How Low Can You Go in PR?

By Alina Popescu on October 15th, 2008 in Business & Corporate, PR & Marketing

Guest post by Iuliana Butuc-Cerchez

Let’s say you are the founder and the general manager of an Internet company. One of the best in your country. Let’s say that a worldwide financial crisis makes you afraid of the future.

Let’s say that you have a dating portal in your management, besides other websites (a job portal and so on). Let’s say that, in the country where the biggest chunk of your market is, one TV show proposes you, the general manager, to participate and to make fun of yourself right there on the screen, in the front of several million TV viewers. The “prize”, if you happen to be the winner of the TV contest, is to get married to a so-called TV star. Not a nice or hot looking one, believe me!

Would you accept the proposal? Would you choose to be the subject of mockery in blog posts and press articles and, also, to “risk” getting married to a woman of doubtful reputation just to advertise your dating portal? Really, how low can you go with your personal brand to get some awareness on the TV for one of your company’s products?

Iuliana Butuc-Cerchez has been the Corporate Affairs Manager of the Gecad Group for over 4 years. She’s an exceptional PR professional and a true mentor for me. Before starting her PR career, she used to be this hard-core IT journalist at one of the best business and financial newspapers in Romania. She’s also a blogger, but as her blog is in Romanian, only part of my readers will be able to enjoy her articles.

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This post has 4 comments

  • Ovidiu
    October 17th, 2008

    Desperate people do stupid things. That bestjobs.ro guy is not so bright, is he?

  • Alina Popescu
    October 17th, 2008

    I don’t know how smart or bright he is, it will probably depend on what he expects to get out of this and what the results are. If people flood his dating site, maybe some will say it was a good move in the end. It all depends on what kind of image he wants promoted. Maybe he wants to play the crazy guy part, or some sort of playboy.

    What I can say though is that this move will definitely not benefit his more professional endeavors. Ejobs is probably happy right now :)

  • Ovidiu
    October 17th, 2008

    Playing the crazy playboy when you have a business (any business except leading the Playboy magazine or related) is not a good idea, specially when people who bring you money are from serious companies (you know, the uptight no-tie-on-fridays-means-casual types).

    I don’t know if bestjobs or the dating site brings more money, but I would guess it’s bestjobs. So again, bad idea.

    The only thing that I think will soften the situation is that I don’t think a lot of people know that well who is behind bestjobs and what is the relation to the dating site. That is, if he’s not that stupid to say it on TV :) )

  • Alina Popescu
    October 17th, 2008

    You might be on to something. If he’s not associated in any way to the more professional services his company provides and chooses to only be associated with the dating site, going on a show about random marriage might actually help.

    But I still think it’s overall a bad idea for the other brands he represents. Those who use bestjobs to promote themselves will definitely care about what kind of publicity it gets and will want to find out who’s behind the service.

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