Green Day’s Dookie was the first album I ever bought. Even 18 years later, I still remember walking out of Blockbuster Music in Atlanta with the CD in hand and immediately turning over the booklet to my Dad so he could read the lyrics and highlight the songs I couldn’t listen to (which was the majority of the record – I listened anyway.) Dad would’ve needed to break out the highlighter this weekend for vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong’s profanity-laden tirade at the iHeartRadio Music Festival (NSFW.) While the band had a valid gripe (their set was cut short by 20 minutes), Armstrong’s drunken outburst smacks of an orchestrated PR stunt – and considering it’s dominated the news cycle since, it appears to have worked.

The key with picking out publicity stunts is timing. On the surface, Billie Joe’s meltdown appeared sincere and borne of frustration with Clear Channel Communications’ mismanagement of the music festival. Add in free PBR and a microphone and you’ve got yourself a punk rock powder keg and front-page news. The undercurrent in this scenario is that Green Day released their new album ¡Uno! today, a mere 72 hours after they stormed offstage in Las Vegas. See the correlation here?

Unless someone spills the beans on whether or not the ordeal was legitimate, we are left only to speculate; but stunt or not, Billie Joe’s behavior is reverberating throughout the pop-culture arena, and I’m willing to bet they’ll see a bit of a spike in initial album sales as an outcome.

Coordinated publicity moves are viewed by many as tacky and a direct insult on intelligence, but it does not mean that they don’t yield results. Effective PR involves having your name on the tops of peoples’ minds; becoming a topic of conversation. While all publicity stunts don’t necessarily need to be as messy and profane, Green Day is Monday water cooler fodder because of the events at the iHeartRadio Music Festival. It always boils down to frequency and repetition: as your name circulates, the more your odds for success increase.

So, a smashed singer and a smashed Gibson guitar later, and the happenings over the weekend are now woven into the pop-culture tapestry forever. Whether an inebriated tantrum or stroke of genius, pundits, bloggers and radio hosts will continue to discuss Billie Joe’s actions, and when the numbers come back on album sales, he just may be whistling Basket Case all the way to the bank.

-Carter Breazeale

PR/PR Public Relations

And on Thursday evening, Superman left the building (again). Dwight Howard’s summer-long scorched-earth march to his eventual exodus to the City of Angels has a revitalized Magic fan base in an uproar, his ‘can-do-no-wrong-favored-son’ image in shambles and left the city of Orlando saddled with the task of coaxing attendance in the Amway Center, now America’s shiniest indoor swap-shop, just off the highway downtown.

The city’s tabloid-worthy divorce with its biggest star since Shaquille O’Neal has spurned a confusing flurry of emotions – a cognitive dissonance of sorts – between fervent anger and guilty remorse. The writing was on the wall for a year, but the Orlando-faithful refused to shed their ‘blue and white ignite’ colored glasses and read the fine print. After numerous trade demands and posturing that served to hold the city hostage; countless flip-flops as to his desire to remain in the city that built him his own certifiable castle to play in, Dwight is finally gone, and he’s left in his wake a trail of shattered relationships and bitter feelings.

Dwight Howard whining his way out of town has made the Lebron James Decision debacle actually seem respectable in comparison. From a PR standpoint, the public’s perception of Mr. Howard is now eons from the aloof and innocent guy he appeared to be two years ago; and under the bright lights of Los Angeles, where image is everything and the media will eat you alive: Dwight has some definite work to do.

His behavior amidst this calamitous ordeal should serve as fair warning to how quickly the tide can change on how you’re viewed by others. Dwight Howard was practically the ambassador of Orlando, serving as our beacon for national notoriety and relevance – not just in the basketball world, but in the professional and economic arenas as well. The construction of the Amway Center, a virtual ‘must’ to ensure that he stayed in town, brought many jobs and helped to rejuvenate a declining sector of the metro area that enjoyed the booming business associated with sold-out Magic games. All this seems for naught, now: as Superman has skipped town and Orlando fans have taken their frustrations to makeshift funeral pyres for Dwight Howard memorabilia, showing that even the most loved can become the most reviled in minutes.

The fact of the matter is Dwight abandoned his base. Maybe he outgrew town and has a desire for the celebrity-status that comes with Southern California. Maybe he soured on a team that he felt was not serious about contending and bringing a championship to Orlando. Maybe he just got tired of abhorrent I4 traffic. Whatever his reason, he’s got an uphill battle rebuilding the brand that is Dwight Howard; the good-hearted kid next door who puts his team before himself.

-Carter Breazeale
PR/PR Public Relations

It’s Monday afternoon, and that means it’s time for your weekly infusion of publicity-centric content courtesy of your resident (and favorite) PR/PR blogger. The caffeine is flowing and we’re going to discuss a fixture of the public relations business: press releases. I seem to receive questions fairly often about crafting a successful press release; what are the requirements and guidelines, and what strategies are utilized to secure success? Well, pull up a chair get ready to take in some PR 101 in this week’s blog.

The object of a press release is to generate attention and buzz about a specific topic, be it your speaking career or new happenings at your company. The end-objective is to establish you as an expert and go-to source and have your thoughts and ideas printed across a variety of media. Now that we’ve gotten the obligatory definition out of the way, let’s get into a few of the dos and don’ts of press release writing.

