Can PR professionals take a play off?

Kirk Reynolds was the director of public relations for the San Francisco 49ers football team–was. In 2005 Reynolds was released from the organization after a damaging locker room video tape, of which he was the star, fell into the unintended hands of the San Francisco Chronicle, and was made public. The video, created by Reynolds, was intended for the 49ers football team, and was a training video for “embracing diversity.” However, the video seemingly delivered the material in a fashion that underminded and contracted the message it was supposed to convey. Apparently diversity was not embraced; it was disgraced. In this video, Reynolds is described as incredibly “racist, sexist and homophobic.” This is the same man who created a diversity education program for the team, which was highly credited and adopted by many other NFL teams. To quote the NBC Sports article, “How did someone whose job is damage control create the kind of scandal that he was trying to prevent?” I feel this behavior is unacceptable and unprofessional for a public relations director to exercise. Reynolds did not believe the tape would be made public, and so it contained material that he felt would connect with the carnivorous football team. I think that as a public relations director, you need to be more creative, respectful and smarter with your campaigns. On one hand, he did choose to exercise a campaign that be believed would connect to his intended public? Locker room humor and antics are one thing for players and coaches (not that I support the material), but it is not for the man whose entire work is targeted as casting a favorable light on the organization. So I question you this: Can PR professionals ever drop their guard? Or must they always carry themselves and act in the way of which they want their organization to be viewed?

~ by patrickfoulon on April 28, 2008.