Eric Yaverbaum, Robert Bly, Ilise Benun. Public Relations for Dummies, 2nd Edition

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This exposure became an invaluable addition to the attorney’s business and

following. Calls for consultations poured into his office and, over the course

of a year, led to a substantial increase in his total client base. After a year of

PR efforts, the attorney and his PR firm are now contacted daily by television

producers, magazine editors, and radio commentators for ideas regarding

upcoming feature stories and scheduled programs.

Demonstrating Viability of the PR

Department (Even in a Crunch)

Here’s the thing about PR: It’s a great investment if you have a successful pro-

gram. But the definition of success depends on your company’s goals. If you

spend $10,000 to do a PR program and revenue increases by a multiple of that

investment, it’s worth it.

But many people (read: bigwigs) don’t really understand how PR works. If

you want its viability to be perceived and understood, it’s your job to edu-

cate the decision-makers. You must always be demonstrating the benefits of

your PR program to the people who are allocating the PR dollars.

How should you promote your PR program to them? That depends who your

internal audience is. Choose the measurement that will resonate the most

with that person or committee. One idea, depending on your budget, is to set

up a mechanism to tie sales increases to your PR efforts. You could also use

actual customer feedback or show the correlation between peak sales peri-

ods and peak PR periods.

The onus is on the practitioner to educate the audience in how PR works and

how much value it brings — not once, but on a regular basis, even if it’s an

audience of one.

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Part VI

The Part of Tens

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In this part . . .

very media maven worth his salt knows David

Letterman’s Top Ten lists. Well, here are some of our

own top ten lists for PR. Chapter 23 presents ten of the

most successful and creative public relations campaigns

of all time. In Chapter 24, I debunk ten PR myths. Chap-

ter 25 outlines ten reasons to do PR. Chapter 26 shows

you how to avoid no-noes with ten things you should

never, ever do in PR. And Chapter 27 gives you guidelines

for making your PR writing as focused as a laser and as

clear as crystal.

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Chapter 23

The Ten Greatest PR Coups

of All Time

In This Chapter

! Overcoming bad publicity

! Changing an image to generate appeal

! Targeting your audience

! Creating PR campaigns that get the job done

hat makes a PR campaign great? Two things. First, it has to achieve

and surpass its objectives, achieving results beyond what anyone had

a right to expect. Second, it has to be memorable — the kind of campaign

people will remember 10 years or even 100 years later. If the campaign also

pioneers or improves on an innovative idea, practice, or technique, that’s

icing on the cake.

In this chapter are, in my opinion, the top ten PR coups of all time — stellar

examples of using public relations to achieve difficult marketing objectives,

all of which stand the test of time. I hope that this list inspires your thinking

(and mine) to similar heights.

Lucky Strike

Edward Bernays is widely known as the “father of public relations” for his

groundbreaking work in the field. One of his most famous campaigns from the

early 1900s was to position Lucky Strike, one of many brands, as the premier

cigarette for women. (Keep in mind that this was well before tobacco use was

linked to cancer.)

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R. A. Patterson founded Lucky Strike in Richmond, Virginia, in 1871. The

name refers to what miners made when they found gold during the gold

rush — a “lucky strike.” Bernays realized that most cigarette marketing at the

time was either generic or male oriented. By positioning Lucky Strike as a

woman’s cigarette, he hoped to capture a dominant share of half of the total

market.

In those days, it was acceptable for women to smoke only at home, if at all —

and certainly not in public places. A research study commissioned by

Bernays on behalf of Lucky Strike showed that women perceived smoking in

public as a sign of freedom. In his PR campaign, Bernays positioned Lucky

Strike as the “Torches of Freedom” for American women.

Results of this campaign include the fact that Lucky Strike became the

number-one cigarette for women. Plus it changed the way both smoking and

women were perceived by society.

John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller, Sr., America’s first billionaire, had a reputation for being a

ruthless businessman. The public saw him as cold, calculating, controlling,

and greedy. And there was some truth to this image: Rockefeller once gave

his groundskeeper $5 as a Christmas bonus, only to dock him the same

amount of pay for taking Christmas off as a holiday.

What the public did not know was that Rockefeller was an active philan-

thropist. He had tithed 10 percent of his income since he was a child, and by

the time he reached his 66th birthday, that amount approached $100 million.

Bothered by the bad press he received, Rockefeller hired consultant Ivy Lee

to change his image. Lee had once been paid $25,000 — a huge sum in those

days — for a single day’s work with Charles Schwab, CEO of Bethlehem Steel.

Lee had shown Schwab how to be more efficient and get more done by

making a simple to-do list each day.

Lee immediately began publicizing Rockefeller’s generosity and charitable

activities, which were not common at the time. One of Lee’s ideas was to

have Rockefeller carry a roll of shiny dimes and give them away to children in

public, with a photographer always present to capture the photo opportu-

nity. Rockefeller gave away more than 30,000 dimes during his lifetime.

