Central Ohio PRSA goes to White Castle

Today was yet another PRSA luncheon in Columbus, OH in which myself, Kelsey Giesler, Courtney O'Banion and Dr. I attended. Our guest speaker was Jamie Richardson who is the vice president of corporate and government relations for White Castle. He spoke to us on the PR risks and reputation management when dealing with a large brand on the big and small screen, for example "Undercover Boss" and "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle."

I was skeptical about this luncheon for two reasons: one, corporate PR is definitely not an area of interest or even something I could see myself doing and two, I attended the luncheon last quarter when Jim Tressel was a speaker and found myself largely disappointed. However, the fact this was the guy who had a hand in helping a somewhat controversial movie like "Harold & Kumar" become a blockbuster hit in 2004, kept me interested. Richardson gave a list of 10 "tips" he has learned over the years working with White Castle including one that suggested the only thing to fear is fear itself. While I don't remember all ten from his list off the top of my head (a delicious piece of cake will sometimes do that to a person), I was still completely engaged in everything he had to say and when I really sit down and think about it, know I can find at least three things I took away from his presentation.

What I found so interesting about him was the way he told his anecdotes regarding his job and how passionate he is to make sure White Castle's audience knows they are a privately owned corporation who cares about its customers and the community, just as much as they do about itself and its employees. One thing that really stuck out to me was when he was talking about his work with CBS and "Undercover Boss" and told the story of one of the cashiers who said "the suits come in and all they do is find something wrong with what we're doing" and wished that for someone who has a visually impaired child to support, the "suits" would instead see all that these employees do right and focus on their hard work. That moment alone made him start thinking about what White Castle could do to make a situation better for those who do put time and effort into making the corporation successful.

And of course, my favorite part of the luncheon was the mention of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." As a fan of fun facts, the story of how White Castle actually got involved might be one of my favorite anecdotes. Richardson told the group that he expected the movie's producer to give him the run down of the movie's plot then pitch their involvement with the film. However, it turned out that rather than a movie pitch, the phone call was a "love letter" to White Castle, which essentially is what the movie boils down to as well. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it for an hour and a half of mindless humor and entertainment. Anyway, I may have been reading into this a little too much but just then I made a connection that New Line Cinema loved the company enough to want to make a movie (including sequels) as an ode to White Castle, which was an overall reflection of how passionately Jamie Richardson and the owners of the big white hamburger palace felt about their reputation. They could have said no, this is an awful idea, but they took a leap of faith with New Line, director Danny Leiner and actors John Cho and Kal Penn, and as a result White Castle's brand was able to reach an even larger audience than ever before.

What all of this says to me, ultimately, is that good PR is about taking risks that you believe in and making mistakes to learn from and improve on for not only yourself and who you work for, but the people who work for you and the audiences (or consumers in this case) you're trying to reach on a daily basis. Likewise, compassion and overall passion for the job are key players in future successes.