Reach In and Touch Someone

Tweet

Companies that store consumer data have a real PR conundrum on their hands when confronted with government demands for that data. Following the criticism of Google for neutering its search engine to appease China's lack of a First Amendment, the search monopoly regained its right to use its "Don't Be Evil" motto by declining the U.S. government's request to breech its users' search habits.

Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation, no stranger to this weblog, filed a lawsuit against the once venerable and newly aspirant AT&T for having caved on this very issue. The L.A. Times broke the story during Christmas week when you and I and most Americans were not paying much attention.

With half the country not seeming to mind the growing 1984 scenario (guess which half?), the choice to comply or fight is ever more complicated. It will be interesting to watch how AT&T balances its customers' privacy and the government's alleged need to know. Thus far, no comment:

"AT&T said Tuesday that it needed to review the complaint before it could respond. But AT&T spokesman Dave Pacholczyk told CNET News.com last week in response to a query about NSA cooperation: "We don't comment on matters of national security."

This story is far from over.

PR public relations
privacy politics

Hybrid

Tweet

A running theme in this blog revolves around the growing tension between top-down control of news by a company or institution and the forces that advocate a more democratic means of interacting with one's constituencies.

Citizen journalist evangelist Dan Gillmor, writing in the current issue of PR Week, takes Apple's communications department to task for its heavy-handed PR approach to the recent Macworld Conference. In his column, titled "Apple's control of information is a disservice to journalism," Mr Gillmor opines:

"The "Big Announcement" strikes me as an increasingly irrelevant tactic. There are times when it's still a sensible idea, such as when a company is telling the world about something truly game-changing... By trying (and largely succeeding) to control every iota of information, Apple ultimately does itself no favors."

So when is it "sensible" (to use Mr. Gillmor's term) to mount a "big," controlled approach? Is there room in the PR person's toolbox for both a participatory, grassroots mode and the tried-and-true top-down strategy for making news or managing the message? What does the hybrid look like? Let me first finish Scoble and Israel's Naked Conversations and I'll hopefully have more on this vexing PR issue.

PR public relations
media Apple citizen journalism news

Photo-Not

Tweet

No. I'm not obsessed with the machinations of the Bush Administration's communications office. After all, it provides ample copy for this weblog. The latest command and control scenario arrived today in a piece by Editor & Publisher NY-based reporter Joe Strupp. It concerns the excessive use of hand-out photos versus images taken by actual photojournalists.

Apparently, in eight years the Clinton Administration issued about 100 canned photos to the media. In just five years, the Bush Administration already has provided more than 500 staged photos. Susan Walsh, an AP staff photographer and head of the White House News Photographers Association had this to say:

"They average about two per week. The White House staff photographer's role is to document the president. They have now crossed the line and become public relations photographers for the administration."

In an age where pixels can drive public perception, it's understandable why the White House Communications Office insists on micromanaging which images merit public release, and which ones don't. (BTW, Scott McClellan did not return Mr. Strupp's call seeking comment.)

I guess the brave new world of PR transparency and "naked conversations" has yet to penetrate the Beltway. Why should it when command and control is so effective for advancing agendas?

PR journalism
politics photography

Wrong Choice

Tweet

A previous posting on this blog took a critical look at the PR missteps of someone I initially admired for her brave and steadfast stand against the policies that she blames for her son's death in Iraq. I'm sorry to report that Ms. Cindy Sheehan's handlers have led the activist housewife astray with a new publicity pop apparently aimed at rekindling that fleeting fame, but void of the sympathy that made her foray onto the national scene so effective.

She now has aligned herself with Hugo Chavez, the Socialist president of Venezuela, to criticize this President and his policies. It's strangely reminiscent of Jane Fonda's trip to Hanoi and how the North Vietnamese government used the actress as a propaganda pawn -- something Ms. Fonda ultimately came to regret.

Like Harry Belafonte before her, Ms. Sheehan should have given a little more thought as to whom she could leverage to reassert to her once simple, earnest and effective message. There just seems to be a disconnect between the deployment of Mr. Chavez and Ms. Sheehan's goals to win over the hearts and minds of most Americans. Where are John Murtha or George Clooney when you really need them, Cindy?

Climate Control

Tweet

His title: Deputy Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs. His job (in his own words): to preserve "an orderly flow of information...and to avoid surprises." Dean Acosta of NASA was put on the proverbial hot seat today via a page A1 piece above the fold in The New York Times .

Mr. Acosta was doing his best to counter allegations that the space agency is stifling one of its lead climate scientists, an outspoken critic of the administration's policy on global warming. "That's not the way we operate here at NASA. We promote openness and we speak with the facts."

Later in the piece, Mr. Acosta's underling and a recent NASA public affairs appointee George Deutsch was said to have responded to a request from NPR for an interview with the scientist by calling the public radio network "the most liberal" media outlet in the country and that his job was "to make the president look good."

Again, we come back to the question of what is considered good public relations practice today: to command and control key messages or to encourage open conversations with core constituencies? To say one and do another, as appears to be the case here, cannot succeed.

PR public relations
global warming politics

Athletes Anonymous

Tweet

OK We don't expect pro athletes to be the most diplomatic bunch around. After all, they're athletes, not barristers. Still, their growing share of the media spotlight leaves ample room for tainting one's image.

Take T.O.. He couldn't leave well enough alone and was thus publicly admonished, then officially banished from The Eagles organization. This week at the Australian Open, Maria Sharapova came this close to a media meltdown at her presser following her loss to Justine Henin-Hardenne.

And just when the controversy seems to have subsided, Bode Miller chooses to take a cue from another bad boy Ron Artest by leveling cheating charges against two other sports icons: Lance and Barry.

