Shoulda Kept Yer Mouth Shut?
Publicity should get people talking about you. Whether events are positive or negative, publicity generates name recognition.
Master showman PT Barnum’s famous comment: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” suggests that events fade from memory, even as folks remember your name.
Such visibility can be leveraged into bigger business and political opportunities.
Smart phones provide instant visibility in virtually every pocket. Do something heroic, the world cheers you on.
Yet instant global prominence is a double-edged sword. Do something horrific and everyone besmirches your name.
Suggesting Mr. Barnum’s rule no longer applies for significant public figures.
Consider Mel Gibson’s documented, decades-long antisemitism. Observed character actor Josh Malina, “Gibson is a well-known Jew-hater (anti-Semite is too mild). You couldn’t pay me enough to work with him.”
Such comments and recordings of Gibson’s hate speech have prompted countless thousands to vote with their wallets and boycott Gibson-related projects.
And the politicians? I’ll leave debates about the pros and cons of Biden or Trump to your kitchen table.
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, though, is getting bitten by the publicity generated to hustle her upcoming memoir. In it she tells of killing her 14-month-old dog for being too puppy-like.
For good measure, she also killed her family’s goat for smelling rancid.
Backlash has been massive, immediate and bipartisan.
Barring potential legal consequences for previous acts, Mr. Trump seems to have the Republican presidential nomination sewn up. Historically, anyone in this position would now be pivoting to appeal to a wider audience.
Noem aspires to become Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. And this story of the dog and the goat will undoubtedly appeal to her political base. It may even reach its intended audience of one: Mr. Trump.
And if she wanted to talk about this event at private dinners and fundraisers, the story may have served her well.
However, volunteering it as part of a larger effort to raise her desirability among the general public is probably going to have just the opposite effect.
Yup…she’s offended millions of voters of every political stripe.
The journalistic and talk show abuse heaped upon her so far has been impressive, and her efforts at justification aren’t expected to salvage her potential candidacy.
Suggesting she’s better known now, but definitely shot herself in the foot.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
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