Public Relation Political Environment President Obama Recently

Public Relation Political Environment President Obama recently publicized support gay marriage. While acknowledging power legislate marriage rests states federal government, Obama's announcement historic marked time a sitting President publicly supported gay marriage

To Katzenberg & Spielberg

Re: Support for gay marriage

Recently, some members of the DreamWorks family have raised objections regarding the proposed support for President Obama's reelection campaign in light of Obama's declared support for gay marriage. While no endorsement, particularly by a family-friendly organization such as DreamWorks should be undertaken lightly, from a PR standpoint the support of the Obama campaign will not harm the reception of the company's output and in fact might even be an asset,

First and foremost, Obama support's for gay marriage is merely rhetorical. Obama's personal beliefs have little impact in terms of what is actually passed by the states. Obama's articulated support will not strike down the recently-passed North Carolina amendment defining marriage as solely existing between a man and a woman. The voting public will be far more concerned about the President's attitude towards economic policy and job creation than this narrow issue that tends to be emphasized much more by right-of-center and left-of-center interest groups.

Secondly, there is the value of tolerance, which DreamWorks has always embraced. Our films support an inclusive agenda, encompassing persons of all faiths, ethnicities, religions, and abilities. Even if parents are not Obama supporters, they likely want to take their children to films that do not support homophobia. DreamWorks' support of the first African-American president and his support of gay marriage would be keeping in line with our values. The President's opponent, Mitt Romney, in contrast, has a public image that is not in keeping with the values of DreamWorks. Recently, it was disclosed that Romney engaged in bullying a fellow student while in high school and he is famous for mistreating his dog. Supporting Romney's opponent, in light of these charges, is not likely to prove controversial.

There is also the issue of DreamWorks' target audience. A recent poll shows that "opposition to allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally" has fallen from "60% to 43% since 2004, while support has increased from 31% to 43%" (Blumenthal 2012). The majority of opponents come from older Americans who are not part of DreamWorks' target audience and even then: "support for gay marriage has increased from 30% to 40% among baby boomers, and even among seniors (from 18% to 32%)" (Blumenthal 2012). Parents of young children fall into the younger demographic of supporters, and it is they who likely have the ultimate veto power over what films their children see or do not see. Another separating factor is race. African-Americans are more likely to oppose gay marriage, although even in this arena, opposition is less strident than in the past. Also, even if they oppose the President on this issue, they support him in high numbers in general, so this is not a major PR concern.