(Photo courtesy: Miss California USA)
If you asked me a few months ago about Miss USA 2009 first runner-up Carrie Prejean, I was among those who felt she got a raw deal at that pageant.
And, that she deserved credit for sticking to her beliefs in a public forum, knowing full well many people wouldn’t agree with her. (In my first take on that, I pointed out the hypocrisy of the pageant’s Q&A format).
Today, my opinion of Prejean regarding that night on the Miss USA stage hasn’t changed. She had a chance to speak her mind and she did. Clumsily, but she did.
But her time in the public eye over the last week, promoting her book, has essentially made it hard for even the people who would’ve have purchased her book to like her.
It offers three quick lessons for people and businesses in the PR world, seeking bigtime PR hits on network TV:
If you’ve got baggage that’s going to be the “story” instead of what you want the story to be, stay home
With the timing of the “sex tape” revelation, it made no sense for Prejean to do major network TV PR this week. As she learned, your interviewer – who has been around the block a few times – controls the interview. Not you. Sure, she tried. And she and her publicist thought she could handle it. But she failed.
Expect the unexpected in interviews.
If you truly can’t talk about a certain topic, make sure that’s understood by the host before you start. If it’s not, don’t go on the show. As Prejean found out, the result of this oversight only makes you look like the idiot – in permanent YouTube fashion – not the host.
Although, Larry King deciding to finally be a journalist – for this hard-hitting topic of all things – only made him look like a putz too. (The full segment is here).
King also claimed he wasn’t aware of an agreement to keep Prejean from taking viewer questions. The point is, assume the host will ignore that, or forget that, etc… and be ready for anything. (Though, when King mentioned he would take questions off the top of the interview, you’ll notice Prejean didn’t speak up).
Don’t lie
Again in this case, choosing to do major network TV PR, Prejean could have actually gotten some sympathy if her story about the video was what she said it was. But the tide turns in the viewers’ mind when the story isn’t what you said it was. If you were 20 when you made a video for your boyfriend, say you were 20, not 17.
To wrap this up, clearly Prejean needed better PR advice.
And, I should point out, how about a website? (Couldn’t find one… what a missed opportunity to promote herself with videos, podcasts, a blog, etc…).
The publisher of her book (Regnery) doesn’t even have more than an article on her on its site. It has audio interviews with its other authors, but apparently couldn’t get one done with Prejean in time for the book’s release?
Odd.
With her PR fail this week, I actually think she’s done some damage here even among the crowd that was in her corner just a few months ago. Sure, she’ll get a few speaking engagements in churches and with teenage girl youth groups. And, she appears to be positioning herself to do that.
But I’d suggest she try a different PR approach for a few months… put her energy into some causes that highlight the community service and compassion of others. Find some friendly situations to be a part of that highlight what other women and teenage girls of faith are doing.
Start a blog, do an online video podcast “show” or series, find a voice for providing strong guidance for Christian teenage girls and young women.
That’s about the only PR play she has.
If it works she stays in the public eye (if she even wants to at this point), builds a supportive following in her niche, and repairs her image as a clueless prima donna. If it doesn’t work, she fades into “normal” life out of the spotlight eventually. Perhaps with still an effective message for girls but just not on a national stage.
One more thing, in terms of the media coverage of Prejean and her book… Her interview with Christianity Today shows that she also faced tough questions from them.
It’s her answers to some of those questions though, that still give her some PR trouble.
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