Everyone business owner has a bad client that falls into the mix and even one that is underhanded behind the scenes, but a blatant PR disaster is never a good thing. While most business owners pre-screen all they want, there is always one that sneaks through the vetting process. Donald Trump is a perfect PR case study to say the least and you couldn’t pay me 1 million to represent him. I think most business owners respect this icon to no end, but on the PR front … I don’t have an army to fix him. The real question though is PR Disaster or pure PR genius. Personally, I am leaning towards genius. At any length, Donald Trump is pure entertainment to watch.
Any PR campaign has it’s outcomes – whether it is branding, product sales or even new business. I truly wish I had a crystal ball to tell clients what their exact outcome will be. I for sure never know. My personal campaign highlights include one client we have had for 6 years getting coverage on XM radio (250K in free advertising) and another who had so many book sales overseas that I had to cancel his contract. He is now out of the country most of the time and ocassionally calls for royalty report numbers. You have to laugh. Anyway, back to my original point.
Donald Trump is hands-down a PR disaster. The non-highlight reel includes his public demand to Muslim immigration, slamming Senator Lindsey Graham during a speech in North Carolina and publicly giving out his cell phone number, because he called him a jackass. Who does that? Maybe the Senator shouldn’t have called him a jackass, but publicly giving out a number … not presidential.
Is Trump a clear and present danger or pure genius? While the billionaire certainly does not need any more business exposure, at the very least his campaign has put him in the spotlight much more than The Apprentice ever did. While I will never vote for him for office, I give him two thumbs up on the PR front. After all, not all publicity is bad publicity, right?
