Got Whimsy? It Can Help You Make the News

Tom Butler was a consummate public relations professional.

Butler, a Vancouverite who died in 2013, understood what the media needed in a story, and was often able to deliver it to them.

A Globe and Mail article following his death told about some of the ways he was successful in attracting media attention.

He brought astronaut Neil Armstrong to Vancouver to open a revolving restaurant atop a Vancouver high rise with the slogan: “The restaurant that soars halfway to the moon in the night sky over Vancouver was opened by a man who went all the way.”

He invented the world belly flop championships at a new hotel to publicize its new swimming pool.

To promote another hotel on the Vancouver waterfront, he had a long-drive golfing competition off the roof.

He took a beaver from the Stanley Park zoo to New York and Los Angeles to promote Vancouver tourism.

As the article put it, Butler, a former reporter, “had a nose for news and a sense of fun. He knew whimsical stunts would be an antidote to the grey news of the day."

It was this spirit of fun that helped him garner media attention for his clients.

“Whimsy," he wrote, "is the soft underbelly of the news desk. Every editor and news director from London to Louisville has the same daily imperative to include a story that lightens the day’s news—that gives something to feel good about, a counterbalance to the woes of the world.”

If you pay attention to the TV news, you know that almost every broadcast ends with an uplifting story involving cute animals or children—or both. 

Radio news and newspapers also like to include something light in their line-ups.

It’s as if they are saying: “Sure, the world is a crappy place. But maybe this will make you feel better.”

For organizations involved in serious causes, this can seem like an impossible task. What’s uplifting about global hunger, mental illness or cancer?

But you don’t have to look very hard to see stories that brighten the spirit and can brighten the day.

It might be people who are overcoming great obstacles, donors who go above and beyond to help someone else, or a person who manages to smile and laugh despite a disease.

For a news director desperate to lighten the broadcast, such stories can be a godsend.

It can also help you break out of the mould with reporters. If all they see is a steady diet of press releases about need and desperation from your organization, they might stop reading what you send. After a while, it can all look the same.

To paraphrase the well-known milk ad, you need to ask: "Got whimsy?" If you do, it could help set your organization apart, and help you make the news.