I walked out of the entrance to the hotel, down the steps to the stretch limo waiting for me at the curb that Fox had sent. I was in town to appear on Fox and Friends, the highest rated morning cable news station in the country, to promote my book on the Global Financial Crisis.

I bent over to get into the back seat of the limo and the seam on the back of my slacks split wide open from the belt all the way down. “*%$#!!”, I shouted.

I didn’t have a second pair of slacks, no safety pin and we had to get to the studio.

I called the limo driver around to my side of the car. He was an African American guy in a chauffer’s uniform but could have been a linebacker for the 49ers. I put my suit coat on, told him what had happened, turned around and asked him if he could see the tear in the pants. He stood there for a few moments looking at my backside and said, “No.” It wasn’t a “No” with a lot of conviction.

“You sure?”

“Nah. You’re good.”

“Okay.” I said “Let’s go”.

When I got to the studio and was escorted to the green room, I walked particularly upright and kept my back to the wall when I could. Then I was called for my segment, a live interview in front of millions of viewers.

I walked down the hall into the studio keeping my back away from the cameras and sat down on the couch for the interview.

I was interviewed by Eric Bolling about my new book and the U.S. economy. The interview went well. When it was over, I again walked out of the studio – back to the wall – down the hall and out to the waiting limo.

No one burst into laughter pointing to my backside saying, “Hey, Mister, your pants are split open.”

Looking back on it, I laugh out loud. At the time, not so much. But I share the story here to introduce the power of PR. Because while the interview was short, by the time I got back to my hotel, my book was a bestseller on Amazon.

And that is the power of PR with or without a breeze blowing through the back of your trousers. (When I got home I went on a diet and lost 30 pounds).

I have told the Fox story before – how my friend Lori Jessup (https://www.jessupcommunications.com/) who specializes in booking celebrity chefs on national media, agreed to talk to a contact of hers at the local CBS affiliate in Tampa about an interview, only to find that the contact had moved to Fox National News in New York, and, thus, the booking.

Not everyone can get booked on a national TV show, but then not everyone needs to. A friend and On Target Research client who is a veterinarian, does a Sunday morning radio show giving out advice to callers on questions they have about how to deal with their pets – mostly dogs. This positions him as an expert and drives his brand into the minds of the pet owning public.

Another On Target client managed to get one of his clients an in-depth interview in a dental industry magazine. That interview, which, among other things, validated my client’s company, drove new clients in the door and his income out the roof for 10 months.

Public relations.

There is a syndicated late-night radio show called Coast-to-Coast a.m. (https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2018/11/09). The host is a great interviewer named George Noory. The show often deals in the paranormal, but not always. They have a massive listening audience with roughly as many affiliates as Rush Limbaugh. They own the night airwaves 10PM to 2AM, and then a replay.

I have done the Coast-to-Coast a.m. show five times now, discussing the state of the global economy and other issues from my newsletter The Hard Truth (www.thehardtruthmag.com) on politics and investing.

Every time I do that show I sell 400-500 books and newsletter subscriptions.

Bingo.

Media PR – in other words, print, radio, and television – done right, drives sales and income. You would be surprised how what you do can be creatively spun into a newsworthy article for print or radio, or maybe local TV, or even national TV. It is a PR world.

But PR can be used for good or evil.

For example, in the last few weeks I have seen positive articles about George Soros; how conspiracy nuts try to marginalize him and how he donates hundreds of millions to charities.

These articles are cleverly done,  but are clearly written for Soros by a PR firm with major media contacts and placed in the national press.

For those that don’t follow George Soros, he is one of the most evil people on the planet.

If you want more data about him there is an issue of The Hard Truth entitled The Dark Lord of American Politics which is all about Soros.

