The right way to do a U-turn

By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine

Gordon Brown is being accused of planning a U-turn over tax, but most of us face a more mundane change of mind every day. Is there any way to do it smoothly?

U-turn is a pejorative word in the media. In driving it tends to suggest a mere navigational error. If you are accused of doing one in politics, the columnists tend to suggest you might take a break from driving the ship of state.

Some U-turns have hurt the U-turners, some have not. Some have lived long in the memory, the others were quickly fish and chip paper. But is there any right way to do a U-turn?

THE HONEST TO GOODNESS U-TURN U-TURN

Sometimes people, even politicians, feel able to admit they were just plain wrong.

On Monday 9 May 2005, it was revealed that the Department of Trade and Industry was rebranding as the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry. By the next day the jibes had started. One possible acronym would be "Dippy", the wags noted. Some suggested worse.

In a triumph for speedy government, by Thursday 12 May, the DPEI was no more, with the government changing the name back and deploying "a man with a screwdriver" to tackle the nameplate.

The week-long rebranding was later revealed to have cost £30,000 - or the cost of six hip replacements as the Conservatives witheringly noted.

But Labour was not deterred. The DTI was recently axed in favour of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The rebranded department goes by the acronym BERR, although regular users often pronounce it "beurre" as in the French for butter.

Judi James, an expert on workplace culture and communication skills, says the value of "sticking to your guns" is overstated.

"For a start never see taking a decision and sticking to it as admirable. That's almost stubbornness.

"There's absolutely no such thing as the right decision. There are lots of 'rights' and therefore it is perfectly acceptable to try another version of right."

THE GIVING WAY TO PUBLIC OPINION U-TURN

And one obvious option for the U-turner is saying that you made the right decision but have been forced into changing your mind by the reaction to that decision.

In 1995, Shell wanted to dispose of its defunct oil storage unit Brent Spar in deep waters, but the platform was occupied by Greenpeace activists and a wave of negative public opinion swept Europe.

Moved to act by criticism from politicians, Shell changed its mind, but it has always maintained that the original decision had been correct and was the more environmentally sound option.

More recently, Mars decided in May last year to start using rennet, an enzyme usually derived from calves' stomachs, in its chocolate bars, rendering them unsuitable for vegetarians.

Within a week it had admitted it had become "very clear, very quickly" that it had made a mistake. The policy was reversed.

By comparison, Coca-Cola was almost Alamo-like in its defence of a decision to revamp the drink's formula. It held out nearly three months before reinstating "classic" Coke formula in 1985 and waited some 17 years before ditching "new" Coke entirely.

James says honesty about the U-turn is the best policy.

"The big thing is to announce quite honestly and openly that you have changed your mind. If you are defensive and try and pretend you haven't that is often seen as a sign of weakness."

THE CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGED U-TURN

Sometimes a change in circumstances is blamed for a change of decision.

During his campaign for president in 1988 George Bush Sr famously said "Read my lips: no new taxes". Once in office he did raise taxes and the phrase has become one of the most parodied in the history of modern politics.

But Bush's defenders said he had never intended to raise taxes and was forced into it by a political stalemate in Congress.

In 2001, it was expected that the general election would go ahead on the same day in May as the local elections despite the foot-and-mouth outbreak and criticism from farmers. Eventually, the government relented and had both in June, retaining a hefty majority in Parliament.

Evaluation is the key, James says. Anybody can say that as part of their original decision they were committed to constant evaluation of the situation with a view to changing tack if necessary.

THE I-NEVER-SAID-THAT U-TURN

In the event of having to go back on your decision, it is always possible to muddy the waters by claiming that the original decision was never actually made.

Rapper 50 Cent recently vowed to stop releasing solo albums if he was outsold by fellow hip hop star Kanye West.

"If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer write music," 50 Cent reportedly said in August last year. "I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out any more solo albums."

But as the day of destiny approached, 50 Cent suggested he had been misunderstood and that comparisons between himself "a boss" and a "worker bee" like West were unreasonable.

In the event West comfortably outsold 50 Cent and the latter's fourth solo album is expected some time this year.

THE NOT REALLY A U-TURN U-TURN

Again in the field of rebranding, there have been few less popular choices than the Post Office group's change to become Consignia. Ridiculed by press and public, incoming chairman Allan Leighton's first decision in office was to scrap it.

And after Margaret Thatcher left office in 1990, one of her successor John Major's first decisions was to scrap the controversial community charge or "poll tax".

Both examples show the easiest U-turn to make is when the U-turner didn't make the original decision.

Here is a selection of your comments.

BA's "ethnic" tail fins. Mrs Thatcher covered up a model aircraft's tail fin with her hankie, making clear what we were all thinking. Then new chief exec Rod Eddington switched back to the union flag.
Johnny R, Leicester UK

It was John Maynard Keynes who was quoted: "When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?". It's the only logical thing to do - anything else will make you look an even bigger fool.
Philip, Reading

In Australia all states have a tag line such as, Victoria : The Garden State, South Australia : The Festival State and so on. A few years back the South Australian government decided to rebrand with something a little more "trendy" and so instead of The Festival State we got "South Australia : Going All The Way". Needless to say it was withdrawn pretty swiftly amidst the nation’s guffaws.
Michael Heath, Hackney, London

How about Kelloggs public driven U-turn on the rebranding of Coco Pops. They tried to change it to Choco Krispies but to no avail. I'd rather have a bowl of Choco Krispies? Nope.
Adam, Cardiff

PwC didn't make a U-turn on calling its consulting division Monday. The consulting division was to be a separate company but IBM was interested and it was bought up as soon as the name was announced. Had IBM not bought then the company would have existed.
Mike, UK

If only the London2012 committee had U-turned on the nightmare that is the 2012 Olympic logo. I have nightmares about that still.
Matt B, Whitstable, UK

The one that cracks me up was PwC's £75m rebranding of their consulting division to "Monday", followed by a swift unbranding. They needn't have made the U-turn if someone had told them in the first place how much people disliked the end-of-the-weekend name...
Dennis Blandford, Richmond, UK

Isn't there a quote by someone: "When the facts known to me change, I change my opinion. What do you do?"
Martin, Brentwood, UK

There is also the "Advertising U-Turn", an example being 50 Cent. The statement 50 Cent made raised a lot of free publicity for both himself and Kanye West. I don't think many people really believed he would actually honour his promise but it still produced a lot of media coverage. The same is probably true of Heinz's decision to stop producing their salad cream. One suspects they never intended to stop production, but the suggestion they were going to created a large amount of free publicity and increased sales of the product.
DS, Croydon, England