This changed and enhanced his reputation and is the beginning of a lifelong

strategy for how the Rockefellers promoted philanthropy and the importance

of being involved with worthy causes.

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Tylenol

Tylenol is a classic case of good crisis planning and execution. In 1982, seven

deaths resulted from poisoned Tylenol pills. When reports that someone had

tampered with Tylenol and that people had died as a result hit the evening

news and front pages, Johnson & Johnson responded by immediately pulling

$100 million worth of the product off the shelves in a single day.

The PR was simple but powerful: Johnson & Johnson did the right thing. It

didn’t harm anyone deliberately or even through a mistake or accident;

someone tampered with its product. It could have happened to any manufac-

turer that sells its products in pharmacies and grocery stores. But instead of

pointing out this fact in its defense, J&J focused on solving the problem

rather than laying blame somewhere else.

The company was available to the media throughout the crisis to answer

questions and provide information. It used daily opinion polls to accurately

gauge public reaction and adjust its communications strategy accordingly.

J&J did not ship Tylenol again until a tamper-proof bottle had been designed.

When the improved container was ready, J&J reintroduced Tylenol with a

major media campaign that included a 30-city teleconference. Within a year,

Tylenol had regained its 70 percent market share.

Bill Clinton’s 1992 Presidential

Campaign

Although history will determine Bill Clinton’s place in the rankings of presi-

dents and of men, few dispute that he ran a masterful campaign to beat

incumbent George Bush in the 1992 presidential race. Clinton’s campaign

manager deliberately steered him away from the traditional hard-news

venues and toward TV programming targeting a younger audience.

A turning point was Clinton’s appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show, during

which he played his saxophone on national television. Stunts like this human-

ized him as a candidate and highlighted his relative youth compared to his

opponent.

A series of TV roundtables, including one on MTV, showed Clinton as able to

answer tough questions. Actually, most of the attendees for these roundta-

bles were idealistic college students who asked big-issue questions (for

example, whether Clinton is pro-choice) that made for good television. At

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the same time, the audience’s lack of in-depth political and foreign affairs

knowledge — compared with professional journalists — allowed Clinton to

avoid complex issues and tough-to-answer questions.

Even back then, rumors of Clinton’s marital infidelity were circulating. He

immediately went on 60 Minutes and vigorously denied these accusations,

cutting them off before they mushroomed.

The New VW Beetle

When the original VW Beetle was introduced in the 1960s, its low price and

odd, bug-shaped appearance made it a popular economy car. But when the

New Beetle was introduced in 1998, the price was no longer rock bottom.

What made the New Beetle so popular? In part, a promotional campaign that

exploited the nostalgic appeal of the Beetle — people bought it because

they remembered it fondly from their youth. According to a Volkswagen

press release, the New Beetle “instantly rekindled the magic of its legendary

namesake.”

A number of creative public relations initiatives helped make the introduc-

tion of the New Beetle a success. In March 2000, Volkswagen sponsored a

“New Beetle Cup Race” in conjunction with the Atlanta Auto Show, with half a

million deutsche marks as prize money. Volkswagen also did an innovative

Internet promotion, selling special color editions of the New Beetle only over

its Web site. To appeal to die-hard Beetle enthusiasts, VW also introduced

New Beetle collectible trading cards. The cards were issued only to people

who purchased the car or visited the VW Web site.

Traditionally, car manufacturers publicize their new models by offering test

drives to editors of specialized car and consumer magazines, like Road and

Track and Consumer Reports. Breaking with that tradition, VW offered test

drives of the New Beetle to editors and producers of more general media out-

lets such as USA Today and Family Circle.

Driving the New Beetle brought back fond memories of their teen years to

these editors, generating massive media exposure for the car. By turning to

consumer media instead of the usual automobile publications, VW immedi-

ately moved the campaign to a new playing field on which no other car was

competing for attention. Tremendous media coverage followed.

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Cabbage Patch Kids

PR can start trends or work to accelerate them. Such is the case with the

Cabbage Patch Kids, a line of odd-looking dolls launched by Mattel in the

early 1980s.

From the beginning, Cabbage Patch Kids were not positioned as ordinary

toys; children were urged to “adopt” Cabbage Patch Kids as if they were their

babies. Each doll came with an “adoption form” — blue for boys, pink for

girls — imprinted with the doll’s name.

Children were encouraged to write their names on the adoption certificates

as the parents and take good care of their kids. By mailing in the forms, they

enrolled in the Cabbage Patch Kids Parents’ Association and received con-

gratulatory notes in the mail. A year later, the adopted dolls received birth-

day cards from their maker. This campaign transformed Cabbage Patch from

just another plaything to a companion. Many children began collecting multi-

ple Cabbage Patch Kids and forming families.

At holiday time, stories appeared in the press saying that stores had a short-

age of the dolls. Parents stampeded to get Cabbage Patch Kid dolls for their

kids. I don’t know whether there was really a shortage or if it was just a

rumor started by the toy company to stimulate sales.

