Lessons from this week for Israel’s PR Operation

Dr.Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
03 June '10

All the PR recommendations about “re-branding Israel” notwithstanding, once again it turns out that the answer really isn’t photos of girls in bikinis or even news about the fantastic time gays have in Tel Aviv, but instead a cogent and timely presentation of an explanation of what we are doing, why we are doing it and why we can do it.

Emphasis on the “timely”.

We had an event that took place pretty much at a time and place of our choosing.

And as a bonus, we even had some extra time to prepare for the event as the boats were delayed for a variety of reasons.

Regardless of the anticipated outcome of the operation, we knew that we had to provide the international media covering the operation with material that they could readily use that explained how we justified the move – both in terms of the context of the operation (e.g. the security dangers associated with smuggling, etc.) and the legality of the operation. We wanted this out both quickly and in formats that made it easy for the media to cut and paste it into their presentations as reporters struggled with the need to provide a constant stream of material ASAP to their employers.

And again, regardless of the anticipated outcome of the operation, we knew that we would be engaged in a race to provide images of the story so that the media in its desire to broadcast pictures instead of being limited to talking heads would basically have no choice but to air our material.

With all the respect in the world that I have for the hardworking people in the Government and IDF – this didn’t happen.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.