Stop worrying about a “loose cannon” coworker jeopardizing your company’s reputation with this one weird tip from 17th-century France!

The issue:

Sometimes, a representative for a company causes a public relations disaster by saying something dumb on camera (Figure 1).

Obviously, we’d like to avoid this.

But although it’s easy to avoid interview disasters over email (just have a PR department filter the outgoing emails), this doesn’t work for real-time in-person interactions.

ceo-normal — ***Fig. 1:*** This CEO has been unfortunate enough to say something really dumb while on camera. Millions of dollars of theoretical shareholder value were wiped out as a result! If only this could have been avoided.

Proposal:

Fortunately, we can fix this problem using an idea from the 1600s!

Specifically, when the CEO (or other employee) is scheduled for an interview, they can wear a soundproof helmet (perhaps styled after the Man in the Iron Mask helmet, Figure 2).

The process then works as follows:

The helmet is soundproof, but:
The helmet has an interior speaker and external microphone, so the wearer can hear the interviewer.
When the wearer speaks, there is a brief “tape delay” before sound is emitted from the helmet’s external speaker.
This delay gives a remote monitoring PR department the ability to quickly dub over any unacceptable interview responses with their own sanitized version.

ceo-helmet — ***Fig. 2:*** *Interview woes: solved! Also removes the need for time-consuming hairstyling and makeup.*

PROS: Never again worry about a company’s stock plummeting as a result of a catastrophic interview!

CONS: None! Except for the possibility of the interviewee being switched out with their identical twin, as in the plot of the 19th century Dumas novel (and/or 1998 film) The Man in the Iron Mask.