Perhaps I’ve been under a rock, but I had no idea Ringo Starr had a new album coming out. The only way I know this now is because I saw him on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. In retrospect, I think I saw an article about Ringo Starr on a national news site about three weeks ago, but I lost the webpage, never finding out what the article was about. It was pure luck when I tuned in to Craig Ferguson’s show and he announced that his guest, and his only guest for the night, was Ringo Starr. I didn’t know why he was a guest, but it was enough for me to stay tuned.
Ringo Starr appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS to promote his album last week. His appearance was unique because he was the only guest on the show that night, and he had the chance to perform four songs. In addition, it brought an interesting perspective to the interview because they are both British, as Ringo is from England, and Craig, from Scotland.
The public relations activity which Ringo’s practitioners utilized is media relations. With media relations, PR agents should communicate with journalists, specialists, editors from local, national, international and trade media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and web-based communication. The PR agent must have seen Craig Ferguson’s show as a desirable outlet for publicity and set up the appearance. On the other hand, Craig Ferguson must have found out about Ringo’s album and saw it as a great opportunity to meet a rock music legend. It could have even been a mutual endeavor where Ringo’s PR agent approached Ferguson, and the talk show host happily agreed, giving the former Beatle half an hour of air time. A late night talk show usually consists of a monologue from the host, and three guests, whereas one of those is usually a musical act. Whatever the case may be, Ringo was given great publicity.
The media relations medium of a talk show appearance seems very effective. When organizing the appearance, Ringo’s PR agent must have asked, “Who is watching the program? Are they paying attention to it (Tench 325)?” Hundreds of thousands of people must watch Craig Ferguson, including young people. Practically everyone likes The Beatles, and young people who may not know about them will have been exposed to a couple of their songs, which Ringo performed. In addition to performing two songs from his new album, he performed two Beatles songs, including “With a Little Help from My Friends.” Another advantage of the talk show is that the public relations message came with an editorial endorsement. As the text states of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, ‘Public Relations is about reputation, the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you (our italics) (Tench 325).’ Craig Ferguson almost acted as the editorial endorsement because he seemed especially excited about Ringo being on the show. It was as if he were living out his childhood dream. While Ringo and his band were performing, the camera showed Craig sitting casually on top of his desk, bopping his head to the music. It must have been an incredible sight for him, and I, as a viewer, almost felt glad for him that he was able to get such a music legend on his show.
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