Guerrilla PR 2.0

by Michael Levine

  It’s my great hope that someday, in future editions of this book, I will add your name to this list of champions.

  13

  Concluding Thoughts:

  A Call to Battle

  There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.

  —Christopher Morley

  Ethics

  Maybe you’ve heard the old joke, “What do you call five hundred lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?” Answer: “A start.” A little macabre, perhaps, but funny because, fairly or not, we tend to perceive lawyers as unethical. Americans don’t take kindly to cheaters, even though so many good citizens play fast and loose with society’s rules.

  How many of us are 100 percent honest on our taxes? Who among us has never rolled through a stop sign, swiped a pen from the supply cabinet, or called in sick when we really weren’t? Most people look on the P.R. profession as one populated by liars, cheats, and tellers of tall tales. It would be untrue to say we don’t have our share of miscreants, but most publicists are honest and principled. That doesn’t mean we don’t bend the truth when it suits our purposes. We do. Likewise, in your own Guerrilla P.R. efforts, you too may find yourself at times facing moments of choice: do I stretch the truth or do I blow an opportunity?

  Here’s what the Dartnell Public Relations Handbook has to say on the subject: “There is no branch of public relations that can stand up under misleading or tricky tactics without hurting the practitioner.” It’s vital that we take some time to explore issues of ethics. They apply in every field, from medicine to law to simple commerce. Ethics constitute the unwritten and unenforceable laws that allow us to get along with one another. Without ethics—as we saw in the tragic L.A. riots of 1992—we have a complete breakdown in the moral order of society. The riots were an example of that on a grand scale. You represent only yourself, but within that self-contained universe, you must uphold the highest sense of ethics.

  At the outset, I say to you never deliberately lie. By that I mean the following:

  Do not make a promise you know you cannot keep.

  Do not fabricate anything about your project that you cannot in some way substantiate.

  Do not mislead the media about any of the central merits and attributes of your project.

  Do any of these, and, as they say in the movies, you’ll never work in this town again.

  Media are, however, accustomed to embellishment, aggrandizement, and hype. For example, here’s my reconstruction of an actual phone call I overheard from a publicist to a newspaper reporter regarding one of her clients:

  “I’m telling you, [the client] is to die. Her talent is so…well, let’s just say I never heard a singer as gifted, ever. I’m not kidding. She makes Whitney Houston sound like my father does in the shower. Have I sent you a tape? What??? I haven’t?? I’m getting one over to you by messenger right this very second. I’m packing it up as we speak. You must hear her. I guarantee you’re going to mention her in your column next week. Not because I said so, but because you’re gonna want to. I’m telling you, she’s to die.”

  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It is merely thrusting an emotional component into your pitch. If you want to give the media an enthusiastic spiel, they may not buy it, but they would certainly not accuse you of lying. Nevertheless, this is a far cry from intentional fabrication.

  Ethics is more than a simple matter of right and wrong. You will truly hurt yourself if you behave unethically. You can’t get away with falsehoods, with backstabbing, with intentional and malicious manipulation of people and media outlets. The folks out there are far too smart to be taken in. The only result will be the complete discrediting of you and your project. So if you’re one of those people who has no moral problem with unethical behavior, think of such a stance simply as bad for business. You can take the morality right out of the equation, but I hope you can see it as more than just a business decision.

  Ethical behavior is important in all aspects of life. I cringe when I see decent people justifying abhorrent business practices simply because “that’s the way it’s done.” There’s no excuse for that. Maybe powerful people—including powerful publicists—can get away with it. But you, as a Guerrilla, cannot. So walk the straight and narrow.

  Do what you can to aggressively pursue your P.R. objectives, but don’t cross the ethical line. You’ll sleep better at night.

  Excellence

  Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger tells the story of a young assistant whom he asked to prepare a lengthy policy analysis. After several days of slaving away, the aide submitted his work to the boss. Kissinger returned it with a note, demanding it be redone. The assistant stayed up all night revising it, but the second draft was returned again. After three drafts, the exasperated aide asked to see Kissinger, telling him, “I’ve done the best I can do.”

  Kissinger replied, “In that case, I’ll read it now.”

  What is easy is seldom excellent. Some people believe excellence can be achieved through cunning, that being tricky is a valid substitute for hard work. That’s bull, plain and simple. Guerrilla P.R. is like any other effective business strategy in one respect: it works only if you put the proper effort into it. There is no shortcut through the fire walk.

  I have presented to you in this book a path and a direction. It is up to you to find your way. To have given nothing but ultra-specific ideas and formulas would have been to dishonor your native gifts of invention, improvisation, and ingenuity. Implicit between the lines is the conviction that each person knows what is best for himself or herself. Only you know how far you can push things; only you know when you haven’t pushed hard enough.

