Public Relations & the NBA: the Donald Sterling Decision

You’ve probably heard a lot about Donald Sterling in the last few days, and following today’s NBA decision, you’ll probably hear a lot more about him. People will analyze his remarks, debate whether or not the decision was fair and wait to see if he will be forced to sell the Clippers. A lot of these people will look at the situation from an ethical standpoint. They’ll discuss racism, or sportswriters will talk about his comments about how charitable he is to give players food and a place to live, despite the fact that they work for their paycheck. My first reactions following the decision, though, was how well it was handled from a PR standpoint.

1. Quick Decision

TMZ released the tape of Donald Sterling and his former girlfriend Vivian Stiviano on April 25th. It’s now April 29th and the tape has been reviewed, a decision has been made, and it’s been announced. While crisis communications often means that strong stances need to be taken and statements need to be made pretty quickly, especially considering the lightning-fast pace of the news cycle in the age of social media, the 4-day turnaround is exceptionally fast. While frequently companies, brands and organizations will stall for time, hoping to be able to make the decision when outrage has died down, the NBA addressed the issue head on with an initial statement that the investigation would be ethical, but a decision would arrive quickly – and it did.

The quick decision made by new NBA commissioner Adam Silver allowed for the outrage over Sterling’s remarks to solidify into support for the Clippers outside of Sterling’s ownership and turn into support for the NBA as a whole after the decision was handed down. Silver’s dedication to making a quick decision made it clear that players will be supported by the organization, and that Sterling’s racism will not be tolerated once clearly proven.

2. Strong Statement

It became clear pretty quickly that this was going to be big news. Sterling’s statement on tape mentioned Magic Johnson, a well-known former NBA star who made a statement very soon after the release of the tape, along with other NBA greats like Michael Jordan. Current and former NBA players flocked to Twitter to state their displeasure and LeBron James, one who some people call the current face of the NBA, said in an interview that “there’s no place for Donald Sterling in our league.” Even Barack Obama made a statement about Donald Sterling, condemning his words. In order to satisfy the public, the NBA needed to make their own strong statement, and they did with their decision. Lauded as one of the stiffest punishments to ever be given to an owner in professional sports, the NBA banned Sterling from the league for life, fined him the maximum amount of $2.5 million and NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated that he would do his best to force him to sell the Clippers, with the support of at least 22 out of the other 29 NBA team owners.

“We stand together in condemning Mr. Sterling’s views,” Silver said. “They simply have no place in the NBA.”

Silver’s clear condemnation of Sterling and willingness to back up that statement with severe consequences drew the praise of many, with countless players stating that they had full confidence in Silver as a leader.

 

I thought the crisis situation introduced by Donald Sterling was handled very well by new commissioner Adam Silver, who has only been working in the job since February 1st. Have any thoughts about the way it was handled? I’d love to hear them in the comments!

why i’m not sorry i took econ 101

Beyond the normal gen ed requirements at UNC, students in the J-school have to take what I’ve always thought of as a few journalism gen ed classes. These classes make sense for journalists to take – classes about politics, economics, recent history. They give those who will be writing reports on the news a background from which to draw when they talk about what’s going on in the world. In short, those in the reporting specialization will be well-equipped because of these requirements. But what about students specializing in advertising, graphic design, photojournalism or public relations? As a PR major, I’ve thought about this a lot. How will a class on state and local government help me to write a clear and concise press release for a client? How will knowing American history since 1865 help me to persuasively pitch a story to a reporter? And, most importantly of all, how will knowing the basics of economics help me to do, well, anything public relations related at all?

Here’s the true answer: it won’t.

Nothing that I learned in ECON 101 is something that I’ll apply directly to my future career. In that sense, it was a total waste. And I’m not alone in thinking that – I’ve talked to many other journalism majors who feel that the ECON requirement is useless and just kills your GPA. In fact, when I declared my major, an academic advisor told me to put off ECON 101 until I had gotten into the journalism school with their required minimum GPA because “the grade killer” was notorious for lowering GPAs for students who were skilled in the area of writing, not economics. You might be thinking, “but wait, this blog is about how she doesn’t regret taking ECON 101!” Let’s get to that.

On Dec. 18th, the Associated Press tweeted, “BREAKING: Fed will begin to reduce bond purchases by $10 billion in January because of stronger U.S. job market.” When I read it, I understood immediately that this was great news, because when the government buys bonds, it’s participating in expansionary monetary policy in an attempt to stimulate the faltering economy. Increased government spending increases consumer confidence, which helps economic growth because these confident consumers buy things and invest in the economy. So then, it was no surprise to me when, at the end of the day, @AP tweeted again, “BREAKING: Stocks soar after Fed judges U.S. economy strong enough to reduce stimulus; Dow up almost 300 points.” Of course the stock market was up, consumer confidence rose even though the government reduced its spending, because it demonstrated its confidence in the economy!

This may seem like a meaningless or boring example to you. But to me, it’s everything about why I’m glad I took economics in college. Economics covers some important things that are very pertinent to my future. Unemployment rates (will I get a job after I graduate?), taxes (how much of my future paycheck will go to the government?), inflation (how much will that paycheck buy me?) and so on. In 2016, when I vote for the next American president, his stance on the economy is going to be a huge factor into who I vote for. The big ideas of economics, like incentives, scarcity and opportunity cost, are things that I’ll apply to my life when planning my day or making decisions. And when economics affects the world around me, as shown in the example I gave before, I can understand how it’s changing the world and why it’s having that effect. Why do I understand these things? Because of ECON 101.

