If you work in PR and a client asked, ‘can we do anything around this riot?’, what would you say?  I would wager my new flat screen TV, it would be something along the lines of ‘no’ (a wizard with words)

Why do we say no?  Is it because it’s in bad taste to seek publicity around a time of great hardship and emotion or is there another reason?  Have we who work in the communications industry lost sight of one of the key functions of brands and brand communications?  I would argue that if a brand has a positive role to play in the riots then it should absolutely do so and talk about it.  That for me, is the foundation of good PR – A brand that people care about doing something that people care about and letting them know about it.  I am not for one minute suggesting that brands profiteer off disasters (no matter how big or small) but if, for example B&Q was to ask its staff to do an extra day to go out and help build up the community, would it be cynical PR or just a brand acting in the way it should?

That doesn’t mean that brands don’t have to be careful.  Just ask the Sugababes who, on the first day of  rioting sent out a release claiming that ‘the Sugababes will be starting a riot of their own tonight…’ to promote a concert.  WOW.  Really?  Did they just?  Oh wow… This was, in whatever way you look at it, really misguided from their management team (BUT it did put a band which has been out of the papers for a year, right back on the news agenda... (Now who is being cynical?)).  There are hundreds of examples of brands that could have played a really positive and active role over the last week and as I have said before, big brands are for some, an indication of whether things are going good or bad in the local community.  What message does PC world put out there when boarding up its store?  Yes, it will save some money but I wonder whether a street filled with boarded up shops is part of the problem with society in the first place – that is an entirely different and longer blog!!!

No matter how big a brand is, in times of trouble, the brand manager needs to think less like the captain at the helm of a cruise liner and more like the local shop owner who is part of the fabric of the community.  What would they do?  Probably a lot bloody more.  And there is nothing wrong in generating coverage to let a community know you are doing things they care about…  after all, as Phoebe tried to disprove, there is no such thing as a selfless good deed