Monday, February 19, 2007

Tim Hardaway-What should a PR representative do for him?




If there is a PR representative for Tim Hardaway, was he or she surprised by his speech? Did the PR representative suffer while cleaning up the mess Tim Hardaway just made?

First of all, a PR representative has to anticipate what the client might say in front of the public. A PR representative also should have a prepared plan for dealing with these possible situations.
Second of all, the factor that really matters is not the “statement” itself but the circumstance and context: the speaker, the business and industry involved, and their main audiences—sports fans.

Before acting, a PR advisor should define who the client is and what the client’s character is. A PR representative’s role is not to make a socially acceptable or likable person. All clients have different images and social expectations.

If this “statement” was made from a governor or teacher, almost everyone would level criticism at the person, and the person would be ostracized from society. People requires stricter moral standard for them.
However, in this case, because this statement was made by a sports player, the issue would be one of speech right rather than morality.

People want sport stars to be tough and brave enough to do something that others cannot do without considering others’ views. Main public of sports business is not the gay community but sports fans who are usually more masculine.

Furthermore, it is also a PR representative’s job to make these statements less problematic by focusing on other aspects of the situation behind the case. The focus could be the human right of sexual minorities, the right to voice personal opinion, or even race issues. They should find an appropriate issue to lessen the damage to the reputation.


In this case, the reactions around the blogosphere has been divided into two; one is praising his bold speaking out regardless of politically correctness, and another is blaming him for using word “hate” to refer other human beings. A PR representative would emphasize the former opinion as the dominant one and lessen the homophobic part by pin-pointing his bold speech.

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