A Lesson in PR

When Lilly said that Tuesday was the one class of the semester we wouldn't want to miss, she wasn't kidding. After all, it's not every day that you get to watch a real press conference unfold in your classroom.

Three San Jose State students, Anna Pogosova, LouLou Quintela, and Kelly Sherman, were chosen as finalists in a national advertising contest to come up with a Superbowl ad idea for Chevy. PR genius that she is, Professor Lilly Buchwitz was on top of the story and arranged a press conference with affiliates of CBS and NBC news...to be filmed in our classroom!

As a Journalism major, it was fascinating to see the process the media went through in creating the story. From watching CBS set up the cameras to observing them doing one-on-one interviews, it was an experience I will never forget. One detail I found interesting was how CBS dealt with a mass release from the class. Instead of filling out paperwork, they simply had us look into the camera and give consent for them to show our images.

I also found it interesting to compare what I observed during the press conference to what was aired by CBS that night. Understandably, they were not able to use a lot of the material that was filmed due to length restrictions. They also jazzed it up with some clips from previously run Superbowl ads. Overall, though, I felt that they did a pretty good job of covering the story. The fact that my face was clearly recognizable in the piece might have biased me in this regard.

This press conference had the benefit of hitting two birds with one stone for SJSU students; it gave us a chance to see the media at work, and it created some great press for our school. Appropriately, the topic for the day was media and public relations. I'd say we got a pretty good lesson. Thanks Lilly!