The legend himself, Samuel L. Jackson, made a visit to Reddit this week in an effort to raise money and awareness for the non-profit Alzheimer’s Association. Jackson encouraged redditors to submit 300-word scripts on his r/movies subreddit post. At the end of the contest, Jackson promised to read the highest upvoted script as a monologue, which can be viewed below.
From a public relations perspective this idea is gold. It’s fun, engaging and gives anyone who wants to participate a chance to hear Samuel L’s iconic voice read their written, stolen or borrowed script. Mashable explained that Jackson also teamed up with Prizeo, an organization that works with celebrities and charities to award donors with the chance to win big prizes. Those who donate as little as $3 to his Prizeo page have a chance to sit down with Jackson in the UK for a muthaphukkin’ all expenses paid lunch!
He could’ve just went on Reddit to do the typical promotional run like every other celebrity, but he branched out in an effort to connect with the movie nerds on Reddit and the community as a whole. It’s a case study we can all appreciate as public relations practitioners. He identified his target audience, engaged them actively with a well-executed campaign and made a call to action asking interested users to donate.
I’ve respected this man as an actor for many years, but this effective PR effort is why he will go down as one of the all-time greats.
Brad Walker 