UN General Assembly: From Cuba to Iran in 50 Steps

Posted on Sep 26, 2012 in Public Relations | 0 comments

By Richard Laermer, CEO, RLM pr, Co-head, Bad Pitch Blog

On September 26, 1962, Fidel Castro stood up and aimed a stream of words to the United Nations General Assembly and earned the grand prize for longest-ever UN speech: four hours of run-on sentences with no quotable assertions. He wanted press coverage. That’s it. The three major networks couldn’t get enough. Why? Because nobody had the guts to stop him. No one was there from the United States to talk back! America had walked out. A boycott of an enemy is a bad idea unless you happen to be up against Chick-fil-A.

It happened again, fifty years to the day, on September 26, 2012, as Iran’s Ahmadinejad babbled straight at the Assembly and said not one “bad-a@#” comment we hadn’t previously heard. He said pretty much the same threatening nonsense he did in his last performance. After all the build-up, he sure fell flat. It was total hype–like the result of watching Matthew Perry’s rancid new show after boatloads of in-your-face PR!

But the U.S. made Ahmadinejad’s weak performance into a publicity coup by walking out in the absolute showiest and loudest possible way. And for what? Ahmadinejad called out “uncivilized Zionists” for posing as a threat to Iran. A new world order is needed and capitalism had used up the earth’s “resources” and caused climate change. Boring.
Ahmadinejad had goaded us on with so much hard talk in the pre-game show! He spent weeks on a horrible pitch for us to listen to and wait for it– or rush off in a fit — but the carpet did little to match the drapes. It seems like the Assembly has morphed into a forum for thought bubbles– they want to say something but it never comes out. Nothing of great importance happens, except, screwing up Manhattan traffic and making hotel rooms improbable. I think more news is broken on C-SPAN at midnight.

Why boycott? Being out of the picture strengthens your opponent. Ahmadinejad was the clear winner today. We get why Israel wasn’t in the house. It is Yom Kippur (who makes these schedules anyway?) and a holy day for Jewish people. But our country used it as the reason for failing to RSVP. Today’s sideshow, in the same vein as Fidel’s yawner half a century ago, provided milquetoast discourse and, just like the fatuous do-nothing Congress, has turned our UNGA into a session of one group trying to make more noise than another. And we were silent!

It is time to start downplaying this particular event. A much ballyhooed assemblage and the staple of New York’s fall season is no longer the Super Bowl of world politics. This coterie of political power-players makes the people pay the price: all the leftover rhetoric we can eat.

About the Author: Richard Laermer is a constantly blurbed expert in marketing and media, and CEO of notorious New York shop RLM PR, the 21 year-old independent communications firm that rose to prominence as the first to bring then unheard of dotcoms to the covers of magazines all over the gosh darn world. RLM was online when online wasn’t cool-and then when it was. More recently, RLM has become the go-to consultant for doses of social media reality. Speaking of reality (TV), Mr. Laermer co-hosted hilarious TLC’s Taking Care of Business show and is a popular speaker who has keynoted across the U.S. and in numerous countries. He is known as a “media guy” who comprehends the changing scope of influence. His outlandish–though logical–speeches, about trends, media, and marketing have wowed audiences as he is asked to host seminars and keynote corporate and civil organizations, marketing groups, PR and sales forces, and a whole host of genial gatherings. He instructs those who market how to change their ways with techniques that aren’t tried or true—and are ultimately effective. Mr. Laermer is author of the bestselling books 2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade and Punk Marketing. As a PR pro, Mr. Laermer, who is young enough to be handsome and old enough not to care, is known as author of the”perennial handbook” [said Entrepreneur mag], Full Frontal PR, as well as five volumes of the Native’s Guide to New York series from WW Norton, where he acted as a de facto public relations agent for the city of New York. Mr. Laermer is a featured writer on The Huffington Post and is co-manager of BadPitchBlog.