The coveted PR Goliath of the Year goes to Kim Jung Un, North Korea's off-kilter leader, for his role as front man in the massive hack attack on Sony Pictures in retaliation for his portrayal and assassination in "The Interview."
Though some technology skeptics doubt that North Korea has the savvy to pull off such an audacious attack on a global corporation, Kim and his minions have blessed the strike on Sony.
More than anything, the episode demonstrates the vulnerability of corporate America to cyber-attacks..
Sony's poor handling of the situation cries out for the need to have a PR crisis team ready to go once the attack is underway. A seasoned and multi-disciplined team of pros must be on call to implement that communications program.
Forewarned is forearmed
The portly leader of the Hermit Kingdom also scores PR points for highlighting the importance of buzz or word-of-mouth communications.
Once Sony's clueless-to-PR chief Michael Lynton screwed up the courage to release The Interview to more than 300 independent theaters, crowds of free expression supporters flocked to the Big Show.
The Interview generated $1M in business for Sony from its first-day release, drawing sell-out crowds in New York City. That sum pales in comparison to opening day leader "Unbroken," which had a $15.6M first-day tally.
However, Sony distribution president Rory Bruer said the company is "extremely grateful to the people all over the country who came out to experience The Interview on the first day of its unconventional release."
The $1M take is not small change for a movie that had been seriously panned by critics before Sony unceremoniously pulled the plug on it.
Buzz is what got those people into the theaters.
Kim should not rest on his PR laurels. Pyongyang is too tiny of a stage for the Dear Leader. A bigger opportunity looms in 2015.
Kim, who has a flair for the dramatic (e.g., his five-week disappearance in Sept/Oct.), should relinquish his role as chief warden of the gulag that imprisons 24M people. Hollywood beckons.
If he leaves to pursue his creative dreams in Tinseltown, North Koreans would be forever in Kim's debt.
There’s a fine line between newsjacking and taking advantage, aka ambulance chasing. Our job as PR professionals is to tread it carefully.
PR firms need to be mindful of ways their work product may be protected by the attorney-client privilege whenever working with a client’s internal legal team or its external legal counsel.
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