“Politics have no place in health care.”

Those of you who know me well know that my mother has had breast cancer twice. We do what we can to help find a cure – walking, donating, buying Yoplait for the pink lids – because you don’t really know how much it could change your life until it’s happened to you.

Susan G. Komen is the leader in the breast cancer awareness movement, having raised nearly $2 billion for research since its inception. It’s really a community, a community of fighters pushing for more. I think that’s why it is so heartbreaking for me to see the choices the organization has made most recently and in the past. I’ve already written about the horrific partnership with KFC, so I’m going to talk about the recent Planned Parenthood fiasco today.

As you all have heard, SGK retracted its decision to cut grants to Planned Parenthood because of a federal investigation. Whether this was a result of the public reaction or whether they decided it was the wrong thing to do, is not why I’m upset.

What I can’t figure out is why Ms. Karen Handel, former VP, thought they were getting “in the middle of a controversial issue,” when they’ve been issuing grants for years. News flash, Ms. Handel: You’re not drawing attention to yourselves if you continue doing as you’ve done in the past. That is not out of the ordinary. What you’ve now done is not only drawn national *negative* attention to the organization and scared thousands of women everywhere who couldn’t have afforded help otherwise; but, most importantly, you forgot the true mission behind what Susan G. Komen is all about: Find a cure to rid the world of breast cancer. Shame on you for thinking image is more important than saving lives.

I’m so disappointed because these women (and men) are fighting every day for their lives and trying so hard to make it better for others. How can you expect them to back an organization that can’t even stand by it’s mission?

Angry Birds – And what they teach

I was forwarded this “color paper” from Sonar 6 entitled, “How Angry Birds made me a better manager.” I enjoyed reading it and especially enjoyed the parallels between a game and the real world. Here are the highlights:

• Each employee has a different set of skills and it is up to the manager to fit them together to be the best team
• It is important to motivate your team to steer clear of the “pigs,” like procrastination, shipping problems and other annoying stuff

I decided to delve into a little further since I like to over-think things. I’d like to add the following:

• I liked the parallel between games and real-life, especially since it is real-life. Just like in Angry Birds, you’re not going to pass every level the first time. It takes trial and error to make the right moves, just like it takes trial and error to get your team right.
• However, I’m not entirely convinced that this accurately reflects the nature of challenges. In life, I don’t think business consistently and progressively gets more difficult. There are lulls and there are rushes, so you’re not always trying to find new combinations.

Overall, I really enjoyed this color paper and will probably be playing Angry Birds in the next few minutes. 🙂

Source: Sonar 6

Hello, again

The last time I posted was in April of this year. Since then, a lot has been going on and, unfortunately, this blog has taken a backseat to life.

Since April, I’ve:
-transitioned into two new positions at Boscobel
-hired and trained someone to replace my first position
-planned and hosted Boscobel’s 5th annual Margarita Party
-jumped into a career track that is new and is only slightly related to PR
-wrapped up a fiscal year end
-learned that I am capable of surprising myself

There are so many hidden opportunities out there, so always keep your eyes and mind open in case one comes your way.

I, in turn, will do better to post on my blogs more…

Applebee’s & Olive Garden = Baby Bars?

As someone who was accidentally given alcohol in a sippy cup as a toddler (not from a restaurant), I feel a connection to this PR disaster and want to weigh in on Applebee’s and Olive Garden’s choices. For those just tuning in, the two large restaurant chains were found to have accidentally served toddlers alcohol in their sippy cups. Shocking, right? (Side note: I have a feeling how this happened, given my brief stint working in the restaurant industry. If my hypothesis is correct, though, we have more problems than just drunk toddlers.)

According to The Gutes, both companies handled this situation as one would typically expect during a crisis: there was a public apology, acceptance of responsibility and the assurance that they were taking action to prevent this situation again. Unfortunately, due to media, social in particular, that standard crisis communication plan was not enough.

It’s my opinion that both Applebee’s and Olive Garden did not think these crises would evolve into the conversation-piece that they did (but let’s be honest, why would you think that way?), which is evident through their lack of preparation. Had they realized that people would take an active interest in toddlers consuming alcohol well under the legal age limit, they may have prepared some additional talking points to direct focus to the main themes: 1. We apologize. 2. We take full responsibility for what happened. 3. We are taking every precaution to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

I think both companies will learn from this situation and hopefully, they will have a more integrated approach to crises. Since they’re so well-established, I don’t think they’ll lose too much business. Maybe the occasional family with young children, but it probably won’t impact the bottom line too drastically.

