Like a quick lesson in manipulating the media and how to get your name or brand out there?

Even if there's nothing really there?

It's pretty easy.

Lesson 1 - Bunnings.

The message Bunnings is pushing here is they're here to help. Part of the community & all those cliches.
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As you can see, Bunnings positioned themselves this month as the Community Hero yet again by claiming to be a proposed "vaccination hub".

The Guardian even consulted experts on the-story-that-appeared-out-of-nowhere, and Hassan Vally the expert, agreed it was a fantastic idea.

But there was a small problem with the story-that-appeared-out-of-nowhere - the federal & state governments were yet to know anything about it.

Mass vaccine hubs in Bunnings car parks?

Bunnings admitted themselves that no proposal at all had been submitted to any department.

And yet here was the Bunnings CEO no less, happily talking hypothetically about a hypothetical proposal.

So where did the news story about no such thing come from?

Not from any federal or state govts because they hadn't received any such proposal.

Did all of these journalists from across Australia all suddenly decide together on a whim, to ring Bunnings & suggest Bunnings use their car parks as mass vaccination hubs?

Or did Bunnings comms team invent the story & put out a media release on something that hadn't happened?

Lesson 2 - "Amalfi Beach Club"

or

How To Get Brand Recognition & Attention When You Don't Have Any.

In October last year, stories began circulating about a business placing a private beach club on Bondi Beach.

It received massive coverage. And massive outrage.

Most of the media coverage was framed around the fact that this was already a fait accompli.

People on twitter were up in arms, as were major journalist commentators.

A PRIVATE BEACH CLUB ON BONDI BEACH was here!!

Why - they even had their own instagram account.

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But when you dug through all the hype, it turned out - not much had happened at all.

Certainly Waverley Council, who'd received some sort of emailed proposal 5 months earlier, were a bit non-plussed about the fuss.

Because this is all they had to say about it.

And if you research a bit further, you'll discover that not only did Waverley Council receive an unspecified "proposal" back in May 2020 that they emailed back about (twice) and rejected - but that not much has been received by them or the NSW Govt since.

But media!!

Have a quick google and look at the amount of serious media coverage generated about a business event that does not yet exist and has not yet been submitted to the relevant council for initial approval or to the NSW government for a development application.

It's extraordinary.

Given the tight-lipped attitude from Waverley Council and NSW Planning, we can assume the massive media campaign did not explode out from them.

Both Waverley Council & the NSW govt have 1000s of applications a year.

Who seeded this 1 particular non-story in the media?

And when you begin to realise how easily a story is created out of nothing at all except a media release, an email or two and a few phone calls, you'll understand how Scott Morrison and his massive staff of media and communications professionals manage to keep him in government.