The Purpose of PR
"Go ahead. Meme me!" tweeted someone on Bill Cosby’s marketing team. Internet users across the nation obliged. What resulted was a PR train wreck. Using #CosbyMeme, critics superimposed captions defining "rape culture" and making rhymes in reference to Cosby’s 2006 sexual assault allegations. Bill Cosby’s character is a subject for another Op-Ed. But on a separate note, Cosby’s team is not alone in its clumsy misuse of technology for PR purposes.In 2012, Woody Harrelson (or rather, his PR team) posted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the entertainment service Reddit. An AMA is supposed to be exactly what it sounds like: a forum to which community members can submit questions about anything. However, it immediately became clear that Woody Harrelson’s representative was not there to answer questions about Harrelson himself but rather to pitch his upcoming movie, "Rampart." As one Reddit user aptly put it, "they should change this AMA to AMAAR (Ask Me Anything About Rampart)". By invoking the ire of the Reddit community, Harrelson’s reps drove away the very market they were hoping to draw in.A huge misconception about the Internet seems to plague both these campaigns. The idea that with just a few words one can set off a viral slippery slope is, quite simply, a falsehood perpetuated by the media hype over single pictures like "Ridiculously Photogenic Guy" or President Obama’s AMA (Obama only answered 10 questions). However, the reality is that even extended social media campaigns can fail to gain any traction at all. To misuse an established fan base (as Harrelson did) or to act on the assumption that the Internet is full of impossibly pleasant people (as Cosby did) is not only disrespectful to fans but also to others who put in work and effort to gain a social media presence. In short, both PR campaigns acted arrogantly and densely.The reality is that the Internet is simply another way for people to express their preferences, and people are drawn to celebrities that do not act like walking advertisements. PR representatives everywhere can learn an important lesson. The Internet is not some sort of separate being: it is composed of people, and people, however hypocritical, want to see celebrities act sincerely. When it comes to publicity, the Internet is not the easy way out.