Presidents Need All The Good PR They Can Get
In politics they call it spin, but it is reputation management; it is advertising; it is public relations. Sure, you might be a genuinely caring guy who just gravitates to these kind of things naturally, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get the most PR mileage out of it that you can. If there is no press there then it didn’t happen.
President Obama has made a lot of mistakes, both as far as PR is concerned, and some people would say in his decisions he made whilst running the country. But sometimes he really does pull off some actions that make him seem like a pretty decent guy.
How many Politicians Can Afford Not To be Media Savvy?
Calling mothers on Mother’s Day could be pitched as a cynical move – can’t anything? – but it really does come off a nice thing. He was calling letter writers who had written to him and he wanted to thank them for being good mothers. No matter the motivation, celebrating mothers is a pretty cool thing.
I regularly walk around handing out promotional materials for my church, and saying Happy Mother’s Day to people had a very uplifting effect. I can only imagine what it must be like to get a call from the President.