QUICK PR READS YOU CAN TACKLE BETWEEN BITES
January was a big month for news, including the everlasting impeachment trial, Australian bushfires, Kobe Bryant’s tragic death and “Megxit” just to name a few. Some were wondering if January would ever end.
Now that we’ve made it to February, we’re looking towards the various big news events happening this week and the Oscars, as well as looking back on coverage of Kobe Bryant’s death and Super Bowl commercials.
A Big Week for News
In case you missed it, this is shaping up to be a BIG news week. With multiple national events on back-to-back days, journalists are likely working overtime with a venti coffee in hand.
Kathryn Watson, a White House reporter for CBS News, pointed out the insane week of newsworthy events taking place:
Sunday night: Super Bowl
Monday: Senate trial
Monday night: Iowa caucuses
Tuesday: Senate trial
Tuesday night: State of the Union
Wednesday afternoon: Senate conviction/acquittal vote
Friday night: Another Democratic debate— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) February 2, 2020
The takeaway here is to be nice to your journalist friends this week and be patient and understanding to those on deadline—as you always should, but this week especially!
The Academy Rolls Out the Red Carpet
The Oscars will take place this Sunday with an incredible amount of fanfare, as usual. We all know that the Academy Awards are a pinnacle of glamour and lavish outfits, cars and parties, but how much does all of this cost?
Business Insider explored the various expenses of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual awards and some of the numbers are mind-boggling. Hollywood collectively spends more than $100 million on awards season lobbying, aka trying to persuade members of the academy to vote for your network’s shows. The red carpet itself costs more than $24,000 and that’s only for the carpet not the step and repeats, lighting or security detail. The gift bags for the Oscars contain $148,000 worth of products and trips.
It’s a massive opportunity to be included in the gift bag, which is produced by Distinctive Assets’ Lash Fary, who is called “the Sultan of Swag.” Brands pay up to $4,000 for their product to be included, but the PR payoff could be huge if the star is seen using a specific moisturizer, eating a decadent chocolate truffle, or spotted on a private cruise in the Galapagos.
Kobe Coverage
The deaths of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, as well as seven others aboard a helicopter that crashed in Calabasas in late January, transcended all other news coverage last week. During last week alone, there were 208.4 million social media interactions on stories mentioning Kobe and Gianna Bryant. However, it didn’t generate the most news stories. There were about 97,000 stories written about Kobe and Gianna, compared to 174,000 written about coronavirus.
According to Axios, “In a news ecosystem that’s fragmented by both niche interests and ideology, it’s rare for the internet to be so captivated by a single story.”
Wicked Smaht Super Bowl Ads
Sure, we love watching the game, but let’s be real—as communications people, we love the ads.
This year’s ads were star-studded, and some had unlikely but humorous pairings, from Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, to Bill Murray and Lil Nas X, Jonathan Van Ness, Jimmy Fallon and John Cena, Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis Ross, Taraji P. Henson and Katie Couric and the list goes on.
In a very unscientific sample size of the handful of friends I watched the game with, we loved the Lil Nas X’s appearance in a Doritos ad, Microsoft’s Surface Pro commercial featuring Katie Sowers, the first woman and openly gay person to coach at a Super Bowl and Google’s sob-inducing ad about a man remembering his late wife. We missed the Budweiser Clydesdales and agreed that there should have been more dog content. Hyundai’s “Smaht Pahk” also really landed with our predominantly Massachusetts-born crew who have no shame in saying “wicked smaht,” “clickah” and “smahty pants.”
If you want a more scientific look at which ads were the best, check out which ads had the most views on YouTube.
