49ers PR Gaffe Condemns ‘Jock’ Culture as Well as Bad PR, Says PR Disaster Analyst
San Francisco 49ers PR Directors Kirk Reynolds actually got his communications theory right; relate to your audience in terms they understand. But, worryingly, this also revealed the mentality and prejudices of many modern male sports stars.
(PRWEB) June 4, 2005 -- PR analyst Gerry McCusker, author of the world’s
first compendium of PR disasters, believes the PR scandal engulfing the San
Francisco 49ers, says as much about the mentality of our modern sports heroes as
it does of the PRO’s who advise them.
McCusker, a sports PR specialist,
came to this conclusion after viewing the questionable video clips and deducing
that the team’s disgraced PR Director, Kirk Reynolds, used lowbrow racist and
sexist humour, erotic titillation and loutish behaviour to ensure that he got
the players’ attention and got his point across.
From an effective public
speaking or communications viewpoint, McCusker says that, theoretically,
Reynolds was spot on: He spoke to his audience in a language they’d be sure to
understand. The players got the message, but their silence tells another
story.
McCusker commented:
“If the players saw this in August 2004,
why was it June 2005 before someone found it offensive enough to leak to the
media? It seems that in many ‘jock’-dominated sports, racism, sexism and bad
behaviour are alive and full of potential for bad PR”.
From a
professional PR viewpoint, McCusker says that Reynolds made several poor
judgement calls including:
Stakeholders:
He failed to consider all
those who could be offended if they saw it: Or, those who might use the video
against him or the club, in a ‘political’ way.
Brand:
He failed to
assess the potential impact on the 49ers brand, not just the player
pool.
Taste test:
Off-colour humour should never be used, even to get
a point across. And, really, what PR professional would strip off to appear in a
client training video?
McCusker believes that, in an ironic way, the
global media and public outrage has helped Reynolds achieve and surpass his
original goal for his ‘handling the media’ training video. The team now surely
know that bad behaviours and prejudices are unacceptable in San Fran’s diverse
community, and also in a global multicultural society.
Further
information/enquiries: Gerry McCusker
Email: e-mail protected from spam bots,
www.prdisasters.com
Gerry McCusker MSc PR, is the
author of ‘Talespin PR Disasters’, Kogan Page (2005) and a PR practitioner with
over 20 years consultancy experience.
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb247391.htm