A PR Agency of Me

Weiner Shows What Not to Do When Caught with Your Pants Down

2011-06-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

This is a partisan but interesting recap on the series of events that occurred around Weinergate. Tons of PR crisis communications no-nos committed, the first of course being sending out lewd photos of yourself. To think that we trust our federal treasury to bozos like Weiner. But the main point here is that this man demonstrates everything you shouldn't do when you know you've been caught with your pants down.

The Sokol Firing and Theft of IP

2011-04-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

If I were Citibank, I'd be asking David Sokol for an investment advisory fee.

Sokol, the Berkshire Hathaway lieutenant to Warren Buffett was shown a list of takeover opps and Sokol did some front running in his account and then was forced to leave Berkshire.

In my view, Sokol stole Citibank research for his own benefit.

How often does this happen to PR professionals, where a PR team provides, as part of the bid process, ideas and strategies for the prospective client and then the client decides not to pay for the services of the PR agency? And then they adapt the strategy?

That should be considered theft of service. Do you agree?

The Tables, Turned

2011-03-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm comfortable putting my clients in the media spotlight, but when the light turns on me, much less so.

Nonetheless, a local reporter captured my work in my community in this nice story. Made my Mom proud. See the story here.

Perry's Debate Condition Gambit Pays Off

2010-11-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

The 2010 elections are over, so now the Wednesday morning quarterbacking begins.

They say actions speak louder than words, and Texas Governor Rick Perry's election seems to prove that as a PR lesson.

Perry's Democrat opponent Bill White made hay with charges in early October that Perry was using an enterprise fund to reward donors to his campaign.

Perry countered with a charge of his own, that Bill White profited from secret business deals in the wake of Hurricane Ike that took advantage of his position as Mayor. Perry refused to debate White until he released his tax forms. White refused. Perry didn't show for the debate.

Perry set himself up to be an obvious target for the Democrat and Libertarian candidates there for the debate who couldn't resist the urge to pick on Perry. Bad mistake. Perry's absence on principle made him look like an innocent bystander that was getting knocked by Lilliputians.

Essentially, Perry waged a rope-a-dope strategy that paid off. Despite negative press for his no-show, Perry made the point that White had something to hide and wouldn't be a trustworthy governor. Critics could say what they want to about the Enterprise Fund, but at least it was transparent, something that White was not.

Interesting PR play.

BP Missteps Display Wisdom of Staying on Message, Getting Local

2010-06-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

I and every other PR agent tell their clients to "Stay on Message" or suffer the consequences. When Barrack Obama strays from his message the United States suddenly has 57 states.

So too did the BP folks stumble today, with the chairman saying "We care about the small people." What a horribly snobbish thing for a Brit to say. Can you imagine what the French descendants in Louisiana are saying in response?

Which leads me to wonder whether the British folks did any media training before this prime time media opportunity? I mean U.S. media training, letting a group of American PR people listen to what they, the British officials, wanted to say and the words they would use. I'd guess not if idioms like 'small people' got through.

Which is a prime media lesson: Always work with your PR people to decide what sounds right and what doesn't. And if you go to a foreign country be sure to get some in-country advisors. Or else you'll dig yourself deeper and suffer a gusher of negative opinion.

And about that oil well...

Plain Language Please!

2010-04-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

This Yahoo news story demonstrates how jargon enters the words we use and replaces real meaning. For example, when writing resumes, the author recommends deleting "Strong work ethic" and replace it with more details that are pertinent to the job you are trying to land: "I taught myself HTML over a weekend in order to grab a marketing opportunity." In other words, replace the jargon with real life stuff. That's a key to effective writing, but it involves some work. Jargon acts shortcuts to meaning, but if you're an employer, do you want to hire someone who has trained themself to be superficial or someone who digs into the details?

That's the choice we have as writers for clients. Do we want to give them marketing pablum or do we want to scratch and dig and really give their readers a deeper appreciation of our clients' products and services? I think the latter.

