When Is Too Much PR Really Too Much?

You’ve probably heard the saying about too much of a good thing NOT being a good thing.

I think a lot of us in communications and public relations would agree that excess can sometimes do more harm than good, which leads me to the NATO Afghan Command. What’s that you say? It seems the NATO Afghan Command is in overdrive trying to convince American journalists the troop surge in Afghanistan is working by barraging journalists with press releases boasting of any and all accomplishments.

Walter Pincus, in his Washington Post blog Checkpoint Washington, writes the NATO Afghan Command shot off six – count ‘em SIX - press releases within six hours in one day, touting successful coalition activities throughout Afghanistan.

What type of announcements? The capture of a "senior Taliban commander", the arrest of a Taliban member and “improvised explosive devices”, the arrest of “suspected insurgents" and the discovery of huge batches of bomb-making materials.

I don’t mean to diminish the Command’s achievements, but don’t you think sending out six press releases within six hours might cause journalists to start ignoring those messages? Maybe toss them in the trash? Why not combine the accomplishments in one larger release and highlight each one? One major message has more punch than six smaller ones. The press releases are getting more press than the content of the messages themselves.

I hate to use the word overkill during time of war, no pun or disrespect intended, but too much is too much. The messages get lost.

Stuart Foster, the author of the blog The Lost Jacket stated it well when he wrote: “Getting coverage in tons of blogs, publications and media is great. But what if you are everywhere? Inevitably a backlash will begin.”

Call it The Gosselin Effect. She’s everywhere to the point that people don’t pay attention. Kate and her (ex-) husband Jon were voted the most overexposed couple of 2009 by a gaggle of publications, blogs and TV media. So, while lots of PR and exposure are good, too much isn’t.

Julia Gaynor, who blogs for Tech Affect nailed The Gosselin Effect when she wrote: “It’s undeniable that her long-term career prospects will be irreparably impacted as a result of her current overexposure. And she still doesn’t seem to be letting up.”

I was a reporter in California when Republican Pete Wilson was governor during the 1990s. Whenever he left the state Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, was in charge. The minute Wilson was out of California, Davis’s office would fire off press releases starting with “Acting Governor Gray Davis announces…” it got to the point that reporters ignored those releases. While Davis eventually was elected Governor, and later tossed out in a recall election, the point is that his over-messaging got ignored.

Too much of a good thing can do harm. Just ask Kate Gosselin.