HMPRESENTLY: Intoxicating

Even after attempting to shape opinion throughout my PR career, when I stepped back from PR several years ago, I soon realized I had to keep fiddling with opinion.

Whether it was shaping opinion of businesses, of an industry, of products and services… I was hooked on it. It was intoxicating. And it still is!

So… after adventuring for many decades, in business, I began transitioning to writing guest articles and columns, attempting, early on, to shape opinion of disruptive businesses, like short-term rental companies (STRs).

Several years ago, a Nevada business publication ran an opinion piece I’d written about STRs, and dockless scooter and bike rental companies, and then, years after that, hearing about STRs, perhaps, exacerbating the shortage of affordable housing in your residential neighborhoods, I began mentioning STRs, in some of my Daily Post articles.

And, I’ve been writing about politics and politicians, quite a bit, for a number of reasons.

Because, for one thing, as a child, and later, as an adult, fairly early in my career, I had known people who had to flee from places, ruled by dictators. That sticks in your mind, hearing what they had to go through. And now, hearing about some elected officials, here in America, apparently flirting with authoritarianism and dictatorial rulers, “cozying up,” as some media are reporting. That doesn’t sit well with me.

Probably 80 or more times, I’ve mentioned former President Trump, in guest articles, and, at times, I’ve mentioned others in politics… like Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, for example. Representative Boebert, who possibly squeaked by in her re-election campaign this past November. With only a few hundred votes separating her from her opponent, a recount has been underway. I’ve mentioned her, in several columns, and was even inspired to compose hip hop lyrics about her.

If she happens to lose, maybe my commentary and lyrics caught on with voters? But even if she wins by only a thin margin, maybe I had something to do with that. As they say in business and politics… for me, maybe it’ll be a win-win, regardless of the outcome.

Unless things have changed, since I was in the PR profession, measuring success can be murky. It was ‘metrics,’ we used to talk about, wondering if the metrics – some data of some sort or another – was adding up to success.

So, maybe with this Boebert thing, I have some data, a metric, of sorts, I can point to.

And, lately, since the media have been reporting on a potential “Trump problem” — his popularity with his base, with his acolytes, may be diminishing — maybe what I’ve been writing about him, 80 times or so, helped shaped opinion, and maybe that’s another metric, in my ‘win’ column.

Sometimes, just a word or two might do the trick, shaping opinion, if somehow you can keep certain words top of mind with folks. Words like ‘agitated rooster,’ for instance. I’ve been thinking about those words.

There’s an Ohio Congressman, I’ve mentioned, in a column, or two whom I’m seeing, in my mind’s eye, as an agitated rooster. He’s always jumping around, investigating one thing and another, and complaining, much of the time.

Maybe, out your way, ‘agitated rooster’ might describe some of your local officials?

Or ‘bloodsuckers?’ When I was a kid dipping my feet in a lake, out in the Midwest, a bloodsucker – a leech – got between my toes.

I can picture some politicians, as that scary little creature that had firmly taken some control over me. If you’ve ever had to pry a bloodsucker off some part of your anatomy, you’ll know what I mean.

‘Bloodsuckers’ and ‘agitated roosters’… rather evocative words.

Harvey Radin

Harvey Radin

Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.