Awesome PR by Sho

Sunday, 15 January 2012

The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady hits the UK theatres at the best moment for the Conservative. The movie featuring the former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher's struggle with the single currency and workers' union reflect what is happening right now. We are fed up with Euro crisis and unions' strikes. I am sure the present Prime Minister, David Cameron, is happy with the movie supporting him.

Meryl Streep as Thatcher

   Last month Cameron refused to sign up to changes of EU treaty and bailout plan to save Euro while the other 26 member countries reached an agreement. Despite the strong criticism from France, Germany and the UK Labour Party, Cameron's veto was widely approved by the UK citizens. In addition, this movie seems to show that Thatcher and Cameron were right; both of the Conservative politicians never compromised on Euro.
   The movie also reflected on the days when people throw away rubbish bags on the street and nobody clean them up because unions were so strong decades ago. That reminded me of the nationwide industrial action in November and Tube strike on Boxing Day. Cameron could also be tough on unions, I think.
   What would this movie be like if the Labour was in power now? Or, would this movie be released when we have a prime minister for the Labour? I don't know if the PR team for the movie has waited the timing for long time, it's working well. At least, I felt sympathy with Thatcher as well as the Conservative.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Newspapers heavily depend on PR

More than half news stories in daily newspapers come from PR source; Nick Davies reveals a striking report filed by researchers from Cardiff University. In his book, Flat Earth News (2008), the Guardian's reporter attacks the corrupted newspaper industry. As I had worked as a journalist for 12 years until last summer, I got interested in what he says and took a look at a newspaper in the UK.

   The 29th of December 2011 issue of the Guardian. Three articles carried clear sign of PR. The one discussing house prices occupied half of page 5 with a photo and the list of expensive addresses. The source is Lloyds TSB which sets the embargo for their press release at after 00:01 hours 29 December. The other from the charity named Barnardo's contributed to a quarter of page 13, criticising rent-to-own credit firms of charging too much on customers at their press release. There was also a small article on page 17 about Sainsbury's staff trained to help "hidden carers" with Carers UK. This is "old" news because the charity has already issued the press release a month ago. In addition, two articles are generated from the government's reports: "One in four hospital patients 'could be recovering at home'", "Low-carbon energy 'no dearer than doing nothing'".
    Five of these articles are all about statistics as Davies states "PR fabricates pseudo-evidence, surveys, polls and specially commissioned research. Surveys are a favourite, usually for commercial PR, usually released on a Sunday to fill the news vacuum of Monday morning's papers." As for the Guardian's articles, it was after Christmas and there are few people working, no schools. Apparently journalists must have had difficulty in picking up fresh news, gave up and then searched for usable releases. With fewer journalists and more commitment on online articles such as real time blogs, journalists don't have enough time to find original, exclusive news.
    "So is public relations taking advantage of a weakened news media system?" Coombs and Holladay (2010) says shortly "yes" and go on to argue "As the news media increasingly need a media subsidy, public relations benefits and may have a greater ability to shape news content." I think it also means public relations practitioners should be as responsible and ethical to what they produce as journalists. Be careful with a con man. Don't work with representatives from problematic countries.

Sunday, 18 December 2011

Santa Clorry

I was lucky to find Coca Cola Santa Clause lorry at North Greenwich last week. The lorry with the licence plate "SANTA 1" really looks like sleigh with Santa.

   Coca Cola's campaign with the lorries seems to have a long tradition and is promoting Coca Cola's reputation by giving out free drinks and inviting celebrities at the opening ceremony. In the UK, two lorries visit 100 towns and supermarkets from Ireland to England, Wales until 23rd December. Want to find out where they are? Coca Cola recommends you to click the website "keep on trucking" (Nice rhetoric). There are lorries in Japan as well.
   In order to stand against the criticism about the vehicles' fuel and emission, the company offsets carbon emission which means buying the right to drive and emit gas. The money paid for the right will be spent for activities to reduce carbon. It turns out the company can demonstrate the sincere attitude towards environmental problems seriously. I believe nobody would feel bad when they come across the lorry because it's Christmas and people become more generous. Pepsi could not paint the lorry in the way Coca Cola does. In this sense, Coca Cola is taking advantage of the image of brand.
   Again it's Christmas. I don't feel like criticising the campaign this time. Maybe next time.

