Monday, April 11, 2011

The PR piece of the campaign puzzle

I know we've heard over and over again about the real need for the public relations staff members -- or at least its leaders -- to have a seat at the table when it comes to a company's major decisions.

That goes double for advertising and image campaigns.

As a father of three, I can openly admit that the Disney Channel is a big hit at our house, and for my youngest son, now 9, Hannah Montana gets more than its fair share of views.

Miley Cyrus was on the fast track to not just stardom, but stardom with a purity ring.

Her 2008 Vanity Fair photo shoot was aimed to bring out a more mature Miley and it's no secret that the magazine knows how to push the envelope when it comes being edgy with photographs.

Vanity Fair eventually made a video to showcase the story-behind-the-story and still bares it all (the story that is) today on-line .. the more controversial (and copyright protected) photos aren't included in the video but are all over the web ..



The pictures put Miley in the cross hairs of every celebrity and Disney critic and her common sense was questioned along with her parents' permitting her to be photographed in this way.

Could that have been predicted without a crystal ball? Um .. yeah!

Where in the world was her PR staff when the concept became camera clicks and Miley was captured in much, much more mature poses showing lots of skin and even at times including her father?

Veteran PR strategist and blogger Natasha Nelson wrote an entire piece about this exact misstep in the campaign and the lack of PR guidance that allowed this Magic Kingdom to crash:
"Where was her PR representative? Surely someone with the experience of protecting their clients image would have brought up the fact that these type of sexy photos could be damaging to her 15 year old image of innocence. Also, why didn’t her family and public relations rep have the final say on the images? No look at a proof before they go to print? Seems curious. If she really didn’t want to portray the sex-pot image…there is no reason these should have been released."
Nelson is right. Absolutely right.

The more I looked, the more mistakes like this I've found. Often times, the public just blames the organization -- or in Miley's case, the start herself -- for poor judgement. Yet, once again, there was someone on staff who could have provided the needed guidance to better connect the intent of the campaign yet the connection was missed.

Had the PR staff had a seat at the table, maybe they would have been able to predict open letters to Miley from upset moms across America like the one Deborah Levine penned in the Huffington Post which included ..
"Your client, Miley Cyrus, is only 16. Should she know better? Of course, but it's you, her public relations representatives, her managers, her 'handlers,' who should have made sure she did."
Ogilvy may not have had to weigh PR pros and cons in his bullet points to success because so often he seemed to listening to others around him already and many had a PR influence to their thoughts.

Still, I wonder if he would have taken a campaign like Miley's 'coming of age' tour if he had known that the PR piece of the puzzle wouldn't hold much weight in the decision-making process.