Blog Entry 4: The Publicist and Celebrity

Part 1: The Publicist: Unofficial Recipe by Max Clifford 

Mr Clifford gives good yet unethical examples of what it mean to be a Publicist.

Part 2: What do others say…………

What links do PR and Celebrity share? According to Mark (2011), Hollywood stars can live up or down to their stereotypes. But more significantly, celebrities can also be invaluable to promoting a good cause.

When celebrity endorsements work, they work well. And for non- profit organisations, associating the charity causes with celebrity can be of huge benefit, normally in terms of raising income. Take a look at Jade Goody and the impact she had on raising the awareness of cervical cancer (Slee, 2012).

However celebrities can also become figures of love/hate relationships. If you were to enter the name Jade Goody into Google search engine in 2007, the search results would look something like this – Racist, Bigotry and Bullying.  Ethically, this is something companies would not want to be associated with, but then again, despite the love/hate relationship, ‘celebrity’ does bring high levels of media and public attention.

With that in mind, here are some general tips both PR practitioners and organisations for successful celebrity relationships:

• You should be thinking, someone out there must be genuinely interested in our cause.

• For most charities or organisation, Hollywood is an alien world, therefore it makes sense to enlist a translator, someone to manage the relationship between celebrities and the organisation

• You want to manage celebrity relationships the way you would manage any high-profile client, whether it’s a large donor or a corporate partner.

• All too often, people forget that high-profile personalities are artists. And because they’re not policy wonks, they may have a unique way of looking at something and crystallizing it in a way that a policy wonk couldn’t. Engage with that.

• When you put an idea in front of them, you want to come off as someone who’s savvy, someone who’s not going to send a 10-page email but a smart, short request that will make them think, Oh, this person gets my life. They get my schedule. This makes sense.

Adapted from Mark (2011).

Part 3: isaacmahuma say………….

Similar to other forms of communication tools, social networking sites and press releases, the use of celebrity or celebrities in campaigns is similar to corporate social responsibility.  Assuming the celebrity has some form of personal interest or share similar ideas and values of a cause, I would suggest celebrity relationships are probably one of the most effective ways of reaching target audiences. Mainly due to the high levels of media and public attention they are able to attract.

However the risks, time and investment to firstly get a celebrity suggests that it’s a tool only very large companies can utilise, this is particularly evidenced within the professional sports industry.  For example, the relationship between professional golfer Tiger Woods and Nike to reported to be worth $35 million a year (Jovic, 2012). However the risk involved with celebrity relationships was similarly evidenced by Tiger Woods. After accusation of infidelity in his personal life, companies associated with Tiger Woods found themselves revaluating those relationships. But considering the levels of investment in the initial relationship, it seem a significant loss of money, time and effort.

Blog Entry 3: Corporate Social Responsibility

No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.
Click picture for video link.

Part 1: Is this Corporate Social Responsibility in Action?

Dove Evolution  

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty didn’t just attach its brand superficially to a charity or cause; it created a deep soul connection with women on the most personal level. Dove created a powerful bond between women and its brand, the kind of bond that builds true trust, which can and should be the whole point of corporate social responsibility. – Dori Molitor (2008)

Chevrolet

Click picture for video link.

From this

To this…………..The UTEFORCE builds a cricket pitch with Chevrolet

UTE-Force South Africa? A group made up of the country’s most varied and skilled experts, from carpenters and plumbers to electricians and industrial designers. They use their time, talent and dedication for a full year to tackle projects missions and challenges for communities who need them the most. With a fleet of legendary all new Chevrolet Utilities at their disposal, these people make a difference to people’s lives.

Part 2: What do others say……………..

Interpretation 1: Kim and Park (2011)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means doing good for society as one ethical behavior of corporations.

Interpretation 2: Pohl (2006)

CRS is not just about random act of kindness, CRS is tool. A tool for communicating the values, beliefs, attitudes and namely the corporate culture of a company.

Interpretation 3: Wolf (2008)

The notion of corporate social responsibility is intensely confused. In particular, it mixes up three quite distinct ideas: intelligent operation of a business; charity; and bearing of costly burdens for the benefit of society at large. The first is essential; the second is optional; and the third is impossible, unless those obligations are imposed on competitors.

Interpretation 4: Rivoli and Waddock (2011)

Corporate responsibility can be viewed as a temporal process, representing the ongoing tension gap between societal expectations expressed legally or through norms and company behavior.

Part 3: isaacmahuma says……………

Corporate social responsibility, every company is doing it but who knows why. let’s examine the two case studies above, first Dove Evolution. In my opinion, the video that was produced as part of the campaign is genius. If you don’t know, Dove Evolution was a campaign raising awareness about the ‘beauty’ industry and how some of the practices involved (airbrushing) were negatively contributing to people’s perceptions of beauty. I think this is a great example of CSR. Dove exposed the unethical behaviours of an industry, something former journalists of News of the World failed to do.

The second case study it from car manufacture Chevrolet. The company was involved in a project that built a cricket pitch for a school in South Africa. Why did they do this? For me this is all about spin. Linking their brand with a good cause. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with this approach, as long as it produces a win/win situation.

The common end result in both these case studies is: linking the brand or organisation to a good cause. Therefore, I would suggest, in the end, CRS practice is a tool for communicating socially acceptable or favourable values to enhance the reputation or values that are placed on an organisation.