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Manufacturing buzz on Twitter

Adecco Group offers students a chance to win tablet PC in exchange of manufacturing tweets with the link to the company's website. After the company sent out email to those who have already applied for the summer jobs during Olympic Games, Twitter is now filled with "spam" messages repeating "London2012 needs 100K students! Register for a paid SUMMER JOB OF A LIFETIME & win an AcerTabPC".

Email from Adecco

   I am one of the students who received an email from Summer Job for The Games, an organisation recruiting temporary staffs for London 2012. The organisation is run by Adecco Group UK and Ireland and seems to be looking for more security officers for the venues. The only things you have to do to join the competition for Acer Tablet PC is tweet the advert and then follow "@jobsforthegames". After several hours, @jobsforthegames was satisfied with so many tweets and tweeted back "Good response to the competition guys. Well done! Get your friends to register too"
   This case made me think about the ethical issue concerning a company using social media as a means of advert. Your friends may be annoyed with irrelevant tweets when they accessed to their account. The company spent a little money out of the budget on a cheap tablet while the tweets spread out by words of mouth with no cost.
   Adecco is clever, but I think it is ethically problematic for two reasons; it used applicants email address to ask tweeting, it is abusing twitter. It is open to question. I am curious what other people think about it.

Monday, 28 November 2011

Fashion PR with political message

Katy Perry, American singer, 27, was dressed in a gorgeous gown printed with Chinese political slogan, 緑色経済, meaning "green economy" at American Music Award. It is making buzz especially among Chinese people mocking and criticizing her choice of the dress, according to The Daily Telegraph and The Mail Online. There are lot of questions coming up. Why does she dare to carry the slogan? Does she know the meaning? What is the benefit for her?

   The dress is designed by Vivienne Westwood. On her official website about her spring/summer 2012 collection she writes;
   "The collection has 3 main influences : China, because I hope their traditional wisdom and experience from a culture going back to Confucius may help us to save the planet; the desert because of climate change; and 17^th century corsets."
   Then she reveals that the slogan was written by a Chinese official in his calligraphy. She met Mr Wang in Nairobi working with United Nations and was inspired by the slogan implying sustainability. For Westerners, any Chinese characters look so cool especially if it means good for environment.
   However, looking at the environmental situation and rapid growth in China, how can you say it's green?
   I don't think just one dress will destroy the reputation of Katy and Ms Westwood badly, but it's good for celebrities to stay politically neutral because they are supported by fans in every political beliefs. Some people may have already tagged her with pro-communism. If I were in charge of managing Katy, I would have been upset.

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Friday, 18 November 2011

Joe Lynam

Joe Lynam, BBC business news correspondent, talked about the current economic situation in UK at the breakfast forum hosted by 3 Monkeys on Wednesday. He is concerned about the decline of middle class and "Daily Mailisation" of the public.

   According to the recent statistics, the average salary of UK citizen is squeezed to 25,000 pounds. It was 28,000 three years ago. The reason he picked up was (1) UK is no longer a mass manufacturer, the decline of which affect blue colour (2) globalization (3) outsourcing-lots of legal work are outsourced in India.
Because of income squeeze, middle class suffer from inflation, own no car, no house, spend less money. They might think university education is not necessary especially after they will be charged 9,000 pounds a year from next year. The quality of middle class and the economy will plunge.
   So, what do the politicians do? Middle class who comprise 40 per cent of the nation decides everything. The politicians have to persuade them. However, the way you consume the news is internet, twitter. Who buys the newspapers? The articles tend to be short and easy. He called this phenomenon, "Daily Mailisation". He emphasized women could change the world.
   In terms of PR, what can we do under such a negative situation? He says, human story is important to get media coverage. (This is the same element as our lecturer, Mark, pointed out.)
   Joe shares his thoughts at his blog.