PR clients that you don’t want

 14th March 2013    PR Guru 

Some clients are a dream to work for. They have products that everyone loves, and you only have to mention their names for the media to come begging for stories. Maggie Noodles, Apple, Dairy Milk, Infosys to name a few.

Then there are my clients. The ones that you have to beg the media not to mention, because the only thing said about them is bad. No matter how much I rack my brains to think of a positive attribute, it’s no good, they don't have any and no-one would believe me anyway. They are brands that people love to hate.

It's probably not wise to name and shame my current clients, I haven't paid off the home loan yet. But here are a few other brands which the media love to hate:

1. Crime and very little punishment. That’s all the media wants to write about Delhi. Of course crime does happen in other cities as well, but for obvious reasons its Delhi that the media picks as the epicentre. Nothing seems to budge the image of the crude, loud, loutish and violent Delhi male. Not that their behaviour exactly helps.

2. Vivek Oberoi. He’s not cool, but he is the perfect antidote to dare I say Salman Khan!

3. Nach Baliye participants who just don't have any audience winning moves. Do you remember Arvind Kumar? Thought not ...

4. Non-certified academic institutions. If you measured success by the amount of coverage you could achieve that would be great. Unfortunately, most of the press coverage is hideous. You all know which non UGC approved institution I mean. My suggestion. Concentrate on actual education and stop wasting your time  getting the courts to block any coverage.

5. Politicians. Nevermind the fact that everyone in India hates politicians, I find writing about political shenanigans of Congress vs. BJP vs. The Left vs. A certain Chief Minister vs. The rest of the known world sends me … yawn … to sleep.