MDIA 5023
Cultural Approach to Public Relations
• Popular culture
• Counterculture
• Subculture
• Implications of the cultural approach for PR (case
studies tying to the above)
• The Circuit of Culture model
• Seeking consumer insights
Popular Culture
} Ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images within the
mainstream of a given culture
}A focus on the everyday, the intimate, the immediate
}A space for publicity, voicing concerns and participation
}Egalitarian
}Often derided as being trivial or pointless
}Resources for PR
Discussion:
The implication of a cultural approach for PR
e.g. What’s the opportunity for PR?
Case:
Flashmobs for a promotional campaign
• Genesis of a series of T-Mobile campaign
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNriRd0uGJ0
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47N9lk2xhI
Popular culture for fan activism
• Popular culture as civic playground
One way that popular culture can enable a more engaged
citizenry is by allowing people to play with power on a
microlevel...Popular culture may be preparing the way for a more
meaningful public culture (Jenkins, 2006).
• "cultural acupuncture” -- Andrew Slack
Popular culture for fan activism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq5NbWmyGWk
Case: Walmart Gets Challenged
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no0WqYWdH74
Counterculture
• a culture whose values, ideas and norms of
behavior differ substantially from and even run
counter to those of mainstream society.
Counterculture
Counterculture
“The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti
because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it
makes a profit…the people who truly deface our
neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans
across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate
unless we buy their stuff…any advertisement in public space
that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours, it
belongs to you, it’s yours to take, rearrange and reuse. Asking
for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw
at your head.”

– Banksy, “BANKSY: EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP”
Counterculture
Subculture
Subculture and brand credibility
Circuit of Culture
(Du Gay et Al., 1997 and 2013)
Seeking consumer insights
• Cool hunting/trend spotting
Seeking consumer insights
“What people say
what people do
and what people say they do
are entirely different things.”
Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
Anthropologist
Seeking consumer insights
Hidden obvious
Insights that are obvious only after
you point them out
To get customer insights, don’t ask
(literal, direct) questions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QQwanyUCSU
Next Week
Participatory Culture