General Motors’ PR Strategy: Get ‘Em While They’re Young
Chris Roush, the UNC journalism instructor who writes Talking Biz News, was a little surprised by a PR solicitation he received from GM:
Dear Advisor,
I’m writing to inform you of General Motors’ First College Journalists Event taking place in Las Vegas, NV on September 9-10th. This is the first time we’ve done this sort of event and it’ll be a great learning opportunity for young journalists. The program will focus on car customization culture which is relevant to young adults.
While in Las Vegas the college journalists will have the opportunity to meet with professional journalists and GM executives who’ll be in attendance. GM will pay for travel, hotel and meals for students that attend. Travel will be scheduled so students don’t miss any school (arrivals and departures will take place during the weekend).
More information on the program is below. Please feel free to forward the information below to students you believe are qualified and would benefit from this opportunity. For questions or more information, please contact me at 805-373-9523 or diedra.wylie@gm.com.
Best,
Diedra Wylie
Roush’s takeaway: “It seems what young student journalists would be ‘learning’ from this experience is how to take a free trip and meals from one of the country’s largest corporations.”
What do you think?
Interesting. We once suggested a very similar event for Toyota.
It’s actually a tough one, because the ethical conventions are so different for different types of journalists. Entertainment reporters/critics vs. trade reporters and analysts vs. metro newspapers. There’s not a single standard. Whatever you do, though, there is one bright-line rule: be honest about it.
I’ve seen tons of newspaper and magazine road tests with disclaimers like “Jim Kenzie, a freelance writer (jim@jimkenzie.com), prepared this report based on travel provided by the auto maker.”
I think it’s fairly common.
Bob, it really depends on the field. For some jobs within journalism it’s accepted (usually with disclaimer), and for some it’s not. For example, any gifts we got at the metro desk in my newspaper days had to be sent back — no exceptions. And we could not accept free airfare or lodging to cover stories.