Public Relations stepped right into the jaws of Advertising last week …and came away unscathed, actually enriched.

The Cannes International Advertising Festival – yes, the festival is still called the ‘Advertising’ Festival – recognised the changing dynamics in the industry and introduced the all-new PR Lions this year.

I was invited to be a member of the global jury, participating in a well-established judging process is a well-established template, culminating in a slick award ceremony. I came away with the experience of a life time.

Eight thousand people usually trek to Cannes every year to attend the Cannes International Advertising Festival. Although this 56th year saw ‘only’ 6000r delegates for obvious reasons, the Lions continued to lure the creative genius within the world of communications worldwide.

So much to learn and such little time. The Buzz was all pervasive, people from across the world and across disciplines, super experts sharing super new learnings at super sessions… all superbly impressive within the simply super-duper French Riviera.

There were more young and less middle-aged, more creative and less client servicing, more ad persons and hardly any PR folks – and yet a delightful bonhomie.

What did I learn?

The world has changed – while changing further at an incredible pace.

The idea can come from anywhere – advertising, PR, direct, promotions, you name it. And let’s stop cribbing about it not being a PR idea. The Idea wins.

I also know that Creativity flows from the young and free. So from hereon you are the King of Rock – not MJ.  So let’s see it floowww……

Excellence in execution is key to success – using surround sound – digital, traditional media, email, event, grassroots, you name it.

Traditional PR is alive but often not relevant, insufficient, does not reach audiences as quickly as digital does. Often digital leads, traditional media follows – almost always.

What did judging throw up?

We didn’t win. We didn’t make it to the preliminaries.

Why? Because of the above. And, we didn’t stand out among those who had a simple idea, executed brilliantly.

A great deal to learn.

Australia’s ‘The Best Job in the World’. It also won the PR Lion for the Travel, Tourism and Leisure sector as well as the PR Lion for the Best use of the Internet, Digital Media and Social Media. And if that was not enough, it also bagged the Direct Grand Prix as well as the Cyber Lions Grand Prix in the Website and Interactive Campaigns category.

Out of 400 plus entries that were shortlisted down to 30 plus, the PR Lions were awarded to a total of 15 campaigns (not counting the three won by the Best Job in the World) across the various categories. These included Australia’s ‘Earth Hour’; Japan’s ‘Yubari Resort’ and ‘Love Distance’; Lebanon’s ‘Khede Kasra’; Portugal’s ‘World’s First Ephemeral Museum’ and ‘Selling Hope’; Switzerland’s ‘Zurich’s Being Sold’; Costa Rica’s ‘Bring Back Peace’; Brazil’s ‘One Thousand Casmurros’; UK’s ‘Beautiful Game’ and ‘Pig’s are Worth It’; and USA’s ‘Honey, Let’s Lick the Problem,’ ‘Guiness Rally,’ ‘The Great Schlep’ and ‘Protecting Futures’ .

The jury were selected from 15 countries and Lord Tim Bell from the UK was the President of the jury.

Although none of the 10 entries that were submitted from India could bag a PR Lion this year, I have no doubts that this will change in the coming years as the Lions not only recognise the importance of public relations in the communication mix, they also fill the aspirational need for a well recognised international award platform.

Beyond the awards, the festival was a sea of learning from super sessions featuring super experts such as Steve Balmer of Microsoft, Eric Schmidt of Google, Biz Stone of Twitter, David Plouffe of Campaign Manager, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, Fernando Vega Olmos, Creative Chairman at JWT who gave a delightful talk on ‘Mother Crisis’, and many, many more.

The one common element that emerged all through the festival was that creativity does not spell complexity. A fact borne by the winning campaigns, which were all about a simple idea that was executed well to make a real difference.

And the other key learning: there is no hiding from the digital tidal wave more.

For more details on the excitement at Cannes, check out Ashwani Singla’s Postcards from Cannes on his blog. I’d love to hear what insights you took away from the blog.

