Best PR Award goes to… Barack Obama!
Obama could be named the Superman of Public Relations.
I won’t talk about his presidential campaign. Everyone knows how Internet became the most influential media after Barack Obama worked his way up by twitting, blogging and posting videos on YouTube. He actually understood that online media is the future of reaching the masses in a really simple and cheap way.
OMG, it’s Barack Obama!
The thing about Obama is that he doesn’t actually need a PR worker or assistant. He can speak for himself and people will listen. If Barack Obama were to advertise for Microsoft, people will follow and Apple will fill for bankruptcy. Which is not going to happen, everyone knows he uses a Mac. But the point is he has enough power of persuation to actually convince whoever he wants to do something they wouldn’t do in the first instance.
Obama as an object of advertising
When we are talking about the president of a country, we say he is the one to represent the country and its interests, right? Well, take a look at France, for example. When we talk about Sarkozy, we are talking about that small guy with big ears who married Carla Bruni. Sarkozy is not the image of France. Paris is. Carla Bruni might be. But not Sarkozy. Let’s take a look at the United Kingdom. The queen might be the image, but Robbie Williams can be just as well. On a second thought, that woman from Britain’s Got Talent, Susan Boyle, is Britain’s icon of the moment. Take a look in the US and tell me if you can associate the States with anyone other than Obama. Right now, although there’s a financial crisis and bankruptcies are main topics, although there are thousands of movie stars, politicians and all kind of personalities, there’s no other to actually represent the country better than Obama. He’s the one who actually gives people the necesary portion of optimism.
The man who advertises your product
If Barack Obama will say something about your business today, everyone will talk about you for at least two days and the one who sells your product for another 12 months from now on. He’s the perfect marketing tool you can have. If you can associate anything about your business with his trajectory in politics, you can win on a long term, as long as he doesn’t screw up too often. It’s no wonder the Newsweeks editor Evan Thomas said he’s similar to God.