Tag Archives: for-profit marketing

The Weinstein PR Debacle

Harvey Weinstein debacle

Harvey Weinsetin

Few examples of a sudden fall from grace come close to the case of Harvey Weinstein.  One day he is king of Hollywood, the next he can’t get a seat at a McDonald’s in Hollywood.  Some call it a PR disaster.  It is much more.

The term “casting couch” wasn’t invented yesterday or by Weinstein.  It has been part of Hollywood for decades.  But with social media, and the 24 hour news cycle, what was once a news story can be turned into a major global debacle.

Weinstein will try all he can to re-build his image by going to “sex therapy.”  He will fight for his company and try to get his life back.

I don’t have a crystal ball, but it seems futile.

As they say, its a short step from the limousine to the curb.

The day the laughter died

nonprofit-pr-los-angeles-Jerry-Lewis--image.jpgThe day after Jerry Lewis died, the world went dark.

Yes, it was a coincidence, that the solar eclipse happened the day after, but a telling one.

Jerry Lewis had to have been one of the most famous people in the last 100 years.  Who doesn’t know Jerry Lewis?  Whether you remember his movies, his act, his interviews or his telethon, we all knew Jerry Lewis.

Jerry Lewis devoted his entire life, until the day he died, to making people laugh.  He also devoted it to raising money for MDA to help children afflicted with Muscular Dystrophy.

Yes, he had a snarky side. He had a larger than life, somewhat annoying ego, but he earned it.  Nobody comes from a poor Jewish neighborhood in New York and catapults himself into the most famous funnyman in history without being somewhat eccentric.

When we lose someone we all love and admire, like Dick Gregory a few days prior and now Jerry Lewis, we tend to say the same things — there never will be another one like him.  H/she was one of a kind, and all those platitudes.

In the case of Jerry Lewis, it is true.

 

 

When PR gets in the way of the message

All of us want to be loved.  Well, at least liked.

This is apparently no more the case than with our president.

President Trump is obsessed with what people say about him; what people think of him and his popularity.  This is not a political statement.  He has admitted it and displayed this obsession by watching what seems to be countless of hours of cable television to see what the media say about him.

Obviously, much if not most of it, is not good.  So how does he change that?  How does President Trump manage his own PR so he markets himself in a way that will improve his likability and make him happy?

There is only one way, and it is not through polished statements read off a teleprompter.  (Not his strength.)

The President needs to stop worrying so much about his image and start getting things done.

Certainly much of what he wants to get done people disagree with.  I won’t rehash the list, but we know what they are.

But one thing is for sure.  Everybody wants a stronger economy.  Everybody wants a job.  Everybody wants healthcare  If he can achieve this, and it won’t be easy, then his misstatements and political pitfalls will be easier to forgive.  At least for some people.  For many others there is nothing he can do that will redeem him.

He also needs to remember that presidential criticism is part of the job.  There has never been a president when everything he did received 100% approval.  Maybe Trump is facing more of an uphill battle than prior presidents, much because of his own doing, but he needs to swallow it and roll up his shirtsleeves.

So if he can, and that is a big IF, he should turn off the TV and get to work.  Americans want a better life, not someone who can deliver a pretty speech.  Doing both is better, but people will take what they can get.

And right now, people aren’t asking for much.  They just want to pay their bills, raise their families in peace and have the dignity of a job.

If he can do that, his PR and image will rise.

IF he can do that.

 

 

Something we (finally) all can agree on

In today’s divided country and world, it is a breath of fresh air when there is something we all can agree on.

And it happened today.  The solar eclipse was cool.

For a few hours, people stopped fighting with one another, writing hateful messages and levying threats.  Even the media made room for the one event that everybody in the world could witness on the same day, with or without those special glasses.  And it had nothing to do with politics.

Maybe that’s what we need more of.  Natural occurrences that are undeniable and that we all can witness at the same time and agree upon.

Hopefully something like this will come along again before another 100 years or so.