  With all my emphasis on perception, in truth, perception goes only so far. You can’t pretend to lead. If you want to be perceived as a leader, start leading. If you haven’t yet become the leader you want to be, then be what you are becoming. That’s not psychobabble but sound advice. I’ve applied it many times in my career. When faced with unfamiliar situations, I try to imagine how I want to perform. Then I work backward and figure out how to do it. It’s easier than you think. It just takes a little self-confidence. That, in fact, is one of the fringe benefits of Guerrilla P.R. Anyone with enough money can buy an ad in a newspaper or rent a plane to scrawl a message in smoke in the skies. But to bring about a real article in a newspaper or a segment on the evening news, something that will have an impact on millions of people, and to do it using only one tool—your brain—well, not everybody can do that. I believe you can. As was once said to me, “The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

  While putting together this book I remembered an incident from a noisy Hollywood bash I had attended a few years back. Among all the pretty people mingling, drinking, and attempting to impress one another, I noticed a world-famous director standing by the bar unnoticed, talking quietly with someone.

  A woman standing next to me poked my arm and said, “Look who’s over there.” I acknowledged the great man. The woman said to me, “He certainly made his mark on history, didn’t he?” My reply to her: “We can all leave our mark on history.”

  Go, and make yours.

  Appendix

  Two Interviews

  Not everyone with a Guerrilla P.R. outlook is a Guerrilla publicist. Some are involved in other fields but have developed a keen understanding of the Guerrilla view of things. Two such people, both good friends of mine, are Bart Andrews and Alan Caruba. One is a noted author and literary agent; the other is a professional publicist, albeit an unconventional one.

  In researching and preparing this book, I spoke with dozens of people, both Guerrilla P.R. practitioners and media representatives, and all were universally helpful to me. However, Bart and Alan were exceptionally wise in their insights and experience. The interviews I conducted with them proved to be extraordinarily astute. In reviewing them, I felt they should be reproduced here.

  As you read t
hem, try to get a feel for both Bart’s and Alan’s dynamic view of the P.R. process. Neither views P.R. in a strictly linear fashion—that is, Task A precedes Task B which precedes Task C. Rather, they see it as an ongoing multilinear process, interconnected, geodesic in shape. Read on, and glean as much as you can from them.

  Bart Andrews

  A former TV comedy writer, Bart began researching the life and career of Lucille Ball in 1975 for a book that has now become a best-selling classic, the I Love Lucy Book. Bart went on to write many other books, including a companion volume to his first Lucy book, Loving Lucy. Bart is at the same time a highly successful literary agent, having represented such authors as Vanna White, Sally Jessy Raphael, Smokey Robinson, and many others. Although his specialty is book publishing, his comments can be applied to any P.R. endeavor:

  MICHAEL LEVINE: Bart, do you think authors generally need to hire outside publicists, or should they do their own P.R.?

  BART ANDREWS: I discourage hiring out because (A) it’s very expensive and (B) it’s a big gamble for an author to expect to recoup that money based on royalties. It’s simply not money well spent. The question is, do you want your face out there for reasons of ego, or are you doing it for the book?

  ML: Does P.R. serve a narrower function in publishing than in other fields?

  BA: P.R. success is much more difficult to gauge in realms other than publishing. For an individual to really know if you’re getting anything out of personal P.R. is nearly impossible. You can’t monitor it the way you can with a book. If you appear on Good Morning America, your sales will substantially increase overnight. You can punch up the numbers on a computer. All you can do with an individual or, say, an idea, is head for the nearest street corner and ask someone, “Hey, did you hear about so-and-so?” If they say, “I just read about him in the paper,” then you know.

  ML: What are some of your general observations about P.R. and media?

  BA: There are certain things you do to publicize anything. In my area they usually involve radio, TV, and print. Those are generic. I happen to have a knack for keeping my eyes open when opportunities present themselves. I met Sally Jessy Raphael in 1976 when she was doing a radio talk show in New York. I appeared on her show for the Lucy book, and we became great friends. I never forgot about her after that first interview, and kept in touch with her. Today, I’m able to pick up the phone and book myself or one of the authors I represent on the show.

  ML: What do you need to know going in, before you contact the media?

  BA: You’ve got to know whether your pitch fulfills some requirement of the show’s audience. If you’re selling a cookbook, don’t pitch Geraldo. It amazes me how people still do things like that. You’ve got to watch or listen to the shows, or read the paper or magazine. True, TV and talk radio are hungry for subjects. I hear constantly how viewers send in ideas for Oprah and Sally segments. They’re not ivory towers. But you have to give them ideas that will fill up an hour. Once you’re on with something people want to hear about, you become a Good Guest. They’ll call you from then on. But you have to sustain the relationship. Keep sending them your material.

  ML: What is more important, marketing or publicity?

  BA: Between the two, I’d take publicity. For each dollar spent you get more out of P.R. I sent a copy of a book by one of my authors to USA Today. Total cost was $8 for the book and $3 for postage. The book’s theme caught someone’s fancy, and the paper ran an entire page on it. How much do you figure a full-page ad in USA Today would cost?

  ML: I often stress communication skills. What about you?

  BA: People in the media are too used to professional quality to put up with crap. I get stuff submitted to me handwritten, with typos. Even if they have the kernel of a good idea, if the presentation is poor, I file-and-forget in the wastebasket.

