Sports PR Gone Good – PR for Andy Murray
All too often I have blogged about sports PR “gone bad.” Mostly when it comes to tennis since that is the sport I care the most about watching (and playing), but I have some blog posts about other sports as well.
As a recap of a few of the bad ones:
- PR Advice for Marshawn Lynch – About Marshawn Lynch’s standard response for everything was “No response” and I suggested he needed some PR 101.
- Public Relations for Tennis Players – About Nicole Gibbs speaking her mind on and off the tennis court on issues she thinks are important, and how that impacts her personal brand.
- When Sports Players “Meltdown” – About Serena Williams melting down on the tennis court, breaking a racquet and not having any regards for the impact this has on her fans.
- Crisis Communications – Sexist Olympic PR Problems – About the public relations crisis when commentators applied certain standards to the female athletes (such as having a child) and not the male.
But what about when an athlete “does good?”
Last week, when Andy Murray was doing the standard news conference after he lost his match at Wimbledon to Sam Querrey, a reporter started a question by referring to Querrey as the “first U.S. player” to reach a major semifinal since 2009. Murray quickly, and without thinking, corrected the reporter by saying “male player.” Indeed Querrey is the first male player to reach a major semifinal since 2009, but many women including Serena Williams, Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe, Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens have made it that far.
Nice job Mr. Murray, it makes my heart warm when there is no hesitation for correcting an incorrect sexist statement. You might just have become my PR dream client!