Where does this lead? The other week Newsweek took Bode and others to the woodshed on its cover. GQ just published its list of the "Ten Most Hated Athletes." The Merc-News had a clever piece on "who's the biggest loser: Artest of Owens?"

I'm a big proponent of media training for anyone whose vocation puts them in the news, but perhaps there are some who should refrain from interviews altogether. On the other hand, we've all see how bad behavior can be a career springboard. T.O. just landed a starring role in a new national TV commercial by some exploitive telecom company.

PR sports public relations media

Get Shorty

Tweet

Today's Washington Post has a front page piece featuring former VP (and would-be President) Al Gore on his latest star turn: the Sundance premiere of "An Inconvenient Truth," his film documenting his efforts to raise awareness for the dangers of global warming. Looking (unfortunately) more like the John Travolta character in "Get Shorty" than the policy wonk he is, Mr. Gore does deserve credit for his steadfast support of this hot and continually hotter issue.

It was 1997. In a speech at his alma mater Stanford University, BP CEO Sir John Browne was about to make history (and in so doing remake his company) by parting with the oil industry to declare global warming a force to be reckoned with. The visual culmination of his defection occurred at a news conference at a northern California solar panel manufacturing facility in which BP was making a significant investment. VP Gore was the headline speaker.

It's unclear whether Mr. Gore's film will play in Peoria, but the use of the big screen to influence public opinion has caught on big time since the days of Michael Moore's "Roger and Me." Sundance can be a filmmaker's springboard to the mainstream, but for most, it only offers an all-too-brief glimmer of fame.

Perhaps this will be the media that finally catches on for Mr. Gore? After stints in radio, cable TV and a just-announced book deal, he's running out of mediums. Podcasting, anyone?

PR public relations
media global warming Sundance politics Al Gore

Moguls Making Moguls

Tweet

The public knows that Ford has big problems. They also sense that Donald Trump is awash in dough. Conventional PR wisdom tells us that if bad news is on the wane or simply not on the public's radar, better to focus instead on the business-at-hand and let the vestiges of negativity slip into darkness.

Today we are greeted with two parables for the PR set: Bill Ford's personal appeal to consumers, via a massive advertising campaign, to further expose his company's challenges to right itself. Brand consultant Clive Chavet had this to say:

"I don't think people care about a corporation so much as they care about the car they drive," he said. "Consumers want to hear about the brand, how much it costs, how many miles per gallon it gets and the features. Focusing on their problems cannot avoid sounding defensive."

On the flip side of the coin, Mr. Trump, whose billionaire image would make Robin Leach gush, also decided to draw public attention to a wound better left alone to heal. He filed a lawsuit against respected New York Times banking reporter Tim O'Brien for questioning the mogul's inflated worth in a book for which Mr. Trump cooperated. By doing so, months after the initial media frenzy subsided, Mr. Trump succeeds in reviving the sticky question...and likely sales of Mr. O'Brien's book, which already had fallen off the charts.

Blog On/Blog Off

Tweet

Thanks Andy Lark for flagging the posting today by Dan Gillmor, the mainstream journalist turned citizen journalist turned book author and grassroots journalism evangelist whose We the Media served as an epiphany for many of us trying to make business (and societal) sense of this extraordinary movement.

While some of us were busy keying-in our first-person narratives early today, Mr. Gillmor took a deep breath to share with his community of readers a poignant assessment of the challenges entailed in balancing one's passion with the reality of eeking out an honest day's wage. Aren't we all looking for the same?

So for Denton, Calacanis, Huffington, Battelle and the many others seeking fame and fortune through this medium called the blogosphere, please know there's a long tail of millions upon millions who may never make a dime, but will continue to make a difference.

citizen journalism weblogs media public relations

News You Can Use

Tweet

Abe Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi, Lech Walesa: not exactly names that have made headlines of late, unless of course you happen to be passing by the new five-foot high "news" ticker fronting the U.S. mission building in Havana. Billed by American diplomats as a means to break the "information blockade," the ticker infuses actual news headlines, like Cuba's acceptance by the U.S. into the World Baseball Classic, with (motivational) quotes from these iconic heroes.

Now it's one thing to have Reuters, AP, Dow Jones or even the VOA streaming headlines across the ticker, but something a bit more nefarious to feign "news" to provoke government overthrow. This thinly-veiled goal wasn't exactly lost on Mr. Castro and his stalwart band of followers. They were bussed in by the hundreds of thousands to protest the affront to their news sensibility. The Cuban President saw it this way:

"The government of the United States ... is planning to force a rupture in the current minimum diplomatic links with Cuba. The gross provocations by its Interests Section in Havana can have no other purpose."

I don't know if this falls to the level of paying journalists to ensure message control, but it seems to me that a real news ticker might be as effective in winning Cuba's hearts and minds than a fabricated one.

PR public relations
media journalism Cuba politics

Sticks & Stones

Tweet

PR professionals have been called many things, but the hateful "spear-chuckers" is a new one on me. Add to that "time-wasters" and "hall monitors." That's how Slate's editor-at-large Jack Shafer characterizes some of the PR types he has dealt with in a Q&A that appears in the current issue of PR Week. In it, the prolific and much linked-to "Press Box" columnist had this to say:

Shafer: I don't deal with PR people. As best I can, I will avoid PR people...

PRWeek: In other words, you don't talk to spokespeople.

Shafer: You know, the spokespeople that I do end up talking to, I'd much prefer talking to somebody who's in the decision-making capacity and is not the spear-chucker for the person in the decision-making capacity. I will default to quoting the spokesman if that's all I can talk to, in the interest of fairness. But I don't consider it any great coup when some spokesman presents some obfuscation as some sort of corporate apology.

