Samantha Brick- an ugly piece of journalism, beautiful PR?

Samantha who? I'm sure many of you didn't have a clue who Samantha Brick was until she wrote this article asking "Why do women hate me for being beautiful?". I'll be honest- neither did I! Written by 41 year old journalist Samantha Brick from the Daily Mail, the article caused a huge controversial stir!

In the article itself, she talks about how she is hated by other women for her beauty and includes many anecdotes as to how men her buy her nice things because of her looks.
Personally I think it was the fact that Samantha Brick is saying that generally women dislike women who are seen to to be attractive is the reason it has caused as much controversy as it has.

ITV's This Morning she states that she does not regret writing the article. Despite the backlash she is clearly enjoying and lapping up all the attention she has gotten from this article as she sits there with a smirk on her face. However, whilst watching the interview she does genuinely seem to think she is beautiful- surely a women of her age can't be that vain?


This article from the Daily Mail suggests that the article had over 1.5 million views and had 50,000 shares on Facebook. The majority of the comments Samantha Brick's article got were negative. For example, these tweets from members of the public suggest that her beauty is all just a figure of her own imagination.

The article received over 5,000 comments and the majority of them were negative. As a result she then argues in this article that the backlash has just proven her right.

Many people argue that this was one big PR stunt, and you know what? I think I would have to agree! It was extremely clever, I'll give her that because before the article nobody knew who the hell she was, but within three days of the article her name was on everyone's lips. The whole concept of a PR stunt is to gain attention of members of the public, which in fact is what this ugly piece of writing has done, making it one beautiful PR stunt. 

Everyone loves Alan Davies right...? Wrong!

Allan Davies-the lovable comedian off QI some of you may think?
Personally I quite like Allan Davies. Yes, he's a comedian and most of the time he can get away with asking inappropriate questions for comical value. Although, this time I think perhaps he was insensitive and took his "banter" just a little too far. 

Arsenal fan, Allan Davies mocks Liverpool fans on his pod cast The Tuesday Club he says the following:

“Liverpool and the 15th – that gets on my tits that s**t. What are you talking about, ‘We won’t play on the day’. Why can’t they?”.

He then continues to mock Liverpool fans for not wanting to play on the anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster on the 15th April.

"My mum died on 22 August. I don't stay in all day on 22 August. Do they play on the date of the Heysel Stadium disaster?"
 
This resulted in Liverpool fans abusing, criticising and even sending death threats to Allan Davies via Twitter.

In attempt to make up for his appalling outburst, as an apology Allan Davies donated £1,000 to the Hillsborough charity. However the backlash of his tweet, as the Daily Mail wrote in this article, was that his donation was refused.

His stupidity continued when he reacted to the refusal of his donation when he posted this photo, continuing to mock the the fans of Liverpool. Along with this image he tweeted
"Going out later. I've decide to get a disguise."

Allan Davies still refused to admit he had been insulting and in this article from The Guardian states that Allan Davies said on Twitter later that...

"the tone I took on the podcast was inappropriate for this subject". "I support the campaign for justice for the 96 [victims]".

Later on Allan Davies apologises.


"I said the Hillsborough disaster was the worst event in modern peacetime history. I was on a terrace listening to a radio as it happened. Many disagree but I feel that the Liverpool v Everton semi-final could be played on Apr 15. Apologies to those upset by that situation."

In my opinion social media is good because it gives people a voice. However, because of Allan Davies being a celebrity, members of the public might be more interested in what he has to say and therefore in this case it has backfired. To further my point a weakness of social media is that it can effect celebrities in a negative way and as a result destroy their reputation. Has this silly tweet affected the amicable reputation of Allan Davies? We shall have to wait and see!

The sinking tweet for Titanic!

