Sometimes playing a straight bat to questions from the media just doesn’t work…

Don’t believe me? Check out this example of pugnacious journalism from Irish broadcaster Vincent Browne vs an ECB spokesperson.

This video has been added to my ‘Worst Media Interviews of All Time‘ blog post, which is worth a look for a seven equally cringe-worthy efforts.

Of course, these are bad interviews from the point of view of the spokesperson. One could argue the journalist does rather well.

I recently contributed to a blog post by Kelli Matthews, an experienced PR practitioner from the US.

She crowdsourced comments via Twitter for a blog post aimed at PR graduates called Six Pieces of Media Relations Advice for the Newbies.

My advice for graduates embarking on their first major media sell in was simple: “pick up the phone.”

I’ve found many graduates these days rely on emailing journalists and some almost seem scared to pick up the phone. The discipline is called media relations after all, and how can you have a relationship with someone if you’ve never spoken to them?

Kelli has just under ten years of public relations experience; the last seven as the director of a full-service public relations, marketing and design agency. Her six years of work with undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Oregon’sSchool of Journalism & Communication has required her to stay on the cutting edge of research and practice in public relations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxvrRggOQjo

(gratuitous opportunity to show Moscow penalty miss)

The John Terry super injunction story is more proof that celebrities or organisations should turn to PR professionals and not lawyers when dealing with a media crisis. Only public relations professionals have the tools to ensure that a story such as this one can be kept under control.

A super injunction can work, sure. However there is no plan B.

Once the injunction is made public, what was a negative story is amplified tenfold. The whole affair seems more sordid. He is now on the front of five national newspapers. This is a massive fail, nearly on the same proportions of his penalty miss in Moscow (Viva John Terry – bit of Man Utd gloating there…).

Of course PR isn’t 100 per cent fool proof, far from it, but media relations would have been a better strategy, rather than litigation. John’s PR consultant could have negotiated and traded other content, tried to kill the story and prove it to be incorrect, or managed the story, so the coverage was minimised.

Most people wouldn’t be that surprised about John Terry behaving this way, so really taken on its own the story of a footballer trying to impregnate someone is fish and chip paper. We’ve already seen him urinating in bars, fighting and taking cash in hand payments from journalists for tours of the Chelsea training ground. So really this story is not that newsworthy. John has made it newsworthy, thanks to his legal advice.

If you have read my blog recently you will have seen that I have been following the Ralph Lauren PR ‘crisis.’ See previous posts:

http://jameswdcrawford.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/ralph-laurens-pr-argument-is-a-little-thin/

and:

http://jameswdcrawford.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/ralph-lauren-post-an-update/

Now it seems that things are going from bad to worse, with Boing Boing reporting that the model in question has been sacked:

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/14/ralph-lauren-fires-p.html

On the face of things the latest state of affairs seems like a PR crisis.  But is it?  Do fashionistas TRULY care about the size issue?  After all Karl Lagerfeld has recently said, “Only fat, potato chip-eating moms hate thin models”.  And there hasn’t really been much outrage in the conventional media either.

Unconsciously do Ralph Lauren customers, and fashion lovers in general I hasten to add, feel thinner when they purchase the brand’s clothes because, “if they fit into a nice designer outfit then they must be as thin as a model”?

This is a far too complicated an idea to get my head around, but I can see it working as an unspoken machination of the fashion industry.  It’s a dangerous line to tread though.

An eye opening insight into Ryanair’s approach to Media Relations. (see link below)

Panorama.pdf

 The problem faced by Ryanair is that the company behaves like a challenger brand despite being the market leader.  That’s just plain arrogant. 

In this email exchange it looks like Ryanair have gone the distance toe to toe with Panorama.  I’m saving my judgment until everyone has had time to view the programme…  What will be the post-broadcast fall out?