Last week on The Daily Show, Assif Mandvi did a field piece about some water pollution issue in Idaho that's allegedly genetically mutating fish to the point that some now have two heads. The company allegedly behind this stuff refused to speak with him, but I think this was a mistake. If I had been the PR guy for that company, I would have said: "Look, we all know that two heads are better than one, right? Everybody always says that, so we went ahead and developed a two-headed fish. But do we get any thanks for our efforts? No! All of a sudden everybody forgets what they always used to say about the two heads being better than one, and they just complain about this miracle of science we've accomplished here. Well, you know what? We might not even make any more two-headed fish after this, thanks to how rude everyone has been about it. No, no: it's too late to thank us, because now we're offended. (Under his breath>) Some gratitude, let me tell you!" (And then he storms away in a huff.)
Then everyone might have forgotten what they were complaining about for a little while. And after all, isn't that what public relations people are there for to begin with anyway: to distract people from all the negative stuff that upsets them by spinning the negatives into a positive? And I hate to say it, but I don't think that PR guy really earned his money that day. (Slacker.)
