Charlie Sheen: A Master Class in Public Engagement?

Martha Mendillo, Seattle

This past Saturday was the opening of Charlie Sheen’s Violent Torpedo of Truth tour in Detroit (don’t worry, tickets are still available for future shows if you haven’t gotten them). 

 Yes, like many of you, I suffer from Sheen Fatigue.   Yet I am also curious about what communication blueprint the Sheen Team followed so that he was everywhere simultaneously in just moments.    

A crude timeline (pun intended) of Sheen Team tactics interestingly incorporates many of the components in Edelman's approach to public engagement. 

Edelman’s POV on Public Engagement

At Edelman we often talk about a cloverleaf model for public engagement, which includes 4 media types that overlap to create a complete media ecosystem. 

 

 Sheen’s Media Blitz

 To date, the Sheen Team (wittingly or not) has executed a three phase campaign to engage the public:

Phase 1:  Sheen takes his story to traditional media outlets such as TV and radio outlets including Good Morning America, a special edition of 20/20, Jimmy Kimmel and Howard Stern.  He is also covered exhaustively by tradigital media outlets such as TMZ, digital spy, The Huffington Post.  It is about this time that Sheen’s longtime publicist resigns because of the situation.

Phase II:  Sheen creates his own website and produces content such as Sheen’s Korner.  He embraces social media with a history-making Twitter account that breaks the Guinness World Record by reaching one million followers in 25 hours and 17 minutes.

Phase III:  The Violent Torpedo of Truth Tour is announced and co-producer Joey Scoleri says there will be a common guide followed for every performance, however there will also be audience participation and content will be customized based upon the interests of the local market.

According to Billboard, Sheen spokesperson Larry Solters said that the tour has sold close to 100,000 tickets without any paid advertising.

Reading the Tea Leaves on Saturday Night

Obviously the critics and fans will be analyzing every aspect of Saturday’s performance to determine the prognosis for the rest of the tour.  So far it’s not looking good.

Reports from the premier indicate the material was weak, lacked insight and just wasn’t entertaining.  Future reviews (and thus sales) might improve if Sheen goes back to the original game plan and connects with the audience by making nationally and locally relevant insights.  People would feel they will be getting an authentic and somewhat personalized experience.

Had Enough?

Of course, if you need an antidote to Sheen Fatigue, you might be interested in Tinted Sheen, the Charlie Sheen Browser Blocker from Free Art & Technology (F.A.T.).   This free tool will apparently black out Sheen’s name and face on your browser results.