“Pam Anderson opens up about her massive debt.” “Malibu businessman admits using secret UBS account.” “Marge Simpson poses naked for Playboy.”
What do all these headlines have in common? They came up when I googled Malibu. Malibu needs help with its image and, according to the city, the new public relations will certainly help. For a fee of just under $25,000 they have been credited for writing 13 press releases and getting stories in the local papers. Now we’re going to pay them $67,000 more to improve our image.
What’s wrong with that? Everything. First, each press release cost taxpayers around $1,900. Second, the newspapers in Malibu already cover all the city news. Do they need press releases to help them? I doubt it. Third, I read the releases and they were self-serving and boring. They don’t reflect the real soul of Malibu or contribute to image building.
Practically no one in the media reads press releases any more. The old rules do not apply. Want to show why Malibu is special? YouTube a video about it. Want to get more visitors to the stores and restaurants, blog about it. Web sites like the city’s are passé unless you are selling widgets.
The staff report says, “PR releases have been widely distributed bringing broader more positive local and national attention to the city.” Prove it to us. Last time I looked, people who don’t live here think we’re all a bunch of rich elitists, and we’re repeatedly excoriated for keeping low-income people out. Now that’s a real PR challenge that should be undertaken and measured. Everyone knows it’s beautiful here, but no one knows that the vast majority of the residents are retired or hard working stiffs who just happened to get lucky enough to buy a home in a down market.
If you want to stop the Coastal Commission or City Project from painting an ugly picture of Malibu, if you want to engage people in actually feeling bad because our homes burned down, if you want people who don’t live here to understand who we really are and understand that Matthew McConaughy, Mel Gibson and Barbra Streisand do not reflect our values, then let’s hold off on PR until the residents get a say in what we want our image to really be.
Susan Tellem