Check Out My Movie Review

2009-12-05T19:43:00.000-08:00

I published a movie review about Sunshine Cleaning on American Thinker. Give it a read!

Diego - Stud Service

2009-11-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

I've had several bad experiences with Craigslist, not least of which was their policy to remove my listing of my AKC registered dog, Diego, for stud service.

I guess it's okay for them to advertise all types of illicit sexual services, but try to mate a dog to further an awesome breed and you wind up in trouble with the Craigslist censors. I know why they have their misguided policy, but I won't go there...

What was weird -- and fantastic -- was that for the short amount of time that my listing was up (probably less than 12 hours), a good man from Bastrop found the listing and noted the details. Six or eight months after Craigslist pulled the ad, he called me and we successfully bred two great dogs, Baby and Diego. See Diego and the pups at this YouTube video.

Now, I'm going to try a mixed media advertisement to try to stud Diego again, with an advertisement in the Austin American Statesman that links to this blog. I'll let you know how it works.

If you are interested in Diego serving as a sire, please respond with an email.

Fish Pictures

2009-10-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write this blog for a while, since my vacation in August, but just haven't gotten around to it till now.

One of the photos on the left column of this blog has me holding up three fish. What was interesting to me was that the guide insisted that I tuck my elbows in and hold the fish forward.

It's an unnatural position. I would have been much more comfortable holding the fish to my sides. The guide asked that I hold them forward. The guide nows the value of PR -- and how to execute it for his business.

So, the effect of that unnatural photo is to make the fish look bigger, being as they are in the foreground with little comparative scale because they aren't next to or near me.

The PR professional could learn something from fish photos. Put the important object up front. Be mindful of the effects of scale and comparison.

And most importantly -- SMILE!

Kraft Foods Demonstrates Continuing Value of Printed Materials in Online World

2009-09-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

A Wall Street Journal story, "Kraft Foods Brings Readers to a Boil," reminds PR practictioners of the value of printed materials.

The story, written by Ilan Brat, says that:

Until this summer, the food company mailed out the magazine free to 10
million subscribers. Recently, though, it began charging subscribers $13.98 for
an annual subscription to four issues, which brim with recipes calling for Kraft
products....

Kraft, the world's second-largest food conglomerate by revenue, after Nestlé SA, became a publishing pioneer in the food industry when Irene Rosenfeld, now its chief executive, launched a predecessor magazine in 2000 while running Kraft's Canadian business, according to the company. The magazine was so successful in Canada that Kraft adopted it in the U.S. in the fall of 2001. The magazine is published in English, Spanish and French versions in North America.
Some readers have said they would pay for Food & Family. Reading
the printed magazine provides the opportunity "to sit and relax and get at least
a few new recipes," wrote sportette on the message board. It's "cheaper than a
movie these days."

Whatever you think of Kraft's attempt to ask readers to pay for their advertising vehicle, it's important to note that the magazine has been successful in achieving its goals. Of course the company is trying to find ways to cheapen the cost of producing the magazine (by putting it online for free or charging for the print edition). But that shouldn't cause us to miss the fact that hard-copy published content -- as old fashioned as it may seem -- is still an effective marketing and communication mechanism.

Indeed, the current chief executive may have launched herself to that position (at least in part) by introducing the company to the effectiveness of published materials.

Will Team-Color Bud Cans Cause Backlash?

2009-08-21T11:47:00.001-07:00

Today’s Wall Street Journal carries a story about Anheuser-Busch’s decision to color their Bud Light cans in the same hues as college football teams and to market the colors with an ad slogan “Show your true colors with Bud Light.”

Surely Anheuser-Busch knows the dangerous waters they tread and are anticipating the wave of accusations of ‘irresponsibility’ they will face from the likes of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other anti-drinking advocacy groups. It will be interesting to watch their responses to those claims, and to see whether they had planned for such criticisms with proactive messaging, or whether AB is reactive to claims.

If they weren’t prepared, AB should fire their PR and advertising agencies for gross negligence.

