As public relations practitioners, we are constantly helping
report the news, we are in the news as a client spokesperson, or we are sharing
the news. Today’s blog post is the latter – sharing news. A sad, yet newsworthy
event happened at the State
Fair of Texas this morning. Big Tex, who just commemorated his 60th
birthday at the start of this year’s State Fair, went up in flames today!
With the advent of social media and today’s citizen
journalists it is amazing how quickly news spreads. Within minutes of reading
@dallasnews Tweet – “Big Tex has gone up
in flames. Were you on the scene? Share photos with us using #bigtexfire” –a
barrage of Tweets flooded in with reports and images live from the scene.
So, this blog post is merely to commemorate this iconic
image in Dallas’ history. Because we are hard-wired to find the silver lining
in a crisis or tragedy, as our team discussed this event in our office, it was
brought up that this tragic event may help generate more publicity than ever
before during the Fair’s closing
weekend.
Speaking solely from a PR standpoint, it seems like this unfortunate circumstance
creates endless potential for more story and visual opportunities throughout
the coming year as plans for a new Big Tex take shape, which will undoubtedly
culminate with a big reveal during the
opening of the State Fair in 2013. With the exhaustive amount of expected news
coverage throughout the next 12 months, perhaps even more of the icon’s beloved
“folks” will want to see what this fried food extravaganza is all about. And as
long as it is being rebuilt, why not consider a PR campaign to lobby for a new
and “improved” icon for the State Fair – “Mrs. Tex” anyone?
RIP Big Tex! (Follow the Twitter discussion with hashtag #bigtexfire)
This post was
contributed by Leah Ekmark Williams @leahcpc
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