  ML: What advice would you give to people contemplating their own self-directed P.R. campaign?

  BA: If you really want to make the effort to get publicity, you can do it. It takes perseverance. People always want the end product, but too often they don’t want to do the work to get the end product, or they don’t have the ingenuity to figure out how to get it. You’ve got to be really cold about yourself, and decide if you’ve got the right stuff. But it’s definitely possible.

  Alan Caruba

  Although he’s one of the most in-demand public relations counselors and counts major associations, corporations, and celebrities among his clients, Alan Caruba of Maplewood, New Jersey, possesses the soul of a Guerrilla P.R. master. His resourcefulness, creativity, and almost superhuman energy have allowed him to benefit not only his clients but himself as well. In 1984, for example, he launched The Boring Institute as a lark, and now he sends out his eagerly awaited annual list of the year’s Most Boring Celebrities to the international media. His National Anxiety Center has become a resource for insightful commentary on the national stress caused by daily scare headlines. Both these ventures reflect not only his own imagination but his skills in securing media exposure.

  In a recent conversation with Alan, we talked about many aspects of P.R. On some things we agreed; on many others we did not, but I reproduce for you the text of our interview to give you a fresh alternative perspective.

  MICHAEL LEVINE: HOW do you define P.R.?

  ALAN CARUBA: P.R. is a craft. It doesn’t lend itself to the committee approach. It’s an information-gathering, packaging, and dissemination process.

  ML: I suspect many people view P.R. people as hypesters and liars.

  AC: That is a mistaken viewpoint, often encouraged by the media, who are almost entirely dependent on P.R. to perform their work. I would say 80 percent of any newspaper or news broadcast is utterly dependent on news stories and ideas from P.R. professionals. Today’s journalists are often less newsgatherers than news processors. Most journalists sit at the desk working the phones and complaining bitterly they’re getting too much mail, too many news releases going to too many editors. Media people sometimes sound to me like crybabies.

  ML: You’re not really so bitter about reporters, are you?

  AC: On the contrary, I have many friends who work in the media, and, having been a former full-time journalist, I feel a real kinship. I have always viewed everything I do in terms of journalistic standards. When I write a news release I am writing a news story. That’s the way every news release should be written, as if it could go in a newspaper or magazine, or be read on TV verbatim. The first question any P.R. person should ask himself is: Is this newsworthy? Does this product or service lend itself to what is happening in the news these days? Is this a product or service which will help people lead better lives?

  ML: What kinds of obstacles do publicists run into?

  AC: Commonly, it’s the expectation of a client that he will be on page one of the Wall Street Journal or the cover of Business Week within a matter of days. Most clients have no idea what P.R. is, or they believe it requires no significant skills or background. It’s important that they understand that developing and maintaining a level of recognition and credibility for the product or service, or the company and principals, doesn’t happen overnight. In terms of street-smart P.R., you have to figure on three to four months start-up before there’s any real response to what you’re doing, because it takes the media that long to get familiar with what you’re sending them.

  ML: What are your thoughts about American journalism?

  AC: For the past decade we’ve had some of the worst journalism imaginable. They ignored the Savings & Loan debacle, totally missed the looting of HUD, and were caught totally off guard by the breakup of the Soviet Union. We’ve had major problems sneak up on America without a single journalist noticing. We had to have the Challenger blow up in front of our eyes before anybody asked whether NASA was doing anything wrong. The media, which love to complain about publicists, should remember that many of us have tried to bring to light significant national problems, trends, and even scandals. I think P.R
. people represent the best definition of the First Amendment, because we do believe in free speech and freedom of the press. It’s essential to our own function of advocacy.

  ML: How do you feel about the increase in media outlets in the past ten years?

  AC: We’ve gotten nothing but more of the same. Though we have more cable stations, the news remains largely homogenized at both the national and local levels. There isn’t a single local news show that doesn’t begin with five minutes of murder, mayhem, and fires. It’s a major misrepresentation of the real issues affecting the people watching. Viewers are lucky to get a nine-second sound bite of the governor saying something really important. The rest of the time, what passes for local news is mostly drivel. We have more coverage, but we’re often not getting news of much value.

  ML: What about your personal responsibilities as a public relations counselor to be attuned to the media?

  AC: I read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and my local daily every day, and easily fifty publications from various industries and political points of view every month. Anybody in P.R. has to be a bit of a renaissance person in that you cannot function from a narrow perspective. You always have to understand the larger context in which people make their decisions, including the economy, current political issues, and social and cultural factors. One does have to read rather widely among the more serious publications like the New Republic and U.S. News and World Report to understand what’s happening. Moreover, one must also read trade publications like Magazine Week and Advertising Age.

  ML: What does a P.R. professional need to know about media in order to succeed?

  AC: First, a handful of news wire services determine what we read and hear today. Many people don’t understand—if your story is picked up by AP, UPI, Reuters, or Gannett, to name a few, you reach out instantly with enormous impact. If your story is in the New York Times—I don’t care if it’s only two paragraphs—the impact is a smash. There is a relatively small group of print media that determine to a great extent the national news agenda.