Levine - Guerrilla PR 2.0

In the fifteen years since its publication, Guerrilla P.R. has become a phenomenon.

Included in the Library of Congress, read by presidents, taught in all the most prestigious business schools in the country (and the world), this bookwhich I thought was too revolutionary to become so widely acceptedhas indeed grown into the most widely used introduction to P.R. in the world. Thats not an exaggeration.

So given all that success, the questions must be asked: Why change it? If it aint broke, dont fix it; right? Whats the point of adding to something that has proved to be extremely successful as it stood? What was wrong with the book the way it was?

Well, at the risk of sounding egomaniacal, I have to start by saying that nothing was wrong with the book the way it wasin 1993. And even today, the information that I tried to supply in Guerrilla P.R. remains usable and relevant. This edition is not meant to recount anything that was published in the original version. It was all true, and the basics remain true to this day. No need to take a word of it back.

But no one could possibly say that little has changed in public relations since 1993. Indeed, the world is a completely different place now than it was then, and since the point of P.R. is to make your name in the world, changes all over will certainly have an impact on the techniques and principles used to draw attention to a person or business.

Technology has had the widest, deepest, and most profound effect on P.R., as it has on almost every other aspect of American life. In 1993, a cell phone was at least twice the size of the one youre carrying today. Yes, the Internet was an interesting diversion, but nothing was ever going to replace newspapers, TV news, travel agents, bookstores, encyclopedias, and handwritten letters. The average American, asked about a plasma TV, would have wondered what blood had to do with making a television set work better. You wouldnt have wanted a Bluetooth; it would have meant a potentially painful trip to the dentist. A BlackBerry? Well, it was something to put in a pie.

The same condition is true for the editors, publishers, and producers of the world (not about being put in a pieabout the changes in the world). Their technologythe very tool youre trying to access as a P.R. Guerrillahas changed a thousand times over in the past decade and a half. Things happen faster. News is disseminated in seconds rather than hours. It took weeks for some Americans to learn about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (and keep in mindthe country did not stretch to the West Coast in those days). It took people in Singapore a few minutes to learn of the death of Anna Nicole Smith, if they were interested, and that was only because the reporting took some time to complete. Technology would have the information to the public in a second or less.

You might as well get used to it now: Im going to say over and over again in this book that there are two speeds in todays media world fast and dead . Thats not just a clever catchphrase; its an absolute truth. There is no excuse for slowness, and no remedy for its effects. If you dont keep up with the increased metabolism of information flow in todays world, your business will not succeed. Period.

But with increased demand has come a huge jump in the number of hungry media outlets to which you can supply sustenance. In 1993, there was no Fox News Channel. There was no Food Network. There was no XM Satellite Radio. CNN was just getting itself going. MTV was still a music video channel. The words reality-based show had never been uttered in Hollywood. American Idol referred to someone like Clint Eastwood.

Then, there were the deplorable 9/11 attacks, and everything changed, especially in the United States. Guerrilla P.R. had to change as well. Now, the countrys mood was different: first anxious, then angry, then a spectrum of other emotions. It wouldnt be possible to conduct business any businessthe same way again. Publicizing those businesses would also undergo fundamental alterations, shifts in the very foundations of the Guerrilla P.R. method.

The world of P.R. had to change. The basic principles of Guerrilla P.R. have remained sound; the philosophy has not changed.

But some of the techniques involved definitely have. Theyve gotten faster, trickier, and more complicated. In some ways, theyve gotten easier, more direct, and yes, faster. Everything, no matter what, is faster.

Since the books initial publication, there have been some amazing successes in Guerrilla P.R. Consider the unbelievably profitable film The Blair Witch Project , which used Internet viral messaging to spread its message and reaped rewards its creators couldnt have imagined in their most fevered dreams. Consider the fact that presidential campaigns have been announced on YouTube.

By the same token, there have been some tremendous Guerrilla P.R. disasters. The February 2007 attempt by some Cartoon Network employees to publicize a new program with suspicious-looking packages in Boston was an attempt at Guerrilla P.R. that didnt take into account the nations climate post-9/11, and it went in a direction that cant be characterized as anything but wrong.

The rise of the Web log (blog) has also created a basic difference in the P.R. world of today. Now, anyone with a computer, a microscopic budget, and the will to type can create a media outlet of his or her own. Deliver your messageunfiltered, uncensored, and unopposedto the consumers you want to reach. Do it on a dailyan hourly basis, if you like. Make yourself a star without having to go through the gatekeepers who have held the power for so long.

So why revise a book that has been an unqualified success? Because those who stand still are doomed to extinction in todays media world. If I am to practice as I preach, it is essential that I bring Guerrilla P.R. into the twenty-first century not simply intact but improved. This is the book that teaches about the down-and-dirty world of public relations on a low, or no, budget. This is the book that launched many thousand press releases. This is the book that put forth the crazy notion that P.R. need not cost more than the operating budget of most small companies.

In todays world, that means it has to be the book that moves at the speed of technology and shows you how to do the same. It must adjust, as the Guerrilla is required to adjust, to the conditions of the present day. The twenty-first-century Guerrillas, and the book that created them, have to be fast, because the alternative is dead.

And theres still plenty of life left in this Guerrilla.

Michael Levine
Los Angeles, California

There are conditions of survival in a guerrilla force: they include constant mobility and constant vigilance.

Che Guevara

Opportunity Knocks

In the middle of the worst drought in California history, a sudden downpour deluged Los Angeles in March 1991. Though the city was grateful for the moisture, the rain caused problems. Under a two-block section of Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley, a water main burst, causing the street to split apart.

Torrents of water cascaded over the sidewalk. Traffic and business came to a standstill. As workmen toiled to repair the damage along the thoroughfare, no customers could reach any shops. One such hapless establishment was Mels Diner, a kitschy fifties-style eatery located right in the middle of the affected area. The situation looked bleak as Mels lunch business dried up amid the floodwaters.