If you subscribe to The Hard Truth, you can simply download the issue at no charge. If not, you can get an annual subscription or just buy that one issue.

https://www.thehardtruthmag.com/all-issues/issue-no-13-2016/

Another example:  Americans don’t like war. They especially don’t like wars that are sold to them as necessary for national defense when the underlying purpose is the acquisition of another nation’s oil. In such situations the CIA and Department of Defense retain PR firms to sell the war to Congress and the American public.

Enter The Rendon Group.

To steer the country to invade Iraq and despose Saddam, the CIA retained John Rendon, an ultra-connected DC PR maven and his company to do just that.
https://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1118-10.htm

The Rendon Group was eventually paid $100 million dollars to create a climate for the removal of Saddam – your tax dollars at work.

One of the ways he did that was to create an organization called the Iraq National Congress (INC), which was composed of anti-Saddam activists. That organization worked with an Iraqi engineer named Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri who claimed to have engaged in an operation with Saddam’s men to plant weapons of mass destruction underneath buildings throughout Baghdad including the largest hospital in Baghdad.

A lie detector test was administered to al-Haideri by a CIA polygrapher who pronounced the entire story a fabrication – al-Haideri had made the whole thing up, he said. Undeterred, the INC, in its Rendon-inspired passion to remove Saddam, ran with al-Haideri’s story anyway and managed to get it published around the world helping to create an international climate for war. The exclusive broadcast rights were given to the Australian Broadcast Corporation and the exclusive print rights to Judith Miller of the New York Times and they were turned loose.

Not informed about the lie detector test, Miller managed to interview al-Haideri. Upon returning from the interview, on December 20, 2001 the lovely Ms. Miller’s story ran on the front page of the Times with the headline, AN IRAQI DEFECTOR TELLS OF WORK ON AT LEAST 20 HIDDEN WEAPONS SITES.

It didn’t stop there.

“In late 2002 and through 2003, Judith Miller, an investigative reporter at The New York Times, wrote a series of articles about the presumed presence of chemical and biological weapons and possible nuclear matériel in Iraq. Critics thought the articles too bellicose and in lock step with the George W. Bush administration’s march to war. They all included careful qualifiers, but their overwhelming message was that Saddam Hussein posed a threat.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/books/review-judith-millers-the-story-a-reporters-journey.html

The rest, as they say….

The US invasion of Iraq commenced March 20, 2003.

Perhaps that is too big a canvas for this article, but the point is that
it is a PR world.

And the subject can be used for good or to forward the agenda of the dark side of the force by the use of Black Propaganda as was done by the CIA minions here.

The PR knife slices both ways. And you, of course, must use it to take the high road and promote your business, your products, your results – and create a prosperous brand, a prosperous company.

Whether you are a landscape gardener, a healthcare professional or a writer, there is likely a story about what you do that can be told to get some media attention.

Sometimes you have to get creative.

A dentist in the Midwest pulled off a successful PR caper by offering free dental services to some returning Iraq vets. He was booked on TV in a heartbeat along with an Iraq War vet who had a new mouth of shining white teeth. It was clearly a kind gesture to a serviceman, but the value of the PR exposure the dentist got from that project far exceeded his cost in fixing the vets’ the teeth.

Remember, PR should precede advertising. Here’s a quote from a booklet co-written by Al Ries entitled, Positioning in PR. Ries is also the co-author of what Advertising Age (the advertising-industry bible) has named the best marketing book of all time: Positioning: The Battle for your Mind.

"The general rule is: publicity first, advertising second. (PR plants the seed. Advertising harvests the crop.)

"The truth is, advertising cannot start a fire. It can only fan a fire after it has been started. To get something going from nothing, you need the validity that third-party endorsements bring. The first stage of any new campaign ought to be public relations."

Your PR message and positioning should be surveyed so it lands in the mind of prospects and prompts a response.

We would be honored to do surveys for you so that you can position your company and/or product for PR exposure, or for marketing purposes and increased sales.

By the way, if you don’t have an internal PR person we may be able refer you to a firm that can help.

Best,
Bruce