1. The Truth Will Be Learned. For years, it was possible that your client, whether it be single individual or an entire company, would likely have been able to hide in the shadows if something bad happened or shady activities occurred. Not anymore, as Tiger Woods has found out with every passing day and new mistress appearance. You can (if you want to) try as hard as you can to keep the lid on anything bad for you or your client, but don’t ignore the elephant in the room, make sure you have contingency plans. I’m sure that Tiger Woods’ Advertisers did. Expect damage control tactics to become a big theme in 2010.  Paul Williams makes a good point when he refers in his paper to being transparent, which is a far more precise term for this tactic/trend.
2. Advertising and Public Relations are increasingly indistinguishable. To counteract criticism, politicians don’t release press releases, they either make ads or hold news conferences. Any good Public Relations push towards the public will have to include advertising, and vice-versa.  Make sure that the two are on the same page. If you are using Social Media (a good tactic in itself) such as Facebook or Twitter, they can be used for both advertising and public relations.  A good Tactic to use here:
3. Research and Learn. Knowing your audience is becoming increasingly important. You only have so many resources, do not waste them, especially in this economy. Make sure you take plenty of polls. Like this one: View This Poll Of course, your polling and focus groups better be more scientific and focused than this irreverent example I used above.
4. Don’t blow it. Look at the PR Disasters of 2009. Much like our opener about how the truth will get out, in this day and age a mistake will also always get out. Quite quickly, actually. One of my favorites is the one about how United gave a guitarist a hard time after their baggage handler mishandled and broke his guitars. To get revenge, Mr. Dave Carroll and his band, the Sons of Maxwell, made a little video: Maybe had United dealt with the fact they broke his guitar in a quick and efficent manner, such a video would never have been created. They didn’t. And as a result, a PR nightmare ensued. And, as pointed out here, there are many things that can be learned from it.  My esteemed fellow blogger at this location notes that Reputation Monitoring is a “newborn tactic”, monitoring that reputation should do you wonders.
5. Don’t be Evil. Adopting the infamous catchphrase of Google, perhaps the best advice, the best tactic, is to not do anything bad. Don’t spy on your customers, don’t cheat on your wife, just don’t do it. Instead, be friendly. Reach out to Bloggers! Use fun guerilla marketing to draw in and entertain folks, such as the viral marketing that Warner Brothers used for the last Batman film. Getting the public on your good side is always a good idea.

In this class, we have drawn upon many ideas from the “marketplace”. One of the first major authors studied was Edward Bernays, whom is encountered in the first chapter of Stuart Ewen’s book. 

Bernays during the 1920s

One of the first things that the elderly Bernays tells Ewen is simply “We don’t deal in images, we deal in reality.” He also said that, in general, most people act to the world instinctively, with little to no thought. Only the “intelligent few” actually have the power to think for themselves and change things. PR Professionals are among them. While such an idea, in it’s purest form, is borderline fascism (indeed, it is noted that Hitler’s propaganda minister, Goebbels, was apparently an avid reader of Bernays’ writings), it’s more mild form can probably be stated, in four blunt and impolite words: “The Masses are Asses”. People are highly vulnerable to suggestion, and PR professionals know how to explot that. Look at this movie trailer below, for example:

Even if you never heard of the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie before, or were not considering seeing it, after seeing a trailer with enough violence, ominous music and explosions the average person will more than likely want to see a movie. Now, if possible. Sherlock Holmes’ latest adventure isn’t even out yet, so I can’t say if that trailer is accurate, but the movie has gotten some pretty good reviews so far, as of 4:00 PM Tuesday. But that same formula of violence, music and explosions has convinced people to go see far worse fare. Although I have now gotten quite a bit off-topic, what this serves to show is that clearly all one needs to do to sell a movie to the majority of America is get a established character (Sherlock Holmes, the Transformers, Batman, etc.) and make a trailer that is full of violence, explosions and music. The formula, however, is entirely different if you want to win an Academy Award. To win an Academy Award, you would probably need to more appeal to those “intelligent few” that Bernays spoke of. Bernays, if he had lived to this modern age of internet and movie special effects, would no doubt agree with me. Oh, but those movies for the Oscars, for the “Intelligent Few”? Those don’t make as much money, so they are less likely to get made.

Which leads (in this increasingly over wordcount post), to Robert McChesney. Like a doomsday prophet, he believes that all forms of public relations, journalism and advertising are on the highway to oblivion due to the type of thinking described above about the Movies. As the giant megacorporations buy up more TV stations, newspapers (what few are left) and internet properties, he believes that the Marketplace of Ideas will be choked, and democracy as we know it will end. In some ways, this idea is similar to the backstory of the Pixar movie Wall-E. A single corporation named Wal-Mart “Buy’N'Large” had literally bought everything, and so with no outlets to criticize or stop it, it polluted the planet to near oblivion. They then left behind a cute little robot to fix it. Yeah, Runaway Capitalism!

