Flying Cars? Or Flying Topic?
(Commentary by Ellie Ho)
“This
year is a realistic target because we have the technology. It is all about the
speed of implementation,” said the Minister of Entrepreneur Development.
I’m
sure whoever has been following the news of flying cars is aware of the quote
stated above; the emergence of flying cars in Malaysia, emergence of bigger backlash
from the public. One commentator went as far as saying “Words fail me. I have
never read so much stupidity in my life.” Memes went on to be produced as
people started putting toll plazas in the sky to charge the flying cars.
Hilarious
right? Now let me ask you this, where did this Minister state this opinion? If
‘I don’t know’ is your answer, you’ve reiterated my point on my behalf.
The
Minister was meant to mention flying cars as a casual remark, stating that it
is in the plans of the government, but it was blown out of proportion, and made
headlines in newspapers instead of the actual event at which it was
highlighted. From what I acknowledge there were only two (2) publications that
stated that this remark was made in the particular event, further elaborating
on what the event was. This is a simple example of hijacking; the Minister took
the limelight away from the event by initiating something more eye-catching,
whether it be intentional or unintentional.
Attention
is a limited resource. Psychologically speaking, people tend to pay selective
attention, so the there is only so much information people can pick up and
retain. Automatically, anything that has a catchy title would grab your
attention and it helps with retaining information. However, when someone is
selectively attending to something, they will have to ignore other information
to focus on that one thing. This phenomenon could be the reason the media
disregarded the main purpose of the event, and only chose to focus on the
flying car statement instead. OR, it could be because they understand this,
that they chose the catchiest talking topic for readers (some may say it’s like
clickbait), thus attracting readers to read the article.
Is
this action understandable? Most definitely, it’s a business after all. But do
I feel bad for the event organisers for having their media coverage hijacked?
Most definitely. I think this initiative is great and a vast action for being
progressive, and it’s a pity that it didn’t get the coverage it deserved.
However, what could have softened the blow of the hijack was having a stronger
PR personnel accompanying this Minister when he was receiving interviews. By
having a stronger PR personnel who vetted the Minister’s speech, he / she could
have helped the Minister stick to the narrative by bringing the attention back
to the event itself or to limit the Minister’s comments on flying cars, which
caused a backlash on them (one commentator said, “we can’t even promote hybrid
and electric car properly and sell them at affordable price, now talking about
flying cars. What a joke,”) and other forms of mockery.
Overall,
I feel that this acts as a good reminder for other brands, one is to always
have a strong PR personnel facilitating your guests when they are interacting
with the media, another is to have a short briefing with your guests before the
event when possible. By preparing your guests beforehand, they are reminded to
bring the focus back to the event and less on irrelevant topics such as flying
vehicles. That’s when it’s all eyes on you!
______________________________________________________________
For further reading, do check out the following articles:
Image source: Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment