From a PR perspective, there is a lesson to be learned here. Be careful what you say publicly, choose your words wisely... but most importantly, several eyes are better than just yourself. Also, it might be wise to leave the political speech writing to the professionals.
Most everyone was initially applauding her speech, praising her for doing such a good job. The delivery was unquestionably well performed. The content and in particular the word choice(s), on the other hand, left something to be desired. The media were quick to compare the speech to Michelle Obama's back in 2008, and its similarity was tantamount to plagiarism to some degree. The media did a side-by-side (Melania 2016 vs. Michelle 2008) to support such accusations, and the findings were damning. To me, this was a PR nightmare of sorts, as the media shifted from confirming Trump's nomination to quickly taking any momentum that might develop over the week and halting it. Trump nay-sayers were given a window of opportunity to "speak their peace", opposition to his selection from those within the Republican party. The hope was that the party would unite and back Trump, but this event fueled the divisive criticism against the Trumps.
My initial impression was that someone had really "dropped the ball", a PR blunder that needed to be fixed posthaste with the firing of the speechwriter. Unfortunately for the Trumps, this couldn't happen -
The mistake of Melania's part? Writing her own speech. A "rookie mistake" of sorts - she tried to deflect the blame by saying someone had assisted her in part. That person's assistance, evidently, was not sufficient to redact commentary of substantial similarity to Michelle Obama's 2008 speech.
What could have saved her this embarrassment? Using a professional speechwriter, or having several people edit/review her speech prior to delivering it. Someone would have caught the similarity, avoid the plagiarism accusations.
This incident supports the assertion I tell my students all the time - that everyone is a prospective PR client - that with today's technologies and the social media... whether a politician, celebrity, non-profit organization or business - thing's are complicated enough that it is unwise to simply "do it yourself" where PR is concerned. Another thing the youngest generation might learn - that to some degree, the political conventions prior to the Presidential election are, primarily, huge pseudo-events designed to attain free publicity and gain momentum for the campaign of a candidate that has (almost always) already been determined. Managing public opinion and image awareness is not as easy as one might think - you need to have strategies and plans to ensure PR "success".
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