Frankly, I don't understand Mr. Shafer's reluctance to talk with or work through PR people. If a spokesperson is authorized to speak on behalf of a company, and he or she can cogently articulate the views of that company and its management, why is it necessary to speak to the CEO? It's one thing if the CEO is the subject of a profile, but another if the journalist simply needs to understand a company's position on an issue or news development.

Let's hope Mr. Shafer's PR-denigrating bow in PR Week elicits a fair share of equally incendiary comments from the magazine's readers.

PR politics media public relations

Andy Warhol Was Wrong

Tweet

News Flash!

The New York Post today reports a made-for-TV reunion between the buttaful Buttafuoco's (Mary Jo and Joey) and the third member of the once troubled troika, Amy Fisher, the Long Island Lolita.

In case you were wondering, Joey and Mary Jo divorced after moving to the left coast (where all tabloid heroes seem to end up). Joey re-married, after serving time in jail, and Mary Jo's now engaged. Amy had a baby girl , who'll turn one this week, with her husband, a retired police officer. I don't know if she's still penning a column for a Long Island newspaper.

So why write about this? Because it's fiction. The "TV reunion" has yet to find a home on broadcast or cable. (I personally think it should be Hi-Def VOD.) To help drum up carriage, the producer's PR rep went to the NY Post with the exclusive. He offered up Joey who had this to say:

"There's going to be a lot of shocking revelations, and that's why I'm excited to sit down to do this."

I can't wait.

Bigger question: who'll grab the foreign distribution rights? This is just the kind of high-brow cultural programming we need to help elevate America's sagging reputation abroad. Now what ever happened to Tonya Harding ?

PR television
buttafuoco public relations

Under the Radar

Tweet

I was struck by a quote by Weber-Shandwick's web maven Robert Ricci in today's Times coverage of last week's Word of Mouth Marketing Association confab in Orlando.

"'...do not try to be stealthy... If you're working on a video game, and you go onto a video gamer's blog, let your contacts know that you are an employee of said company," Mr. Ricci said while leading a session titled "How to Work with Bloggers and Communities, the Ethical Way." "Always let them know what your intentions are up front."

Perhaps it was the "60 Minutes" segment several years ago that exposed one firm's insidious tactic of hiring foils to go to trendy bars to promote some hopeful beverage brand. Wasn't this the future of word-of-mouth marketing? Does BzzAgent, which recently raised 14 million dollars in VC money, subscribe to "the ethical way" preached by Mr. Ricci? Is it acceptable to contact an influential blogger posing as a consumer to secure attention from said blogger? Just how prevalent is the practice of marketing by deception and who are its purveyors?

As the PR industry continues to grapple with who leads and who follows in the blogger dance, I was encouraged by Rob's mandate that transparency should trump stealthiness. Let's hope the word-of-mouth from his panel catches on.

PR word-of-mouth
marketing weblogs

PR's Rising and Falling Tides

Tweet

Two disparate but thoughtful views of our industry emerged in the media over the past week or so. The first, a buoyant look at the industry by a writer at The Economist who seemed to take his cue from Al and Laura Ries' four-year-old tome The Fall of Advertising and Rise of PR.

The second, coming from a former reporter at another venerable UK-based publication, The FT, takes a decidedly less bullish view of the industry. Writing for Silicon Valley Watcher, Tom Foremski portends a huge shake-up for traditional PR practitioners, and transformation ahead.

No one can argue that a sea change is afoot for PR pros. Taken together, these two pieces elucidate the industry's unique strengths and future challenges.

PR public relations

When Parents Misbehave

Tweet

Many critics of the PR industry hold up corporate or political PR as the poster children for "evil spin" or ethical malfeasance. Little attention is given to the multitude of NGOs whose growing PR sophistication rivals many of the best agencies, corporate communications departments and political "war rooms."

We all know about PETA's tactics for splashing its animal rights cause du jour in the national media. Yesterday, Greenpeace, which has seen its share of memorable media photo ops over the years, yesterday took aim at one of America's most recognized and seemingly benign consumer product icons - the Gorton's of Gloucester fisherman. The issue: illegal whaling.

"We're shifting the campaign focus from the high seas to the supermarket shelves. We're asking consumers to be aware of who funds the whale hunters, and to let them know that whaling is bad for business," Greenpeace Chief Executive Steve Shallhorn said in a statement.

I found this story curious since Gorton's as a company has never engaged in whaling. The Japanese company that owns Gorton's apparently has and does. It's one thing for a group to directly target the makers (and advertising beneficiaries) of a consumer product, but something different when an activist group targets an environmentally responsible , yet consumer-facing company whose foreign parent misbehaves.

Dave Weber, Gorton's VP-environmental affairs, told O'Dwyer's that Gorton's "has neither engaged in whaling activities, nor killed a single whale in its 156-year history, and never will."

How far can Gorton's go in defending its corporate reputation without alienating its Japanese parent? What kind of coordination exists between parent and child in dealing with this crisis? Fishy predicament.

PR public relations crisis Greenpeace

Play for Pay OK

Tweet

PR blogger Ike Pigott draws our attention today to the outrage over Richard Scrushy's alleged payola to a reporter from the Birmingham Times, the city's oldest Black-owned newspaper. "He didn't think he was getting a fair shake in the media, which is why he hired me," the writer said in an interview.

While Scrushy is attempting to distance himself from the allegations, the NY-based editor from the British import OK is embracing the practice of accepting PR-offered freebies in exchange for coverage.

"Probably about 20 members of the staff have been on free press trips," she said. "I'm not actually embarrassed about that."

