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An interesting blog entry from Chris Payne: Sugar Puffs crimping Mighty Boosh style
The makers of Sugar Puffs have ‘adopted’ the crimping style of the Mighty Boosh, apparently to the annoyance of the Boosh and their fans.
The Honey Monster: Golden pips of a sunshine princess
The Mighty Boosh: Bouncy Bouncy
According to The Sun:
A source said: “A pal of the Mighty Boosh boys was lying in his pants watching daytime telly and saw the advert.
“He rang the Boosh and congratulated them on their work for Sugar Puffs.
“They were baffled and checked it out on the internet. They hadn’t been asked permission to use the style and are speaking to lawyers about getting the Honey Monster’s crimp removed from the airwaves.”
I will be interested to see whether this turns into a legal battle but my thoughts are that it is doing a lot of good for Sugar Puffs - you have to admit the advert is quite funny if you know the Mighty Boosh. And for those who don’t really know the Mighty Boosh, they may do now with all this talk of Sugar Puffs! Everyone’s a winner right?
So true for so many people…
I should say something more here about companies or professionals using Web 2.0 technologies just to demonstrate that they can, even when it’s not credible, appropriate or effective communication but I need to go and study stakeholder theories for my CIPR diploma…
Maybe another time…
So for our first practise assignment for the CIPR Diploma, we were asked “What contribution does public relations make to modern society?”. I kind of turned this question on it’s head, and instead I discussed “What contribution does modern society make to PR?” Admittedly not the assignment we were given, but something more interesting and relevant to my area of work…
“PR is a relatively new discipline and its role in society is a constantly evolving one. So to are the theories that guide its practice. The profession is continually facing new challenges from developing modes of communication in the Web 2.0 era to an increasingly complex and diverse society who need to be communicated with.
Previous dominant theories that have guided PR practice are becoming less relevant as new approaches are needed to respond to this changing media landscape.
In systems theory, the idea of PR practitioner as ‘boundary spanner’ between organisation and audience is harder to understand as boundaries become more flexible. Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000) emphasise the presence of an ‘established boundary’ between organisation and audience but with increasingly abundant channels of communication across the boundary, the PR practitioner can no longer be was viewed as ‘gatekeeper’ and must become facilitators enabling flow of information.
The 21st century has seen a massive rise in the number of people publishing content online. Access to new technologies and the availability of web publishing has introduced two fundamental changes for communicators and audiences: who provides information and how audiences get the information they need (Holtz, 1996).
New communications channels such as blogs, social networking sites, RSS feeds, video-sharing sites, wiki’s allow publics to become more discursive and find their own voices and communities who share their voices. The dialogue’s that user-generated content allows is in keeping with more recent rhetorical perspectives.
Heath (2001) supports the rhetorical approach as the primary perspective through which PR should be viewed: “Through statement and counterstatement, people test each other’s views of reality, value, and choices relevant to products, services and public policies”.
Skerlep (2001) also advocates the rhetorical approach as it allows multiple viewpoints to be given on situations, allowing the PR practitioner and audiences to arrive at the truth; “The ‘truth’ can only be reached through argumentative dialogue that reveals which of the participating parties has better arguments” (Skerlep, 2001). By rigorously questioning and challenging statements, we can arrive at the ethical truth. For this approach to be truly ethical, the PR practitioner must be responsive to these multiple viewpoints and not ignorant to them.
As new challenges are emerging for PR practitioners, Mackey (2003) suggests that more traditional PR theories are left wanting. In the globalised world, we are witnessing a more “plural society that is becoming even more postmodern and difficult to stereotype”. New theories of communication are needed that help map the apparently teeming and far harder to see and understand lateral communication between targeted publics and others (Mackey, 2003)
PR practitioners are required to continually address the challenges that are encountered as society evolves, re-evaluating the boundaries of the profession. Whilst this is necessary for its practice it can also confuse the publics understanding of the profession. PR practitioners must continue to look at new challenges to communications whilst re-enforcing the role of the PR professional in society as a facilitator of information exchange.”
References
Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H., and Broom, G. M. (2000) Effective Public Relations (8th ed) Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall.
Heath, R. L. (2001) Handbook of Public Relations, London: Sage
Holtz, S. (1996) Communication and technology: The complete guide to using technology for organizational communication. Chicago: Lawrence Regan Communications.
Mackey, S. (2003) Changing vistas in Public Relations theory. PRism 1(1)
Skerlep, A (2001) Re-evalutaing the role of the rhetoric in public relations theory and in strategies of corporate discourse. Journal of Communications Management 6(2) 176-187
“Opinion can be void if not presented from both sides” Preston (2004)
The wise words of Samuel Preston of the Ordinary Boys - a good example of rhetorical theory. You may wonder where I am going with this, but I have recently started studying my CIPR Diploma so thought I would try and make the theory more entertaining by relating it to another of my interests - popular culture!
Rhetorical theory according to Heath (2001): “Through statement and counterstatement, people test each other’s views of reality, value, and choices relevant to products, services and public policies”. Heath supports the rhetorical process as the primary perspective through which PR should be viewed.
For rhetorical theory to be ethical, Heath states that the dialogue must be conducted on a level playing field. But how can a playing field be level in the corporate world? Surely there is an argument here about big fish in little ponds? The louder the voice, the stronger the message?
Skerlep (2001) also advocates the rhetorical approach as it allows multiple viewpoints to be given on situations, allowing the PR practitioner to gain new perspectives. By rigorously questioning and challenging statements, we can arrive at the ethical truth. For this approach to be truly ethical, the PR practitioner must be responsive to these mutliple viewpoints and not ignorant to them.
“In the situtation of public contention on a controversial issue, the speaker can only marshall the best arguments for his or her case… The ‘truth’ can only be reached through argumentative dialogue that reveals which of the participating parties has better arguments” (Skerlep, 2001).
I agree with Skerlep to an extent, but I think ‘debates’ are desirable rather than ‘arguments’ which marks the PR practitioner as an antagonistic challenger of opinion. Although the word ‘argument’ does convey the persuasive nature of these dialogues.
Finally, more words of wisdom from Samuel Preston “A healthy argument to start the day, what better way?” - he must be an advocate of rhetorical theory!
The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud’s ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn’t need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.
His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.
It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today’s world.
Taken from BBC Four
I am just reading about the use of blogs in public relations and there are references to ‘clogs‘ (corporate blogs) and ‘flogs‘ (fake blogs).
No one really uses these terms do they?
In my opinion, Sony Bravia have been inspiring with their Colour Like No Other advertising campaign. Would it make me buy a Sony Bravia LCD TV? Probably not but it does make me think they are very very clever!
Would these adverts make you buy a Sony Bravia product?
The bouncing balls advert (Jose Gonzalez, Heartbeats soundtrack)
The making of the bouncing balls advert
The paint advert
The making of the paint advert
Play doh bunnies advert
Making of the play doh bunnies advert
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