The naked truth about being brutally creative

This month’s sacking of two corporate flacks underscores  important caveats about being edgy so people will pay attention to you.

The San Francisco 49ers canned their long-time PR director after he produced an “in-house” media training video that included racist jokes, lesbian soft-porn, topless blondes and even the PR guy himself in a cameo role as the city’s mayor.  The 15-minute film was leaked to the press and the real mayor.  And a regional PR manager for Wal-Mart quit after running an ad in the Arizona Daily Sun that showed a picture of a Nazi book-burning in comparison to a local proposition to limit expansion of the company’s supercenter stores.

What’s always most amazing is that someone approved this stuff.   At some point, executives probably gathered in a conference room where they were presented images of prancing Nazis and topless lesbians, perhaps in a PowerPoint.  And someone of a boss-like nature must have swiveled back in his chair and said something like, “Fine effort, Bob.  This work makes a compelling argument in support of our company’s mission statement because it will be considered offensive and stupid by the vast majority of people who see it.  Make the logo bigger and go with it.”

Governance issues aside, these events underscore two important truths in modern flackery.  One, information-age technology and habits mean no communication is ever exclusive to only a single audience --  internal or otherwise.  This is especially true when your corporate training video features naked women.  Really.  Just assume it’s gonna get passed along.

Two.  Mass-communicating your position via purposefully controversial, torturedly over-the-top portrayals often make your company’s method a bigger issue than the issue itself.  You aren’t serving corporate interests by comparing local officials elected by the locals you’re trying to convince with Nazis.  Same goes for fascists, terrorists, organized criminals and flesh-eating bacteria.  And naked women.