I've written in the past about OK's pay-for-play approach to celebrity journalism. Juxtaposed next to the Scrushy news, I just loved the incongruence of it all.

PR public relations
journalism media

Night and Day

Tweet

Given the unprecedented amount of news and opinion coverage the once-presumed autobiography A Million Little Pieces has garnered these last couple of weeks, there's little I can add by jumping in to the frey. However, Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Prize-winning, Holocaust-surviving, Oprah-selected author and statesman today is likely hoping that he too can avoid becoming a part of that discourse.

The Times reports this morning that a new translation of Mr. Wiesel's harrowing Holocaust memoir Night allowed the author "to correct and revise a number of important details." To her credit, and certainly in heightened recognition of the implications these factual changes might have, the book's translator, Mr. Wiesel's wife, agreed to be interviewed to shed more light on Night. One of the changes: the author's age at the time he entered Auschwitz -- from "almost 15" to "15."

It remains to be seen whether Mr. Wiesel will be subjected to the same level of criticism and scrutiny as Mr. Frey (and Ms. Winfrey). To his credit, coming clean right away to reveal the "insignificant" changes in the new edition should help. It contrasts considerably with the equivocation that ensued following the first revelations about the veracity of A Million Little Pieces.

PR public relations publishing Oprah Frey Wiesel

Self-Promotion

Tweet

Now here's a new one: a self-proclaimed "well-known" New York PR executive issued a press release yesterday with the sole purpose of drawing attention to himself and his business. Glomming on to AOL's recent advertising deal with Google and the "icky" new ads suddenly popping on AOL's site, Jeff Barge took it upon himself to issue "a warning" to the company.

Now, it's one thing to blog to raise one's profile, but something different to spring for a paid wire distribution, albeit via the lower cost PR Web. Adjacent to the release, the link to Mr. Barge's web site strangely goes to a Las Vegas TV news site. In fact, a Google search for his company's site produces little. One for Barge surfaces some curious results including this one:

Tue, 28 Jan 2003 08:07:25 GMT
"The New York Post stopped an article by Manhattan-based PR Jeff Barge in which Barge accused his industry of being in the "deception business". The Post says they dropped the story because it was too "self-promotional". Thanks to Deborah Branscum for the link."

Apparently Mr. Barge has made a practice of putting out self-aggrandizing news releases with his personal prognostications on the issues of the day. His preferred modus operandi: inexpensive surveys pegged to the holidays, celebrities, or recent news events.

While one must give credit to Mr. Barge for his ability to exploit the news, there's something very cheesy, or rather swarmy, about this tactic. Take heart, Mr. Blackwell.

PR media
AOL public relations

Black Smoke Down

Tweet

Today's news arrives in a steady, 24/7 stream of words and images. The term "news cycle" no longer aptly describes how information flows into our lives. Still, PR pros know all too well how the first wave of a news story can establish a public mindset that's hard to shake.

Eventually, clarifying, if not contradictory details emerge -- days, weeks or months later -- but often they are buried under new headlines or not reported at all. What's more, that first incomplete or malformed write of history has a digital shelf life that perpetuates the myth.

The ethical practice of PR demands that communications professionals impart timely and accurate information to key constituencies once that information is reasonably assured. Communications pros get into trouble, i.e., compromise their integrity, when they attempt to manipulate words to mask unpleasant news or advance public relations objectives.

In the last week, two U.S. helicopters went down in Iraq killing two and 12 Americans, respectively. The first wave of news reports, based on official information, used the verb "crash" to describe both incidents. In each case, officials refused to acknowledge or even speculate about the most plausible reason for the crashes: they were blown out of the sky by insurgents.

"Officials said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash, and the names of the two dead soldiers were not released." (Jan 16)

"The military said it wasn't yet known what caused the crash and that the investigation would take some time." (Jan. 9)

The truth will emerge, but the circumstances remain shrouded in a haze of public uncertainty -- except perhaps for the families of those killed who have more than a passing interest in learning the real cause of their loss.

PR public relations
media journalism Iraq politics

The News Release

Tweet

Communications pros are often charged with getting company news into the public domain, or keeping it out as the case may be. The news release (or press release for the print-centric among us) has long served as the workhorse for message "command and control." It thrives today in spite of the changes wrought by the citizen journalism movement and other digital developments.

In the dot-com days when the myriad VC-soaked start-ups bursted with so much supposed "news," I remember one dot-com executive excitedly boasting to me that his company's news release was actually picked up and used...by PR Newswire! Geesh.

Today the tools and tactics we have for reaching end audiences have evolved considerably:

-- During its lawsuit spurred by the defection of a senior Microsoft executive to Google in China, Google's lawyers openly blogged about the case in Mandarin. Following the suit's settlement, the company's assistant general counsel used a blog to frame the incident. Her words quickly wafted onto the pages of the mainstream media.

-- Last week, when Apple's market cap surpassed Dell's for the first time, Apple chief Steve Jobs sent out an e-mail to employees marking the auspicious milestone. The news was especially sweet given Michael Dell's past comments that the company should consider being dissolved. Of course Mr. Jobs's e-mail didn't stay internal for very long, nor was it ever intended to.

-- Finally, the news release itself is "smarter" today than yesterday. It's no longer enough to simply post the release on a corporate website and distribute via paid wire service. News releases today must be a optimized with RSS and digital tags to ensure wider syndication and consumption by journalists and individuals "intent" on capturing news of an industry or company, in real time.

It seems like eons ago when e-mail finally became the preferred means for bridging newsmakers and the media channels consumed by one's target audience. Today, pushing news through intermediaries seems so myopic when one considers the range of options available to the PR practitioner today, e.g., a raw news release, VNR or podcast sent directly to the end user's PDA, cell phone or MP3 player?

