When the Time 100 was released last week, our editorial team discussed how we might cover it. The context was its relation to PR, and how communicators could leverage the value of making the list.
This list is a PR person’s dream. It’s eclectic and interesting, and it covers a wide variety of human endeavor. It's global in scope. Unlike many magazine lists, the Time 100 is worth coverage and every person on the list is deserving of recognition in some form or other.
Are they the “Most Influential People in the World?” Some might be, but many are not. Why, for example are Kirsten Gillibrand and Rand Paul on the list, but not Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren? It’s all kind of random. The common denominator is that all the selections seem to be whom the coastal elites and people in the power centers of Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco are talking about. Or think they should be.
The cover of this year’s edition was Beyoncé, featured in a revealing costume and an open-mouthed expression. To me, the image didn’t convey the gravity that the list aspires to. Would other designees be posed that way? But Beyoncé has the gravitas. She was also on the list last year, after her performance at the Super Bowl. Sheryl Sandberg did this year’s writeup.
(This is a cool feature of the list—celebrities do write-ups of other celebrities. It solidifies the likelihood that the list will be the preferred dinner party conversation at not just 100, but 200 parties. Of course, it leaves the door open for questions. Did Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe make the list because he is a “bold reformer,” or because his profiler—U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew—thought that touting Abe’s economic policies might be useful?)
But back to Beyoncé. Sandberg noted that she “doesn’t just sit at the table. She builds a better one.” (This is a variation on a line from the old movie about Sting, where, when his hired musicians complain about what Sting is paying them, the response from one of Sting’s handlers is, “You might have a seat at the table, but Sting owns the table.”)
But Sandberg likes Beyoncé’s message of empowerment for young girls. “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss,” Sandberg quotes Beyoncé as saying. What I like about Beyoncé is her authenticity—there is a sense that what you see is what you get. She’s not a phony. I also like her staying power. She’s been a star since the late 1990s. That seems like forever ago. My kids loved her in the old Austin Powers movie when they were little, and they still love her for her music and style now. That is remarkable. And then there’s her sense of innovation. I’ve followed music my whole life, and I can’t remember anything as unique and unexpected as the release of a new album—a concept album complete with videos—without anyone having the slightest idea it was coming. So if you’re the communications person for any of the Time 200 (the Time 100 plus the celebrity essayists), there are three things you can take from the example of Beyoncé: Authenticity and talent beget longevity, and both beget the ability to innovate.
—Tony Silber
@tonysilber