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« Remember Those Things Called Web Sites? | Main | Sue First, Ask Questions Later: A Classic Lesson in Social Media and Public Relations » Can something be good publicity and bad public relations?Posted by Matt Kucharski on July 28, 2009 at July 28, 2009 1:40 PMFormer Padilla Speer Beardsley CEO John Beardsley forwarded an article from today's Wall Street Journal highlighting how Twentieth Century Fox created a viral campaign around the movie "I Love You Beth Cooper." The campaign encourages students giving commencement addresses to replay a key scene in exchange for some cash. Call me old-fashioned, but it's a little disheartening to see a person sully an important life event in exchange for crass promotion of a B-class movie. I've gotta believe that Ms. Mejia will look upon this 10 years from now and regret it. Beardsley's cover note raised some good questions: "Just because it can be done, should it be done? PR is on an eternal quest for authenticity. So then, why do practitioners continually come up with programs that are inauthentic? And worse, programs that conceal their pretense? We're back in philosopher Harry Frankfurt's realm of bullshit. Or am I missing something?" Valid questions. I don't think he's missing anything at all. To me, this stunt by Fox is a classic example of the difference between publicity and public relations. Publicity serves one purpose -- to promote. It's one-way, transactional and inherently self-serving. That doesn't make it bad - it just is what it is. Public relations is building mutually beneficial long-term relationships with people important to your success -- through acts and communications. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Comparing a publicist to a public relations professional is like comparing a day trader to a financial planner. In short, Fox's promotion is an example of good publicity and also an example of bad public relations. For 20th Century Fox, it's pretty clear that they're willing to take the latter in exchange for the former.
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