If foreign films for you are something vaguely pretentious and best avoided given a night on the town ”“ or better still, banned altogether ”“ you might not be alone, but you would definitely be overdue for an education from Bob and Sue Cole. It”™s the same lesson Bob gave to The New York Times editorial board when he buttonholed them on the topic. Foreign films, of course, feature subtitles and therein lies a story with deep professional and personal roots for the Coles.
Professionally, Sue Cole had been a manager at Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising giant, when she left to found her own public relations and marketing firm in Bronxville, Cole Communications. The year was 1994 and her husband, Bob, was working in public relations for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. But Bob was already helping out on weekends and that would lead to a full-time business merger.
With Bob”™s help, Sue Cole landed accounts with American Express Financial Services and Bayer Corp.”™s diagnostics division.
“Once we got them, I couldn”™t manage by myself,” Sue said. “So Bob quit his job and came to work with me.”
The biggest hurdle for the married parents of two, who first bonded at a 1960s barbecue in New Rochelle, was divvying up the work. After some initial arguments, Bob fell into his strengths ”“ writing op-eds, letters and by-lined articles ”“ and Sue into hers: strategic focus and managing accounts. The equation worked.
“We feel the business-media relationship offers great potential to the mutual satisfaction of both,” Bob said. “The media have inches to fill and the businesses have the information.” And more of those stories need to be told locally: “Years ago, the county economy was dominated by Fortune 500 companies,” he said. “That”™s moved to mid-sized companies with 200 employees.”
Sue added, “If you don”™t tell your story, the other guys will be telling theirs.”
Bob ”“ who cut his teeth reporting five years for the Daily News ”“ said businesses shy away from the press because they fear aggressive reporters a la television news magazines.
Rather, they should focus on telling their stories with the attitude: “Why should the readers care?”
“If a business has its 50th anniversary, they may want to be all over the paper with that,” Sue said. “They should instead discuss what”™s news. What are the trends they”™ve seen that have allowed them to thrive for 50 years? Our clients turn their stories into news that journalists will want to share with readers.”
“We get clients the visibility their performance deserves, but that they haven”™t been getting,” Bob said.
The company Web site is www.colecommPR.com.
Bob and Sue Cole”™s introduction to the world of the disabled ”“ and its unexpected link to foreign films ”“ came with the birth of their daughter, Debra, who is profoundly deaf.
Their activism in that world came just a few years later when Debra was enrolled at an all-oral pre-school.
Sue Cole knew her daughter and knew that “total communication” ”“ a combination of signing, speech and gesture ”“ was the best way to reach her. Soon, Sue was abandoning the all-oral approach, at least on the home front where she would not get in trouble with school officials, and running a local signing school attended by the kids in their old Queens neighborhood. From those beginnings, Debra today is pursuing her Ph.D. at Columbia University. Her brother, Peter, now a pediatric oncologist, had always insisted girls he dated speak sign language to better communicate with his sister. Their parents glow at mention of their children. As for her neighborhood signing school, Sue reported it made it to the pages of the Daily News.
“I”™m a proponent of communicating in the style the child needs,” Sue said. “All people are not the same.”
Bob is a founding member and steering committee member for the Westchester Disabled Advocacy Partnership, a group he calls “most juiced up” that will speak on disability issues for 40-plus disability groups. It was founded in November and, according to Bob, “We have a long, long way to go.”
The Coles have used their experiences in the nonprofit-dominated world of disabilities to talk with the business community.
“We work both sides of the street,” Sue said. “The nonprofits want to know the business community and not just the big businesses. It”™s the mid-sized outfits they need to know.”
Sue also sits on the board of the Association of Development Officers, a philanthropic group where she was president for two years.
As for those foreign films, it was a Times”™ editorial on shuttering foreign-language theaters that got Bob”™s hackles up and eventually led to a sit-down with the editorial board. “Foreign films are great for the deaf, but they never mentioned the impact on the deaf community,” Bob said of the Times. “I explained it to them and you could see the lights blinking on. They were getting it.” He said that he subsequently noticed improvements in Times coverage of disability issues.
“What ticks us off is that people are unaware,” Bob said of oversights like those he witnessed with the Times. “It”™s entering buildings. It”™s entering voting booths. All our paper currency is the same size, making it difficult for the visually impaired.”
“Just look at curb cuts,” Sue said. “What a major thing they”™ve turned out to be and what a difference they”™ve made for people with disabilities. To get things done, these nonprofits have to reach beyond their small circle to tell their stories. They need to reach out to referrers and they need to reach out to consumers of their services.”
Sue would advise those interested in curb cuts, deaf-friendly films and other elements of modern life that make a huge difference for the disabled to reflect on her message: “They should use the same professional, effective outreach as businesses use.”