White House Does the PR Two Step

2009-08-19T08:00:00.001-07:00

Today’s lessons in bad public relations come straight from the White House.

The New York Post story “’Public’ Humiliation: Prez in Double-Flip on Health Option,” shows the danger of ad-libbing (that’s what it has to be considered now, right?) and then back-tracking. Here’s what happened.

On Saturday, at a town hall meeting, Obama said:

"The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health-care reform," he said. "This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it."

Pretty unambiguous. The President signals that the public option is not important to the overall goal of healthcare reform. It’s just one part of it, he said.

Then Tuesday Obama’s spokesperson Robert Gibbs says:

The administration's position is unchanged," Gibbs insisted in a testy exchange yesterday during which he handed one reporter exact quotes to read from previous speeches.
"The president prefers the public option as a way of doing that," he said. "If others have ideas, we're open to those ideas and willing to listen to those details. That's what the president has said for months."

The president may have said that for months, Mr. Gibbs, but he didn’t say that on Saturday.

Which is it?

This is the kind of backtracking that costs PR professionals and their clients a lot of wasted time and effort. It forces the public to lose trust and second guess your motives and what you’ll do next. It violates the “clear signals” rule of good public relations. Stay consistent. Stay on message. If you change your message in the least, people will pick up on it and then pull it apart if they are in opposition to it.

So, work with a PR professional on your message and stick to it – or suffer the consequences. This is the same sort of thing that happened to David Letterman a while back with his non-apology apology, and then backtracking. It’s very debilitating and can cause your effort, your company, your marketing effort great setbacks.

Microsoft Photosynth Is Fun to Play With

2009-08-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

On my recent trip to Crested Butte, CO, I decided to take a couple of sets of photos that could be used with Microsoft's Photosynth program, to create 3-d like images out of a series of photos rotated around a subject.

Here's a Photosynth of St. George Slaying the Dragon in a park near where we stayed. Neat!

Here's a panaroma of Lake Irwin and the Anthracite Mountains just outside Crested Butte.

Sawtelle Story Ends Overwrought

2009-08-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

So, I liked "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" and finished it last night. Big book 556 pages. Can't believe I read the whole thing.

While I liked the book, the ending grasped at a lot of metaphysical metaphor without much of a coherent ideology, which I guess is appropriate for the times.

But I can't help but comment that, while some of the word crafting and scenes in the book were occasionally moving others fell flat. Try this:

The woman lay sprawled on the heat-curled grass between the house and fire, deaf to their calls, deaf to the cries of the blind man standing over her, ignorant and insensate, as though she had departed her body and left it heaving on the shores of the world. Those who understood saw that the time inside her had been boiled away by the heat of the fire and, if anything, thought she might be transformed into a swan or a dove.

There's a lot that can be said about those two sentences, especially their fit into the context of much of the rest of the book. But when I read it, and read it again, I thought it completely overwrought and overly dramatic, as though the author David Wroblewski has a movie ending in mind, with a made-up middle-aged Drew Barrymore overacting.

Anyway, the moral to the story here is that whether writing a novel or writing a press release, be sure not to overstep the boundaries of the material. You could end up looking like Drew Barrymore.

The Art of Turning the Great Phrase

2009-08-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'm on my first day of vacation today, reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" in the shadow of Mt. Crested, Colorado, trying to take a step back from the hustle and bustle and my workaday world.

Truly it's been a while since I undertook reading a work of fiction, but in this case I'm thoroughly enjoying this book, the recommendation of my sister.

I was struck by a great sentence: "The muzzle comes hunting again, tunnels beneath his blanket, below the farmers and the pigs and chicks and cows dyed into that cotton world."

It's a sentence describing the dog Almondine venturing into baby Edgar's crib, sniffing the new addition to the pack. It's a great sentence.

It reminds me that the work of PR people is to make sure they stay ever on the quest for the great sentence that describes their clients' goods or services or positions on matter. Turning a great phrase is what we get paid for. Never forget it.

