PR 101

Beer + Girl = uh, well, I guess she'll have
quite a tale to tell in the morning.
Please mail her teeth back when you find them.

Uh, could you pass some Academy for Psychic Studies PR plan?

Oh, you don't have any either?  crap...

Anonymous said...

since srf is having problems with pr I would like to make some suggestions, maybe they could publicize their staff meetings where the cult leader berates the poor culties to do more recruiting, snd tells them she needs to make a million dollars a year

April 30, 2011 4:34 PM 

PR 101: Control the message or the message will control YOU.

Lately there's been a bunch of opinion all over the interweb about these new-fangled new-age kind of outfits.  Not a lot of it is good - meaning there are people who don't like it.  When a new-age guru packs a sweat lodge with faithful followers and makes them stay until they start dropping dead, when a chain of pseudo-religious joints attract protesters in Guy Fawkes masks and more and more speak out against the oddball beliefs and practices of new-age nitwits you might think the real world has a real problem accepting them.

The perception the real world has of new-age belief can be turned around with a little work, but new-age nurseries like BPI and the Academy for Psychic Studies have no awareness of how the real world works.  Since they can't embrace, much less understand the real world, the Academy prefers to remove all substantial information about themselves from public view to silently huddle in the shadows.

So instead of getting out in front of a potentially unfavorable story by putting out lots of feel-good PR and investing in communications that position them in the image they want for themselves, they just make simple, straightforward requests for the curious to take a class (which will run $150) or get a reading (which runs $60) or get a psychic house cleaning (for $300 to $600 per house) buy a recording, buy a book, attend a weekend retreat (for the bargain price of some $200 to sleep on the floor or receive a special healing or treatment for an appropriate donation BEFORE the curious get to know what's behind the wrought iron fence.

For the curious who are special enough (or rich enough) to "have it", they can spend $300 for a special psychic reading from one of the Witches of Ellsworth Street.  Once they have your 300 bucks, you'll get it all right: your wife will let your have it for blowing good money on a Three-card Monty game.  My suggestion: hide the lamps, frying pans, rolling pins and take a minute to file down all knives before you go to the psychic reading. It worked for me.

They tell the tale of how only the special can "have" what they offer and that only the elite can understand the mission of the organization and only the spiritually superior are worthy of their communication.  Those considered unworthy were primarily the press.

Everyone at the Academy for Psychic Studies were warned to never speak to news reporters no matter what the intent of the writer - even if his or her intent was to write a glowing and supportive article.  Their paranoia, inability to communicate except in the warped parlance of cult-speak and their overall lack of awareness of how the real world operates allowed the entire world to control their image - and that image wasn't a good one.

The Academy for Psychic Studies' initial response to my blog was to remove the videos they posted on YouTube. Over time, they slowly but surely removed their audio recordings, videos, online newspaper, radio "talk" show, internet "talk" show, public-access cable channel "talk" show and any other outlet they had to make themselves look good.

Not such a good idea.  As they were retreating from communication from the public, the public was getting a taste of the perverse and psychotic practices behind the iron gate of the Academy for Psychic Studies.

The control of marriages, the usurping of the parent-child relationship, the relentless drive for money were only a few of the dark secrets the Academy kept behind their iron curtain.  All of it appeared in newsprint, on video and between the pages of a tell-all book.

If you want details, you'll need to read Steve Sanchez's book "Spiritual Perversion" or read the print articles about the Academy for the details.  It's just too much for me to include here.

One thing that is for sure, as the Academy for Psychic Studies retreats into the shadows with the rest of the cockroaches they fire a parting shot over my bow, blaming me for their withdrawal.  They made that clear in their losing lawsuit against me, saying I forced them to become silent and withdraw their public messages.

Gee if that's all it takes, I'm going to see if I can do the same to Rush, Rachel, Bill O, Glenn (crap, someone beat me to it) and whoever else.  I'm sure those guys never have anyone say they are idiots.  So, they'll run and hide as soon as anyone says so. I mean the Academy did it, so must be true right?

The lawsuit they filed against me backfired.  Badly.  Not only were they defeated soundly, the back blast covered them in soot like the Coyote lighting up a quality Acme exploding cigar.  Now that the world knows how foolishly they behaved, half the world is laughing, the other half is winding up to let loose a massive green loogie straight at them.

The anti-cult organizations have been updated with information about the Academy - including the full text of their lawsuit and our detailed and successful anti-SLAPP motion.  They have new pictures of the key actors in that demented psycho-play as well as having refreshed information for their archives.

Since the Academy is not controlling the message, the message is controlling them.  This blog is currently the primary source of information on the Academy for Psychic Studies.

That is not my fault.  Since the Academy is silent about themselves, they are allowing the tsunami of contrary opinions and less than flattering commentary to frame their image into something they'd rather not wear in public.  Just as I wouldn't want to wear my old, worn-out 90's chic in public (which my wife insisted on) the Academy has to change their old, worn out image (which so many of us have had a lot of fun ridiculing) into something they could wear to the prom.  But I guess as none of them could get a prom date, they have no damn idea what to wear.

