We are in the thick of it when it comes the political season down here in Louisiana. In the run up to the October 14th primary for the governor’s race and many others, communities are draped in posters, billboards and yards signs of candidates.
On television and online, commercials are constantly running, telling us how homegrown and down to earth these candidates are. Millions of dollars are spent to get those messages across. To me at least, I’m tuning out many of those messages, not for political reasons, but because I have more control to do so.
When I’m disciplined, I work out in the mornings. A part of that workout routine is listening to a podcast. I’ve increasingly gotten annoyed with having to listen to ads or commercials embedded in podcasts. So, I usually fast forward through them before the voice-over talent can even begin to describe whatever it is they’re promoting. I’m also a heavy consumer of YouTube (both for work and play). The ridiculous number of times commercials which would pop up in the middle of a video I was watching prompted me to subscribe to YouTube Premium, which allows me to go ad-free. Of course, it’s a win for YouTube because they got me to pay roughly $14/month, but it’s worth it to me because I’m now able to listen to music or watch videos without commercial interruptions…on YouTube at least.
With that as a backdrop, I wondered what it’s like for the people, companies and organizations trying to deliver their messages to us? Hoping to get some insight into the evolving landscape of media and messaging, I visited two public relations firms in New Orleans: The Brylski Company and the Ehrhardt Group. Cheron Brylski runs the company which bears her name. It’s a boutique operation that has spent decades in political communications. Marc Ehrhardt is the owner and president of the Ehrhardt Group, which he described as the largest public relations firm between Atlanta and Houston. Collectively, Brylski and Ehrhardt have many decades of PR experience, and both can say this is one of the most dynamic and difficult times in the communications industry. Listen to our conversation here.
