Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Controversy attracts attention AKA No news is Bad News

Before getting into an explanation of today's title I figured I'd give a quick run down of today's projects. We started the day by creating a press release asking for television news coverage. After writing a first draft ourselves, we brought it to Ron and worked with him to edit and improve it. After finishing the release we divided up to start mailing it to press contacts by state. The final task for the day was to update media collections and continue to follow through with band correspondences.

As for the aforementioned title explanation: we spent a good deal of today discussing the concept of PR, specifically in regards to bad press vs. good press. Take for example the artist Rihanna: after her fight with then boyfriend Chris Brown, both parties involved recieved massive boosts to their public influence. While Rihanna was painted as the victim and recieved the sympathy of the masses, Mr. Brown was vilified (rightfully so) but *still* had his name plastered over papers and american TV's for weeks. In the long run, when you consider the idea of PR as the goal of increasing the *attention* given to the target, both Rihanna and Chris Brown gained attention. Now whether that increased their CD sales or ticket sales, merchandising, etc... is another matter, but in the long run, it keeps both of them in the spotlight for that much longer.

Overall it was a very thought provoking conversation. One that begs the questions: Is there such a thing as bad press? I suppose its all in the eye of the public.

Keep calm and wander on,

Mike D
Design Intern

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