For the very definition of unscripted, unplugged and a little if not a lot nutty public figures, you have first Charlie Sheen and then Anthony Weiner, possibly the best advertisements for PR in recent memory.
They both took us on pretty wild rides. Weiner’s episode culminated in a surreal press conference yesterday that was almost carnival sideshow (see the New York Times article Confession and Apology…) in which conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart (who first broke the story) led off. Exactly how or why this came to be, I am not sure.
What is clear is that both celebrities pretty much winged it when it came to mixing it up with the media and going on public record (as the Times article said, Weiner did not use PR – As a politician, he was his own publicist, megaphone, strategist and multiplatformed tech man wrapped into a tightly wrapped Type A package – that now seems pretty obvious).
There will be some that say that these public figures deserved what they had coming, and no amount of spinning or image crafting would have helped. To them, I say: “are you serious?!!!” I guess if you enjoy watching public immolation and train wrecks that might be true (the stories also refute the myth that there is no such thing as bad PR).
How could PR have helped? Well by helping these guys not look like total idiots for starters. A little thought and planning when it comes to media relations, and some moves from the crisis management play book would no doubt have helped. Sure, they both probably would have crashed and burned anyway, but in a less horrific way, with easier paths to redemption.
Sheen was beyond anybody’s help,as he was channeling from another dimension.
As for Weiner, if he had consulted with a pr team when the story first broke, not one would have advised him to go with that “I was hacked” story!
Then, a more finely crafted press conference speech might have possibly left him some shred of dignity…maybe!