Welcome to If I Did It: the show where we discuss PR kerfluffles from the world of MMA and beyond. This week we look at the ongoing feud between Dana White and the flyweight champion and much much more.
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 OXBOW’s new record THIN BLACK DUKE) and I, Kid Nate 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:
You’re UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. UFC President Dana White told TMZ Sports, live and in public, if you will, that you were lying about your UFC marketing and money problems. “He wanted up front money, no pay-per-view. He wasn’t very confident in his abilities to sell pay-per-views. He has the lowest selling pay-per-view in the history of the UFC in the modern era.” The UFC’s failure to market you? “We built a TV show around him. The Ultimate Fighter was about what an incredible fighter he is. We’ve put him on FOX many times and tried to build him, and it is what it is. It’s not me.” The claim that the UFC would shut down the flyweight division if you didn’t fight bantamweight TJ Dillashaw? “We’ve been talking about shutting down the flyweight division for about three years…It has nothing to do with Demetrious.” What is your next PR move in the UFC Civil War?
You’re the Public Theater. Your Donald Trump-themed rendition of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar caught the ire of conservative website Breitbart. A corporate backlash followed with two of your sponsors, Delta and Bank of America, withdrawing an estimated seven figures worth of support of your company. Men are sometimes, masters of their fates, so what can you do as other companies cry havoc and let slip their funding, I mean, dogs of war?
You’re HBO. At the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, actress Alison Brie recounted the gross, misogynistic auditioning process for your Entourage show. And contrasted it to the casting environment of her new Netflix show GLOW. How should you respond to the outrage?
What can UK Prime Minister Theresa May learn from MMA?
TEACHABLE MOMENT: You’re First Term Rhode Island State House Representative Ramon Perez. Last week, the House Finance Committee had a hearing and you wanted to be a helper. So you printed and distributed a screen grab from your computer….which accidentally had pornographic page tabs at the top. What moves can you make to rebrand yourself as a different kind of “fresh man” than your web surfing suggests?
KID NATE’S HEEL TURN
EUGENE’S LOST BATTALION
THANKS FOR JOINING US. FOLLOW US on Twitter @eugeneSrobinson, @kidnate,@alexeiauld. PLEASE GIVE THIS A THUMBS UP and leave comments on YouTube, read Eugene at Ozy.com and be sure and check out all three of us on Amazon.com
“We’ll be back next week with another installment of If I Did It and we don’t know what we’ll be talking about yet because the PR mistakes have yet to be made.”