NEW YORK: Hot on the heels of its newfound media accessibility (PRWeek, August 16), the United Nations has enlisted David Finn to pitch film and TV concepts about the organization to Hollywood.
NEW YORK: Hot on the heels of its newfound media accessibility
(PRWeek, August 16), the United Nations has enlisted David Finn to pitch
film and TV concepts about the organization to Hollywood.
Finn, the chairman and CEO of Ruder Finn, has been working closely with
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to bring about changes in the perception
of the intergovernmental body. He is said to believe that the only way
to affect a major transformation of the UN’s public image is to put the
organization smack in the center of the mainstream media - not unlike
the way that MASH put Vietnam on the public agenda in the 1970s.
Finn, consulting for the UN on an informal and pro bono basis, has been
examining its attempts to project a more positive image, and has
concluded that stories in the press have failed to generate public
interest in the UN’s mission.
’What is needed is some kind of major breakthrough,’ he said. ’It was
only when Schindler’s List came out that the public’s attitude toward
the Holocaust shifted.’
Finn refused to say how far talks on a possible TV or film treatment had
progressed, but acknowledged that he has been in contact with studios
and networks as well as PBS.
- See analysis, p9.