Above: Cute Little Robot

Similar issues are brought up in The Corporation, about the history of the American Corporations. Like McChesney, the film essentially says that the Corporations use PR to further the company’s structure and (most importantly) profits, ethics be damned!  Is your product taking too long to be approved? Pay’em off. Your investigative reporters are threatening one of your biggest sponsors. Fire them. Politicians working against you? Fund the Politician’s opponent, or make attack ads of your own. Oh, and patent the entire genetic structure of animals. I’m Agnostic and even I think that is just asking for a lawsuit from a higher power. Who, I have to imagine, the Corporations would then launch a PR attack on (“God made all the good-tasting foods bad for your health- do you want him to run the Genetic Sequences of life?”).

As a fourth voice to take from the class, I’d like to point out Peter Jacobi. While his writing is not entirely about PR, it has a quote that will lead (no pun intended) to my upcoming conclusion:

“We call them ‘leads’ in Journalism. That’s what beginnings are supposed to do: lead.”

The art of PR is supposed to do the same thing.

Finally, the fifth source I draw upon are those speakers about twitter and other media. For although they didn’t say anything truly interesting, they had the right idea, as their specialty is very much where PR is going.

Which leads to this, my DEFINITION OF PR IN THE 21st CENTURY:

Public Relations is about getting the word out. The word out about you, the word out about your company, the word out about your bakesale, your movie, your… whatever. PR and Advertising needs to reach as many people as possible (likely leading to a dumbing down to reach the “masses”), and there are many ways to do it. Even if you are facing a giant corporation, things can be done through Twitter and Facebook that would not have been possible before. That is what Public Relations is: getting the word out to “lead” people towards your opinions or wants.

Thank You,
Dan Glickman

Second off, and more importantly, speech and corporations have always gone in cycles.  Back in the John Adams administration, some people in his party created a law making it illegal to criticize the government. Disappeared. In the early 1900s, there were many conglomerates, often owned by single persons, not even a company (remember Citizen Kane? That’s based on a true story). Trusts ran virtually every industry. Monopolies ran rampant far more than even today. They no longer exist. Ironically, some of them were taken down from within, as muckrakers would expose their own companies.

In the early days of Aviation, PanAm and TWA essentially ran the airline industry. Both are now no longer existent.

Atari once was basically the only game in town with Video Games, then came another company, then another until there was Atari, Activision and ColeCo. Then they all disappeared for a few years, at which point Nintendo became the only major Video Game maker. Then came Sega. Then Sony. Then Sega stopped making Video Game Systems. Then Microsoft showed up. Now there are just three Video Game Console makers. Video Games are less than a half-century old as a medium, but they’ve already had a Boom, two busts (I neglected to mention the near-total death of the Arcade game) and then a second boom. Right now sales are down. While more than likely this is just a aberration due to the economy, a few have said that maybe it is the beginning of another Video Game bust.

Things go in cycles. Corporations will rise, combine and split up again. Etc. Etc.

Anyway, some stuff has changed since 2004. We elected a African-American president, and it happened primarily due to the use of media by the common man. This thing called “Twitter” and other such social media, such as Blogs, have become a bit of a alternate source and watchdog. You talked about how the Presidents who go to war often just lie, and how the media sometimes (like in the Iraq War) just stepped in line. In this new environment that has emerged while you were sipping Romulan Ale, people don’t need the mainstream media, whether it be in sports, celebrity gossip or politics. This has allowed for grass roots stuff to occur, skipping the commercialism and lobbyist almost entirely. If somebody lies in front of congress, it’s very likely that within a few minutes somebody will have a image or video up on youtube (I can’t remember if that was big back when you left for outer space, but, well, it’s huge now) showing how that person is a hypocrite.  And although the media companies still are in big charge, and very well may be becoming even more powerful, at least they are now no longer being idiots about it. While once you could only see an obscure or old TV show by waiting it out for a rerun or downloading it (ILLEGALLY) over something like Napster, now at least the big companies allow you to watch TV and movies at places like Hulu and similar sites- radio stations are becoming more and more irrelevant since we can now get music cheaply over the internet legally, such as Itunes, which continues to grow (although, alas, it still lacks the Beatles). Maybe one day…

Everything needs to be rethought.

-”Ultimate Good” served by “free trade in ideas”.

-Became dominant philosophy of freedom of expression law.

-Form basis of PRSA law.

-Some have criticized these.

-Baselines for Responsible Advocacy in PR: Access, Process, Truth, Disclosure.

So it would be required that a website be created. On this would be a ordering form, links to reviews and more interactive things. For example, you could order your bagels, but as you pick them you’d be able to see their pictures show up (to make sure you are picking the right type of bagel: sometimes people don’t realize what they are getting they are so used to just saying “that one”) and such. There could also be links to reviews and maps, like below, which shows directions from Fisher to Brownsteins.