 The History Press set out to reconstruct the famous voyage of the "unsinkable" Titanic via Twitter to celebrate it's 100th anniversary. An account @TitanicRealTime was created so that people could experience the "live tweet" event that the Daily News talks about in more detail here. Through the use of personal messages from the captain, passengers and crew members this event engaged over 110,000 followers on Twitter. This article states that one reason why it was successful is that it "was an innovative experiment in leveraging social media for historical entertainment and education". I think the recreation of Titanic via Twitter was a wonderful idea because it was a innovative way of using social media that I had not come across before. In the future it has been discussed that The History Press might tweet more historical events, but the question is what other events should be recreated?

 

 

As well as the History Press recreating Titanic through the use of twitter, the 100th anniversary was also celebrated through the re-release of Titanic the film but this time in 3D. The release of the film in 3D resulted in backlash on twitter because some people did not actually know that Titanic was real. Yes, that's right "Titanic wasn't just a movie?" How ignorant can you get? This article discusses the backlash in more detail. Some of the comments below give you an idea just how unbelievably uneducated some people are about the Titanic.

As a PR student it can be said that there is a disadvantage to using social media because it shows people's ignorance about everyday life and historical events just like this example of the Titanic. However if The History Press were to tweet other historical events this would be an advantage to social media because it would be educating users.

Rage Against The Machine Facebook campaign vs X Factor.

It is now three years ago since Rage Against the Machine's campaign took on Simon Cowell's X Factor chart domination. This is an interesting example of a successful Facebook campaign and demonstrates just how powerful social networking can be.

One aspect I found that stood out about the campaign was the amount of people that got involved. This also included celebrities such as Bill Bailey and Lenny Henry. Paul McCartney also backed up the campaign in this video and says that “it would be kind of funny if a band like Rage Against The Machine got it, it would just prove a point.”On the 10th December 2009 NME state that the group had over 550,000 members.

In the words of Zach de La Rocha, the lead singer of Rage Against the Machine who spoke on the Radio one chart show said that the campaign was
“more about the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the UK to topple this very sterile pop monopoly and less about the song and the band. We are very proud to have had the song chosen as the vehicle by which to do this." 
 This shows that another aspect which makes this campaign interesting is that it was not run by an organisation rather it was successful because of the spontaneity of the public which resulted in crowd sourcing.

PR agent Mark Borkowski this blog which was written before the Christmas number one was released. If Rage Against The Machine won he states  
“I hope people take courage from it and use social media and networking in ever more creative cultural (and social and political) interventions in the coming years”.
I agree with Mark Borkowski because this campaign encouraged and empowered members of the public to take control through the use of social media.

The result of this Facebook campaign is that Rage Against the Machine was a success and won the battle between Joe McElderry from X Factor and were actually number one in 2009. This shows that the campaign was successful because ironically 'Killing in the name' wasn't a new record and was originally released in 1992. This shows that it wasn't necessarily about the music but the power of the public. This has lead me to question, what other campaigns are there that have been consumer generated, rather than being run by organisations?

10 ways in which businesses can improve their PR through the use of social media

1.) Twitter and Facebook can benefit businesses because posting early in the morning will ensure that their post will be the first to be seen on the news feed. For example posts from small businesses such as Folksy and Great Green Dreams are the first thing to appear on my news feed every morning when I sign into Facebook. This will be an advantage to using social media because it will help gain attention of potential customers or clients.

2.) Social media also improves traffic to the website of a business. This can be a direct link posted in a tweet on Twitter or post on Facebook. Facebook also has an "about" and "website" section where businesses can fill in their website.

3.) The use of social media has the potential to create a good reputation for a business or company. Twitter a to monitor what is being said about them via hash tag. Responding to a customers negative complaint can help a business build a good reputation.If a business has enough loyal customers they might stand up for the business if they get negative feedback.

4.) Social media allows businesses to provide quicker feedback, instead of having to compose a letter or an email, on Facebook a customer could go directly to the businesses page and comment with any query they might have. Due to specific members of the business that have been allocated to monitor the businesses social media the response should be quicker.

5.) As a result of people liking pages on a businesses Facebook page and subscribers of blogs this will increase the loyalty of customers. For example, Folksy is a website where people around Britain make products can host their own shop on the website. Uniquely Yours is a blog that highlights the different people that make the products. People who subscribe to this blog will be regular readers and therefore it will make customers come back to the website again.

