turn on, tune in, drop out.

thenineteensixties.

If I could work in any era of PR history it would most definitely be the sixties. I have always had a slight obsession with 1960’s and the hippie counterculture within. Obviously when most of us think of the sixties and hippies, we ultimately associate these two things with drugs. Although this was probably one of the era’s most well-known contributions to our society it is certainly not the only one. The people in the sixties, prominently the hippies, explored free love and free sex, they made new technological advances and many incredible musical advances. One of the main reasons I would have liked to work PR in this era was because of the music and the musicians. “Purple haze all in my brain lately things just don’t seem the same. Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why. ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky. Purple haze all around, don’t know if I’m comin’ up or down. Am I happy or in misery?” These song lyrics were written in the sixties by Jimi Hendrix, who was one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

jimi hendrix.

These lyrics are a great example of the type of music that the hippies were listening to, and the mindsets that they had during this time period. It would have been so interesting to work PR for someone like Jimi Hendrix during this decade or for other bands such as: Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, or The Beatles. All of these famous musicians alluded to the fact that they experimented with drugs in many of their songs, and they were also all well-known hippies themselves. They often did whatever they pleased without caring what it might do to their image.  It would have been almost impossible to keep all of these bands reputations clean and it would have been very challenging. However, I think it would have been eye-opening to see behind the scenes in the lives of these people and to know truth and to help them through their career.  It also would have been very interesting to work PR on a festival with the caliber or Woodstock, or in fact Woodstock itself. Preparing and publicizing for this festival would have been incredible, but also very hard and time consuming. There was actually a pretty large PR crisis that went on during Woodstock, and that was when someone slipped a false rumor that it was a free concert. This, in turn, led to mass amounts of people flooding to the festival. The people who were running Woodstock were not prepared for this and they could not accommodate properly for the 500,000 people in attendance. Although Woodstock would go down in history as one of the best musical festivals of all time, the aftermath of Woodstock must have been difficult to deal with. Drugs, overdoses, and sickness were just some of the negative things that happened during Woodstock.  I can’t even imagine what the people who did the PR for Woodstock had to face during this time, but I can’t imagine it was easy. If I worked PR in the sixties, I feel like there would never have been a dull moment, and I would always have to be on my toes ready for the next big thing. However, I think it would have been and interesting and awesome experience.

crisis not so handled.

PR Crisis Handled..

People are not perfect. Accidents happen and mistakes are made. However, when you are a large corporation and a mistake is made or an “accident” occurs you have the whole entire world watching how you are going to fix it. Throughout the years there have been many PR disasters that were so terrible they could have been the end of the company. However, remarkably PR professionals there able to expertly handle the situation and make it seem like a distant memory. However, there are also times when companies do a poor job at crisis management and people always associate that company or persons with that one crisis. One PR crisis in particular that really shook up America was the BP oil spill. This recent event was a cause for a lot of worry and angst among American citizens; especially those living near the gulf. Even after they finally managed to stop the flow of the oil, they still had to deal with the massive amounts of oil that had already flowed into the gulf. The oil spill caused damage to the marine wildlife habitats, and to fishing and tourism industries. You would think that due to this horrible disaster, BP would do everything in its power to not only fix the mistake but to do so right away, so they could save the face of their company. However, BP did not do this. At first BP was extremely slow to acknowledge that anything was wrong, and when they finally did the CEO of BP went on record saying he was “out of the loop” with the decisions being made to fix this problem. Also, you would think that BP would have shown great support to the families who were directly affected by the spill, but they did not. Obviously in a crisis as detrimental as this one, people are going to be angry with BP no matter how hard they try to make it right. However, when this oil spill first happened BP did a terrible job at managing the crisis. If I had been in charge of the PR for BP the one thing I would have done differently is been completely truthful to the public about the situation at hand instead of initially lying, and I also would have made sure the CEO looked (even if he wasn’t) in control and on top of things. However, as time goes on BP is handling the situation in much better ways and they are doing everything in their power to right their wrong

cat got your tongue?

NewsU Course: Dealing With Difficult Conversations

I found the NewsU Course: Dealing with Difficult Conversations very helpful and also in a way, eye-opening. When I first saw the topic for this course, I scoffed a little bit. I thought I knew everything about dealing with difficult conversations. I mean I could get myself out of many sticky conversations with my parents, so I figured I was a pro. Well, not really, but I still thought I had a pretty good handle on how to handle difficult conversations. However, once I began the course I realized there were many things I still had to learn. The first thing I learned was actually something about myself, when I took the quiz and was put into the category of compromise when I have conversations. Obviously this test is not fool-proof, but I often feel like my approach is more of conflict, so it was good to see that was not the case. I think the most important thing that I learned and I will definitely be doing from now on is researching before I actually have this difficult conversation. I often find myself scrounging for facts or things that will validate the point I am trying to make, but I often come up short. However, now I know that I need to “work from facts not assumptions.” One thing I found surprising in this course was that in serious conversations it is important to have a witness. I never thought about this before, but I realized that it could certainly help to have someone else there, as unbiased mediator. Although I was able to learn many important things I would have liked to learn more about how to approach someone who refuses to listen. I have come across many people like this; people who regardless of the facts think they are always right. It would be beneficial to know what to say to these kinds of people to get through to them. Through this NewsU Course I learned new approaches to going about difficult conversations that I know will help me in the future.

public relations defined by me.

How would I define Public Relations…?

When I first hear the word public relations I immediately think of image. I think of making a company look as good as possible to the public, even if that involves some creative thinking, or perhaps even lying. In public relations you are communicating to  the public that your company is the best of the best.  Also I think that PR has a lot to do with protecting the reputation of the company. If anything happens, the PR  department would be the ones to try and fix it and put the company back into a good light. When I first became interested in public relations, I thought it  was all about  looking good, attending press conferences, and basically being smooth and good with words. Obviously there is much more that goes into public relations and it is not as glamorous as I had once thought. However, I think that although it may not be what I thought, I think that is what makes it so interesting to me. Also, when I think about   public relations, I also tend to think about journalism. I think that in a way they seem  to go hand in hand. I feel like journalism is used a lot in public relations; however I do think there can be differences. Journalists can make a company look good by writing an article about it. However as easily as they can write an article praising a company, they can also write an article bashing a company. Also I feel like journalism is all about the writing, whereas in public relations they deal more with the public image. Although, I think I have a somewhat solid grasp on what public relations entails, I know that there is much more that I can learn, and hopefully apply later in life.