“What’s your favourite cheese?”
Not the type of question you would expect to face from one of our current working journalist tutors during one of our media training courses.
But it was one that was faced by one spokesperson last week and his response went viral.
It was a question posed to Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, during a live question and answer session with members of the public on changing lockdown restrictions.
Let us be in no doubt: the first minister Mark Drakeford really, really likes cheese. pic.twitter.com/YlEfJLU4RD
— David Deans (@DeansOfCardiff) July 6, 2020
It is the sort of innocuous-sounding question that has tripped up many a spokesperson, but the politician seemed delighted to face a ‘fun’ question. And his response was a treat.
He said: "That's probably the hardest question I've had so far because I really like cheese, and always have since I was a tiny child and I used to walk up to my grandparents in their farm.
“One of the things I used to look forward to when I got there was the fact my grandmother would pass me a piece of cheese to eat."
He patriotically added: “Caerphilly is a cheese that I really like - that crumbly, slightly salty cheese that is Caerphilly. But actually, there's a lot of cheeses I like and I'll be eating some of it over this weekend."
That response, packed with passion and anecdotes, took social media by storm.
Find someone who loves you as much as Mark Drakeford loves cheese. 🧀
— M Δ T T (@matt_lissack) July 7, 2020
The FM providing the levels of cuteness the world needs right now.
Can’t get Mark Drakeford talking about his love for cheese out of my head, such passion
— carrie (@carriephillips_) July 8, 2020
Mark Drakeford and cheese is my new favourite thing
— Jamie Iles (@jamocardiff2011) July 7, 2020
Now, I know what you are thinking, ‘no-one is going to ask me about my favourite cheese in an interview’.
Probably not, but there are plenty of examples of spokespeople stumbling over what appear to be completely innocuous looking questions that have a personal angle.
Let me refresh your memory.
When the then Prime Minister Theresa May was asked what was the naughtiest thing she had ever done as a child, her answer was met with ridicule, memes and hashtags. The response became a distraction.
“When me and my friends used to run through the fields of wheat, the farmers weren’t too pleased about that,” was how she had answered the question after a lot of stumbling and deliberation.
Years later, people are still referencing it.
Dog walks through the fields of wheat. Channeling those Theresa May vibes 👀😂🌾 pic.twitter.com/hce7Fmuiy9
— Tamsin (@titchtamsin) July 11, 2020
When BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty asked Boris Johnson how he was ‘relatable’ to the public, the flustered Prime Minister described it as “the most difficult psychological question anyone has ever asked.”
An older, but unforgettable example, saw politician Francis Maude appear on the radio to talk about a volunteering initiative and fall apart right at the start when asked what volunteering he did.
“Um, gosh, that’s a really unfair question, cold,” he complained to the quietly deadly Eddie Mair.
And more recently Liz Truss suffered a radio interview disaster when she was asked “How have you personally been affected by austerity?” by the same journalist.
Ok, maybe that last one was a little harder than a question about cheese, but you get my drift.
And it is important to point out that these types of questions are not reserved for politicians.
You may remember, for example, when Eileen Downey, the boss of the company that owns Pontins, appeared on Watchdog after one of the show’s typical exposes.
What did presenter Anne Robinson ask her first? Was it about dirty sheets or mouldy towels? The outrage of unhappy guests or the state of the rooms? No. “Mrs Downey where did you go for your holidays this year?”, was the easy sounding question.
When she replied, somewhat confusedly, that she has been to Majorca, the presenter then took the opportunity to ask whether Ms Downey had experienced blood-stained sheets and holes in the sofa during that trip.
Journalists ask simple-looking questions like these not necessarily to trip someone up but to add colour, warmth and humanity to interviews.
If we take the volunteering question as an example, you can see why the journalist would want to avoid questions that could mean his listeners would hear planned and rehearsed responses about the initiative in favour of something that would, if answered well, add colour and interest to proceedings.
You might be talking about essential subjects such as infrastructure, healthcare or finance but a reporter will always want the human angle and asking an expert about their own experience of the issue ticks the human box. We want to know more about the people behind the message.
Effective media spokespeople can think on their feet and use media training techniques to respond to questions like these without sounding muddled, fudging a response or saying something that becomes a distraction.
In fact, a common mistake we see with poorly delivered media training is people being over-prepared on a message but under prepared on the techniques and skills required to handle any question.
Here are a couple of tips from our training to help you handle these questions.
Firstly, and most importantly, we’d encourage you to share personal stories and examples that support your message at the start of the interview.
If you provide that human interest and colour that lifts interviews, then the journalist will not have to go looking for it. And you wont be asked the off-the-wall question as you will already sound authentic and open and, dare I say it, not like a media trained robot.
And secondly, do your research. There’s a reason why Eddie Mair is behind a couple of the examples we have given in this blog – he loves to ask these sorts of questions.
When you know who you will be talking to, look for past examples of their interviews, have a glance at their social media channels and become familiar with the types of questions they ask and their areas of interest.
You may not face questions about cheese on our media training courses (unless you make it), but you can expect personal questions. Try to answer them with as much enthusiasm and warmth as the Wales First Minister.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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