Alexei Auld is back with a brand new book available 7 Secret Sources of Inspiration: A Snappy Guide for Creative Procrastinators to grill Eugene S. Robinson (who's pushing a GoFundMe to pay for the new Oxbow album) and myself with some PR stumpers from the world of combat sports.
For the audio only version check us out on SoundCloud and be sure to subscribe to MMA NATION on iTunes and subscribe to MMA Nation on YouTube so you'll never miss an episode.
This week's kerfuffles include:
- At 1:39 - You're WME-IMG. Retired UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre told Ariel Helwani that his UFC contract was terminated after you acquired the company, withdrew former CEO Lorenzo Fertitta's offer, and told him you'd have to "take a huge financial risk" to re-introduce him to the audience. Then you sent a statement that he "remains under an existing agreement with Zuffa, LLC as his MMA promoter." Zut alors! Explain to me, why je ne suis pas GSP?
- At 10:56 - You're Ronda Rousey. While speaking about your return to the Octagon a year after a brutal loss, UFC President Dana White told Jay & Dan, "Her biggest issues, in my opinion, were with the media...she felt attacked.Felt like these people in the media that she gave three years of her life, cruising around giving interviews to, completely turned on her when she lost." Is it time to make them feel your pain, Ronda? And if so, how?
- At 22:14 - You're US Presidential Debate Darling Ken Bone. After winning last week's debate, you found yourself with more PR problems than Billy Bush: Allegedly violating FTC guidelines and using your secret alias during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session. An alias linked to insurance fraud, justification of Trayvon Martin's murder, and enjoying The Fappening. How can you spin yourself out of PR purgatory?
- At 25:44 - You're known as "33Liuyun". According to the BBC, a fellow Chinese rock climber has such "strong feelings" for you, she vandalized a national park cliff with a seven meter tall portrait of you and said, "I want to keep my love on the top of rock for ever and worship him up there." Is there any way to safely capitalize on being her golden calf or should you make a new plan, Stan?
- At 31:23 - You're a clown. I won't let your glad expression, give me the wrong impression. A world-wide creepy clown craze is ruining your business. Department stores are removing clown costumes from their shelves, McDonald's put Ronald on ice, and now Batman, or someone dressed like the caped crusader, is chasing clowns in Cumbria, England. What PR moves are you taking when no one's around, to prevent the tears of a clown?
- At 35:20 - You're Russell Crowe. According to TMZ, you kicked rapper/singer Azaelia Banks out of your cozy hotel room dinner party for laughing at your music and calling you and some guests "boring white men" before dropping ‘n-bombs' and describing bloodbath straight out of a Quentin Tarantino flick. Banks has a different version of the story: you called her the n-word, choked her, threw her out and spit on her. Do you need to play Rashomon and add your side of the story?
- At 37:58 - You're Donald Trump. Your former political advisor, Roger Stone, tweeted "It turns out the entity with which I signed a non-disclosure agreement for the #Trump campaign was never legally constituted #invalid". Do you interpret this as a threat and if so, do you handle your business, live and in public, if you will?
- At 47:31 - TEACHABLE MOMENT: You're an airline. Multiple accounts of black passenger mistreatment, ranging from a woman being ejected from an United flight for wearing a Marvel Superhero "Black Panther" hat to Delta flight attendants rejecting black female doctors on separate flights from assisting sick passengers, lit up the internet last week. Other than requiring comic book reading and marathon Grey's Anatomy sessions, what steps can you take to educate your employees before their ignorance provides a PR nightmare from thirty-thousand feet?
- At 55:23 - EUGENE'S LOST BATTALION/PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH