In 2006 Guy Goma, a man attending a job interview at the BBC, was infamously mistaken for someone else and interviewed live on air. Guy winged his way through the interview. He is now seeking payment from the BBC for their use of the viral video of that interview.
Guy’s interview was all the funnier because it exposed the trite nature of interviews; a non-expert got through by not saying anything - just as many experts, CEOs and commentators regularly do.
It raises the question; what is the point of agreeing to a media interview?
A PR cliché is to always front an interview request - mainly because you must take your opportunities, and because not fronting is seen as suspiciously evasive.
But more reputational damage is done by an interview in which you just scrape through, as Guy Goma did. You look evasive or vapid.
Every interview, every statement, is an opportunity to impart new, useful, information.
How you express that, even under hostile questioning, is where the PR pros really earn their stripes.
Comments