Strategic Public Relations: New Book Non-Review

2009-08-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

My Costco connection magazine again carries a brief story worth commenting on.

The story on a new book, "Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR" is by Costco members Jennifer Gehrt and Colleen Moffitt. The principles are:

1. Sell PR to key stakeholders within your company
2. Select your PR team wisely
3. Know your target audience and how to reach them
4. Leverage emerging trends and technologies
5. Develop a strategic PR plan
6. Craft a compelling story
7. Build media relationships for strategic advantage
8. Maintain an open information flow
9. Measure and merchandise your results
10. Keep your PR program relevant over time

I think I'll revisit these principles in the future and add some of my own thoughts on them.

Is Obama Ruining the Value of Town Hall Meetings?

2009-07-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Public relations practitioners often utilize Town Hall meeting to bring everything out in the open, a "marketplace of ideas" type of venue.

Obama's overuse and outright manipulation of the medium might just be undermining its credibility for everyone.

Take a look at the tone in a couple of reports about his July 1 town hall meeting in Northern Virginia about healthcare. This first one is from the Obama-friendly Washington Post:

President Obama offered a wonkish defense of his embattled health-care reform effort during an hour-long town hall meeting in Northern Virginia yesterday that featured seven questions, including one sent via Twitter and several from a handpicked audience of supporters....
In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration's new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for "tweets."
The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.

The Obama-unfriendly Michelle Malkin noted in her column the audience's own sense of shame at its participation in the dog-and-pony phony show:

Chicago consigliere and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett managed the floor and human props for Obama. In a telling moment as the event kicked off, she protested a wee bit much: "I want to emphasize that the president has not seen the questions ahead of time." The audience responded with polite laughter.

The blogosphere prides itself on being an authentic marketplace of ideas, possibly the last true one as the Town Hall meeting suffers blows to its credibility and a sense of skepticism grows about its value.

Good public relations efforts utilizing either the blog or the town hall meeting need to be authentic, and to be so, they better know their stuff backwards and forwards.

Letterman Apologizes Again – Demonstrates Why First Time Apologies Better Be Good

2009-06-16T09:05:00.001-07:00

As a follow-up to last week’s post on “Apologies Gone Bad,” here’s a great blog entry about what has gone on in the last few days, with Letterman’s actual video segments.

First lesson: Anything caught on video or recorded these have a long shelf life, so be sure of your media presence.

Second lesson, insincere “I really didn’t do anything wrong” apologies spring from a certain arrogance associated with our pride and we all should try to avoid acting out from that mindset, as difficult as it might be. Letterman, in Monday’s show, did his best to be humble, but it was obvious he was still struggling with it. And the viewer is left wondering whether, with all the mental gymnastics and rationalizations, Letterman is truly humbled and sorry, or whether it’s act. The audience isn’t sure when and where to react, because the signals Letterman sends are questionably genuine.

If your company ever needs to issue an apology, make sure it comes from a sense of humility at the situation, not arrogance that’s been borne of pride. This is a good lesson for public relations professionals.

Letterman Suffering Bad PR from Poor Handling with a Non-Apology Apology

2009-06-12T12:27:00.001-07:00

I quit watching Letterman a long time ago – he’s just not that funny and is long in the tooth.

His comments the other day about Governor Sarah Palin’s daughter are demonstrative not just of Letterman’s decline as a dirty old man, but also as a PR apology gone bad, further exacerbating his problems.

Let’s recap: Letterman lame attempt at a joke began with the fact that Palin and her 14-year-old daughter attended a Yankees game. Letterman’s ‘joke’ ostensibly was intended to mock the unwed teen pregnancy of the now 18-year-old daughter. That’s giving Letterman the benefit of the doubt, as it was clear to him and others that it was the younger daughter who attended the game with Sarah Palin.

After being called on the carpet for his “lets-get-the-Palins-no-matter-who-gets-hurt” remark, Letterman “said on his show Wednesday that he would "never, ever make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl" and admitted to being guilty of poor taste. No matter that he did make the joke.