I landed in Cannes as a member of a jury eager to lend my experience to selecting the best among the best for the inaugural PR Lions. I returned humbled by the learning from the vast pool of creativity, enriched by the knowledge and thirst for more.

(Reproduced with the author’s permission. Thanks, Prema for sharing this with IPRB – Editor, IPRB)

I sent Dave eight tricky questions frequently asked by clients. His answers are below. (Thanks Dave for taking the time out of your busy schedule, I realise you have a workshop in Mumbai today)

Q1. I have an auto client who says their sales are going fantastic. And though there are auto forums and auto blogs talking negative and positive about the company, there hasn’t been much effect on sales. Why should they now venture into social media and perhaps stir up a hornet’s nest?

Positive and negative comments will always exist: they do not risk “creating” more negative comments simply by participating. Instead they are able to bring perhaps another dimension to the story (offsetting some of the negatives) and more importantly show that they are responsive to potential customers As far as auto sales go, attention to customers is on high on the list of consideration points.

Q2. Would a company officially venturing into forums and discussions actually tempt people to come up with negative comments coming from people with a new ‘let’s get them now’ attitude?

I don’t think it’s ever wise to stir up negative comments. Instead, a better approach is to participate in a neutral, informative way unless of course a strong opinion is actually expected in that blog.

Q3. There is a client who wants to hire a group of young people to open profiles on social networking sites, user review sites, and forums, to post and respond positively about the company. This sounds simpler to them than going out in the open. It is wrong but tempting. What’s your take?

It is wrong, and unfortunately all too common. Writing your own blog, and working with a fully disclosed, authorized agency that manages this process just as your communications agency might is the better way to go. Paying someone to purposefully sway a conversation is disrespectful to your readers, and eventually you will get get caught. Then, you have a big problem.

Q4. How can pharmaceutical companies start to engage with social media, given that so far most of them have chosen to stay away from it because of regulatory issues?

This is a complex issue: as it has to do with claims made around efficacy. A reasonable approach is to let the CEO or someone similar blog about industry and consumer issues, thereby establishing a presence, while avoiding blogs for now that deal directly with the use of specific products.

Q5. Who should manage social media in an organisation? Corporate communications or marketing? What are your takes from your US experience?

Generally one of these two–communications or marketing–is tapped initially as this is the natural starting point. However, management social media–because it involves multiple stakeholders within the firm, almost always ends up as a cross-functional program, managed by someone from marketing, communications, operations, or executive management. Any of these are good choices.

Q6. There seems to be a lot of competition brewing up in the social media marketing space with ad agencies, PR agencies, traditional web marketing agencies, specialised social media marketing agencies, and bloggers. How do you see this settling down?

These business partners are all part of it, for sure. I see more firms joining the fray, not less, as the operations and business consulting firms get involved as well. Social media is complex, and goes beyond any one of these.

Q7. What are the best digital marketing activities that organisations are using globally? Is it outreach with social media participants and bloggers, building communities on networks, applications development, contests & virals, SEO, SMO, microsites, or anything else?

It is all of these, put into practice in accordance with business objectives and audience characteristics. By understanding these two, you can pick from the channels available and develop the most effective mix.

Q8. Corporate blogging is one of the most used social media approaches. One question corporates ask is that when there are so many blog failures, would ours be any different? How can we make ours stick out?

A blog does not have to be different to be successful — it is not an “us or them” game. Becasue readers subscribe via feeds to multiple blogs, they do not have to choose “yours” over :theirs.” Instead, your blog must simply be relevant: That it is what will get it read, and what wil build your subscriber base.

My colleague, Ashwani Singla has been reporting from Cannes ( and he plans to continue till the end of the festival) and he has put up an interesting post on how to produce winning PR campaigns on his blog. What he said that I like the most was that any campaign has to be built around a central idea, an idea that is simple yet executed well. I  remember having a chat with Prema Sagar before she left for Cannes (she is the only Indian member to be part of the jury in the PR category) that one of the core things that she look for will be a clear and simple idea and how that has been executed.