If you have a compelling and successful example of how the advent of "social media tools" and other means have transformed the stalwart PR discipline of controlling message dissemination, please share.

PR public relations media journalism

Peet's PR Ploy

Tweet

I have written about the ability of A-list newsmakers to command-and-control the media from Hollywood to Silicon Valley to the Beltway. Many Hollywood PR handlers have made an art of requiring journalists to sign agreements laying out ground rules in exchange for access to their clientele. The terms include everything from limiting questions to photo kill rights to choosing an acceptable reporter to monetary compensation.

What's unfortunate is that many "journalists" actually acquiesce to these demeaning demands for fear of being left out of the loop.

A report today from the Great White Way has the publicist for the star of the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" demanding that reporters agree in writing to interview terms with her decidedly B-list client, Amanda Peet. No, we're not talking Angelina or Jennifer, but Amanda Peet, for goodness sake. Do you think Mr. Simon, a true A-lister, made such demands?

The agreement read:

"Journalist may not use text produced by Amanda Peet for any purposes other than what is originally intended without securing the prior permission of Amanda Peet," commanded the release. It concluded: "Journalist agrees not to publish any quotes supplied by Amanda Peet in any manner without obtaining Amanda Peet's prior written consent."

I find abhorrent the PR practice of asking journalists to compromise their editorial integrity with written agreements. Some might argue that if Bode or Lindsay had such an agreement in hand, perhaps they wouldn't be in such hot water. (Though "60 Minutes" would kill the segment before signing such a waiver.)

Whatever happened to media training? A well-trained interview subject can navigate even the stickiest of questions to emerge in a positive light. I'm not advocating dodging questions, and in fact, ideally, the journalist too should come away satisfied from the experience. But the best PR pros prove their mettle by anticipating and preparing their clients for the toughest of tough questions.

This is a tool Amanda's PR person probably didn't have in her tool chest or maybe her client's ego is too big to accommodate such an exercise? What's unfortunate is that many big name stars have come to believe that these written agreements represent good PR practice and they actually benefit from them. Trust me. They aren't and they don't.

PR media
Broadway public relations

The Road to Redemption

Tweet

Here is a five-step plan for mending a tainted reputation:

1) Find someone as famous as you for notoriously bad behavior

2) Go to a NYC strip club at 3AM, preferably one cited often in Page Six

3) Do shots of vodka and visit the ladies room with unusual frequency

4) Take lap dances at your table from silicone-endowed hostesses

5) Join your friend on "the pole" for a pied-a-deux to the delight of Scores of rabid Wall Street types

Top off the night by hurling an obscenity at the paparazzo who witnessed it all.
Continue to complain about how you're (mis)quoted in Vanity Fair. Hey, Conde, how about another cover turn?

PR celebrity
public relations media

Tear Power

Tweet

Conspiracists among us will no doubt believe that the dowdy Mrs. Alito's tears at yesterday's hearings were simply a PR ploy designed to generate sympathy for her (equally dowdy) husband. The short piece and photo in today's New York Times likely did more to advance Sam's prospects than all the federal judges the Republicans can muster to testify on his behalf.

If you missed it, apparently Mrs. Alito recused (I mean excused) herself from the hearings to grab a good cry in the ladies room following South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham's facetious remark, "Are you really a closet bigot?"

I personally believe Mrs. Alito's tears were real. (Maybe she came to the realization that her husband really is a closet bigot???) Nonetheless, the sympatico created with this one newsmaking gesture might very well have closed the door on the Dems. Ahhh, the power of the image for swaying the court of public opinion.

PR politics
public relations
Alito

Boone for Whom?

Tweet

It was a few days after famous oilman, greenmailer, shareholder rights activist, Texas billionaire, corporate raider, and Oklahoma State alumnus (but perhaps not in that order) T. Boone Pickens had abandoned his quest to acquire Gulf Oil Corp. No one felt sorry for him given the hundreds of millions he made in profits once white knight Chevron arrived to rescue the beleaguered oil company.

I was riding down Fifth Avenue in the back of the limousine with Boone and Bea, his wife at the time. My role during the takeover attempt was to set-up national TV interviews, e.g., CNN's "Moneyline with Lou Dobbs," Diane Sawyer on CBS "Morning News," and prep him on messaging and delivery. The media allure of the stereotypical Texas oilman -- in New York, no less -- even prompted several local TV stations to dispatch crews for news packages. (Most were clueless about what to ask.)

Anyway, back in the limo we were passing The Plaza Hotel where on that very weekend I had plans to be married. I mentioned this to Bea, who feigned excitement and immediately reached into her shopping bag to pull out a half-eaten box of chocolates. "Please accept this on behalf of Boone and me.

Geesh! I had to chuckle when I heard the news of T. Boone Pickens' $165 million gift to the athletics department of Oklahoma State University. Sure beats my box of chocolates.

PR media
public relations philanthropy college sports

Measuring Success in PR

Tweet

Richard Strauss is one of the more astute PR practitioners specializing in the radio band of the exploding media spectrum. Today, writing for Bulldog Reporter's "Daily 'Dog" newsletter, the president of DC-based Strauss Radio Strategies, gives a wake-up call to PR pros on the myriad new "placement" opportunities that exist on satellite radio. (Keep in mind, XM or Sirius-delivered content from MSNBC or FNC does not require dealing with a different set of editorial gatekeepers...thank goodness.)

Nonetheless, Richard makes a good point about satellite radio's ability to offer PR pros more specialized programs, and thus better defined demographics than terrestrial radio, the once king of targeted media (along with niche magazines). Today, of course, niche and digital tier cable channels, millions of websites and weblogs, and the increasingly stratified magazine world have made the task of media relations almost unscalable.

