DOES THE NEWS MEDIA REALLY MEAN TO UNDERMINE A BRAND?

...or click to hear it in the author's own voice

 Yes, you heard the news.
 
The biggest brands in U.S. wine country, Napa and Sonoma, have been destroyed by wildfires.
 
Wineries, gone! Hotels, gone! Vineyards, gone! All gone, gone, gone!
 
Up there in California, it's like the dark side of the moon.
 
Maybe you've seen the news photo of the Malaysian gentleman who'd been visiting Santa Rosa.
 
He was staying at the Hilton Sonoma. In the photo, he's walking past a pile of charred rubble that used to be his hotel.
 
Gone! The Hilton is gone!
 
Who ever heard of losing a Hilton?
 
 
DEVASTATION, MAYHEM AND DEATH!
 
Except...it's not.
 
Yes, there are problems in Napa and Sonoma. Businesses have been destroyed. People have died. It has indeed been tragic. 
 
And that's exactly why the Fabulous Honey Parker and I were planning on staying away.
 
We had business up there. We were planning on driving the CoupleCoach to Napa to interview couple entrepreneurs. We were gonna go all Charles Kerault on 'em.
 
We had delayed our plans in order to avoid hitting everyone during the harvest.
 
Then the fires hit. We saw the news. Oh, boy. We thought, Wow, let's just leave everybody alone. We'll go next year after they've cleaned up.
 
 
THEN, WE RECEIVED WORD THROUGH FRIENDS WHO ARE DEEPLY CONNECTED IN WINE COUNTRY
 
We were told in no uncertain terms, "Get up here!"
 
The person saying this has a business that supports tourists visiting wine country.
 
This person has lost all of her business. Visitors have cancelled their plans from now through February.
 
Why?
 
Because the news media in this country is vast and busy and immersive.
 
The 24-hour news cycle saturates the populous with ongoing stories and endless images of unimaginable devastation.
 
So what do you do?
 
You cancel your vacation to Devastation Land!
 
 
EXCEPT THAT, LIKE SANTA CLAUS, DEVASTATION LAND DOESN'T EXIST
 
"Despite the fires, the majority of businesses in both Napa and Sonoma remain open."
 
That quote is courtesy of the award-winning experiential travel magazine, AFAR.
 
It comes from an article they published online about two weeks ago. It's called, "What You Can Do to Help Wine Country Now--and Later."
 
Among their six tips, "Plan a visit."
 
And it made Honey and I say, "Of course. What were we thinking?" 


It reminded us of the year that we changed our spring travel plans.
 
We are regular visitors to Jazz Fest, that immense and sonorous party on the New Orleans fairgrounds during the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May.
 
 
IN 2005, WE HAD DECIDED TO TAKE A HIATUS   
 
Then...
 
Hurricane Katrina.
 
We had an immediate about-face.
 
What better way to support a town we love, whose major industry is tourism, than to come back as a tourist and bring tourist dollars?
 
The welcome we received was extraordinary.
 
Never have we been any place where people were so happy to see us.
 
We were even exhorted to take a Devastation Tour in order to understand intimately what had happened there.
 
 
SO, WHAT IS THE NEWS MEDIA BRAND IN THE INFO-SATURATION AGE?
 
It seems that the one way we're supposed to feel about it is we're getting the absolute horrifying truth at any minute of any day.
 
Here's the problem: it's like a microscope.
 
The news focuses narrowly on minute details without the context of the larger picture.
 
Hilton Sonoma destroyed!
 
Man visiting from Malaysia loses everything!
 
You know what else?
 
Seven wineries in Sonoma destroyed!
 
You know that that means?
 
Approximately 418 more wineries in Sonoma are still standing.
 
 
THINK THERE'S STILL A PLACE TO TASTE WINE?
 
Two hotels in Santa Rosa were destroyed, one of them the Hilton.
 
Cursory research shows at least three more in the area are closed.
 
Trip Advisor lists 75 more hotel options in Sonoma.
 
Think maybe there are a few other places to sleep off a day's wine tasting?
 
The 24-hour news cycle is largely about spectacle.
 
The spectacle of flames, destruction and death play to the old journalism adage, "If it bleeds, it leads."
 
Ironically, there are plenty of stories about how California wine country needs to lure tourists back to Napa and Sonoma.
 
 
WOULD THESE SUBSEQUENT STORIES BE NECESSARY IF NOT FOR THE FIRST ONES?
 
And those stories don't bleed.
 
They certainly aren't going to lead.
 
There just isn't much news value in, "Most everything's OK! Whoo!"
 
It seems that one of the best things we can do for our sanity is to avoid 99% of the news.
 
It just isn't worthy.
 
I have preferred news sources, they are time-honored and reliable. They go in-depth and tell you all of the what, where, when, how and why.
 
There are details and context.
 
When the superficial news media are reporting things that leave me scratching my head, my preferred news sources fill in the blanks so the stories make sense.
 
 
IN THE MEANTIME, WE'RE GOING TO WINE COUNTRY
 
Honey and I will be on location for Hot Shots and for CoupleCo, and we will return with stories.
 
With any luck, you'll enjoy them.
 
They will be about the brands and the people behind them.
 
There will be no devastation, mayhem and death unless it's relevant.
 
In the meantime, I'll leave you with a teaser for CoupleCo.
 
It's fun, and the risky subtext of mayhem and devastation is certainly part of the allure. The stories these people tell are about how a business and a brand can survive--along with the marriage that launched it.
 
https://youtu.be/eE8nK5GXv0c
As always,
Blaine Parker
Your Lean, Mean Creative Director in
Park City

---