Wooing journalists

Analysis > Wooing journalists

It is amazing the lengths that some companies will go to in wooing journalists in order to get them to first write articles about their products and then, of course, write nice things.

I recently watched a news piece, thankfully neutral, about an amazingly expensive piece of PR. The product in question was a watch. An expensive one, no doubt (we were not told the price). What was amazing was the amount of money spent by the promoting company.

First, about twenty journalists from around the world had been flown, first class, to England. Then they were taken to an airfield, given expensive leather flying jackets and other gear (including the watch, of course) and treated to a flying display of classic Spitfires. A number of A-list rock stars were then wheeled out to meet them and then they all clambered into an assortment of planes for joy-rides around the sky. All of this, of course, was accompanied by silver-service meals and five-star accommodation.

The reporter covering the story asked several the journalists whether they would be writing a story about the watch. All of them said yes. He then asked them whether the article would be positive. Sheepishly, most of them said of course it would be a very positive article.

The final score: PR 1 - Journalists 1

It's a win-win game. At least for the promoters and the writers of the reviews. Whether the readers who went out and bought watches as a result were winners is a completely different story.

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