Do Publicity Stunts Work? As Sarah would say, 'You Betcha!'

Guest post by: Thomas J. Madden
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IS BIGGER BETTER IN PR? - By Thomas J. Madden

Today, publicists need to think visuals, photo ops and familiar inanimate objects that can drive home the point of a story. To dramatize the secret ingredients in Krispy Kreme donuts, a South Florida PR firm had them arrive at a store opening in an armored truck from which an executive alighted handcuffed to a top-secret briefcase. The stunt had TV crews ecstatic. For picking the best props for photo ops, stick to familiar inanimate objects. All Americans are ruefully familiar with a gas pump nozzle. But in another sense, could it not represent a "smoking gun" that ties an oil cartel to the current financial crisis? You Betcha!

Attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, stood in front of OPEC headquarters in Vienna waving a gas pump nozzle in the air which he called a "smoking gun" that tied OPEC to a "price-fixing scheme" aimed at damaging the free world with "economic terrorism."

That stunt of him standing there waving a gas pump garnered for Klayman media exposure throughout Europe that added to his reputation as a legal gadfly who takes on whomever he regards as illegal cartels or crooks in power.

After ordered off OPEC's property, Klayman returned to literally spring out from behind a group of photographers to serve one of OPEC's oil ministers with a lawsuit alleging the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was an illegal conspiracy engaged in global price fixing.

Of course the biggest exploiters of photo ops are politicians out on the campaign trail and certainly elected officials who want to be perceived as take-charge leaders. Who will ever forget President Bush talking into that bullhorn at the site of the World Trade Center devastation vowing to get the terrorists responsible for the attack. That visual was a far cry from his passive and contemplative countenance on camera in the school classroom on the day it was whispered into his ear that American was under attack.

The publicity stunt has evolved into a form called Gorilla Marketing used effectively in shopping malls and on the streets of major cities where publicists demonstrate products, conduct surveys and hand out samples amid as much hoopla as possible.

Any stunt that starts word-of-mouth advertising is worth it's weight in gold.

TransMedia Group, a PR firm famous for publicity stunts, once organized a demonstration by Jewish grandmothers in Queens, New York against a leading flu and cough medication that said their product was more effective fighting colds than chicken soup, which the grandmothers found to be a scandalous claim. TransMedia organized a demonstration by grandmothers in support of Ben's Best Kosher Deli that prided itself for selling "the world's best cold-fighting chicken soup." Of course, at the time the firm'sclient was Ben's Best, which wound up on NBC's Today Show with Willard Scott sipping the deli's famous chicken soup and thanking Ben's Best for helping to ease his cold symptoms right on camera.

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IS BIGGER BETTER IN PR? - By Thomas J. Madden

About the Author: Thomas J. Madden

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Tom Madden is the founder and CEO of TransMedia Group, one of the world's leading independent PR firms serving clients worldwide since 1981. He has held top executive positions at ABC and NBC,where he was Vice President, Assistant to the President, then Fred Silverman. For his exploits in broadcasting and PR, he has been profiled in Time Magazine, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. Speeches he wrote have been reprinted in The New York Times and Vital Speeches of the Day. Among awards he has received are a "Bronze Anvil" from The Public Relations Society of America. He is the author of SPIN MAN and King of the Condo. email: TMadden@transmediagroup.com 561-750-9800 Ext: 211
Click here to visit Thomas's website.

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