Pitching to newspaper cartoonists -A media relations tool for PR people
By Editor on May 18, 2006 in industry, mediarelations
The India Public Relations industry is surely growing, adding new dimensions and twists to media relations. The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine, a media relations head in a well-known PR agency in New Delhi. He told me about how they pitch to cartoonists in key daily newspapers on how a possible cartoon strip could be made out of his client. He said this is one of the best media relations tools.
Funny!But that was a great idea. Now I knew how all those CEOs and marketing honchos land up in the Times of India Business Page with their new products, etc. etc. as a cartoon/ caricature. And even the front page cartoon strips of many mainline dailies are our new hunting ground if we have non-corporate clients like NGOs, personalities, politicians, etc. And why not? Getting your client’s caricature drawn in leading newspapers speaks about how famous he is in the industry and in the media.
Now everytime I see a cartoon made out of prominent business/ political personalities in a newspaper now, I wonder if a PR guy or a PR agency was behind it.
Read all of Hobbit’s posts – 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
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On May 18, 2006, sj said:
hmmmm interesting…makes you wonder whether how one would convince one’s client to be a cartoon?!! lol
On May 19, 2006, SJ said:
Would my client want to be on the front page of a leading newspaper? Most definitely. But would he want to be there as a caricature with some key idntifying facial feature out of proportion? Well, not too many clients are ok with that. But thats a very interesting thought. If HumTum could do that in TOI, surely, PR was behind that.
On May 19, 2006, J S Sai said:
Your blog is interesting. Look forward to many such thought-provoking observations.
On May 19, 2006, hobbit said:
Hi Sai
Thanks for the dropping by, and encouraging words.
And of course, I have been hearing from sj regularly.
On Dec 26, 2006, PRRIYA RAJ said:
Hi!
A very interesting observation.
An independent newspaper editorial/news cartoon can carry a message with far more impact and memorability than a plain front page story.The question is will the content of an editorial cartoon help the PR objective which is – most of the time- to be on the defensive in case of a controversy/burning topic.
As a management cartoonist, I would not like to do something as directed by a PR agency (that can be left to the advertising agency and can be done as a paid ad.Hum Tum was a clear advertising gimmick!).However, if someone wants me to comment on a news/trend and if I think it is worthwhile, I will definitely consider.The final outcome will depend on how humorous and how satirical that catoon becomes.
I don’t think PR professionals will
be able to use it with confidence as you never know if there client sacks them if the final cartoon is not to their liking.
It is very risky territory,indeed!
PRRIYA RAJ
On Sep 16, 2008, NVedala said:
Hobbit, I just discovered this site via search.
If you know any PR people looking out for cartoonists, please let them know. Have a look at my cartoons http://goozydumps.wordpress.com Recently started cartooning with passion which was latent until now.
Unfortunately many of all those links in your PR blog refers to main sites and it is hard to dig for art directors to pitch myself. Most Contact Us addresses (ppl behind0 just don’t reply. If you happen to know ART DIRECTORS, please upload their mailads here. Would be of great help.
Cheers
nvedala