PR and marketing lessons from Muhammad Ali
The world has suddenly awakened to the fact that Muhammad Ali may have been more than Heavyweight Champion: He may have been a Great Man. What was the source of his appeal?
After winning an Olympic gold medal in boxing at the 1960 Olympics in Rome as an 18-year old amateur, Ali—then known as Cassius Marcellus Clay—defeated Sonny Liston in 1964 to become heavyweight champion of the world.
Ali’s words and actions made him an icon of both the civil rights and antiwar movements, but he also faced enormous backlash. Throughout, though, he kept his convictions. “The heart of the champion is this: One never repudiates one’s deepest values, one never gives in,” Joyce Carol Oates wrote in The New York Times.
Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984, a disease that sometimes results from head trauma in boxing. Throughout his illness, he made public appearances advocating his convictions on religion, race, freedom and justice.
Ali was among the first, and arguably the greatest, of the self-promoters and trash-talkers. Ali taught many marketing and public relations lessons. His principles can be applied to corporations, not-for-profit organizations and individuals:
Identify your values and convictions.
Live them every day and proclaim them.
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