PR in action

October 9, 2010 2:49 PM

Where can I find some videos of real life Public Relations examples?

I'm taking a course on PR and might find it helpful to see some real life video examples of PR representatives speaking to the press. For example, Exxon's first and subsequent PR reactions in the Valdez incident, reactions from BP's PR in the recent oil spill mess, PR for the mining firms where miners died in some of the recent coal mine incidents, etc. Googling leads to all kinds of PR related stuff, but I can't seem to find any real life video examples.

posted by Ryogen to media & arts (4 answers total)

CNN"s footage website--CNN Image Source or similar places.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:51 PM on October 9, 2010

I think the phrase you're missing in your searches is "press conference" -- the post-incident press conference is usually the first official PR response that gets filmed.

Try limiting your searches to YouTube, for example:
"press conference" disaster
"press conference" accident
"press conference" collapse

Pretty much any YouTube search for "press conference" combined with a general term for a bad event will find you lots of relevant stuff.
posted by Jacqueline at 3:49 PM on October 9, 2010

The White House has a press briefing just about every day.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:51 PM on October 9, 2010

The fist one for me that comes to mind is Metrolink's Denise Tyrrell. This was from the 2008 Chatsworth train collision. I can't get to Youtube (or any other videos) at work, but this should be enough to go on. She had a pretty intense press conference after the collision, and was subsequently fired/resigned.

Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell disclosed the day after the crash that a preliminary investigation of dispatch records and computers showed the engineer of the Metrolink passenger train failed to stop his train for a red railway signal, which indicated his train did not have permission to proceed. She was quoted as saying, "We don't know how the error happened, but this is what we believe happened. We believe it was our engineer who failed to stop at the signal." Tyrrell said that if the engineer obeyed the signal, the accident would not have occurred.

After a Metrolink board meeting two days after her remarks, Tyrrell resigned. Tyrrell stated that she quit because a Metrolink Board statement called her announcement premature, and inappropriate; she maintained that it was proper to get out in front of the story before the NTSB took over the investigation.
posted by Lizc at 12:54 PM on October 11, 2010