Braithwaite Communications

Talk about a great public relations tactic: earlier this month Bolivian President Evo Morales played soccer at 19,500 feet (6,000 meters) above sea level, on Bolivia’s highest snow-covered peak, to protest FIFA’s ban on international soccer matches played more than 2,500 meters above sea level.

In a past entry we discussed the lessons learned from Chip and Dan Heath’s book Made to Stick. Let’s analyze how this PR tactic stacks up to Made to Stick’s SUCCESs criteria:

S: Simplicity?                            Yes
U: Unexpectedness?                  Yes
C: Concreteness?                      Yes
C: Credibility?                              –
E: Emotional?                            Yes
S: Stories?                                Yes

Morales’ tactic has nearly every component of a SUCCESsful public relations endeavor. In doing so, he’s raised international attention of the issue through extensive media coverage in the New York Times, CNN, Reuters, and BBC, to name a few. Perhaps even more importantly, Morales has united a politically divided Bolivia in the name of soccer. He shoots, he scores one for public relations.