And his non-apology apology rang hollow with Mother Palin, who on Friday gained the upper hand on Letterman by demonstrating just how low-brow and demeaning his ‘comedy’ has become, if he has to stoop to such lows of making light of statutory rape just to sling mud at Sarah Palin.

What he’s really guilty of is insensitivity to the Palin family for the purpose of political axe-grinding. He can’t admit that, of course. And he’s paying the price because he did not issue a sincere apology. He issued a rationalization. He wasn’t sensitive to the Palins even if his rationalization were true. How is it funny to make fun of a teenage mother, no matter her age?

Of course, not doing so would require him to have some humanity, to respect human dignity and to put basic respect for his fellow being above his desire to send out a zinger for a cheap laugh (that pads his pocketbook). He doesn’t respect human dignity and has no respect for his fellow human being. He never has, and he has taken that mocking sense of depravity all the way to the bank with the millions who’ve watched him over the years (even though that’s declining, as more people intuitively are repulsed by his descent into dementia).

Take some advice, Dave. Get off TV. It’s time for retirement. Your mean nature and failure to be a good human were put on display for all to see with this sordid episode, especially because you can’t issue a sincere apology. You know in your heart you’re not sorry.

And basically, you just ain’t funny no mo and you know it.

The lesson here is that if you’re in PR trouble, don’t dig yourself deeper with a non-apology apology. Either be sincere or don’t even bother.

Odd PR Play with Xerox CEO Switch

2009-06-01T07:41:00.001-07:00

My June issue of Costco Connection features a front cover interview story of Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy, the woman who on May 22 stepped down as CEO but retained her position as chairman.

Magazines like Costco Connection are long lead, meaning they probably interviewed Mulcahy in February – and Xerox’s PR agency obviously didn’t think there would be any problem with the timing of the featured article – even though Mulcahy stepped down without much explanation ahead of the publication.

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal story said the company made the announcement before a shareholders meeting and the change is set for July 1. The WSJ says the “The copier and printer company, based in Norwalk, Conn., declined to make either executive available.” No substantive reason was given for the immediacy of the action.

The Journal goes on to say that, “the two executives [Mulcahy and the new CEO Ursula Burns] had agreed more than a year ago that Xerox’s 2009 annual meeting would be an appropriate time for the transition to be announced, according to a person close to Ms. Burns.”

Obviously the PR agency didn’t get that memo from the “person close to” the new CEO.

It seems to me like there’s more to this story that will come out soon. Keep at it WSJ. Where there is smoke there’s fire.

Yucca Mountain Fight Not Over

2009-05-29T03:46:00.001-07:00

A story today in the Augusta Chronicle indicates that the Yucca Mountain fight is not over. Despite the Obama Administration’s dictate ending the site’s availability as storage for nuclear fuel, a group of nuclear power entities is kicking into gear with a PR campaign. Where do we store it?, they ask.

The Obama Administration may be vulnerable to the basic proposition that while they supposedly support clean energy, they are increasing the difficulty of producing energy from one of the cleanest sources – nuclear – except for the waste. For the stated purposes of cleaning the atmosphere by reducing CO2 waste, the Obama Administration seems at odds with their stated principle in closing Yucca.

Donald Trump Validates Right to Free Speech

2009-05-12T09:44:00.001-07:00

Donald Trump came out today to validate Carrie Prejean’s right to have an opinion that opposes the gay lobby and its media allies, like Perez Hilton. Could it be that these sorts of culture clashes between a majority of the media and the larger populace are the reason for the bankruptcies and closures of newspapers around the United States? The media is more headstrong than a donkey these days, flaming out into an obscurity of economic failure while telling everyone else how wrong they are. Odd folks sometimes.

I’m surprised by Trump’s decision quite frankly as I believe this will put him at odds with the New York media elite he has so successfully courted over the years. It’s my bet we’ll see some hit pieces on Trump as a result.

