Trump used a lot of salty language which offended some in the audience.
We didn't like it either but we prefer it to the ambiguous business doubletalk which is standard fare at national trade conferences and meetings.
 Trump speaks at the 2004 PRSA conference. |
Trump said that in the early 1990s he owed one bank $500 million+ and that there was a "nasty, mean vicious guy" at the bank who wanted to "take me down."
Trump had friends who had been driven into chapter 11 bankruptcy by the banker.
The press at that time had "screaming headlines" about Trump's troubles. "I was hammered," said Trump, adding the press was "so happy" he was in trouble. But Trump said, "I said to them, f— you," causing an outbreak of laughter and applause.
One night Trump dragged himself to yet another black-tie dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria and by chance sat next to the "vicious" banker, whom he had never met.
The first ten minutes were "tough," he told the PRSA conference. But the two executives warmed to each other. "We just hit it off," said Trump.
On Monday, Trump went to the banker's office and cut a deal that practically saved his organization.
Trump told this story to show that "the harder you work, the luckier you get."
But we see a different meaning. Hostilities often melt at lengthy lunches, dinners, golf dates, nights-on-the-town or whatever provides a chance for two different sides to spend quality time with each other.
We'd like to see PR pros and reporters do more of this. It would do more to improve PR's understanding of the press than panels where editors sit apart and tell their deadlines and ways they want to get stories. PR firms need to loosen tight budgets.
Trump, the most publicized figure in business, which has helped to build his fortune, showed a love/hate attitude towards the press.
"I think I get the worst press of any human being in the world," he said. He feels coverage of him in New York is particularly "terrible."
There's always some "shot" against him in every story such as "his hair looks like sh-t," he said.
"I take it very personally," said Trump. "I used to really go crazy...but everyone else thinks I get great press. Howard [Rubenstein] does."
Rubenstein, honorary conference chair, was sitting nearby. He had obtained Trump as a speaker when Trump said he probably would have been out golfing.
Trump said he gets so much good and bad press that it evens out.
He told of being very cooperative with media and rarely passing up a chance for publicity whether it be TV commercials for Pepsi and McDonald's or public service appearances.
For instance, he said "Entertainment Tonight" wanted to do a feature on him but he said he had no time. He agreed when the show said the taping could be done in his office. "I gave my four minutes," he said.
He made the same accommodation for "Access Hollywood." Entertainment Tonight even asked him "how brilliant" he was, he noted, explaining that if he ever said such a thing about himself in an ad he would be "laughed out of town."
He did a Super Bowl promotion reasoning that more would see it than a $2-$3 million Super Bowl ad.
"PR is much more important than advertising," he said to applause. "When I get the word out that a building of mine is hot," he said, "it's better than a full page ad" in a newspaper that few will read.
But he also warned that "The press can kill you ... the press can just eat you alive." Especially vulnerable, he said, are those who avoid the press but get one "defining story" that may be bad.
He told of a friend whom the press made out to be "the meanest jerk and he is exactly the opposite. It was a defining story. He may never have another."
Advice we didn't like from Trump was, "If somebody goes after you, go after the SOB and get them ... the next time they won't go after you so much."
He also advised not trusting anyone, including employees and even "the people sitting next to you right now ... they'll take your job, they'll take your money ... being a little paranoid is not so bad."
The appearance of Trump was brought about by the media-friendly Rubenstein firm. Conference co-chairs Kathy Lewton and Grace Leong are to be complimented for obtaining the help of Howard.
The odd thing is that the powerhouse, 170-member Rubenstein firm has only one PRSA member–Howard himself.
PRSA national and PRSA/New York should have been courting him for years. He knows so many people (3,000 attended his 50th anniversary celebration in PR) that he could easily put PRSA/New York back on the map again by supplying major speakers at chapter events, getting publicity, etc.
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