As a PR guy, I find It nothing short of incredible how the Leno-O’Brien drama has played out on the public stage.NBC confirmed its plans to change the lineup early on. Since then, there’s been an outcry from O’Brien fans. Leno and O’Brien have used their pulpits to spin and comment. Others have piled on, providing running, blow-by-blow commentary as the situation has progressed.
The comedians’ writers are no doubt working overtime to make all this seem funny, yet there is tons of money at stake to say nothing of reputations and brands – providing a serious backdrop to all the posturing and levity.
In essence, the comedians are becoming their own PR pitch men, spinning the events in their favor or at least revealing how little control they actually have over the outcome. One wonders how their negotiators and PR handlers are dealing with this, and if they have a say in the shtick scripting.
If you are in tech PR, as I am, you also might let your imagine run wild as you consider how different the scenario is from the ones we are more familiar with, and be tempted to ask: what would happen if vendors tweaked product lineups like networks shuffle late night TV?
Here are the top 5 things that would happen (Top 10 would seem to be more appropriate, but I could only think of 5):
- Vendors would announce that they are re branding and changing key components of their flagship product, letting loyal customers know that they will in essence be sunsetting the market leader 5 years in advance
- Industry pundits would proclaim this to be a bold move that reshapes the playing field
- When the channel sees what actually happens they will revolt and cause the vendor to reconsider its plans
- The vendor will try to put the ketchup back in the bottle
- Product managers, PR people and other execs for the vendor and competitors will tell jokes, talk trash about each other, insult the company and call its executives idiots
