What NOT to do: Lesson 18... Mix Politics with Sports

So last week soccer officials from South Africa were set to host a peace conference to discuss the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The point of the conference was to discuss separating politics and sports in next year’s World Cup, the first ever to be held in Africa..

Well, things did not go according to plan. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was denied a visa into the country because the government believed that he would cause negative publicity for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

However, that decision backfired on the South African government. Well since the Dalai Lama was not allowed to attend the event, others who were expected to attend refused. This ultimately led to the cancellation of the event.

Instead of lying about the situation, all the South African government had to do was be honest. Many believe that the cause of his denied visa was because of the politics of another country. China is responsible for thousands of jobs and millions of dollars (due to trade) in South Africa. Tibet and China have not been seeing eye to eye for quiet a while. So South Africa had no choice but to reject his visa.

As a PR practitioner what would you have done differently?

-Travis Francis

What NOT to do: Lesson 17... Don't be a global bully

Good day everyone.

This blog is not necessarily a PR no-no. This is actually a PR yes-yes :-). President Obama has made his international debute, and he has received an 'A' from many political commentators and journalists. He's doing what President Bush refused to do: acknowledge our faults and build friendly relationships with other countries.

The PR no-no is to be a global bully. No matter how powerful your country is, you can't go into other people's country and tell them what to do. You can't tell them, "If you're not on our side, then you're evil." Who's to make that judgment? Not you, especially if you fail to acknowledge your own faults and fail to be knowledgeable about other countries' cultures. For all you know, they can view your country as evil, which has been the case for the past eight years.

Pres. Obama has done a tremendous job acknowledging that the U.S. has done its share of wrongs, but he also stated that the current global crisis is not the U.S.'s fault alone. He has demonstrated one of the biggest principals in PR: transparency and honesty. Pres. Obama has demonstrated friendly leadership and dialogue, something the Bush Administration didn't understand. Maybe they didn't care. Who knows?

I think Pres. Obama is demonstrating great PR for the U.S. What do you think? Do you think you could have done better? Do you think he made any mistakes?

By: Marlon Williams