Do: Seek Out Newsworthy Topics to Assert Your Expertise

As I’ve mentioned before when discussing blog-writing, many times a topic you can align yourself with may not be immediately obvious. Releases that yield results will involve a trending tie-in to your area of proficiency, but does not need to directly parallel your focus. This is a common stumbling block when discussing release themes, as it may be difficult to wrap your head around how a story applies to you. Take a leadership expert, for example. We could design a release that revolves around the Olympics and the inherent responsibility of being a representative for your country. Press releases with these angles garner the greatest results.

Don’t: Self-Promote

An all-too common mistake when drafting a release is coming across as too advertorial. The quickest way to lose an editor’s interest is to self-promote rather than pitch your expertise. The object of a press release is to pique someone’s interest in you, and have them pick up the phone. Harping on your list of accomplishments will appear self-serving. The symbiotic relationship that exists between editor and public relations agent is a tricky one; create curiosity as to how you can benefit a story, and the phone will ring.

Do: Provide a Bulleted List of Other Know-How

Towards the end of your release, always highlight separate topics you can speak on. While your initial media-hook may not produce results, by outlining other areas of knowledge you increase the probability that an editor pencils your name down for a future story.

Don’t: Forget Your Audience

With any writing, it is imperative that you are mindful of who you are addressing. A business editor from the New York Times will not be receptive to the same press release you’d send over to a lifestyle editor at the Sacramento Bee. Customize your releases to reflect those who will be reading them or risk PR purgatory. Language and word-choice are of utmost importance to catch an editor or reporter’s attention.

So there’s your lesson for the day. Writing effective releases is a learned skill, but by taking these dos and don’ts into account, it will allow you to overcome some of the hurdles that come with public relations territory.

-Carter Breazeale

PR/PR Public Relations

If you haven’t tuned into the Aaron Sorkin-penned drama The Newsroom on Sundays, you’re really closing out your weekends wrong. The critically acclaimed HBO series starring (the superb) Jeff Daniels details the inner-workings of a major news network struggling to find its identity, with Daniels’ portrayal of cynical lead anchor Will McAvoy firmly entrenched in a mental tug-of-war between ‘newsman’ and ‘political attack dog.’ One episode gave us insight into the announcement of the near-fatal shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. When many of the other leading cable news outlets announced that Giffords had perished (based on one false report), McAvoy resisted making such a claim, much to the dismay of his producers who often put ‘being first’ over ‘being accurate.’

“Every second that you’re not current, a thousand people are changing the channel!” exclaims a furious Reese Lansing, President of the news network.

The response: “It’s a person. A doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.”

And so began our interesting conversation in this morning’s staff meeting, where we discussed an ongoing trend since social media was accepted as a viable form of receiving news: timeliness trumping accurate reporting. An unfortunate side-effect of the second-to-second news cycle now available via Twitter and the like is the chaotic flurry of information immediately following a breaking story. In the struggle for news superiority, often, the facts take a backseat.

This is one of the negative aspects of social media. With smartphones and a culture that’s plugged in 24/7, everyone is a reporter; and while John Q. Public isn’t required to answer to an editor or confirm the facts, word still spreads like wildfire on the Internet and influences public knowledge and opinion.

The attention gained from being the initial whistleblower is negated when the facts you presented were unfounded or off-base. The reputation you’ve crafted as a reliable source of news is diluted by your desire to be the face presenting the news. Confirm the facts before blasting to your followers online.

The gripping seven-minute scene (warning: language) surrounding Gabrielle Giffords in The Newsroom is as much Sorkin’s social-commentary as a plot-point. In the race to be first, in the monetization of the media, the truth is sometimes the casualty. This indictment of the news business can serve as a cautionary tale going forward, where confirming the facts returns to the industry standard and emphasis on ‘being first’ is put on the backburner.

-Carter Breazeale

PR/PR Public Relations

The publicity process is a marathon and not a sprint. To repeat an important point from previous blogs: your two greatest allies in garnering and maintaining a successful level of promotion are frequency and repetition. Now you’re a seasoned vet of print interviews and your articles have been published in a variety of publications; you can sit on your hands and take a breather, right? Absolutely not. The key to converting those placements into speaking engagements is playing an active role in your own marketing.

Business and trade magazines are typically affiliated with an industry association, and are influential resources in their line of work. How does this apply to you? Those same associations host annual conferences, and those annual conferences require keynote speakers and workshop leaders…Do you see where I’m going here? Actively marketing yourself to the publications that have made you the expert in their pages by publishing your articles is the quickest way to turn a profit from your PR results.

Make no mistake about it; the phone will begin ringing when your name is printed in a trade or association publication, but conducting your own research, contact and follow-up with decision-makers crafts relationships that just may land you onstage at an upcoming event (and land you with a significant check in your pocket as a result.)

The first step is to open up lines of communication with the related association. Fashioning a mailer complete with a speaker-one sheet highlighting your accomplishments and an introductory letter is a fantastic place to start. Begin contacting event planners with these materials in your spare time to ride the wave of the buzz your publications have already given you. Maximize your return on investment and accelerate your phone ringing by creating connections.

-Carter Breazeale

PR/PR Public Relations