Don’t get me wrong, I hated ECON 101. I sat in lecture every Monday and Wednesday and felt like I was learning nothing. I did hundreds of practice questions and online quizzes and reread the assigned chapters and created an intensive study guide for the final – overall spending many hours a week on a class that doesn’t apply to my major at all while simultaneously working on two different campaigns (one for the capstone class for the PR specialization). As Sweet Brown would say, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

But whether I had time for it or not, I’m not sorry I took ECON 101. I may never be asked about my thoughts on the sub-prime market in an interview (actual occurrence for a B-school friend) and what shifts the aggregate demand curve may never help me plan a campaign, but ECON 101 taught me a lot about how the world works, and that’s valuable for anyone hoping to relate to the public.

royals – journalist version

Now, journalism schools can have a theme song. Aaron Edwards, an associate editor for BreakingNews.com and NBC News Digital tweeted a news parody of lyrics to Royals, a recent hit by 16-year-old New Zealander, Lorde.

Adrienne LaFrance, a freelance reporter who has written for the New York Times and the Washington Post, ran with it and wrote an entire journalism parody version of Royals. Aaron Edwards responded by taking her lyrics and recording them to the tune of the original. If you’re a journalist or a student in a J-school, these witty lyrics are something you can definitely relate to.

I’ve never made a GIF on the ’net
I cut my teeth on Know Your Meme on computers
And I’m not proud of my web address
In a torn-up daily, no traffic envy

But every site’s like Buzzfeed, curse words, keepin’ up the news stream
Ink-stained, Snowfall, trash-talkin’ print doom
We don’t care, we’re topping Reddit in our dreams
But everybody’s like Gawker, data, headlines on your iPhone
Snapchat, source code, stories from a news drone
We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair

And we’ll never go viral (viral)
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of distro ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your paper (paper)
You can fold and carry me
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule
Let me live that fantasy

[Verse 2]
My friends and I—we don’t write code
We count ad dollars, classifieds are still a party
And everyone who knows us knows that we’re fine with this,
We’re just losing money

But every site’s like Buzzfeed, curse words, keepin’ up the news stream
Ink-stained, Snowfall, trash-talkin’ print doom
We don’t care, we’re topping Reddit in our dreams
But everybody’s like Gawker, data, headlines on your iPhone
Snapchat, source code, stories from a news drone
We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair

And we’ll never go viral (viral)
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of distro ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your paper (paper)
You can fold and carry me
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule
Let me live that fantasy

Ooh ooh oh
We’re bigger than we ever dreamed
And I’m in love with 1970s
Ooh ooh oh
News is great without a care
We aren’t caught up in your love affair

And we’ll never go viral (viral)
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of distro ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your paper (paper)
You can fold and carry me
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule
Let me live that fantasy

vx safety dance

If you’ve seen one in-flight safety presentation, you’ve seen them all. Right? Not if you haven’t seen Virgin America’s “VX Safety Dance,” their latest in-flight safety video, a music video/safety video hybrid that reminds you to buckle your seatbelt and how to put on a life vest in the case of a crash to the tune of a “robot rap.”

Most safety presentations on flights go largely ignored by passengers, who have likely heard similar presentations many times before. Steve Forte, chief operating officer at Virgin America, notes that while the dry, repetitive safety messaging used in the past was often tuned out, the most important aspect of a safety video is that people actually pay attention to it.

“We believe we have an an obligation to create safety messaging that is not only accurate, but that holds the attention of everyone onboard — from the eight-year-old traveling with his parents on up,” Forte said.

Virgin America’s solution was VX Safety Dance, a viral YouTube sensation that has received over 4 million views in five days. In addition, the campaign invites viewers to take part in the safety dance by uploading Instagram videos with the hashtag #vxsafetydance for the chance to be featured in the next Virgin America safety video.

Other airlines, such as Delta or Air New Zealand,  are creating more outside-the-box safety videos, but Virgin America’s video goes farther over the top than either of its competitors in the viral safety video category. Its use of catchy music, dance and social media engagement through a dedicated hashtag marries viral marketing tactics with teaching tools, making required safety tips memorable and encouraging people to get involved with Virgin America and its safety presentations.

here we go

New year, new start.

Technically it’s neither a new calendar year or a new school year, as we’re about a month and a half into classes, but I decided to carpe some diem and revamp my blog for my final year at Carolina.

What will I write in it? A mix of things.

My life. Bucket lists, photos of cool places I’ve gone or things I’ve done, life updates, things I’ve made, funny things my friends or strangers around me have said or done.

My work. Videos I’ve made for classes or internships, writing that I’ve done, research results that I’ve found interesting, campaigns that I’ve helped run, basically anything that I’ve done for professional reasons that I’m really proud of.

My interests. These are pretty varied and will probably include a lot of pop culture, exciting new media or technology news, creative ad or PR campaigns, viral videos, photos that will make you laugh or cry.

My world. I like to keep up with the news so I can know what’s going on around me, whether that’s in the journalism school, at UNC, in Chapel Hill, in North Carolina, in the United States or in the world in general.