Document Jro9mXmMQO0mok647XM1n8E9O

13--Publicizing Safety Fic 13-2 --Pretty girls in an industrial situation can help publicize a safety activity Here, safety award plaques are made even prettier Courtesy Ford Motor Co vided a ready-made story 15 Election or appointment of a company of ficial or safety professional to an important post as a volunteer officer of the National Safety Council, American Society of Safety Engineers, Board of Certified Safety Pro fessionals, local safety organization or governmental agency 16 A company or employee winning an award in a National Safety Council contest Winners, not losers are publicized A good rule of thumb is to stress the posi tive, rather than the negative side of an event For example, instead of a story that says "bachelors are less safe," it could say that "a company study shows a need for special safety efforts by bachelors " Some Basics of Publicity If a company does not have a publicity de partment, this fact need not prevent its chances of getbng publicity into local papers or on the air It hurts, of course, because publicity men 304 are more experienced m getting publicity and naturally know their way around in media circles better than the safety professional does However even in the absence of a company publicity department, the safety professional can get publicity for safety activities by going directly to the newspapers, magazines, and radio and TV He might solicit and secure advice and help from local safety organiza tions, or even business or trade associations with such service He should certainly, how ever, keep his manager or vice president in formed of what is going on The safety professional should not pretend to the editors and the program managers that he is a publicity expert On the contrary, he should cash m on his innocence of any of the wiles professional publicity men employ to get space or tune Editors and program people are usually not difficult to approach--provided that the safety professional is courteous and friendly and ad mits that he lacks specialized knowledge of publicity techniques Naturally, no editor or anyone else likes to have someone come charging in and pretend that he is doing a big favor by delivering the story the world has been waiting for Although the common sense and salesman ship needed for success in the safety field certainly are enough to enable the safety pro fessional to present his case clearly and ef fectively to the paper or radio or TV station, he should, nonetheless, be willing to accept advice from publicity professionals on how to best tell his story Select the publicity audience "Who must be reached with safety pub licity'*" This seems like a fundamental ques tion, but many companies never try to an swer it Industrial or manufacturing companies, of course, would scarcely mind if the whole populace insisted on reading or hearing or looking at the company's publicity and taking it deeply to heart Because publicity cannot reach everyone, the audience must always be chosen carefully, especially if the budget is tight or time is limited In that case, it is logical to assume that--in addition to the m-plant (company) audience--the company would prefer to reach