One strange phenomenon in public relations where even the most ethical and transparent practitioner is caught fudging the truth on occasion come when it’s time to give a crowd or attendance count. For some reason, when it comes to estimating the size of the crowd, at say our annual fire prevention days, we tend to become world renowned optimists.
A few years back when my Department celebrated its 100th Anniversary I had my stats together – 23 Departments marched in our parade, 3,580 hotdogs were served etc., but when it came to estimating the size of the crowd on our parade route, I remember I leaned towards what I think I saw as the total. Wanting the event to be a success, and it was, I probably put on the rose colored glasses in giving the crowd total to the press which was purely speculative since no one was walking around with counters in their hands.
Crowd size is an argument that flares in Washington DC constantly. I read a story in the Yahoo blog The Upshot about the crowd at last weekend’s Glenn Beck rally that was right on.
The argument is a function of spin. Supporters want the crowd to be larger. Opponents want it to be smaller. Both sides guess because neither side has a quick way to determine how many people were actually present. There is a way of estimating but it takes days and tedious work. No one wants to wait for that. Rather, they want to trumpet their points of view to the media right away. It would be good if the media just dropped crowd-size estimates completely from their stories, but there is little hope of that happening. So, supporters and opponents continue to wrangle over a silly argument. PR practitioners ought to know better.
Also on The Fire PIO…
- Newsroom Boot Camp – August 6, 2010
- PR Distribution in a Social Media World – August 18, 2010
- Arizona goes into Preventative Crisis Mode – August 30, 2010
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