I hope I don't sound like I am pitying the poor fools at the Academy.  I'm not.  I am actually a little surprised. Well actually, I am not surprised as much as I am laughing so damn hard I am gasping for air.

You see, it never occurred to the Academy they had the ability to rehabilitate their image and turn their image  around right there under their noses.

There were several talented individuals affiliated with the Academy for Psychic Studies who had the skills to create and execute an effective PR plan.  I won't name them but I will say generally they had skills in the areas of film making, corporate and commercial videography, business marketing, social networking, video production and editing and many more relevant areas.  I've looked at their work myself.  It was terrific.

So with this wealth of talent, why hasn't the Academy for Psychic Studies tapped it?

Easy: a PR program was seen as a vehicle to spend money, not one to MAKE money.  So as the press was seen as an obstacle to revenue, the Witches were unwilling to see how the press can be used to create revenue.  There would be no effective PR campaign as PR requires the use of a medium the Witches reviled: the press.

Vividly showing their lack of foresight and poor business knowledge, the genius Witches of Ellsworth Street detoured those with the skills needed to effect a sorely-needed revival and polish of their image into more important endeavors such as painting a spare bedroom so boxes of discarded objects may be stored in a spiritually-meaningful way or forcing them to stay up late at night to package CD's and DVD's for customers who never arrived.

The Witches were too consumed with greed and addled with their lack of knowledge, education and good sense to see that a positive public image is the key to attracting loyal followers to the iron gate.  Of course, they'd have to remove "Arbeit Macht Frei" from above it but I suppose all gain requires sacrifice.

Looking back, I have to wonder what they were thinking.  It certainly wasn't the well being of their organization.

From what I saw, it was the Witches' penchant for surrounding themselves with as many obsequious. brown-nosing, status-seeking, soul-less and blind boot-lickers that caused them to ignore true talent for what boils down to false idolatry.  Why use people who can think independently when you have people who will gladly lick your shoes clean after you walk through a barnyard?  Why use talented people who can point out what you are doing wrong and how to correct it, when you have sycophants who bow, scrape and applaud every stupid and impractical idea you defecate?

Had that talent been unleashed and had they been able to form a cohesive PR campaign group from their pool of considerable talent without inserting the unbearable trailer park politics that permeates the Academy for Psychic Studies, I believe that group would have released a juggernaut of promotion and a polishing of image that would have rivaled a big firm's ad campaign.  It would have had the same success, too.

But no.  At a cult like the Academy for Psychic Studies, talent is not to be used - it is to be abused.  One of the people I mention was constantly reviled for their talent in the corporate area.  Another was relegated to cleaning apartments and offices after their career plans were demeaned.  So many of the rest of us were ridiculed for having personal ambitions the Academy for Psychic Studies staff, students and leaders could not and would not understand.  They all gave up their professions for the privilege of working low-level, menial jobs that barely paid a living wage and was certainly less than they were worth so they can honor the Witches with their show of loyalty to the cult over money.  Too bad the cult was honoring money more than anything else.

The highest honor at the Academy was to give up your ambitions to devote your time to serving the Academy.  Those fuckers were only happy if you had a job paying just enough to dump all of it into their bucket every payday, not when you had a real job with real responsibilities, real benefits and a real opportunity for career enhancement and advancement.  The Witches of Ellsworth value those who pay hundreds a week without fail and without thought to where the money is really going.  Even more valuable were those who became dependent on the Witches housing and attention.  Those members were in a position to dump even more money into the Witch's cauldron.

Anyone with professional skills were quickly re-directed into menial tasks designed to break their will.  Actually the tasks weren't so bad.  The Witches were the ones doing the will-breaking.  Any other pursuits such as building an organization that looked organized and operated by people who seemed professional, competent as well as personable was not on the agenda.  There were visitors to the Academy who later commented on the overall lackadaisical and haphazard operations of the place.  No staff member seemed to know the right thing to do and most of their time was spent on menial tasks and asking the leadership what to say and what to do.

Even with the constant asking for permission and asking for direction and instructions, the Academy conducted themselves like an insane asylum with people running in circles. So many of the projects and operations at the Academy were conducted sloppily, we expected anything we would undertake to become so weighed down with individuals trying to gain the attention and good graces of the Witches and the Witches giving orders that were impossible to execute.  The overall incompetence of the Witches and their most trusted lieutenants (what was that about "birds of a feather"?) just nailed those coffins shut.

I came to expect failure and complete chaos in every project after a long, protracted period of agony watching the Witches apply their ghetto logic while the followers ran in circles like headless barnyard animals.

So apart from flunking Public Relations 101, the Academy for Psychic Studies seems to be IS so incompetent, they are unable to control any more than the last dozen or so of their deluded, weary and unambitious followers.

They certainly are making no effort to control their public image - it's much cheaper and the profits more immediate to keep their followers under foot.