Public Relations
« Previous EntriesThe New Policy Battlefield: All Eyes On Coca-Cola and Social Media PR
Monday, February 22nd, 2010If you want to see how future national policy wars will be fought, then keep your eye on Coca-Cola Company and the American Beverage Association. Over the next few years sugar will become the new tobacco – even as they try to quash the movement before it gets going.
"Fructose has nothing to do with obesity" [...]
“Healthcare” Dilemma? Plastic Surgeons Seek a PR Facelift
Monday, February 1st, 2010image: www.plasticsurgeryhumor.com
National debates – like healthcare and financial reform – tend to focus on the big concepts, big ideas, and big fixes. What gets lost, unfortunately are all the small, cumulative causes of the original problem.
That’s unfortunate because the causes are too often tied to our own behavior and choices. Choices that are [...]
The Perino Conundrum: Tyranny of PR’s Expert Inexperts
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010image: iamatvjunkie.typepad.com
Sometimes a story just sticks with you. Such is the crazy and amusing story of Dana Perino – Bush’s White House House Press Secretary – who admitted she had no idea what the Cuban Missile Crisis was. She asked: “Wasn’t that, like, the Bay of Pigs thing?
Here was the spokesperson for the “leader of [...]
Tank Warfare: Alaska PR Initiative Targets Polar Bears
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010Public Relations is a funny business. And when I say “funny” I don’t mean hilarious. I mean the same thing as your grandmother did when she told you to “sit down there and behave and no funny business.”
She was talking about something that used to be called “shenanigans."
Well, the PR business gets up to a [...]
Goldman Sachs About to Ditch its Golden Flack… for a bad PR strategy?
Monday, December 7th, 2009No one seems to be dancing to Goldman's tune these days. No matter how hard they crank the 'ole gramophone. But they are trying a new approach, actually publishing dance steps to Goldman's Bonus Hustle… a 14-page presentation on why they make so much damned money.
First though… who's getting the blame for Goldman's missteps? According [...]
Palin & Stalin: What Do We Believe? That PR… Thou Art a Shameful Fraud
Sunday, December 6th, 2009It's tough to pinpoint when the PR profession "jumped the shark." But it has, and in spectacular fashion.
Outsiders are seldom privy to the inner workings of the global spin machine. But every once in a while someone leaves the door ajar and you can peer in to see just how twisted are its guts.
Such is [...]
BS of the Month Award: Why I’m Not Fit For GoldmanFlacks
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009Calling the Goldman Sachs $500 million small business initiative "philanthropy" or "lending" is like saying that frosted Pop Tarts are made with "real fruit filling."
Thankfully most media types called it for what it was: BS, BS, and more BS. But it got me thinking about my career in PR… I know two people who work [...]
The White House News War: Forget Glenn Beck. Barack Obama is “Howard Beale.”
Sunday, October 25th, 2009Teeth are being gnashed. Gauntlets is gettin' thrown down like warm beers at a tea party. Over what? Beck, O'Reilly, and Limbaugh? Seriously?
Nobody saw this coming? Not since 1976 when the satire "Network" hit movie screens and won four Academy Awards?
More than 3o years ago, the fictional network boss Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) cringed at [...]
“Safe Sex”…. is there such a thing?
Friday, October 23rd, 2009As LiteralMayhem is very interested in language, and its potential to wreak havoc on human civilization, we offer some thoughts on the quintessential “hot” topic: sex. And more precisely “safe sex.”
Nowadays, at least in much of the Western world, the term “safe sex” is tossed off as easily as one might say… “a side of [...]
Brain-Dead PWC… Maybe I'm Not Cynical Enough
Sunday, October 18th, 2009After my last post on the total impotence of PR, I felt a twinge of guilt. “Am I just too cynical? Too bitter? Surely there are flacks with integrity out there. Surely someone somewhere in the dark corners of the profession cares about it. Somewhere, surely, some company takes it seriously.”
Then I did some reading [...]