News of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize – roundly mocked as being a bit premature (Saturday Night Live had a nice take) – got me thinking a bit as to how it might relate to some other award-worthy things in life.
Think about it.
-Gosh darn it, Aaron Rodgers is really trying hard for the Green Bay Packers this year, let’s give him the NFL’s Most Valuable Player.
-You know, a lot of teenage girls saw that Jonas Brothers movie it must have been good, let’s give the boys an Oscar.
-Company X wanted their crappy, unfunny and poorly-acted “viral” video to truly go viral and get a million-plus views on YouTube. So what if it only got 500, let’s give them a national online video award.
Look, good intentions get you nowhere. It’s a lesson we all learn in life. You have to do the work. You don’t get an “A” if you turn in a half-done test. You have to start, do, and finish the job to the degree that your peers say “Wow, nice work.”
Awards are about actions, not intentions.
I guess that’s what makes Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize all the more puzzling. Where’s the work?
Awards are not “a call to action” as Obama said in his remarks after winning the Nobel. They should reward the action.
From a PR standpoint, I suppose Obama and his team did what they could. (Though, he could have turned down the award). Michael Sebastian outlined some of the PR strategy options Obama seemed to follow on Ragan.com in “PR quandary cloaked in a global honor.” To me, the Nobel committee has the PR problem.
Awards are not for people or groups who “strive” to do something. They need to do something worthy of an award.
Democrat. Republican. Whomever.
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