 

New marketing terms — “Optics” “Reaching Out” “Space” and more

Just when you think you know all the marketing and PR terms, new words enter our lexicon.

People no longer “contact” one another.  They “reach out.”  Situations don’t “look bad.”  They have bad “optics.”  Having “expertise” in a certain endeavor is gone.  Now it is working in a certain “space.”

Interesting how new terms come about, catch on and then become normalized.  These words have always existed, but never used in the context of marketing and PR as they are now.

It is almost as if you date yourself if you don’t play the game.  You can’t tell a client “doing that would be a mistake. It wouldn’t look good.”  You have to say, “the optics of that would be questionable.”  Makes you appear more contemporary.  And heaven forbid you invite someone to contact you with questions, rather than offering them to “reach out.”

Much of this is fueled by mainstream media where on-camera reporters and anchors want to appear young and with it.  It fuels the language, pushes it forward, and makes everybody feel young.

There is nothing wrong with tweaking English.  New sayings and terms come about all the time.  But with the pervasiveness of social media, with billions of new posts a day, new language can take on a life of its own virtually overnight.

So I guess Farr Marketing is no longer a PR consultancy firm.  We operate in the PR “space.”  We don’t contact press to pitch stories, we “reach out.”

We admittedly are guilty of using these terms and more.

We need to be aware of the “optics.”

The art of PR in Los Angeles

Anybody in the PR business knows just how much the business has changed over the past decade.  There was a time when we could book clients on radio shows that had civil discourse and discussed both sides of an issue.  Seems that time has come and gone.

Today, radio has become all hosts and few guests.  A few remain, but the major radio outlets are dominated by personalities who talk solo for hours on end.  Occasionally they will have a guest on to prove a point — their point — but that’s about it.  Media is dominated by controversy, name calling, taking sides and putting down everyone who disagrees with you.

It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.  We still are able to book our clients but it is admittedly harder.

The press has evolved from the impartiality of conveying “news” to promoting one side or another.  This is totally opposite what we who went to journalism school were taught.  Being objective was the hallmark of the press.  Somehow, when we weren’t paying attention, objectivity became a thing of the past.

Too bad, because an objective press is what separates us from dictatorships.

Maybe one day objectivity in the media will make a comeback.  Can’t wait.

 

The Twitter PR battleground

Seems hard to believe, but Twitter is only about 11 years old.  It started as a cute social media venue, used mostly by celebrities to promote their movies and shows.  Somehow it has become a PR battleground and major political communications force.

Twitter now is used by presidents (I don’t have to mention who) and state leaders around the globe.  Police forces, business people, everybody.  It is the favored way to instantly get a message out, hopefully reposted, and then often regretted.

It is fascinating that something that allows only 140 characters can become so powerful.  Of course most people post multiple messages, strung together, to make their point.  But Twitter’s constraints have forced people to write more concisely, use abbreviations they make up and often convey nonsensical messages.

President Trump has said he believes he wouldn’t have been elected without Twitter.  He touted his Twitter account years before entering politics and has never stopped using it.  Today, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, he still refuses to give up the habit, much to the chagrin of many Americans who see it as “unpresidential.”

What does this say about our communications, PR and marketing?  It says a lot, but foremost it underscores the fact that we don’t have the time or patience to write complete, thoughtful sentences. It says a lot about lashing out impulsively at another person, a company or a government.

The lesson to be learned from the Twitter craze is it often does more harm than good for the user.  How many people have been fired for insensitive or racist Twitter posts?  How many people in prominent positions have had to retract their Twitter posts, only to see them live on.

Instant communication via social media or even email is tempting.  Getting back at someone quickly through electronic communications can provide instant gratification.  However, for most people if they take a couple of hours, and a few deep breaths, they usually decide it is not worth it.

The internet never forgets, and too often people never forgive.

