PULL A STUNT

The history of public relations is littered with publicity stunts. The aim of a stunt is to generate word of mouth—a good stunt can keep people talking for days. The best stunts are ones that relate to the product and that are eye-catching and creative—good street theater, in other words.

Stunts also need to appeal to the target audience, of course. Some stunts might be regarded as offensive or unacceptable—and some even border on the illegal, as happened with one drinks company that engaged graffiti artists to spray the company logo onto buildings in London. Finding a suitable stunt is a matter of balancing good taste with powerful impact. One company found a startling way to do this.

One classic stunt was the fight staged between a well-known bandleader and a bystander, allegedly over the recipe for Pimm’s. The PR man who organized the stunt paid both men to stage a street brawl, with the press on hand: naturally, the stunt made the headlines, and generated a great deal of word of mouth at relatively little cost.

Staging a fight between a celebrity and a bystander works fine if the celebrity agrees that such behavior accords with his or her public image. For the target audience, this event was both shocking and fascinating, and also enhanced the image of the product by making it seem worth fighting for.

Practice

• Ensure that your stunt is legal.

• Remember that the stunt must fi t in with the images of the people involved.

• Be wary of upsetting the journalists—they do not like being fooled, any more than do the rest of us, but they are usually happy to go along with a spoof.