Blog
04.06
Turning an Olympic-sized Flub into a ‘Special’ Movement
A couple of weeks ago, President Obama took a major PR hit while equating his bowling game with that of a Special Olympian. What has transpired in the days past is making the most of a wide open door.
On a Web site that averages 116,000 hits, SpecialOlympics.org is now welcoming more than 540,000 thanks to public interest. The organization is now getting the red carpet rolled out with them, freshly embossed with the presidential seal. And now the Chairman of the Special Olympics board has a riveting editorial in the Washington Post.
Through this editorial, the organization is making a lot of lemonade and urging the common use of the word ‘retard’ be stamped out with a pledge/promise drive.
Amazing the powerful tool public relations can be when used properly. What launched last week already has more 37,000 pledges to “end the R word.”
I am reminded of a grade-school friend, and fellow Boy Scout, named Joshua who had mild retardation (as it was known in the non-PC days).
Joshua was great because the time it took a visceral reaction to spark in his mind and explode through his mouth was the speed of “DOH!” The kid had the filter of Sophia from “The Golden Girls”, and I loved it so.
Some nitwit would take a verbal jab at him, and Joshua would counter with a sweet flèche that would stab said nitwit, and usually involve said nitwit’s mother.
I don’t know what he’s doing now, but I can’t help to think of his infectious laugh finding marks on the Richter scale as he watched “The Tonight Show” knowing this PR revolution would take place. Serendipity, perhaps? We’ll see.
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