Some time back, a former colleague said to me that often the best PR campaigns are based on simple ideas. These simple ideas would often come across as very obvious but finding/creating them would take great understanding and insights.

So however complex we want our ppts. to look like, it’s perhaps not about ideas coming in from everywhere and often jumbled together with a weak link. A presentation, somebody said, has to have one slide that sums it all – a slide that contains the central theme.

So good insights, Ashwani. Some points I would like to take away:

1. Programme mission – to influence ‘real change’

2. Central idea – creative, innovative, and powerful yet simple

3. Get people involved without boundaries – internet, mobile, ATL, BTL and press exposures

4.Measurable

I am looking forward to follow this up with more insights and learnings about the judging process from Prema once she’s back – that would give pointers on how the best PR campaigns were executed and evaluated. And more on digital from Ashwani – how digital has been incorporated into campaigns seamlessly into the marketing/ PR campaigns, and not as a separate component. Because those are the real winners.

Meanwhile check out more coverage of Cannes here: ET, Exchange4Media, and Cannes site. And congratulations to our ad professionals who have won so many lions this year.

What makes a PR campaign a winner? What are your thoughts and insights?

As public relations consultants, our role is to guide clients to make a successful and effective presentation to media during media conferences. Sometimes, we need to do a welcome address at the media meets or a vote of thanks. Or introduce the speakers who would address the media in the press briefings. In some case, though strange cases, we need to dub ourselves as a spokesperson and address scribes on behalf of our client if the spokesperson is not comfortable with the job. We do encounter many such situations. And the best way to manage such situations is to equip ourselves with the effective oratory skills.

PR professionals need to lobby the media who can turn a press note into a news item and ask them to do as they have the power to do. How can you put it? You have to break the ice. Your sweet and pep talk with media concerned should gain an entry for you. Then you can work what’s the news value for them. You must know what you want to achieve out of the meeting. This should probably be number one on the list. Stay focused on that. Facts are critical. They persuade. Use them effectively with your effective communication skills.

When we are ill equipped in this skill, how can we guide our clients.  In my experience spanned over 18 years, I have seen and come across many of the clients failing to impress media men with their public addressing skills. Representatives, spokespersons, owners of big business enterprises, professional managers and corporate executives of many big companies such as Managing Directors, Vice Presidents miserably failed in their presentation to the media. While some of them, especially those seasoned professionals, many had to be content with unimpressive media briefings.

An owner of 150 years plus old of India’s biggest Jewelry Retail Chain could not utter a single word except one syllable answers in a media briefing. A Managing Director of a large corporate house whose turnover exceeds over Rs 1000 crore, when addressing a press con, managed to scape through but without much positive impression on the media. Equally embarrassed when a Managing Director of a large chain of very popular Clinic made an unimpressive presentation to the media. When clients don’t make impressive presentation to the media, that doubles our role as media won’t highlight it much. We need to work hard to push such news.

Public Speaking is not the easy to acquire. Not all are capable of picking it up on their own. In a survey “What the people fear the most?”, it is found to be Public Speaking. 75 per cent of the people rated Stage Fear as the Phobia number one. People fear public speaking the most so much so that they are more afraid of it than a death, a nuclear disaster. Such is the fear of Public Speaking. Many have suffered with it. And have been living with the stage fright or nervousness. They are unable to conquer shyness, stuttering and stammering. As a result they won’t express themselves impressively. And ruined their chances of growing up the ladder. Missed many opportunities.

How can PR professionals who lack this skill pick it up. Simple. If there is a will, there is a way. It is not all fearful as what one thinks about it. Realize that you are not alone to have fear of speaking in public. Many luminaries such as Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, an author of several internationally published books, and an expert on leadership and personality development Robin Sharma, former Prime Minister of England Disraeli and many others have faced the problem.

Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest communicator who enjoyed the unimaginable public relations had the fear of public speaking within himself. He just could not go up to a large crowd and share his views. After being admitted to the bar in 1891, Gandhi returned to India and spent a short and unfruitful period in practice of law. He discovered his great fear of speaking in public, even in a court of law! At age 23, Gandhi accepted a 1-year contract for legal work in South Africa. When advocate friends organized a send off party for him just before his travel to South Africa on one year contract, he could not utter a single word with fear of public speaking. But, some how, particular the most toughest phase of his life, got to overcome this problem. With many other qualities he had, he fought the mighty Britishers and he fought hard but only with his principles of truth and nonviolence.

As far as his fear of public speaking, he not only overcame that but also went on to become the greatest orators of all time. Not because of the strength of his voice, but because of its strength in moving every one listening to him. And as Mahatma Gandhi put it, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

Robin Sharma, similarly too had some problem in effective presentation. Then he had to take some professional help. Now each year, he travels more than 100,000 miles for speaking engagements. Robin Sharma is a sought-after professional speaker who shares insights on leadership, change, personal effectiveness and life management.

Disraeli, as a Prime Minister of England when made his first speech in the parliament, people present there laughed at him. The furious Disraeli shouted back at them, saying, “A day will come when you will hear me”. He went on to become one of England’s foremost speakers.

When Amitabh Bachan was just trying to get a break in movies he was told to soften his ‘deep’ voice. However it was soon realized that his deep rich voice was excellent for narration. He has provided narrations for several films. He was rejected for the job of an announcer in All India Radio because his voice was considered too heavy for radio. The actor faced immense criticism for his looks, especially his height, many said, “So tall and thin, and a heavy voice- doesn’t really work in Bollywood.”

But Mr. Bachchan went on to become a legend in Bollywood, showered with titles like shahenshah, Big B and many more. He is among the highest paid actors in Bollywood and some say that his reign might never end.

“Bees saal pehle main Mumbai aya tha, sirf 5 rupay the mere jeb mein. Aur aaj mai 500 crore ka malik hoon.” (I came to Mumbai twenty years ago, with Rs. 5 in my pocket. Today, I own Rs. 500 crore of property.), he declared once.

Harrison Ford, a well known Hollywood actor has appeared in countless movies and has received the Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute. But even so, he is afraid to give a speech or talk in front of a group of people. According to Harrison Ford, public speaking is, “a mixed bag of terror and anxiety.” Even when the character he is playing must make a speech, he experiences the same feelings.

Famous people who have suffered a fear of public speaking include: Donny Osmond, an American Singer had stage fright and experienced a panic attack during a performance in 1994. The panic attacks prevented him from singing and made him believe he was going to black out. Donny was scared of shopping centres as he thought people might gather around to ridicule him. Donny sought assistance from a psychologist and engaged in cognitive behavioral therapy. He wrote a book about his life and his performance anxiety.

Barbara Streisand, another American Singer and actress had a social phobia prevented her from singing in public for twenty seven years. Whilst giving a concert in New York in 1967, she forgot the words to several songs. From then on, Streisand was worried that she might make embarrassing mistakes again if she performed in public and therefore totally avoided such engagements. But, she later learnt to cope with her stage fright and gave a comeback tour in 1994. Slow and steadily she tried with a smaller warm up shows, then a national tour and in front of a large television audience.

Sir Laurence Olivier an actor too suffered for about five years. Susie O’Neill, a Commonwealth gold medalist, Queensland swimmer, Susie O’Neill has had to overcome anxiety in order to fulfil her potential as an athlete. In an interview she confessed how her anxiety had impacted upon her ability to perform as a swimmer. In the early days she dreaded ever winning in case it meant she had to stand on the dais and be the centre of attention. Then she’d pray she wouldn’t be chosen for a team event because she was terrified of trying to talk to people she didn’t know. Kim Basinger, an American, Oscar winning actor, reported to suffer from panic. When she accepted her Oscar, she terribly failed to speak despite of her practice. She later related her problem back to school days where as child her worst fear was being asked to read aloud to the class.

Even after hosting The Tonight Show for years, Johnny Carson would get nervous. In his book Self-Help Stuff That Works, Adam Kahn explains that, since Johnny had a history of heart problems, doctors were continually monitoring his heart rate. Right before he went on stage to do the opening monologue, Carson’s heart rate went from 80 beats per minute to 150! The lesson to be learned here, according to Kahn, is realize there’s nothing wrong with you if you’re suffering from public speaking anxiety.