But by this action you can say that Trump is definitely more attuned to the markets that pay him than the media that will likely scorn him. Trump’s laughing his way to the bank, the media to bankruptcy.

Premiere Global Misses the Mark

2009-05-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

Solid communications channels are a vital component of the modern economy so that's why this blog is necessary.

A few weeks ago I needed to host a web conference, where my clients could see my PowerPoint deck while I talked them through it, with me controlling the pace of play of the deck. I called my current teleconference service provider, Premiere Global, and asked them how much it would cost and whether they could do it on the same day.

Premiere passed me from person to person -- with me repeating the needed service each time -- at least five times. I finally received someone who tried to work with me to get a Netspoke site set up for me. He tried to work with a technician to get a site ready for me. The guy said he'd called me back with details on how I could get started.

No call.

I did the presentation without a web conferencing solution. But I have to look into getting a new Web conferencing service that can give me flexibility. I don't need this but once every blue moon so no need for me to pay a recurring monthly charge for the option of this happening.

If any readers know of another service let me know. Please.

And Premiere -- you guys need to get your act together. Communicators need good tools. You did not prove yourselves as a good service provider in this situation.

Anti-Gun Bias in Atlanta, Revisited

2009-05-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

A few more thoughts on the previous post about anti-gun media bias are in order because many people may not know how this typically plays out.

Anti-gun bias in the media means that the media operates from a "guns are bad" template.

Guns, in the minds of the media, can only do bad things by bad people. There is a preponderance of attention given to random shootings, robberies, etc.

But when a gun is used to do a good thing -- like protect and save nine other people from certain cold-blooded murder and rape during a home invasion by two armed thugs -- then the media goes into minimalist mode, publishing only the necessary details, focusing on the people who were shot and injured. That in my view, is what is happening in the College Park shooting of two thugs by one of their intended victims.

Typically, after a mass shooting like at Virginia Tech, various politicians are heard in the media calling for gun control and people start questioning how the murderer got the gun, that guns are too easily accessible in the United States. It's very predictable.

By the same token, what's also very predictable media coverage is that when someone fends off would-be murderers with a gun of their own, then the media is very disinterested. The event gets a few paragraphs of print space or a few minutes of TV coverage so that the media can dutifully say "We covered it, what more do you want?" But the incident is never held out by the media to give pro-2nd amendment advocates a chance to put out their viewpionts.

The event noted in the blog below occured Sunday. Today is Wednesday and the story has moved off the pages of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. No stories about the heroic victim. No interviews about the terror of nine people who survived a potential mass murder. Remember, the thugs were talking, in front of their victims, about their bullet count, to make sure they had enough to finish every one off. Imagine how you would feel toward someone who risked their life in a shootout with these types of animals? Wouldn't you want to sing their praises high and low? I know I would.

It's my bet though that if the hero is found to have been carrying the gun illegally he'll face charges and then that will be all over the news papers and TVs. After all that would serve to dissuade other law abiding citizens from defending themselves by carrying weapons. The media can't have that.

There's more to this story and I hope to dig it up.

Gun Headlines Show Anti-Gun Bias, Even When Used in Self-Defense

2009-05-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Headlines tell bias like the nose on your face.

Consider the college student who pulled a gun from a backpack and saved the lives of nine fellows in College Park, Georgia tonight from two armed robbers and would-be rapists. It appears he was wounded in the gunfight as well, but the reporting is so unclear in both the TV report and the written report that it's hard to tell.

Here's the TV headline:

College Student Shoots, Kills Home Invaders

Here's the Atlanta Journal Constitution headlines:

Very minimalmist headers, considering the drama, isn't it? The TV header is actually the most generous.

And, once you see the film clips, there's a lot of emotion missing with regard to the hero, isn't there? The hero saved his girlfriend from being raped as well. How mundane.

Don't look for this hero on the Today Show or Good Morning America or whatever. Won't happen.

Great job, hero, whoever you are! You have my deep respect.