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“She is not a girl, and she is not a pinup.”
Susan Estrich, Columnist, on Sarah Palin, saying she hates defending her, but is annoyed at Newsweek for featuring her on the cover in running shorts.
“I am applauding Bebo …I don’t understand the logic for the others not following suit.”
Jim Gamble, of Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), saying social networking sites need a help button for children to report predators bullying.and bullies
“we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good,”
Barack Obama, conceding that the Copenhagen summit would not come up with a binding agreement on global warming.
“A portable device with an appropriate wifi connection, and a very powerful browser.”
Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s definition of a Netbook, in a broad discussion of the future of the internet.
“Huh? If you’re already a Fortune 100 company, ‘brand awareness’ is probably not your biggest problem.”
Fast Company, commenting on a study by Weber Shandwick, that says only about 3/4 of Fortune 100 companies have Twitter accounts, few follow best practices, and most are chasing after brand awareness.
“Would I be cynical if I said I believed Apple was secretly fueling the hype by leaking bits and pieces of information to raise expectations? Does it matter?”
Linda Vandevrede, at ValleyPRBlog, on the role of PR in hype, or whether it evolves in some ‘organic’ way.
“The thrill of naked guys in public aside, this marketing scheme did involve a bit of trickery.”
Advertising Age, revealing the story behind the ‘worlds’ fastest nudist’ in New York this week, who turns out to be a guy doing a stunt for Zappos, via an ad agency, Agent 16.
“Look, people the message is this: Do not tell me you cannot do this.”
Josh Bernoff, on how the Groundswell Awards, and how excellence in social media can come from anyone, anywhere.
“If there’s metadata in there, that’s public record.”
Dan Barr, attorney for the Society of Professional Journalists, on the Arizona Supreme Court decision that now requires public entities to disclose Meta Data, the ‘hidden data’ embedded in electronic records.
“A Friday afternoon news dump…”
Huffington Post on the list of visitors to the White House, released on Friday. The list includes lobbyists and prominent people
“It comes down to data and money.”
Story in Fast Company, that ‘Facebook plans to Geo-tag your life’ by linking geo-location information to users actions on the site.
Just as the aphorism goes that “there are lies, damn lies and advertising,” I wonder if it’s time for someone to come up with one about stunts –especially the PR variety.
Let me be clear. I don’t condemn stunts. In fact it might be construed as another word for ‘tactic’ or creative attempt to make a point.
So I was about to classify this latest ‘underwater cabinet meeting‘ by the President of Maldives as a stunt, but I thought I’d put the question to my readers to check the pulse first. I won’t go into the details here, suffice to say that it takes a bit of effort to get your cabinet to strip down to scuba diving suits –and anchor desks to the coral– to pull off something like this.
But back to the definition of a PR stunt. Here are some past examples that might fall into this category.
- Pole dancing in the streets of Manhattan
- Admitting to a PR stunt -charging for use of bathrooms on planes
- Boy lost in runaway balloon –a stunt that looks like an accident
I know, there are more. But for our purposes, let’s ask if promoting a cause or a brand validates the approach. Governments are quick to blame each other when an international or bilateral crisis arises, calling it a stunt, even though there had been no specific public facing activity. Headline writers find it a useful 5-letter word to spice up a story. (As in this one, that was clearly a misplaced use of money, rather than a stunt).
I would think a PR stunt is anything that
- Involves an event or a sustained activity that is staged, primarily for gaining media attention
- Is unusual or controversial
- Is connected with an extended campaign that does not involve PR or advertising. Behavior modification, for example
The first --gaming the media –can be dangerous, if done to fool the media. If the balloon incident being debated this week proves to be an act of self-promotion by wasting time and money of a sheriff’s department, that’s a dumb stunt, indeed.
The second –is often creative and harmless. The guy who dons a pizza delivery attire and ‘delivers’ his resume (attached to the box) to a marketing director, is clearly breaking out of the old method (email or mail) to get his application to the top of the pile.
The third –wins my approval, hands down. This is what all good (insert the word ‘marketing,’ ’cause promotion,’ ‘advertising’ as a prefix here) campaigns ought to be.
President Nasheed’s course of action seems more like the third category. He has a point to make, and what better way than for a leader of a country surrounded by –and threatened by– water to do this?