More recently, Mattel created a Web site at www.cabbagepatchkids.com

serving as an online community for these doll owners and their parents.

Domino’s Pizza Meter

I discuss in detail in this book the various campaigns my PR agency did for

Domino’s Pizza when it was my client, and my favorite of those is the Pizza

Meter. My agency measured the number of pizza deliveries to the White

House, Pentagon, and CIA, and found that whenever there was a national

crisis, the number of deliveries went up to feed government officials at late-

night office meetings. We sent a press release about this occurrence, generat-

ing huge media exposure for Domino’s.

The reason I include the campaign here is that it had an unusually long life.

When we did the campaign, we realized that the Pizza Meter didn’t have to be

a one-time PR initiative — the pizza delivery could be monitored continu-

ously throughout the year.

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My agency did this monitoring, and at the end of every year, we did the Pizza

Meter campaign again, showing the big events of the year and how accurately

the meter predicted them based on pizza deliveries. There was no end to

how many times we could get a whole new wave of media exposure by recy-

cling this idea annually. We didn’t even need a new twist; the major events

spurred the increase in pizza deliveries. We eventually did 41 different Pizza

Meter campaigns over a 12-year period.

IBM Big Blue versus Gary Kasparov

In 1997, IBM conducted one of the most brilliant PR campaigns ever: It chal-

lenged world chess champion Gary Kasparov to play an IBM computer specif-

ically programmed to be good at chess. The computer, Big Blue, contained a

special-purpose chip capable of evaluating 2.5 million chess positions per

second.

In our technological age, one of the most dramatic and emotional issues is

man versus machine: Elevator operators are unemployed because elevators

are automatic. There are fewer bank tellers now because of ATM machines,

fewer telephone operators because of voice-activated phone systems. Pitting

IBM against the world chess champion was the ultimate man-machine

challenge.

The campaign was a no-lose proposition for IBM. If Big Blue won, it would

dramatically demonstrate the superiority of IBM computing technology. If Big

Blue lost, people would still be impressed that a computer could play com-

petitive chess with a grandmaster at all.

Big Blue won, and Kasparov lost, shocking many in the chess world. But the

event was actually good for the world of chess — not since Bobby Fisher has

chess received such media attention.

Gillette Sensor Razor

The PR campaign for the introduction of the Gillette Sensor was a first and

maybe a last: The new razor made Fortune magazine’s list of the top ten new

product introductions of 1989 — but the product wasn’t available until 1990.

The name Sensor implied high technology, and the SensorExcel for Women

looked more like a Star Trek phaser than a razor. Advertising touted a unique

rubber grip on the handle that gave the shaver more control for a closer and

safer shave. Because of the rubber grip, your hand won’t slip even if the

handle is wet, so you won’t get cut.

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The incredible PR campaign for Sensor achieved more than 800 media place-

ments worldwide in 19 countries. Media running stories included Good

Morning America, CBS Evening News, Newsweek, Forbes, the Wall Street

Journal, the New York Times, and the Associated Press.

Howard Stern and Sirius Satellite Radio

In 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio signed a five-year, $500-million contract with

Howard Stern, one of the most successful radio personalities ever. Many

people said the amount of money was ridiculous and far beyond what Stern

is worth. But look at the PR it generated.

With two main players (XM and Sirius) in the fledgling satellite radio indus-

try, Sirius was third in a two-horse race. The marketing cost to build its cus-

tomer base, convince people to pay for its service, and then buy from the

second fiddle would be, I estimate, approximately a gazillion bazillion dollars.

Stern’s pre-switch publicity might just be one of the most successful media

plans that a brand has undertaken. Newsweek, New York magazine, daily

newspapers across the country, 60 Minutes, the Late Show with David

Letterman, and the O’Reilly Factor — these are just a few highly read and

watched media outlets that picked up the story. But it’s not just the quantity

of coverage that’s worth noting; it’s the sheer variety. Stern’s media blitz has

crossed almost every demographic and ideological subset of the media. He

has become not only an entertainment story, but also a business story and a

human-interest story, appealing to both liberal Democrats and conservative

Republicans. And what has he taken with him to all these reaches of the

media? The Sirius brand.

But the reason this is perhaps one of the greatest PR coups in modern his-

tory is because, for his final six months on traditional radio, the feud between

Stern and his employer was played out on the air in front of 7 million people,

fueling the PR fire. For example, he was forbidden from saying “Sirius Radio,”

so instead he said “uh-uh-uh,” and everyone knew what he meant. He had

four hours of airtime every day and he used it to promote where he was

going next — on somebody else’s dime! Everything they did to try to stop

him had the opposite effect, just as Stern planned.

For its $500 million, Sirius gets all this plus it reaches every type of audience,

sends a key message to the entire country, and picks itself up off the competi-

tive mat. And this doesn’t even include the listeners who will surely sign on

with Sirius just to listen to Howard. The final coup will be if Sirius does

become the number-one satellite radio station. Stay tuned. . . .

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