Psychic or Psychotic?
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008Back in October, when PRWeek drooled over Burson Marsteller for instituting a new PR campaign for Countrywide Financial to help them out of the financial trouble they were in, we asked whether the campaign was a waste of time and money.
Well, turns out we were right. Our prediction (10/13/07) that Bank of America would take over Countrywide Financial was spot on. Granted we were slightly off on the date, we said it would happen within the year.
Now what I want to know is this: How could PRWeek have run such a glowing story without taking the economy into account? Your head would have had to be buried deeply in the sand to not comprehend what effect the economy was having on the mortgage industry and homeowners.
Instead of acting as a cheerleader, I would expect the reporter and his or her editor to take a step back during the reporting process and ask themselves a simple question. What happens if? Surely any battle worthy reporter/editor would have raised this question. Or am I being too naïve?
Either way, I’m not surprised we made the right call. Effective PR practitioners can always tie their client’s stories into local, national and world events no matter what industry the client represents. But I also can’t help but feel sorry for PRWeek. After all, it’s a lot harder for a publication to ask tough questions of interviewees when they’re leading the cheers and the interviewee is one of your largest advertisers.
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