For Kenny Chesney and others, promotion in a pandemic is a quandary
Kenny Chesney was supposed to take the stage last month in his signature straw hat and weathered boots at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The event was designed to help kick off an album, “Here And Now,” on which he had worked for about three years.
Instead, the country singer introduced his new songs in a baseball cap and flip-flops on Facebook Live from his Nashville, Tennessee, basement.
At a time when they hoped to build audiences for new work, artists like Chesney have found themselves stymied, often stuck in their homes, and wrestling with a difficult, delicate conundrum: How to promote their achievements without appearing to dismiss the centrality of the coronavirus outbreak?
“People are dying,” Chesney said in an interview by email. “So many people lost people they loved. And I have a record?”
Actors Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones faced a similar issue. Both in their 20s, they were supposed to walk their first red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival in April to mark the release of their new Hulu series “Normal People.” Never happened.
Neither did the San Antonio Book Festival, where Sarah Menkedick, an author, was supposed to talk about her new work of nonfiction, “Ordinary Insanity: Fear and the Silent Crisis of Motherhood in America.”
“It felt a little ridiculous to go, ‘Oh my book tour was canceled’ — it was so beside the point,” Menkedick said. At the same time, she added, “you work on something for four years and it disappears in four seconds.”
As these artists realize, their predicaments were hardly worth cuing the violins at a time of rampant death and unemployment. But the opportunities lost, while marginal in the greater scheme of things, are no less real.
In the best of circumstances, given the intense competition for media interest, there is typically a very short window of time in which to make a public impression. Now, when people are distracted by a global health crisis and the future feels unknowable, the approach to promotion has to be more nimble — and tasteful.
“Don’t think you’re more important than the larger issue going on in the world,” said Ronn Torossian, a public relations consultant, adding that “the luxury of planning is impossible.”
The sui generis circumstances have required creative projects to pivot to a whole new publicity strategy, experts say. Play to the moment — promote a cookbook in quarantine; postpone a dress-for-success guide until people start returning to the office.
Emphasize engagement, a new project’s potential to entertain and enlighten. Be sensitive in the messaging; humor may not go over so well, given the seriousness of the moment.
Avoid the hard sell. Not only can aggressive marketing seem distasteful right now, but it’s also unnecessary when it comes to books, television shows and music albums, which people are already gravitating toward for respite.
“People who are anxious often find release in the narrative escape and transportation that the arts provides, finding emotional and spiritual solace in the stories and experiences of others,” said Jill Avery, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. “My sense is that launching new projects in this environment would be well received by consumers, who have more leisure time to enjoy them in the comfort and safety of their homes.”
The coronavirus outbreak did not wipe everything off the calendar; Mescal and Edgar-Jones were featured on the “Late Late Show With James Corden” as well as the BBC’s “Graham Norton Show.” But both appearances were on the computer, a less than ideal format for a flowing conversation.
Similarly, Menkedick, who was supposed to begin promoting her book on April 18, has been doing some talks online, instead of the live ones that would have taken her around the country. And while she is grateful for those opportunities, they have sometimes felt as if she is speaking into the void.
“There was no way to gauge the audience reaction and then it was over,” she said of one such virtual event. “I shut my computer in my silent house and faced a big pile of dirty dishes.”
While she has been able to interact with a few of the people on these calls, Menkedick said, “it’s not like you’re actually shaking hands with the person or talking to them in the signing line.”
The “Normal People” rollout would have taken Mescal to New York City for the first time. A nice thing, but in his case, at least, the pandemic created something no promotional tour could muster, a quarantined audience searching for diversions to the stale routines of life at home.
“Normal People” — which was released on April 26 — has received effusive reviews ( James Poniewozik in The New York Times said he “found it all moving and emotionally wrecking, in the best way.”).
In its first week, the series was the most popular current program on the BBC.
For its young stars, it has meant being discovered. “It was a big moment in my life to have got the part,” Edgar-Jones said. “When you’re starting out, you just want to get a job — what it is doesn’t matter. Hopefully now I’ll be able to have a bit more choice.”
Mescal was reported to be among the most searched people in the world this month (the chain his character, Connell, wears even has its own Instagram account, @connellschain, with more than 100,000 followers).
Chesney’s album also does not seem to have been hurt. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart this month (though his use of bundling tickets for canceled shows with CDs drew some criticism).
On May 14, the country singer — known for songs like “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” and “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” — announced that he was postponing his entire 2020 “Chillaxification Tour.”
Chesney said he felt he had no choice. “We talked to everyone you could think of — medical experts, team owners, trainers, city officials, the NFL — and could never find a real sense that it would be OK,” he said. “I promise: Nobody wants to be out there rocking with the people more than I do.”
To some extent, the subject matter of Menkedick’s book on postpartum anxiety, which was pronounced “searing” by The New York Times Book Review, has dovetailed with the virus.
Though the book focuses on motherhood fears, some on the virtual book circuit have mistakenly assumed Menkedick to be an expert on anxiety in general. But, she notes, when it comes to the coronavirus outbreak, “I’m floundering as much as the rest of us here.”
Although a planned “Good Morning America” appearance did take place, its focus changed to “What to know about postpartum anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Menkedick recalled watching it later with her husband, Jorge, and remarking to him, “My book is on the big screen in Times Square.”
To which she said her husband replied, “‘Yeah, and no one’s there.’”