Post by Ally Anderson
On November 13th, 2013, five-year old leukemia patient Miles Scott was granted a wish. He would spend the day as Bat Kid and save the city of Gotham (a transformed San Francisco) from the villains who tried to destroy the city. However, with a wish that attracted over 20,000 San Francisco residents and was tweeted in 117 countries around the world, many knew this wish was one that would touch the hearts of even the hardest to reach, including none other than the President of the United States.
The White House and President Obama himself made sure to make Miles Scotts wish an extra special one. Using the social media app known as Vine, the President recorded the video “President Obama has a special message for #SFBatKid” saying, “Way to go, Miles. Way to save Gotham.” This vine is the first one that the White House has featured the President himself, causing the six second video to be a very big deal. This message of support from the President follows the Public Relations theory called the Social Exchange Theory.
The Social Exchange theory involves a cost/benefit analysis to predict decisions/behavior; people makes their decisions to keep costs low and benefits high. In this case, President Obama used the low cost of taking very little time out of his schedule to film the six second video, but received high rewards with the public’s very positive response to the video. The White House took into account the costs of taking time out of the Presidents extremely busy schedule to take that extra personal step and have the President himself congratulate Bat Kid. The benefits from this decision to use the President caused immense social media response with over 7,000 re-tweets and over 4,000 favorites on the official White House Twitter page.
This example represents PR because of how the public perceived the President after viewing the video. The public saw President Obama as a much more personable public figure and a more of a regular person cheering on Miles Scott as Bat Kid. The Vine received such a huge social media response and was a very positive PR decision for the President and the White House. However, according to The Caucus, a political blog counterpart for The New York Times, not all responses to the video were positive, such as one comment saying, “You need to get off Vine and fix our country.” Yet, regardless of whether one is an Obama fan or not, there was no doubt most of the country and other parts of the world all came together to give Miles Scott the most unforgettable day of his life.
- “President Obama Thanks ‘Batkid’”: Yahoo News
- “Obama has a #BatKid signal”: CNN- “Political Ticker” “Miles’ Wish to be Batkid” Make-a-Wish Greater Bay Area
- Link to Obamas Vine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_stosqMBa9s