The (Unofficial) Gleek’s Guide to PR

If you’re a public relations student and a total Gleek, this is the mashup you’ve been waiting for!

“Glee,” a hit musical dramedy series that ran from 2009 to 2015, is still as captivating and culturally relevant as ever. Over the course of six seasons, glee club director Mr. Will Schuester teaches countless valuable lessons to his group of musical misfits – and we’ve learned a bit along the way, too.

Season 1, Episode 17, “Bad Reputation” explores how relationships and reputations are intertwined. We have a lot to cover, so let’s get started on this week’s assignment: becoming better communicators while watching “Glee.” 

Here’s a ‘Glisticle’ of our key takeaways:

Be Proactive in Shaping Your Public Image

Champion cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester is horrified when she discovers her privately recorded rendition of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” has gone viral on YouTube and become the laughingstock of McKinley High. Overcome with shame and embarrassment, Sue doesn’t have her usual zeal for terrorizing the glee club. She bows down from her typical stance as apex predator – that is, until the star singer herself, Olivia Newton-John, reaches out, praising the video. Hoping to improve her song’s reputation, she offers Sue the opportunity to reshoot it as a duet. The new music video catapults Sue to a spot in the top 700 recording artists, and her confidence – or villainy, depending on who you ask – is restored. 

Like Sue, public relations professionals can’t always predict a brewing crisis. However, it’s important that we strive to keep a voice in the conversation, own our choices and take every opportunity to showcase our best selves.

Be True to Yourself 

After Sue’s video is stolen and uploaded online, she marches down to Principal Figgins’ office to show him a “Glist,” which was posted by someone in the glee club. The Glist ranks students in the glee club from most to least promiscuous.

Principal Figgins demands that Mr. Schuester finds out who made the Glist. If he doesn’t, glee will cease to exist, and all of its members will be punished. 

When Mr. Schuester confronts his students, many of them are disappointed to realize they were left off the Glist altogether. The non-qualifiers, including Kurt, Mercedes, Tina and Artie, believe it would be better to be perceived as dangerous than to be forgotten. Kurt begins to scheme, saying, “What does a C-lister do when their tiny star is about to fall off Perez Hilton’s radar screen? They cause a scandal so extreme they can no longer be ignored.” 

With the help of Brittany, who earned a top-five spot on the Glist but believes she should be placed higher, they conspire to put on an audacious and disruptive production of “U Can’t Touch This” in the school library. Unfortunately, the students’ sweet moves and noisy vocals don’t get the reaction they had hoped for. Instead of reprimanding these bad eggs, the librarian invites them to perform the number at her church.

So, why wasn’t this mini flash mob successful in improving Kurt, Mercedes, Tina, Artie and Brittany’s social standing? It all comes down to authenticity. Although it was fun to watch, this stunt seemed somewhat out of character. The only believable aspect of it is the fact that musically raiding the library was the most unhinged scandal these students could come up with.

Never sacrifice your character for the sake of publicity. Also, don’t cause a ruckus in the public library, even if you’re wearing M.C. Hammer pants. Outside of McKinley High, this behavior is generally frowned upon.

Rebrand Responsibly and Remember Your Relationships 

In light of the Glist, Mr. Schuester challenges the glee club to find songs with bad reputations and restore them throughout the week. Rachel, who is arguably the most image-obsessed member of the New Directions, is thrilled by this assignment, even after she and the other students are forced to watch Mr. Schuester rap “Ice Ice Baby” as a demonstration.

Rachel decides to recreate the 1975 story song “Run Joey Run,” which features two main characters named Julie and Joey. Naturally, she takes the role of Julie, the doomed demoiselle. She offers the part of Joey to Puck, saying, “The fact is that slumming it with me actually improved your reputation. It gave you a sense of humanity.” Puck usually embraces his ‘bad-boy’ essence, but this time, he doesn’t seem to be completely opposed to enhancing his reputation. Reluctantly, he accepts.

The final cut of Rachel’s music video sends a shockwave through the glee club when it reveals that Puck isn’t the only Joey she chose. To appear more promiscuous, Rachel triple-cast the role, also featuring her current boyfriend, Jesse, and her ex-boyfriend, Finn. Everyone is appalled by her disregard for others’ feelings, and Jesse’s heart is broken.

Although the purpose of this assignment was to reinvent good songs that received bad press, Rachel’s true motivation was to reinvent herself. Rebranding can be an amazing process for companies and individuals alike, but Rachel let her ambition overtake her mission, jeopardizing her close relationships and compromising her role as a leader. 

When making key alterations to your brand, personal or otherwise, be sure to consider how it might affect your stakeholders. If you find yourself in a situation where your next steps will damage their trust, turn around and run (Joey run) away from that decision.

Always Apologize, Take Accountability and Prove it With Action 

As an act of goodwill (or another enraged fit of retaliation against the glee club), Sue approaches the school’s guidance counselor and Mr. Schuester’s girlfriend, Emma Pillsbury, to expose the glee club director’s debauchery. In previous episodes, he had brief flings with two other women, unbeknownst to Emma. Sue encourages her to call Mr. Schuester out in a public setting, so she finds him in the teachers’ lounge and loudly berates him in front of the staff. 

Later, Mr. Schuester stops by Emma’s office with a bouquet of flowers. His apology starts off on the right foot – he admits his wrongdoing, takes accountability for his mistake and swears to do better in the future. But then, Emma says she can’t forgive him yet, and he responds selfishly. “But Emma,” he pleads, “This is killing me.”

Good apologies must be executed with sincerity and genuine remorse. If they come across as self-serving, the problem will be even more difficult to resolve. Furthermore, it’s not enough to simply promise a change of course – you must prove your commitment through every choice going forward. 

Is a Bad Reputation Better than No Reputation? 

Grappling with the rejection of his apology to Emma, Mr. Schuester sulks down the hallway until he runs into Quinn, the former star cheerleader who was cut from the squad after the news of her pregnancy broke. She faces her locker as other students putter around, passively bumping into her like clown fish swimming through an anemone. Having once been McKinley’s queen bee, Quinn’s solitude is all the more apparent. Mr. Schuester’s own misery causes him to experience a surge of empathy for her, and the mystery of the Glist culminates when he realizes Quinn is the one behind it.

“I mean, it takes years to build a good reputation,” Mr. Schuester reminds her, “but only seconds to destroy it.” 

Sick of feeling invisible, Quinn says, “A bad reputation is better than no reputation at all.”

Is it?

This question is surprisingly difficult to answer. Some believe that bad publicity can be leveraged, reframed or monetized for the subject’s benefit – any attention is good attention. While that may be true in some cases, such as the “Physical” storyline, it’s not a sustainable way of thinking. Sue’s collaboration with Olivia Newton-John came out relatively quickly after her embarrassing video was leaked, so she was able to quickly redirect the attention to her advantage. However, there’s an obvious difference when gaining negative publicity for harmless conduct and destructive behavior. Truly bad reputations tend to stick and have lasting consequences. In this episode, Rachel achieves the perception she wanted – but at the cost of her relationships with Jesse, Finn and Puck. It takes her a long time to not only make amends but understand the gravity of her actions. Visibility is important, but chasing it at the expense of your values and meaningful connections will inevitably lead to long-term problems. 

To close this article on a high note, recall the lyrics of “Ice Ice Baby” sung earlier in this episode: “Stop, collaborate and listen.” Building relationships and listening to others is the heart of public relations. If you honor your values, right your wrongs and make strong impressions, your reputation won’t be slushied. 

And that’s how Alpha PR C’s it!