
What We Can Learn From Shark Week
It’s baaack! Discovery Channel found a good thing when they decided to dedicate a week’s worth of programming to shark attacks. That was 24 years ago, and now Shark Week is more than just hour-long shows about sharks. Shark Week has become must-see TV every summer. It’s also a brand of its own, and part […]
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How To Be Quoted In The Press: Nine PR Tips
One of the mysteries of media relations is the process whereby an interview becomes a feature story. Quality in, quality out, right? Not always. What goes in does not always come through in the final piece. And there are few things more frustrating than offering up your best insights, quotes, and experience, only to be cut […]
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A Summer’s Eve Debate: Why ‘Offensive’ Ads Can Be Good
Can men effectively market to women? Can whites sell to people of color? Sure. Yet, some recent ad campaigns make you wonder. The latest is for Summer’s Eve cleansing wash, and it’s definitely a fresh take on the “feminine products” category. Each of the three ads features a woman’s hand that is meant to be a […]
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Harnessing The PR Power Of Twitter
Twitter has exploded into one of the most rapidly expanding social platforms in the world, with over 200 million users to date. In an industry where one wrong tweet can compromise a company’s image, how can you use Twitter as a force of “PR good” for your client? We all know to monitor conversations about […]
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Was The Murdoch’s "Humble Pie" Good PR?
As he prepared to face a day’s worth of questioning by British lawmakers about the News Corp. phone-hacking crisis, Rupert Murdoch was set to serve up a carefully crafted statement that began,”This is the most humble day of my life.” But Murdoch was rushed into questioning and had to wait until later to try to […]
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All Facebook "Likes" Are Not Created Equal
Even before Facebook popularized the “like” button, there’s been online discussion about the value of a single Facebook fan, or, now, a “like.” Some is pure speculation, while some is more research-based. Last year, social measurement firm Syncapse put the revenue potential of Facebook fans for certain brands at an impressive $136.38. More recently, revenue optimization […]
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How To Dress For (PR) Success
In the New York PR world, being fashionable and dressing appropriately needn’t be mutually exclusive. In my experience you should treat your work wardrobe like a PR campaign: first, know your “target audience!” Do you work for a very corporate company that demands formal dress or a funky downtown firm that appreciates the fashion-forward? Get […]
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What We Can Learn From Horrible PR Bosses
Psycho. Maneater. Tool. The descriptions of the bosses in the new summer movie got me thinking of those I’ve had in my long PR career. Google “horrible bosses” and you get no fewer than 19 million hits. Need to vent? Share your stories of chumps in charge on blogs like http://reallybadboss.com/ and now, of course, there’s […]
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Recipe For A Twitter Fail: Was Entenmann’s #Guilty of Hashtag Hijacking?
Call it a half-baked attempt to be topical…or perhaps, just a mistake. As Twitter erupted following the surprise guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial, Entenmann’s adopted the rapidly trending #notguilty hashtag to tweet a whimsical update about “eating all the tasty treats you want.” The tweet lasted only minutes. Someone realized the juxtaposition wasn’t […]
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