Our Insights

advertising, communications, Crenshaw Communications, marketing, public relations • March 2, 2011

What Good Public Relations Cannot Do

Hearing about someone’s bad experience with a PR firm has a train-wreck kind of fascination for PR agency people. It’s painful to hear criticisms and generalizations about our business, but we can’t resist jumping in to diagnose the problem. That’s the case with our most recent public flogging, “The Trouble With PR,” which appeared in […]

Crenshaw Communications, public relations, reputation • February 22, 2011

The Care And Feeding Of PR Interns

Guest post by Liz Savery When I started in the PR business, interns fetched coffee and picked up dry cleaning for agency VPs. Serf labor. Then, after the Lewinsky scandal of the nineties, the very word became a punch line. But things have changed, right? Not so fast. Last week, a fresh intern “scandal” broke […]

advertising, Crenshaw Communications, ImPRessions, public relations, reputation • February 15, 2011

Is Any PR Good PR?

Of course not. PR agency professionals have been preaching that for decades. No marketer in his right mind would recommend a strategy that involves offending customers, or demeaning the brand. But, think about some of the celebrated marketing gaffes of the past two weeks. Socially-conscious Super Bowl viewers were outraged at Groupon’s rookie commercial on […]

advertising, communications, Crenshaw Communications, marketing • February 11, 2011

Can Eminem Save Detroit?

“This is the Motor City, and this is what we do.” Hearing those words from Eminem, his finger wagging in my face, gave me chills. It’s the defiant climax of the two-minute Chrysler commercial that debuted during the Super Bowl. The spot grabbed everyone, partly because it stood out among the beer-serving dogs and […]

communications, Crenshaw Communications, social media, technology • February 6, 2011

Does The Revolution Really Need Twitter?

A fascinating sidebar to the civil uprising in Egypt is the debate over the role of social media in the breathtaking rate of the government’s unraveling. After #jan25 happened, many enthusiasts took the opportunity to gloat over social media’s status as accelerant, first in Tunisia and now in Egypt. This revolution has not only been […]

News • February 1, 2011

Sleepy’s Names Crenshaw Communications As AOR

Sleepy’s, the mattress and bedding store with 700+ retails locations in U.S., has named Crenshaw Communications as agency of record. The CC team will launch a branded PR campaign linking Sleepy’s with better sleep. The campaign will kick off in January, when so many Americans resolve to get more and better sleep. For the full story, […]

advertising, communications, Crenshaw Communications, crisis management, public relations, reputation • January 30, 2011

"Thanks For Suing Us!" Taco Bell Takes On "Beef-Gate"

A California woman’s beef with Taco Bell over the ingredients in her taco served up an interesting crisis management case study last week. The food fight has turned into a class-action lawsuit alleging false advertising by the chain. The suit claims its tacos are only 36 percent beef, which, if true, means they wouldn’t even […]

advertising, branding, communications, Crenshaw Communications, public relations • January 25, 2011

Banned-Ad Gimmick Loses Super Bowl PR Points

As Super Bowl XLV approaches, marketing pundits are suiting up for the ad-stravaganza, but I’m naturally more interested in the PR Bowl. It’s a big part of the marketing investment, and it’s fun to watch brands try to score free media coverage weeks ahead of time. But, one much-practiced play that’s losing ground is the “banned” ad. […]

communications, Crenshaw Communications, leadership, public relations • January 19, 2011

Tucson And The Power Of Metaphors

When, in the aftermath of the Tucscon tragedy, some linked it to Sarah Palin’s gun sight map, I was actually irritated. Any attempt to politicize what happened is revolting, and it seemed like a red herring at best. (In my book, images don’t kill people, semiautomatic weapons kill people. But this blog is about communications.) […]