Trump’s PR problem

This post is not pro or con President Trump. FMG’s political views are irrelevant. What is important, is Trump’s communications policies, imaging, branding his PR, and what we can learn from President Trump’s success and failures.

Prior to running for President, Donald Trump thrived attention. He became one of the best known private citizens in the world. He did this not only through his business success and television show, but the fact that he relentlessly sought media exposure.

His name recognition undoubtedly contributed to his ability to run an effective political campaign for the highest office in the land, and winning. Rather unbelievable, but studies prove that name recognition is a major asset for anyone seeking a political life.

But how much attention is too much attention? How much Tweeting is too much Tweeting? Is it helping or hurting him? He obviously contends it helped him win and continues to help him push his political agenda. On the other hand, his incessant Tweeting has resulted in jokes for misspellings, misstatements, and is being used against him in Congressional hearings.

So the lesson has to be balance. Far be it for us to give President Trump advice, but we would recommend using all forms of communication not only wisely and often sparingly.

New PR target: airlines

It seems you can’t turn on your computer without the latest cell video of someone being abused by an airline.  Passengers being dragged off flights to make room for airline employees, families thrown off because the child’s name doesn’t match the ticket, and passengers simply frustrated at being treated with disdain by flight attendants and pilots.

The strange thing is the airlines are almost always right: legally.  They do what their manual tells them they must do or be fired.  And they blame the FAA as the culprit. These flight mishaps, that end up on CNN and all over social media, are not because the airline is doing something wrong.  It is the way they handle the situation.  Again, as in most crisis communications scenarios, it is not the act, it is the coverup.  It is not asking someone to leave a plane, it is how it is done.

When incidents hit the media, and result in public outrage, the airlines cave in.  The CEO goes on Good Morning America to issue an apology and the case usually ends up with the passenger much richer.

What is missing from these crisis scenarios is some common sense.  If flight attendants and pilots worked on alleviating an escalating situation rather than bulldozing their way to follow the manual, nobody would be filming the situation and nobody would think that airlines have become the most non-customer relations sensitive business in the world.  Right now, people would but airlines at the bottom of the list for customer service and in many cases rightfully so.

Issuing apologies and paying passengers millions of dollars doesn’t solve the PR problem.  The airline admits guilt and stupidity and is out a lot of money.  The answer is to stop a PR crisis before it begins.  Give flight attendants and pilots authority to solve problems on the ground before they escalate.  Don’t call the police whose job is to do whatever it takes to get a passenger off the plane.

And have better staff training in how to deal with passengers who have done nothing wrong other than buy a plane ticket.

 

 

 

Is your PR fake news?

Since Donald Trump became president, there has been an awful lot of talk about “fake news.”  The term is now routinely used on news programs, White House briefings, congressional hearings and even PR symposiums.

My understanding is that President Trump coined the phrase.  He likes giving names to people or issues he doesn’t like or who disagree with him.  For some reason, the tactic works for him.

In the public relations, seo services and marketing business, we put out news on a regular basis.  That’s our job, well, at least, part of it.  So if we distribute a news release that makes a claim, and someone disagrees with the claim, does that give them the right to call our release fake news?

This hasn’t happened, but it got me thinking.  In a short amount of time, the term fake news has taken on a life of its own.  And anybody who wants to deny facts, can simply label it fake news and everybody knows what he/she is talking about.

That’s why when we write a news release and make a claim for a client, we always back it up with facts.  It could be a study.  It could be a credible news source or individual.  But we’ve been doing this long before Trump became president.  It is something every organization or corporation should do.  If you claim to be the “best” or “biggest” or “most-respected” or whatever, you need to cite a source.  That’s one of the rules of a submission to Wikipedia.  When a claim or fact is stated, it needs a citation.  If not, the article will be flagged to make the reader aware that it lacks backing.

So keep that in mind.  In your PR, whether it is a news release or social media posting, back up your claims with reliable facts.  Otherwise, someone may come along and with a few keystrokes, label it “fake news.”