While these suffer with stage fright and anxiety some celebrities like world famous Boxing Champion Mohd Ali, former American President Ronald Reagan suffered from fear of flying which is called aviophobia. Tennis Star Andre Agassi has a fear of spiders(Arachnophobic), Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of France, suffered from a fear of cats(ailurophobia). A website lists out about 500plus fears or phobias which people are suffering from. Some of them are as funny as fear of money, fear of women, fear of 13 number etc.

It is quite common to have phobias. It is estimated that on an average one out of 20 Indians suffer with some or the other phobia. About three per cent of people are said to have some phobias at any given point of time. Nearly 95 per cent people, without exception whether Western or Indian seem to be suffering with fear of public speaking which is also called Glassophobia. Approximately 40 per cent of phobias, especially social phobias. These said to have occurred prior to the age of ten years.

And nearly 90 to 95 per cent before the age of 20 to 25 years. Fear of public speaking is a social phobia (an anxiety disorder where the sufferer fears being negatively judged or evaluated by others and therefore they are afraid of doing something to embarrass or humiliate themselves in public). This can incorporate physical symptoms of anxiety such as sweating, blushing, dizziness, heart palpitations, tense muscles, trembling and nausea.

Unfortunately Public Speaking skill is not systematically in any of Indian educational institutions. But, thanks to present day corporate governance, public speaking can be learnt. There are educational institutions which offer systematic curriculum. With little bit of effort and few days of time one can easily acquire this lifeskill must to be acquired by all public relations professionals. It is aid people are more important than profits. People’s knowledge is more useful than product knowledge. What differentiates success from failure is people management. For effective people management, public speaking comes handy.

Public Speaking as a curriculum is the most neglected subjects in most of the Indian educational institutions. Mostly this skills is left to students to learn on their own. See for instance Dale Carnegie started teaching public speaking in America in as early as 1908. Toastmasters International started a forum for practicing public speaking in 1924. But, Public Speaking as a systematic curriculum introduced to India in the recent past by Junior Chamber International in 1968. But, that is mostly confined to its members. Though YMCA’s some branches across India organise some interactive sessions in a very small way, but, are not very active. Looking at the wide gap, Hyderabad based Media Junction embarked on this curriculum from May 2004.  Since then it has trained over 5000 people across India and conducted about 75 workshops private and public.

Dale Carnegie India (Phone : +91-22-67818163/67818181, Email: mumbai@dalecarnegieindia.com) ; Toast Masters International(www.toastmasters.org), Media Junction(098488-42471, Email: mediajunction@yahoo.com), Junior Chamber International(trgns@jciindia.in. Each city in India JCI HAS its local chapters), YMCA branches in your respective cities, Meet Ups on Public Speaking in your respective cities etc and others offer excellent opportunity to learn Public Speaking. You can also do google search for more information. If you need help, you can reach author of this story on 098480-42020 or solusmedia@yahoo.com

What is more attention-grabbing is 90% of the inventory has already been sold by ESPN for the T- 20 world cup where big brands are going to pump good money to leverage their brands through this world cup. One answer to this could be India is the current world cup T-20 champion and in the world cup T-20 we have only one Indian team playing the tournament unlike the IPL league where the Indian cricketers are distributed across different clubs.

There is hardly any gap between the just concluded IPL -2 and the beginning of the T-20 world cup cricket. Getting back to form after some dismal performance by some of the players will tough challenge. Weather should not play a spoil sport as invariably the early part of June it is likely to rain constantly. ( Hope that does not happen ).Various statistics, research and comments from several experts clearly say that IPL 2 did not get the kind of viewer ship as compared to the inaugural tournament. How many of them really watched a complete match? The Indian flavor and razzmatazz at the ground were missing. But the broadcasters don’t agree as they strongly feel that the IPL 2 was a success. We could see the telecom brands dominate this IPL 2 and each brand had to display their creativity power to create an impact in a power packed set of advertisements that kept on appearing. Incidentally most advertisers also seemed to be happy for being present in IPL 2.

