PR Lessons From Occupy Wall Street
Today is the National Day of Action, and the media noise around the Occupy Wall Street movement is louder than it’s been since the start. The mood around here is mostly business as usual, flavored with a little anxiety and mild distraction. But, is OWS a PR success? Many have criticized its lack of coherent message, […]
Read MoreSavvy Surveys That Work For PR
The nationally projectable consumer survey has long been a very popular tool in the PR arsenal. Polls on hot topics packaged effectively make easy work for time-starved media and are a great way to connect your client to the topical and timely. Win-win, right? Not so fast – there are surveys that succeed and surveys […]
Read MoreWhen PR And Legal Strategies Clash
A recent episode of “The Good Wife” offers a highly entertaining look at crisis management inside a law firm and the tension between PR advice and legal counsel. A strategy session for a client whose tainted cheese has sickened dozens of schoolchildren erupts in war between the attorney, who wants to stonewall media calls, and a $60,000-a-month spinmeister (played to […]
Read MoreUnHappy Valley: Penn State’s Massive PR Fumble
“… I wish to say that Tim Curley and Gary Schultz have my unconditional support. I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years. I have complete confidence in how they have handled the allegations about a former University employee. Tim Curley and Gary Schultz operate at the highest […]
Read MoreDoes Matt Lauer Hate PR?
People in PR-agency-land are getting steamed this week about our industry’s reputation. Again. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz appeared on the NBC-TV’s “Today” to talk about his jobs creation fund, which will raise cash for micro-loans to small businesses, and host Matt Lauer was less than gracious. Lauer allowed Schultz to outline the program, but he seemed […]
Read MoreHerman Cain’s PR Problem
Until recently, Herman Cain had shown himself to be a pretty savvy communicator. The plainspoken ex-pizza prez showed he understands the value of a simple idea, well packaged and often repeated, with his “9-9-9” tax proposal. (No one understood it, he couldn’t really explain it, but everyone knew about it. Can you say that about […]
Read MoreRobert Gibbs On PR, Politics, And Social Media
“Whether or not someone is camped in a park literally, there will always be someone camped in a park, figuratively.” Nice, tweetable quote from former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Gibbs spoke yesterday at the Council of PR Firms Critical Issues Forum about the power of social media to mobilize change. As a veteran of policy […]
Read MorePR Horror Stories
In public relations, horror stories usually mean something has happened out of our control with a difficult or “no-win” solution. But often the most terrible tales leave something to be learned. In honor of Halloween here are some hair-raising stories from an array of PR pros. Where is everyone? – The PR team for an […]
Read MoreWhen To Kill A Live Interview
This weekend, New York Jets star Darrelle Revis was instructed to hang up during a live radio interview by a member of the team’s PR staff after the conversation started to get testy. It seemed that the host was baiting Revis into saying something he’d regret (which could have hurt the image and selling power […]
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