AHA Creative Strategies - B Seen B Heard B Known

Public Relations has changed drastically over the past two years. Blogs and blogging are a part of day-to-day life, so are podcasts (audio files that can be downloaded to an MP3 player) and vodcasts (video files that can be viewed on your computer).

And – like it or not – as a company or as an individual this new era of citizen journalism means that your mistakes, moments of temptation or greed and wrong doings can be completely exposed within seconds of it hitting the fan. (Look! The Emperor Has No Clothes!) We have seen a great many “celebrities” get exposed via the Internet (and I’m not talking about Pamela Anderson and the Tommy Lee tapes). Michael Richards and his racist rant at a comedy club in L.A. is a good example. Don Imus was fired from his high profile job at MSNBC because his racist comments on his shock radio show made it to YouTube and was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

Recently, actor Alec Baldwin had the Internet turn on him after his ex-wife, Kim Basinger, released a cell phone message that Mr. Baldwin had left for his 11-year old daughter. There is some debate on whether Ms. Basinger actually released this audio file to the media and if she did whether she should have, but whether she did or should have done it – it got people talking about Alec and how abusive he was to his daughter in that message. I have heard the message and find it appalling that anyone would ever speak to another person that way, let alone a child. But – that isn’t the point of this blog.

It damaged his personal brand – and given that the Baldwin brothers don’t exactly have the most polished brand in Hollywood – that says something. What do you think NBC, the company that produces 30 Rock, the comedy series in which Mr. Baldwin stars, thinks of this voicemail being out there for anyone to hear? (Google Alec Baldwin, this topic comes up in the first five links.)

What would happen if something you thought was private ended up on YouTube or MySpace or was being passed around via email by your colleagues and competitors. What if it was something that was a mistake you made or what if it was wrong and you were being unjustly accused of something? How could that hurt your company, your professional reputation and your life? What would you do about it?