Now will the viewership dip? The answer is yes and no. The initial matches may not fetch the high numbers but as the tournament progresses, we will observe the excitement catch up and if India does well, the premium for spots for the penultimate rounds will just shoot up. The question of fatigue is debatable as the shorter version of the game is more of entertainment and less of cricket and with no great programs available marketers will find this has a safe bet. Also the multiplex issue and no big banner movies in the pipeline viewers will have no other choice but to be glued with the idiot box. With T-20 positioned more as ENTERTAINMENT the fatigue level will not creep in so hard. It’s like watching the great SHOLAY umpteen number of times.

One of the ways I have used social tools successfully in my PR job is in the media relations bit – forming new contacts, pitching to journalists, getting fast information about the media, etc. Below are the top five sites for me. Which are yours?

1) Twitter: We have been hearing from everyone that  journalists don’t have the time to read lengthy emails, or that the first couple of lines decide the fate of our pitch notes and press releases. How about now pitching to the media in 140 characters? Some marketing bloggers have already written about it, but how many of us have actually given it a try? Recently, not only I got the name of a tech journalist, I was looking for, from a Twitter friend but also organized a good telephonic interaction for my client on a very short notice using a Twitter pitch. An open question to friends asking if some media is doing story on a particular subject, say valentines day gifts, can result in some good opportunities. Direct messages to journalists have worked for me and can also for you.

I have also done a press release follow up by sending direct messages on Twitter to some journalists. However, you need to know or presume correctly, with much significant reasoning, beforehand if the journalist would mind receiving a direct message for a press release followup. Some journalists may not like this idea and can tweet about it, quashing all your efforts, which can then be bad for your and your client company’s reputation.

2) LinkedIn: One thing I have benefited the most from Linkedin is in finding information about a particular journalist. Everytime we have to create a profile of a journalist, we don’t have to depend on our colleagues, friends in industry, of friends in the media. We can use Linkedin, which will most likely have the updated information of the journalist you are looking for, and if you are lucky, chances are that you might make just a good connection.

3) Facebook: Facebook presents an easygoing atmosphere wherein you can play a couple of quizzes and have some Superwall comments exchanged with journalists, thereby building up a relationship that is harmless and friendly without being entirely business.

A friend on Twitter told me once that he has added many journalists as friends on Facebook and has also successfully organized interactions for clients through his Facebook contacts, resulting in good coverage. That quiz you played, an application you added to your profile or forwarded to your friends, some threads on group you are a member of, etc. could all be potential hooks to build story pegs on.

4) Gchat: Gchat helps you to remain constantly in touch with your journalist friends. Not only you can pitch them there but they also share their story themes and seek your help. They can also sometimes confide in you when they are running short on deadlines as it is just a message away, and they know you can reply instantly.

5) Journalist Blogs: Nowadays many journalists blog and have wrote about what they expect from PR folks – how would they prefer to be contacted and so on. This can provide good cues. Also, how about posting some opinion on their posts? That way, you get into their radar and next time you pitch, they might just possibly remember you.

The emergence of the social media rounds

Just as we regularly go for media rounds to media houses and meet up with journalists to maintain the ‘connect’, today I think it is increasingly becoming important to do what we can call ‘social media rounds’. More and more journalists are adopting the social media for various purposes – research, to voice their opinions in an unedited form, make connections, or just plain explore. Our half an hour social media rounds can sometimes in this situation become a good alternative to that of traveling all the distance to journalists’ offices and showing up with little or no announcements. Also, this serves another important purpose for PR folks – in understanding the culture of the new media by being an active participant.

So is using the social sites just to connect with journalists a plain deceit in disguise

While writing this post, I cannot help but wonder if this is like deceiving the journalists, if we use social sites to connect with them to just leverage our clients. There can be many sides to this debate. What I feel is that if we are open about ourselves from the start and we are not making anyone believe we are somebody else, then it should be fine. And if you become too irritating, they can always unfriend you. And if you provide them value, you can become a contact they are happy to keep.