Perhaps our success should be measured less by the number of media impressions and more by the quality of those impressions, e.g., whether the audio, video, text or images produced an action or transaction. After all, is a TV commercial considered successful by virtue of it making air? I had written previously about Google's intent-driven advertising model that is redefining the industry (and has made many people very rich). How might we adapt this model to PR so that we might break from the increasingly outmoded publicity-by-the-pound syndrome? It's not the placement that merits our fee, but whether the placement produced a "transaction" or other measurable result beyond just its appearance.

PR public relations
media journalism satellite radio

"Dreamworks, Exposed"

Tweet

The previous posting extolled the virtues of Apple's PR team in effectively keeping the lid on any boffo news that may emanate today from Macworld, and in particular, Steve Jobs's keynote. Quite the opposite has unfolded for another major piece of news hailing from the content side of the left coast. Bloomberg (and shortly, many others) are reporting that Viacom's Paramount unit will sell Dreamworks' film library to George Soros.

"NBC Universal spokeswoman Kathy Kelly-Brown and Viacom spokesman Carl Folta didn't return calls seeking comment. Diana Loomis, a spokeswoman for Glendale, California-based DreamWorks, declined to comment."

Nonetheless, plans allegedly call for a formal announcement tomorrow, which of course, will follow the saturation of the media today. Forbes, citing anonymous "media reports," (The Wall Street Journal), reported this unfolding story as did Reuters, which did credit The Journal's Saturday edition.

The difference of course between control (Apple) and lack of control (Dreamworks/Viacom) has much to do with the nature of high profile M&A announcements -- especially in gossip-happy Hollywood -- and the hordes of lawyers, investment bankers, analysts and other functionaries who are privy to the news. Face it, there are some who have few qualms about whispering insider info to their friends in the media. It makes them look connected and perhaps opens the door to call in a chit down the road.

Perhaps a leak investigation is in order here?

"Macworld, Shrouded in Secrecy"

Tweet

The headline today on CNET News said it all. Following the much-hyped and resurgent CES Show where MSM reporters tag-teamed with citizen-types to deliver breathless 24/7 reportage, how can a consumer electronics show in its immediate wake ever expect to compete for media share of mind? The answer: by going dark.

Over the years Macworld has experienced more viscissitudes than the DJIA. While CeBIT's bid to establish a U.S. bulkhead failed, and PC Expo, COMDEX and others have fallen by the wayside, Macworld, and its groupies, held on -- some years by a thread. This year, however, Macworld will storm back to its glory days when journalists couldn't drink enough of the Kool-Aid being served.

It's not just the iPod's prodigious market share. The PR folks at Apple have finally learned how to effectively deploy their iconic CEO to make headlines. (There was a time when they seemed clueless. Think Gil Amelio.) Remember the ROKR intro when Steve Jobs pulled the Nano rabbit out of his hat to the surprise, delight and wholesale embrace by a captivated media? This stealth strategy is now in place to build anticipation for tomorrow's Macworld opening and Jobs keynote.

Hey look. Why do you think they call it news?

macworld apple PR Public Relations media

Harry's Headache

Tweet

Kanye West endured his share of headaches following his nationally televised speech in which he more or less called President Bush a racist for the Feds' inaction and ineptness as New Orleans drowned. Now expect the outspoken American icon and U.N. goodwill ambassador Harry Belafonte to suffer similar indignities for calling the U.S. President "the greatest terrorist in the world" as he stood alongside Mr. Bush's nemesis, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

As for Mr. Chavez, the increasingly influential socialist leader mounted his own U.S. image-boosting PR coup last month by offering discounted home heating oil to needy Bostonians. On Friday, the program was extended to native Americans in Maine. Unlike the photo ops and double-speak that count as good PR nowadays, these programs actually have teeth that accrue to Mr. Chavez's reputation. They aren't primarily smokescreens.

Do you think Mr. Belafonte would risk his career -- well, at 78, maybe I should say his legacy -- had Mr. Chavez not covered him with the U.S. home heating initiative? I wonder. Perhaps he'll thrive in the same way George C. Scott did after having refused to accept an Oscar for portraying WW II warrior Patton?

All eyes expectedly await Jon.

PR public relations
politics celebrity

Jessica's PR Man is #1

Tweet

Carma, Delahaye, BlogPulse, Hitwise, move over. Here's a new way to measure PR success. Gawker picked up on Media Orchard's report of U.N. Spacey's study that ranked the lucky notables who had more images published in Wenner Media's US Magazine than all others over the last year.

An audit of the "celebs" with the most photos (posed, I'm sure!) appearing in the tacky, but profitable weekly glossy ranked Jessica 1st with 209, Jennifer 2nd with 183, Angelina 3rd with 98, and Paris 4th with 95. Gawker's take:

"Roughly translated for public relations relevance, this puts Jessica Simpson’s publicist Rob Shuter...in first place, with Aniston’s man Stephen Huvane in second. Seeing as Jolie has no official publicist that we can seem to track down, that puts Paris Hilton’s unfortunate flack Jack Ketsoyan in third place. Well done, boys!"

Ironically, even these Hollywood publicists would have likely preferred less pixel power for their shamefully overexposed clients. I'm also fairly certain that their charges are completely clueless about their dubious new distinction. I wonder if this study will be included in the monthly clip report?

PR celebrity
public relations media

The V Word

Tweet

I remember first hearing the word Verizon. I thought it was some obscure add-on to my Bell-Atlantic local dialing plan. It was such a strange sounding semantic fabrication that I would never have guessed it actually heralded the next (and likely last) iteration of the New York Telephone-NYNEX-Bell-Atlantic (with GTE and MCI thrown in) branding odyssey.

