The Naked Truth

The past few weeks in my international public relations class we have been discussing the importance of culture. Every nation has a culture specific to them. They have values and morals which they follow. Some countries may have opposite ones to others. Conflicting values occur often. This has allowed me to realize how important conducting research is.

Research is such a vital tool in the industry. We need to be able to understand the culture of the people in which we are pitching too. It is important to not offend anyone. In order to reach our goals and objectives, a public relations practitioner practicing in another country, should conduct as much research as possible.

This is where surveys can come in handy. After some prior research on the core values of a certain society, a survey can be distributed to groups of people in the area to find out their particular views on a subject. These ideas they give us can then further hone our researching skills, thus making our campaigns more of a success.

If you haven’t heard, Pamela Anderson is being slammed for donating her profits from her most recent Playboy Cover shoot to the disaster funds set up for the Tsunami in Indonesia. This is because the vast culture of Indonesia believe the nudity to be a form of defamation. They don’t agree with the way the money was earned, therefore they don’t want it. (http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/11/01/pam-andersons-playboy-donation-slammed-muslim-group-immoral/)

First of all, her public relations person should have looked into this. A culture which does not have a high tolerance for feminist rights to begin with, should have understood that the money would not be appreciated. Some simple research could have been conducted and easily avoided this catastrophe. Playboy isn’t necessarily frowned upon here, but that doesn’t mean all countries accept naked women and their charities.

For some thorough researching, a public relations agent could have gotten in contact with some people of the Indonesian society and distributed a simple survey asking on their views on general topics. I think that it would have been simple to gather this information with a survey, rather than go through the stresses Pam, Playboy and their public relations teams are dealing with now.