Connect with me on Linkedin and Twitter.

Hurling shoes at politicians as an act of protest has off-late seems to have found notoriety after an Iraqi journalist, Mumtazar al-Zaidi, hurled his shoes at the then US President George Bush in December last year. A German student Martin Jahnke threw a shoe at vising Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during a speech at Cambridge University in February this year. Another Journalist Jarnail Singh employed with Dainik Jagran flung a shoe at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram at a press conference in New Delhi in April. Recently, there was a similar incident took place in Kurukshetra. This time it was retired school principal hurled a shoe at Parliament contesting candidate Navin Jindal, during a public meeting. In another incident just a couple of days back a political worker hurled a chappal at LK Advani. Few days back, an attempt was made to the PM. Fortunately, almost in all these incidents the footwears didn’t hit the target.

Throwing shoes at leaders and politicians seems to have become the easiest way of registering a protest. These incidents, which have happened in quick succession, have raised many eyebrows. From the traditional trend of mudslinging, now shoe slinging as a new trend is increasingly followed. This has certainly caused concern to many. The National Security Guard (NSG) has already expressed its concern over the security of P Chidambaram. Now it is a cause of great concern for Press Meets organizers too. It is for sure these incidents will not stop there. There is no guarantee that such incidents won’t reoccur in future. Who is going to the be next victim. If for any reasons shoe-flingings are repeated, professionals involved in organizing such meetings or press meets will have a tough time to cope up with them.

Shoes flinging by the Nizam of Hyderabad

Historically we have couple of unpleasant incidents of footwear flinging in protest. One such incident was of the Nizam of Hyderabad and Madan Mohan Malviya, the founder of The Banaras Hindu University, in North India. The story goes like this: While Malviya was trying to build the university, he had to overcome many difficulties and barriers. There was a fund crisis. But he did not get disheartened and went from town to town, met many rich men and traders to collect donations. Then he went to the Nizam of Hyderabad to request him funds.

But the Nizam was furious, ‘How dare you to come to me for funds, that too for a Hindu University?’ he supposedly roared with anger and took off his footwear and flung them at Malviya.

Malviya picked up the footwear and left silently. He went directly to the market place and began to auction the footwear. As it was the Nizam’s footwear, many bidders came up. When the Nizam heard of this, he became uneasy. He thought it would be an insult if his footwear were to be bought by someone for a pittance.

So he sent one of his attendants with the instruction, ‘Buy that footwear no matter what the bidding price be!’  Malviya managed to sell the Nizam his own footwear for a huge amount of money and finally used that money to build the university (biggest university still in the whole Asia today).

Measures to protect VIPs against shoe flingers

Coming to our times, following these incidents, I am sure the police are taking adequate precautions. But, what can the police also do to stop these incidents. Some politicians maintained when we organize any political meetings we must ensure that the political leader is at least 20 to 25 feet away from crowd. They didn’t even rule out wire mesh between the speaker and the public to avoid any embarrassment.

But, how can this be address during press conferences. The incident has started giving PR people nightmarish jitters. There is a lot of interesting talk circulating around in the PR industry and people are wondering how one can avoid an embarrassment in the future. This topic seems to be bothering a lot of public relations professionals, consultants, and agencies, who regularly organize press conferences.

Hurling shoes hurts. While George Bush has taken it in his stride, Chidambaram was very uneasy, but magnanimous enough to forgive the journalist. But, how can they be stopped in future.

The best thing to address this issue is to probably enter the venue bare-feet (see a humorous take). This is quite a common practice in our culture to leave footwear before entering temples, homes and some religious and holy place, according to D. Anil Kumar, Corporate Communications professional working with a Hyderabad infrastructure company. But is that workable? It is a million dollar question, which time only will answer. But, he hastened to add that it is not practically possible in every case, but at least in a few special cases where there is the sensitivity of the subject such as LTTE or where a speaker is of controversial in nature, say Naredra Modi, Praveen Thogadia, and other leaders of communal in nature, he added.