“the largest-ever social change event on the Web…”
CNN, on the third, annual Blog Action Day. The topic this year was climate change. According to Blogpulse, number of posts about climate change on a given day shot up by 500%
“Sometimes I feel like we’re a colony of ants who’ve come across a cell phone…”
Peter Hagoort, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. He was speaking of the way the brain processes thoughts and speech in milliseconds, but scientists still puzzle over how this happens.
“This is punitive. This is not just a matter of, ‘This is for the good of the company or the good of the nation.”
Banking analyst Nancy Bush, on the Treasury Dept, demanding that outgoing Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis returns about $1 million he received so far this year plus his $1.5 million salary for 2009
“iTunes is a pain in the posterior, and I never use it unless I absolutely have to.”
Sallie Goetsch, (she of the Podcast Asylum, a podcast and blog consultancy) in a contribution to For Immediate Release podcast
“Is print dead? No, but it just got a little less tasty.”
Jen Zingsheim, of Custom Scoop, on news that Conde Naste will be shutting down Gourmet Magazine
David Caroll has a new song, and United Airlines has a huge headache.
The airline became the reluctant promoter of a protest song when it broke –indeed smashed– Dave Carroll’s guitar. I won’t go into the story (read it here) but suffice to say United staff gave him the cold shoulder that many companies have gotten away with for two long.
But they didn’t factor in the power of music, a dissatisfied customer’s social media footprint, and a country song on YouTube.
“United breaks guitars,” croons Carroll, and those three words (plus a very funny video re-enactment on the tarmac) have the potential to undo all United’s great PR. A Taylor acoustic guitar could be replaced for about $3,500. A company’s reputation will cost hundred’s of times that figure.
But unlike other unhappy endings of PR snafu’s, I like the twist here. Having written two songs, Mr. Carroll has given United an opportunity to influence the outcome of the third.
Go for it United! You can turn this trilogy into a raving sensation, not just on YouTube, but as a case study that proves organizations could listen — even if they have to be dragged into the conversation kicking and screaming.
Happy to note that I now have six podcasts published on iTunes.
They are also here at the Decision Theater blog.
More to follow!
I began the podcasts, Light Bulb Moments as a complement to the Decision Theater blog that bears the same name.
But none of this happenned overnight. Podcasting is an interesting a curious exercise. As those who do it will tell you, there are many components to it, from the interview prep, to the editing (if you’re not going live to the drive, as some pros like Mitch Joel and CC Chapman do), and the publishing.
My deep appreciation to two people –fellow IABC members– who have been my inspiration to get started: Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. For the past –what was it?– three or more years I’ve listened to several communications and PR podcasts, and still do. But For Immediate Release has been one show I never fail to get back to. I learned the nuts and bolts of the trade from their book, How to do everything with podcasting, then took a class at ASU, and jumped in. Suddenly the deep-end doesn’t feel so intimidating.
A note about Light Bulb Moments. It’s a sort of a peek behind the curtain, if you will, at what goes on here at the Decision Theater.
The core area (left), a room with floor-to-ceiling screens is a high-tech interactive environment. It’s used for planning –scenario planning– systems thinking and policy making.
We work with cities, businesses, govt agencies, school districts / schools and non-profits; more recently in pandemic influenza planning exercises. It looks very complex from the outside. So since part of my job is to communicate and distill that complexity, podcasts are perfect for this. It lets me capture the light bulb moments, plus the nuances –right down to the ambient sound.
“It’s an interesting use of technology, but I can’t help but feel a bit ‘eeewww!’ about this.”
Twitter user on hearing about surgeons in New York tweeting through a kidney surgery
“The word “campaign” has become the pariah of social marketing. Preferred alternatives include terms like “program,” “initiative,” or even “conversation.”
David Berkowitz, in MediaPost, about the word (borrowing from George Carlin) that will “infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.”
“Think of it as an early warning system.”
Dan Greenfield on a new tool called Tweet Cloud he has developed for PR and marketing, to make better use of Twitter
“As if there is a lick of difference between those split hairs.”
Arizona Republic editorial on Nancy Pelosi.
“I really hope we don’t get shut down.
Ross Luippold, editor in chief of Texas Travesty, about a fake Twitter Account the student humor magazine had created on behalf of University of Texas at Austin president, William C. Powers Jr.
“1 billion applications served, 35,000 applications available and more than 30 million devices in market.”
Advertising Age on how mobile advertising –app-vertising– is going to change.
“I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but these honorary degrees are apparently pretty hard to come by. So far I’m only 1 for 2 as President.”
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