Blog Entry 2. Introducing Ethics

Part 1: Task for the Readers. 

In Blog Entry 1. Persuasion a picture depicting both a young and old women was posted.

The blog ended with a task for you readers to complete. Your job was to persuade a friend/family member/acquaintance to see the same image you see, assuming they saw a different image.

So where did you begin. Did you go on the internet, find some statistics showing that 99% of people who have seen the image see a young woman. Or did you ask one of your colleagues who works at The Sun to print a story about how 99% of the population see a young woman. Or do you pay a celebrity to endorse the idea that the image is showing a young woman.

A bit over the top, but what I’m really asking is,

Did you use the facts? Did you consider the other person’s point of view? Did you have a rational discussion? Does it matter how you did it?

Part 2: What are Ethics?

A definition from the Longman (1995) dictionary states:

Ethics – moral rules or principles of behaviour for deciding what is right and wrong.

How do ethics relate to PR? Parsons (2008) claims that there is little doubt the public, including employers and clients are already highly sceptical of what is communicated to them on a daily basis. Therefore PR practitioners can’t really afford to contribute any more to this mistrust.

But at the same time, Finn (1959) states, PR must pay off somewhere along the line, whether in sales, productivity, stockholder confidence, or government support. Hard-headed businessmen look for dollar values, not rewards of altruism.

But take into account the Charted Institute for Public Relations (CIPR) stance and they suggest Finn’s points are correct to a certain degree. Yes, PR does need to achieve set out objectives, but not at the expense of ethical behaviour.

‘Do you put the Code of Conduct above a valuable client relationship and risk losing your job because you refuse to break the CIPR’s rules?

Frankly, yes.’

(Wheeler, 2010)

llewellyn14 says…….

Ethics seems to be a hot topic in PR and more recently with the Leveson Inquiry (2012). News of the World seemed to pay the ultimate price for their alleged part in the phone hacking scandal. But the questions is, what leads people to use such methods? From my perspective, it seems there was a total lack of leadership throughout the organisation. Where was the person who not only questioned what they were doing but also followed through by not taking part in unethical behaviour or informing the relevant authorities? It seems that when things go wrong, the person at the top get blamed. Why? If we want people to be ethical, it might be an idea to start with our own attitudes and behaviours.

Rupert Murdoch is all things evil. According to the numerous blog comments I’ve read on football forums and news articles.  Murdoch’s company BSkyB are responsible for the money and greed that seems prevalent in modern day football. If that is the case, why were BSkyB able to pay premier league football clubs £1 billion. Because people buy their product. People buy the product then moan when it has less than desirable effects. It’s not right people claim. Why don’t people cancel their sky subscription? Why be loyal to footballers, why be loyal and supportive regardless of how footballers’ might behave or BSkyB, Primark, Nike, Hershey’s? Is that ethical?

Rupert Murdoch Biography ‘He quickly converted the News into a chronicle of crime, sex and scandal, and while these changes were controversial, the paper’s circulation soared. ‘

Blog Entry 1. Persuasion

Part 1: Task for the Readers 

The ‘Boring’ Figure

American psychologist Edwin G. Boring is the creative mind behind the illustration on the left.

The picture fits perfectly with the topic of this discussion, Persuasion.

Take a look at the picture, what do you see? You see either a young woman or an old woman. Some of you may see both. But that’s not that the point, well not yet.

What if you showed this picture to a friend, a family member? They see different, no they say. How can that be a young woman? She’s an old granny!

Now it’s your job to persuade them to see what you see, the young woman or the old woman. Just like a PR practitioner, your job is to persuade your friend/ family member or acquaintance to see the same image as you.

Part 2: What do others say?

According to Parson (2008) Public Relations suffers from a bad reputation. Arguably PR practice goes further than persuasion, instead PR was founded on the idea that the public mind can and should be manipulated (Ewen, 1996).

This is further reinforced by Edward Bernays, who is often referred to as the founder of Public Relation, but also the father of spin according to  Tye (1999).  In 1928 Bernays was hired to expand the sales of Lucky Strike cigarettes.

The result, Bernays helped the smoking industry overcome one of the biggest social taboos of the time: women smoking in public. This may explain the role of the PR practitioners, to change attitudes and behaviours.

Part 3: llewellyn14 says…..

Literature on the history of Public Relations seems to share a common agreement: Public Relations has a bad reputation, there is a general public perception that PR is largely about selling ideas and products through the manipulation of the truth.

However contemporary teachings on the subject put emphasis on the idea that PR is about reputation and relationship management within the boundaries of social responsibility and ethical practice.

In practice, is it likely that there are some practitioners who join professional bodies such as The Chartered Institute of Public Relations who champion the idea of ethics and responsibility in the practice of PR. In contrast, there are those who will do the job they are paid to do because their financial security is more important than a stance on an ethical issue.

Introductory

I am a third year student studying Sports Business Management at the University of Lincoln.

As part of my Values, Issues and Crisis Management Counselling module, I’ve been tasked with producing a series of blogs in relation to Public Relations (PR).

With reference to academics, PR practitioners, illustrations, yours and my opinions, the series of blog discussions will attempt to dissect the following statement:

Persuasion is a key tool of the PR practitioner who exists to present the client or organisation in the best possible light. Sometimes this activity is referred to as propaganda or spin.