Even if media personnel are requested to leave their footwear before they enter into conference hall still that is not fool proof as some more items such as paper balls, ink or water is available to throw. But, these things won’t hurt as much as a shoe.

Where there is the sensitivity of the subject involved, one needs to think twice to be careful about such press conferences. Take for instance the press briefings of Jaya Lalitha, Karunanidhi, etc. They fall in such nature. But, steps taken to stop such incidents may not be still foolproof. I think we need to live with them as it is, opined Anil.

Let us see what other options (hypothetically speaking) are available to Press Conference organizers.

1. Hiring Bouncers for the press meets

2. Opting for video-conferencing instead of face-to-face meets.

3. Having bullet-proof glass panes installed between the client and the media.

4. Have the client speak from specially erected booths or cabins or caging themselves in them at the press meets.

5. Chain the audience to their chairs.

None of the above options seem practical. Except in case of VVIPs and other dignitaries like the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Governors and other heads of states and some high profile Ministers, caging them in a specially erected booths and addressing Press Briefings may not be possible.

Sudhanshu, another Corporate Communications professional working with a local corporate house said we need not worry much about these incidents. They are just a few stray cases. Don’t expect them to be repeated. Let us not give much attention to it, he said.

How does the hotel industry, particularly five star hotels, where normally press conferences are held, view this? When asked a banquet professional of a star hotel who wanted to be anonymous said it is the matter of organizer and their invitees. There is nothing much a hotel can get involved. And I don’t think any hotel can claim that they can do something to stop such incidents. Banquet arrangements, seatings are done as per the client’s requirement. Even if we know of threat perception(read as shoe flinging) of a particular individual, there is hardly any thing that we can do to stop it, he explained.

Is throwing shoes ok?

Hurling shoes is better than bullets and bombs. That is the only way available to common citizens. But, unfortunately when journalists are concerned, it tantamounts to professional misconduct. Journalists are watchdogs of the society. They are not supposed to take sides. Why was Jarnail Singh not booked for his shoe attack on the minister? Why didn’t his employer Dainik Jagran own responsibility for his professional misconduct as the journalist in case has gone there as its representative. Jarnail Singh himself disapproves the means adopted by him. Look at the way similar incidents were treated by other countries. The Iraqi court sentenced Al-Zaidi who threw shoes at Bush to three years’ imprisonment (sentence is now reduced to one year) and the offender is now serving his jail term.

‘Journalists can not get involved emotionally in their profession. Journalists who go out to cover official assignments and press conferences should maintain the decorum(of press conferences) as they have greater responsibility. They cannot be biased. These repeated episodes of throwing shoes may impinge on the media’s freedom to cover events’, said Vijay Rao, a journalist. Many editors including K.S. Sachidananda Murthy of the Editors Guild had already condemned the incident and advised that journalists must practise restraint over their emotions.

A German student Martin Jahnke who threw a shoe at visiting Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during a speech at Cambridge University in February this year is facing prosecution for a public order offence in a British court. Those countries didn’t treat the insults heaped on foreign heads of states lightly and allowed the laws of the land to take their course, even if the offenders had a just cause to highlight. Offenders should not go unchecked, even if you are sympathetic to their cause and even if the offender is the journalist. In case of Jarnail Singh, the government looks like it could not afford to antagonize the media, especially when the elections are around the corner. But, what about its implications in future. This would send wrong signals. No one should be spared for public insult. Doesn’t this incident leave bad image of the press in public mind. The media image in public is gradually eroding and incidents like these spoil the total reputation.

Shoe throwing culture must be stopped. The act, a replay of Iraqi journalist’s, if goes unchecked, it would soon become the most powerful and abused tool of protest. Enormous publicity and huge support from like minded people, may encourage more to resolve such acts. Already, these acts have had lot of media and public attention. But, interestingly and unfortunately, we still dont have any security against these simple shoes.

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