A good PR campaign can accomplish a lit in its run. It can draw awareness to a product or movement, better inform people of issues or solutions, and even start movements that change the world for the better. However, these types of effective PR campaigns require a lot of labour to put together or manage effectively. As such, seeing a really successful campaign is an interesting sight to behold.
To celebrate some of those moments, we will be taking a closer look at some of the best PR campaigns of recent times.
PR Campaign #1: Feeding Children Better
It’s hard to find a better reason to start a campaign than to tackle child hunger. It is an unfortunately big problem in the United States, so Conagra foods set out to help fix this in 2001 with the Feeding Children Better initiative. With the help of the Cone agency, the campaign was able to secure strong partnerships with other campaigner’s of child hunger.
These partners included Center on Hunger and Povery, Jeff Bridges’ Hunger Network, as well as the Ad Council. Feeding Children Better ended up winning awards for being such one of the best PR campaigns that the country needed at the time.
PR Campaign #2: Nike & Colin Kaepernick
The mark of an effective campaign is that everyone and their mother is talking about it. Following the apparent controversy of Kaepernick silently protesting for equal rights during NFL games, the player was something of a hot topic in which most people had strong opinions about. When Nike unveiled their new ad campaign heavily focused on Kaepernick and his message, the company became the center of heated discussion.
People who respected the message became bigger fans of the company, and those who did not approve essentially gave Nike free publicity by ranting about the campaign. All in all, Nike got loads of attention while supporting something they hopefully believed in.
PR Campaign #3: Lindsay Lohan & Lawyer.com
It is no secret that former child star Lindsay Lohan has been involved in quite a bit of legal trouble over the years. In fact, many people were fascinated with watching her career and actions to see what she got into next. The thing is, if anyone knows a good lawyer, it would be Lindsay Lohan.
When Lohan was featured in a campaign for Lawyer.com, it provided a pretty good chuckle for many people, but it also left an imprint on those who may have needed legal help. In the end, it was actually a really good move by the company and the actress, making it one of the best PR campaigns in Hollywood.
PR Campaign #4: The Heart Truth
Heart disease is a big issue for many people today. In fact, it is actually the leading cause of death in women, but not many people were aware of that years ago. That is exactly why the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute knew they needed a campaign to spread awareness.
“We wanted an evidence-based approach to forging a strong emotional connection with women to give them a visible, easy way to take action to improve their heart health,” said Lenora Johnson, director, science policy, engagement, education, and communications, at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
This led to the red dress being used as a symbolization of heart disease and stroke. It would remind women that these are big issues that they should keep in mind from now on. Luckily, it was effective, and has led to millions of dollars in partnerships and hundreds of thousands in grants to support the community.
PR Campaign #5: SpaceX & Tesla
The general public had probably heard of SpaceX and Tesla before this little PR campaign, but they most definitely were talking about it soon enough. In what may have been one of the coolest publicity stunts ever, SpaceX shot one of Tesla’s cherry red Roadsters into space.
Putting a beautiful car in space to just drift for as long as possible is enough to get people talking. However, the pictures of said car against the background of space featuring a SpaceX suit in the driver’s seat are just great to look at. They spawned memes to enjoy, and ultimately made people excited about space travel once more.
Plus, the free advertising for Tesla was pretty sweet, as well.
PR Campaign #6: CALM
CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) is a suicide prevention charity that certainly left an impact on people. The charity attempted to raise awareness and discussions surrounding male suicide by lining a building top with eighty-four sculptures of hooded men who appear to be dangerously close to the edge.
It’s a haunting image to see, especially if you aren’t familiar with the campaign. It will absolutely raise questions and thus creates a discussion about the topic that many people seem to forget about quite often. Whether or not CALM went too far with this is easily overshadowed compared to the overall effectiveness of the statue display.