This week I was reminded of that feeling when I got vord of at least three new V-brands. Intel bowed its new VIIV (rhymes with five) chip technology at CES. Then there was Verizon's V-Cast Music, the first mobile music service based on the Windows Media Player. Earlier in the week, we heard about Vongo, Starz's first download movie service. And of course, we can't ignore Vista, Microsoft's new OS, which had a big send-up by Mr. Gates, also at CES.

Let's wish these aspiring new V-words the same visibility and vitality of predecessors Verizon and Viacom. Vonage certainly has some vim and vigor, but what happened to Voom?

branding technology Microsoft Intel Verizon

Just the Right Brew

Tweet

Andy Lark addresses how traditional media combined with participatory media exponentially amplifies the attributes -- both good and bad -- of a new product or service. A couple of examples crossed my desktop recently: the new MS-enabled Treo and the Tassimo espresso maker. Both were put in the hands of influential MSM reporters, as well as some gadget bloggers. This kind of media "seeding" is a staple for the product publicity business. Sometimes reporters even return the demo unit. Often they don't.

Should PR pros start with the blogosphere's influentials to build a viral buzz, or are the Mossbergs and Pogues of the world sufficiently contagious to drive the online buzz? Rubel reports today on gizmodo's story about a new digital tablet from SONY that he predicts (erroneously I think) will spell the end of dead tree forms of media consumption. Did SONY purposely plant this item with gizmodo first? Jarvis picked up on Pogue's less-than-flattering assessment of the new Treo, and it reverberated in the blogosphere, likely to the chagrin of its maker Palm.

BusinessWeek's David Kiley commended the marketers at Kraft for striking a deal with strictly mainstream morning talk jock Don Imus wherein the cantankerous host gifts Kraft's Tassimo coffeemakers to his favorite guests of the day. While generating great product awareness, some guests, including CBS's Andy Rooney, were less than effusive. Kiley himself added his own take on the products' shortcomings. (Gee, if PR people could actually control these unwieldy reporters!)

PR pros are consumed with finding that elusive formula for sparking viral buzz for their clients' products, services and personalities. (Maybe it was Gladwell who first got everyone so hopped up, but of course, The Tipping Point pretty much pre-dated the blogosphere as we know it.)

Have the highly linked-to gadget sites and blogging pundits finally ascended to media "exclusive" status for a new product PR campaign? Who actually influences whom: blogs--->MSM or vice versa? I don't think there's a single answer, except to say that today's most highly-trafficked blogs have evolved to become an indelible part of the media relations planning equation. Ignore them at your own peril.

PR weblogs media public relations

Mining Accurate Info

Tweet

Paul Holmes, long-time chronicler of our industry, has entered the blogging fray. In his posts today, he opines on the alleged cop-out by Washington Post editor Len Downie for not apologizing for the misinformation his newspaper published on the fate of the West Virginia miners. Mr. Holmes joins Post media critic Howard Kurtz in taking Mr. Downie (and many others) to task for blowing it and then passing the buck.

"But the fault lies with the journalists for not instinctively understanding that early, fragmentary information in times of crisis is often wrong. You don't broadcast or publish until it's absolutely nailed down..." Kurtz writes.

I'm not sure I agree. My edition of The New York Times also carried the wrong information on its front page. The paper at 3:26AM on Wednesday issued an e-mail alert correcting itself: "News Alert: Mine Company Official Reports 11 of 12 Miners Thought to Have Survived Are Dead."

Newspapers are the first write of history. It's 20/20 hindsight to second-guess the moment when the stars are sufficiently aligned to pull the trigger on a story. After all, the (erroneous) information did come from the Governor of the State and wasn't denied by mining company executives. It seems to me that these are credible sources on whose information one typically can bank. Mr. Kurtz did commend The Times for citing its source: "family members," and castigates The Post for not.

Most of the PR pundits in the blogosphere have added their voices to the PR debacle that led to yesterday's heartbreaking see-saw ride. I will only say that in times of crisis, one cannot stress enough the importance of centralizing the flow of information. It appeared to me that this was not the case in West Virginia. Family members, mining company executives, state and federal officials, and others all had some interaction with the primary channel for information dissemination -- the news media. This resulted in a very combustible and profoundly unfortunate situation.

Should we blame the messenger? I don't think so.

PR public relations
media journalism

The Falsies Awards

Tweet

If not the most critical, PR Watch is certainly one of the more toxic anti-PR organizations in existence today. Its parent, the Center for Media and Democracy, likely named by those who coined the phrase "Intelligent Design," takes special delight in exposing the dark side of our profession.

Yes, everyone, there are some who still hold to the belief that "ethical PR" is an oxymoron. I am not one of them. The staffers at PR Watch, straight from the right wing bastion of America -- Madison, Wisconsin -- happen to be. If the initials P.R. are mentioned, they invariably smell evil.

In their latest affront to the profession, and as if the world needed another set of awards, the clever folks in Madison created something called The Falsies "...to counter 2005's flack attacks with the Center's first ever Win Against Spin Awards."

Guess what? Some of the ethical lapses they cite actually deserve the notoriety PR Watch's readers have bestowed upon them. The instances are troubling to many of us who have worked long and hard to elevate the practice of PR. I say some because I'm not one to dismiss the entire VNR industry as a result of Karen Ryan-like deceptions by the current administration, nor do I believe the pink ribbons that symbolize breast cancer awareness merit their new dubious distinction. Jack Abramoff, Armstrong Williams, and even the PR-fueled "bi-partisan" gathering in Washington this week, certainly do.

