Then there was World Cup winner Hugo Lloris trying to steer his Porsche while nine sheets to the wind and having the book thrown at him by court and club alike.
But when it comes to meltdowns, few can match Elon Musk. Whether it’s the seemingly never-ending problems with his Tesla production line, badmouthing journalists and their “boneheaded questions”, traducing the reputation of diver Vernon Unsworth or smoking a joint on a web broadcast, he truly is a serial car crash.
But fear not, Elon, help is at hand in the shape of Patrick Barrow, from Reputation Communications, which seems to be a firefighting company for those deep in the mire. And yes, it has a mission statement: “Reputation Communications provides clients with a bespoke team of communications professionals. We construct a team to the precise needs of the client, clustering expertise around your challenge as and when it is needed.” It was all going so well until they lobbed in “clustering”. If the art of good communication is the deployment of good English, surely this is something of an own goal?
Mind you, it’s nothing compared with a pronouncement from Uber about its flying taxi plans. The cab firm says that ideal cities for this venture will be “polycentric, with multiple dense nodes of development in an urban area”. If you’re baffled too, do join me on the 172 bus.
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