6.) If a business uses a variety of different social media this can generate more leads to find them through search engines.

7) Social media increases the brand recognition of a business. For example two of my favourite clothing businesses In Love With Fashion and  Fat Face on their Facebook page they post images of their new products an in the caption include a link to the product on their website which results in me subconsciously going to their website without even realising it.

8.) Compared to advertising a business social media has a low cost and at the click of a button you can post promotional material such as videos, articles and blogs about a business for the whole world to see.

9.) It is important for smaller businesses to create contacts which social media allows businesses to do. For example one vintage shop in Coventry called Gladrags has a Facebook page and I have seen other smaller businesses asking if Gladrags would be interested in the jewellery stock that they produce. Therefore if Gladrags likes the products the smaller businesses make then the business has made a contact.

10.) Social media helps businesses to connect with customers with perhaps a more personal response.

Exploring the backlash and criticisms of Kony 2012.

First things first, who is he and what did he do that was so darn awful? Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (L.R.A). This is a fanatical christian group in which he abuses and forces both boys and girls to become soldiers in his army. He has already captured over 30,000 children. In my mind one thing is clear, he has to be stopped.

On March the 5th 2012 the Kony 2012 campaign video was released and with the help from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter it targeted the younger generation and went viral. The number of views were outstanding and it reached over 40 million views within the space of four days. An article on Channel four news says that Kony 2012 " has become an internet phenomenon, with social media sites abuzz with talk of the Ugandan war criminal". This 30 minute video was created by Jason Russell, the co founder of Invisible Children. The video has had a lot of criticism from both academics, charities and media correspondents. Journalist Charlie Beckett discusses in his blog why he thinks that Kony 2012 is wrong. The Guardian also talks about some of the criticisms of Kony in this article.

The video was an experiment in which Jason Russell wanted to encourage people to bring about change through the use of social media. However, one of my friends stated that they felt “empowered” by forwarding the video but this was not the video's purpose, it's purpose was to stop Kony. I must admit the flashy graphics and persuasive techniques of the video had me hooked and just like everyone else on my Facebook newsfeed I did forward the video. However, this won't actually help stop Kony and bring about the change that Jason Russell supposedly wants to happen. Now that I think about it, how is the merchandise that features in the video actually going to stop Kony? Plastering walls with posters and wearing a wristband definitely won't stop Kony.

Invisible Children clearly have good intentions and portray a good message to it's audience which was a positive aspect to the campaign. However, in my opinion they approached the issue the wrong way. The video raised awareness and was very persuasive by playing on the emotions of it's audience. A good tactic you might think? Although it could be that this video has done more worse than good as BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding discusses.

Another point in which critics have brought up is that there are issues as to where the funding for the organisation goes. Taking a look at Invisible Children's financial statement from 2011 shockingly reveals that the organisation only spent $2,810681 on direct services, compared to $851,820 which they spent on travel and transportation as well as spending $851,552 on production costs. Are these really the top priority of this campaign? This makes me think twice as to whether or not this organisation is trustworthy or not.

Nobody would have thought that the stress from criticism and backlash of the video would result into Jason Russell being arrested by San Diego police for being drunk and supposedly masturbating in public. More information can be found here. This behaviour could result in the Kony campaign being dismissed and not taken seriously.Therefore it is unclear as to whether there is any potential for future campaigns by Invisible Children.

My final criticism is that Joseph Kony left Uganda over 6 years ago. Why has this campaign only just been created? It is evident that this campaign is outdated and we are recognising the issue far too late. Angelo Opi-aiya Izama, a Ugandan journalist also makes the same point in his blog.
Even the Prime Minister of Uganda has tweeted to celebrities arguing that "The Kony 2012 campaign fails to make one crucial point clear: Joseph Kony is not in Uganda." 

In conclusion, I think that despite the many criticisms of this campaign, from a PR perspective, the campaign worked because it has achieved it's objective which was to make Kony famous.