A Picture of Health is Worth a Thousand Mumbles

Leave it to Boston's beloved Mayor Menino.  

In his 20th State of the City address last night he and his very smart handlers knew that, after a recent hospitalization and lengthy rehab period, the most important message that needed to be conveyed was visual -- the Mayor is healthy and he is back to work.  

Menino good-naturedly takes a lot of hits in Boston for his garbled speech patterns.  He is not known as an orator and often gets names wrong in his presentations -- and in a spectacular and amusing fashion.  But he's revered as a good Mayor and man of the people.  And when he was MIA, the murmuring around the city was whether he was coming back and, further, whether this signaled the end of a storied career as a successful mayor of the 22nd largest city in the country.

So a lot was riding on the speech this year.  The buzz began yesterday.  Everyone was going to be watching to see how the Mayor looked, as well as what he was bringing to the table for 2013.

Delores Handy of WBUR reported: 

"It was with sheer confidence that a slimmed down Mayor Menino walked down the center aisle to the refrains of Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger.”

He used a cane and didn’t climb the stairs to the main stage, instead speaking from a podium in front of the stage. There was a chair nearby, but the mayor did not use it. He stood throughout the nearly 30-minute speech."

The Boston Globe also described the highlight of the speech being Menino himself, who was warmly received by a crowd happy to see him back and demonstrating energy for his 2013 programs.

It was a great PR strategy to demonstrate so emphatically that the Mayor is back in business and excited to move forward.  The initiatives he laid out were great, but the most important message about his return and his health was the one that really scored.

Welcome back, Mayor Menino!  We're glad to see that you and your smart PR machine understand what this city needs to hear -- and, importantly, to see -- from you right now.