Additionally, some use of the internet’s increasingly growing “viral video” networks, such as Youtube, might be a good idea. A humorous talk about the history of the bagel, for example, or somebody driving around waving a flag with a Bagel on it, could become a viral video that at the very least would raise recognition of the name. Possibilities are further expanded by this inside fact: The Brighton Town Government is notoriously against flashy signs, or signs with too much color in them. This would provide tons of possibilities for “bad publicity is better than no publicity”. For example, what if there was a site or blog against this policy? Surely that site could like a astroturfed front that to those who didn’t read the legal fine print wouldn’t even know were connected to Brownsteins. If enough publicity got stirred up, interest would increase, and with interest would come business (in theory). Of course, this would be frought with other problems, for example, lawyers.

Alternatively, another idea would be to have a webcam on the bagels being made. This would, while not particularly useful, could draw people’s attentions towards other parts of the site. Since the bagels are sent to various schools and such, an idea could be to have signs be put up at places where they are that say “Watch your bagels get made at Brownsteins.org”, or “Want to know where those bagels REALLY come from: Brownsteins.org”. Such a move would at the very least let it be known who supplies the Bagels, and may drive more visits to the website. Of course, this would be a bit too risky more than likely, so instead the creation of, say, facebook pages, might be the way to go. This assumes that anyone would pay any attention to such a Facebook page- however, since Facebook pages are free, it would not hurt at all to at least try to set one up.

A website, as mentioned above, will allow easier communication, ordering and also information. Public Relations Online has several interesting ideas on how to incorporate the internet that could aid Brownsteins in doing this. For one, it is mentioned how Public Service Announcements are in many ways the digital equivalent of broadcast media. This allows, in theory, plenty of ways to get information out there in video form. Take, for example, the below unauthorized youtube tour through the Brownsteins Bakery backroom by a member of the staff:

While this does not exactly cause riveting revelations or any other “public service”, it does proceed to humanize the workers in the back room. In this way, it informs others. On page 125 of Public Relations Online, it is noted that general goals for websites are often to inform, sell and persuade. To sell, I’d suggest that a web designer be hired to create a “menu page”, which could be even a flash application, but could also simply be a regular page. The person looking to buy would see, for example, rows of Bagels that look like this:

Mousing over that would bring up the price, nutritional information, and possibly some additional information, like what type of cream cheese would go well on it.

One issue that was brought up was the fact that Bagels, like every other thing in Brownstein’s, is Kosher, which is a unfamiliar system for those who are not Jewish. For that reason, the website would likely have a section on what, exactly, Kosher foods are. In addition, such a section could be used to calm any worries that the many Jewish people in Brighton (Brighton, as of 2002, had 40.7% of it’s Active Religious Congregation-members taking part in non-Christian congregations, and the fact that Temple B’rith Kodesh is nearby [as well as anecdotal evidence] suggests that a good portion of that 40% is Jewish). This would both inform and persuade people, helping to sell.

Many other possibilities exist, but I believe that this plan is a good start.

Brownsteins Deli & Bakery is a small family-owned bakery in Brighton, NY, specializing in Bagels and various other Kosher foods. Located close to Brighton High School in the “Twelve Corners” area of Brighton. While it does not lack in business, most of it’s income comes not from people coming in to the business, but from providing food to schools, houses of worship, funerals and group gatherings. However, unlike many other places and competitors, Brownsteins does not have a website. What comes up in a Google search are simply reviews and wiki entries. It has to rely on in-person sales pitches, regular customers, and phone book coupons. I propose that Brownsteins be brought into the 21st century with a website that would provide the menu, online ordering and other features.  This will allow easier communication, ordering and also information. Public Relations Online has several interesting ideas on how to incorporate the internet that could aid Brownsteins in doing this. For example, Public Relations Online notes how hype is a powerful thing, giving the example of Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds broadcast which caused mass panic in parts of the country. While we certainly wouldn’t want such a thing to occur, what War of the Worlds did well was , while being fictional, gave enough sense of truth that people believed it. A one-way approach (like mentioned on page 30 of PRO) with a similar “legendary” approach could work well, making the small family-owned business a touch of the mythical to feature on the Website, perhaps getting in touch with stakeholders and media consumers used to bland information.

ABOUT BROWNSTEIN’S:

The history of Brownstein’s Deli and Bakery is primarily anecdotal. Legend has it that Irwin Brown, owner of a now-defunct Pizza Shop next door to Brownstein’s current location, was approached by the former owner of the shop, one Mr. Stein. Stein offered Brown a deal: buy the venerable Bagel place, and keep it running as Stein moved on to other interests. Brown took the offer, and renamed the store Brownstein’s, after himself and the former owner. Since then, it has offered fine Kosher fare to schools, private events, religious facilities and, of course, the average man. Bagels, Challah, Cookies, Fish and many other fares are available.