How the sausage is made: a p.r. firm gets credit in a Brooklyn Paper article about Atlantic Terminal mall

More than 1,000 backpacks given away at Atlantic Terminal Mall ‘Back to School Bash’ the Brooklyn Paper reported yesterday:

Several neighborhood service groups celebrated the start of the new school year with help from the Atlantic Terminal Mall at an exciting “Back to School Bash” on Aug. 27.

Outside the shopping center, parents and students alike partied with hosts YWCA Brooklyn, EmblemHealth, St. Joseph’s University, Sigma Gamma Rho and Stop & Shop.

More than 1,000 free backpacks were given out during the event, and parents were able to take their kids for free wellness check-ins and dental screenings with licensed doctors and dentists. EmblemHealth even offered students free haircuts, making them camera ready for those first day of school pictures.

Etc.

It's certainly good to give school supplies and services away, but do recognize that this is also a successful example of "earned media," i.e., unpaid news coverage that buffs the reputation of not just the organizers but the mall operators, who just may be advertisers.

That doesn't mean there wasn't a paid strategy behind the article.

To their credit, the Brooklyn Paper gave the proper attribution for the photos, which were not taken by a staff member but rather the public relations firm Rubenstein, which likely put together the press release that turned into the article.

See screenshot above right.

The kicker:

“We look forward to hosting additional community programs at Atlantic Terminal this fall,” Ehud Kupperman, director at Madison International Realty and owner of Atlantic Terminal Mall, said in a statement to Brooklyn Paper.