Tactics and me

this chapter seems to have a huge array of tactics that i can pick and choose for my future campaigns, however i feel that this list can only expand, with the new technologies and the creative minds of people coming up.

first off, i believe that uncontrolled tactics are far more riskier than controlled tactics, and i as a person would want people to know my perspective, and how we got to that advertorial instead of leaving it together people who could potentially twist and turn the facts. so if it was me, i would rather use a controlled tactic rather than a uncontrolled tactic, although i concede that uncontrolled tactics do create a media frenzy and there would be greater advertising value than a controlled tactic.

There are so many tactics that i can't imagine doing so many things for one PR campaign, and i am definitely spoilt for choice. However, i cannot find one of my favourite forms of advertising, which is subtle advertising, like Coca Cola in American Idol, Sprite in NBA skills challenge. these companies as i may have mentioned above "attack" the subconsciousness of your mind to hit you where your heart belongs, and persuade you to buy that product, Coke for this example. Imagine one cup of Coke drunk by the judges during filming tells a lot, and generates more advertising avenue than just an advertisment.

As i said earlier, i feel that there can be no same PR campaign every time. We can do the same thing because as mentioned at the previous post, we would be treating the target audience as an robot, and they may not react in the same way as we have hoped in the first PR campaign.

Community Relations.

hihi! i'm here to blog about what i felt regarding this topic.

its important, in my opinion, that we must know about the community, since it is quite likely, in the future, that is where most of our target audiences resides in. therefore we must know about the community.

i think the most important thing that the book taught me was that to reach out to the community via PR, we have to relate to them as personally as you can get, not hiding behind a corporate veil. The community will learn to accept your product more if you were able to communicate with them at a personal level, not as a business level. It is very important for us to understand that fact. Most of the time we must do to others how you would like them to have done it to us. So for those who have connected well with the community, chances are high that they have done well. (McDonald's, NTUC)

I like the way they hold the list of things that an organisation can do if they want to appear more caring and concerned about the community and the general public. I can see the importance of "filling the gaps" from the PR side, cause rumours can kill many organisation or cripple it. That is why when there were rumours that US President Barack Obama was Muslim, they acted quickly to quash that rumour so that the wrong idea will not be taken of him. This form of answering questions even before they are answered by another person who doesnt know is quite good to my opinion.

chapter 5

Ethics is a very touchy issue everywhere in the world today, as there is everything that people need and require in their daily lives. I feel that all this is important, not just in PR, but in every aspect of our lives. If we are ethical, and we do things efficiently, people will respect and continue to use our services. If we are unethical, it may benefit us in the short run, but the truth will always come to light, and you cannot hide from living in a lie forever. Granted, we may be living in a protected world in Singapore, where most ethics are being taught in school in the form of CME (civics and moral education), but we cannot discount the power of the global village. I for one have seen many of my church members lose their passion and drive for Christ slowly through the immense influence of the Internet and various TV shows. 

As a PR person, whatever we do affects the lives of many people who views the advertisement or PR campaign. If we do not make our code of ethics the center of our thinking during brainstorming, we might not gain approval of the parents or even the government, which forms a substantial amount of revenue in the eyes of the company. To me, I feel that it is more disheartening for a consumer to complain about the ethics of the company than to record good receivership in the market.

I quite like the idea of a counsellor and an advocate in PR. If used appropriately, these two different aspects of PR campaigns can form a good team, complementing each other.

1. An advocate is radical, but a counsellor controls.

This complements perfectly as an advocate would usually be the one who comes up with excellent ideas, but a counselor can control the ideas and ensure that it does not overstep any boundary.

2. An advocate thinks out of the box. A counsellor controls the size of the box.

An advocate will be the strength to think of new campaigning skills without any hindrances, but the counsellor must endeavour to say "no" if it is too crazy.

3. An advocate must edify, a counsellor must dignify.

The purpose of an advocate should get their points across as their objective, but a counsellor must create a holistic approach of the campaign so that the campaign can maintain ethical conduct towards the audience.

As PR personnel, we must learn to always keep our ethics in check. In a ever-changing world, we must remain true to our cause. people may think whatever they want, but creating a cult image is still a PR practitioner's doing. Since the hypodermic needle theory does not work on people anymore, the people will does get affected in accordance to the "involuntary breath" theory, where the PR campaigns attacks the sub-consciousness of the audience. 

From what i wrote, i guess the key points i gathered from the topic is that 1. I must always remain ethical in my work, and my life, and 2. we must have someone to maintain a quality check of our campaigns.