In fact, many of us have agreed with PR Watch in publicly castigating the payola that has pervaded (and polluted) the PR profession (at least how it's practiced in the Beltway). We certainly recognize that greater strides need to be made on the disclosure front from many corporations. However, we also have commended companies that have embraced corporate social responsibility, and honored those PR professionals who are driving the movement.

Still, if PR Watch wants to borrow the age-old PR tactic of creating a fun-sounding award to generate publicity for itself, we're flattered. Now if only it would turn its watchdogs on the growing PR sophistication of many NGOs and advocacy organizations -- on all sides of the political spectrum -- it might just distinguish itself from the anarchists in Seattle.

PR politics
public relations

Indemnify Thyself

Tweet

A prerequisite for anyone working in a PR capacity is the indemnification clause. A what? Your client asks you to convey to a journalist something whose veracity is, well let's say, less than grounded. The news breaks big, prompting the subjects of the malicious intent to sue...you. Without an indemnity clause in your contract, you are all but screwed.

This is standard operating procedure for most large, full-service firms, but perhaps less so for solo practitioners. It was therefore surprising to see today's item in "Page Six" that commended Paris Hilton's former publicist Rob Shuter for his foresight in securing from his faux-celeb client a waiver indemnifying him from any false information she might proffer.

Good thing. He now finds himself in court protected by that waiver...and a trail of e-mails and voice-mails that would make even Elliot Spitzer proud. Another Elliot (Mintz), Hilton's current Hollywood-based "crisis manager," declined comment. Could this be the beginning of the end of Ms. Hilton's tacky public reign? Unlikely, but we can always dream, can't we?

As for Shuter, he's keeping busy with his other less-than-savory client, Ashley Simpson. Rob, with your clientele, my advice would be to save your e-mails and don't forget to indemnify thyself.

PR media
law public relations

Contextually Contentious

Tweet

A phone call from a "60 Minutes" or "20/20" producer used to strike fear in the hearts and minds of PR pros everywhere. This was especially true if the call arrived at the final stages of production of a likely critical segment. After all, investigative news journalists held all the cards, or so it seemed.

What if we insisted that we be allowed to tape the interview in exchange for granting access to our newsmaker client? To our surprise, in 1985, "60 Minutes" agreed, but with one ground rule: our cameras shut down when theirs did. Henceforth, the playing field was at least partially leveled.

In a piece today that has all sorts of ramifications for PR practitioners, New York Times newspaper beat reporter Katharine Seelye (finally) reports on how unedited source material can be used in this day and age to give an interviewee a leg up on the interviewer. Unlike the "60 Minutes" example wherein PR pros remained at the mercy of other TV (or print) news gatekeepers to carry a client's unedited (non-reported) perspective, the advent of publicly accessible, RSS-enabled weblogs, podcasts and other forms of digital content delivery can make any newsmaker a news producer as well.

Dallas Mavs owner, tech mogul and widely linked-to blogger Mark Cuban demonstrated this tact so effectively this past summer when he posted his unedited e-mail exchange with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ms. Seelye's colleague on the Times's business pages. Mr. Cuban was miffed by a piece Mr. Sorkin had written in which he believed his comments were taken out of context.

PR maven Howard Rubenstein's supposedly smarter son Steven had this to say:

"...a corporation must also consider whether publishing such material would alienate an influential beat reporter as well as an entire news outlet and possibly reporters for other outlets. 'You have to balance the incident over the long-term relationship,' he said. 'But you can get your side out in a benign way. It doesn't have to be antagonistic.'"

Right. It may be okay for Mr. Cuban to blindside The Times's lead M&A reporter, but for most of us whose livelihoods rely on honest and mutually dependent relationships with mainstream reporters, it is not a practice to be considered lightly or without the cognizance and consent of the inquiring journalist.

PR weblogs media

Fame in 2006

Tweet

So much for New Year's resolutions. In addition to hoping for some semblance of sanity in Iraq, an end to the war on Americans' privacy and livelihoods, and an improvement in our nation's reputation abroad, I had hoped that the diviners of all that's hip and trendy would temper the practice of elevating the infamous and scandal-plagued to renewed celebrity status. Early indications tell me it's not to be. Bad behavior will continue to be rewarded with ample ink and airtime.

Following the anticipated career-ending coke-inducing newspaper cover shot, the style prognosticators at W, Vanity Fair and Italian Vogue deemed waif-model Kate Moss cover-worthy. Mary-Kate Olsen, whose child-star status was bulimically blighted by the bright lights of the big city, mugs on the January cover of W and, following a most public meltdown, Mariah Carey is in the midst of a spectacular career revival.

Could this be the trick to scaling new heights of fame, Martha? Get arrested. Appear in a viral porno film. Go anorexic. Get caught shoplifting. Crash your car. Bare your breast on the Super Bowl. Go crazy.

Americans love the comeback, and the editorial arbiters of this phenomenon provide the fuel for celebrity reignition. My first sense of this came many years ago when the late Mamas & Papas star John Phillips walked in to our office seeking PR help. He was facing jail time for cocaine possession, but had teamed with Dr. Mark Gold in New Jersey for a then experimental withdrawal treatment. His daughter Mackenzie had her own set of similar problems. Could we organize some interviews to demonstrate the earnestness of their respective drug rehabilitations? Sure thing.

Exclusive joint appearances on NBC "Today" and the cover of People magazine ensued, which ultimately led to the drug charges being dropped. The Phillips' were back on the road to celebrity.

At last in Mariah's case, she has a well-received artistic piece of work on which to re-build her career. Kate and Mary-Kate? Who needs to actually work when America's editorial gatekeepers don't seem to care?

PR celebrity
entertainment media