Controversial J. Crew Ad

Recently, my friends have been filling up my newsfeed with comments about a controversial J. Crew ad featuring a mother painting her young son’s toenails pink. I wanted to think out loud and give you my two cents.

Let’s take a look from an advertising perspective. J. Crew’s ads have always been up this alley: fun, candid and beautiful. Look at the mother and son laughing. How fun is the activity they’re doing? Also, we seem to have stumbled upon this scene as it was happening – surprise! There is no greater photo than that which is not posed. All the more reason why advertisers like to use them. It looks relaxed and carefree. Finally, they are beautiful. They are happy doing what they’re doing and wearing some phenomenal clothes. Essentially, this point was just that J. Crew didn’t step too far out of their comfort zone publishing this ad; it still holds true to the classic J. Crew ad.

Here’s the thing about advertising: It’s meant for a specific audience. You can’t just throw your product/service out there willy-nilly and hope you get a customer. You have to do a ton of research to figure out who exactly you want to target and then how best to target them. The research is grueling because you have to get into the nitty-gritty of your audience’s demographics and more importantly, psychographics. It is from the results of this research that agencies are able to build a campaign using their brand or product or service to market to their target audience appropriately. Basically, my point is that if you’re reacting negatively to this ad, you are probably not J. Crew’s target audience (for clothes or otherwise).

This should be a non-issue. The audience J. Crew normally targets in their ad probably, for the most part, do not react in a negative way to this ad. That’s why they did it. Because they know their audience.

Obviously, there is a human rights advocate side to this argument, as well, but as this is my PR blog, I’ve decided to forego getting into it. I’ll leave you with this: It’s none of your business how a mother raises her son. It’s also not your place to judge sexual orientation. If you think it’s wrong, don’t do it. Case closed.

The Future of Journalism

I read an article in The Washington Post today entitled, “Five myths about the future of journalism.” As a member of the journalism community, I was curious as to if any popular ideas I had heard might actually not be accurate. I was not disappointed. I’ve outlined the article below and added some commentary, as well.

1. The traditional news media are losing their audience.
While it would seem likely that the Internet would “steal” readers, viewers and listeners from traditional media, the reality of the situation is not quite so devastating. The article states that while audience members are in fact migrating to the online newsroom, most of the news sites they’re going to are “legacy” media sources or aggregators, that combine news from multiple sources into one snazzy package.

I can see the that statistics make a valid point, but I feel like the Internet offers many more outlets for news, that in some time, people will veer off of “legacy” sites and might find something more up their alley.

2. Online news will be fine as soon as the advertising revenue catches up.
Advertising revenue is never going to catch up with online news. The article says that, “Web advertising surpassed print advertising for the first time,” in 2010, but unfortunately, only a small portion of that went to news. There are so many other ways for advertisers to reach their audience that they don’t have to rely heavily on the news anymore.

3. Content will always be king.
This kind of seems incorrect, but I suppose the Internet has to target their audiences narrowly to make sure they can provide what the audience wants. The article says,”The key to media in the 21st century may be who has the most knowledge of audience behavior, not who produces the most popular content.” I think this kind of disproves the myth. The outlets with the most knowledge of audience behavior know how to provide content that their audience will respond to. It’s still about content – it’s just about the right content for your audience.

4. Newspapers around the world are on the decline.
Luckily for all of my friends out there in the newspaper industry, this gets to be one of the myths. Unfortunately, to thrive, they may have to move to India. Newspapers aren’t on the decline in developing nations because literacy rates are rising and the Internet isn’t really breaking through.

The reason American papers aren’t doing so hot is because of advertising. It has nothing to do with the fact that people are getting their news from the Internet.

5. The solution is to focus on local news.
Local news is in a bit of a catch 22 because to generate enough ad revenue, a significant amount of content has to be produced. That’s hard to do in a local environment, but even harder when it has to compete with national outlets. In what the article is calling “Hyperlocal 2.0,” local advertisers would have to migrate to online and look into display advertising, which has a bigger share of the market than search advertising.

I can see where some of these myths would originate from, but I’m curious to see how everything plays out in the coming years and decades.

My “Big Girl” Job

As this is a PR Blog, I wanted to share with you the latest and greatest PR news in my life.

I am employed!

I was hired in September by a marketing communications firm in Maryland as a PR Assistant.  And, I’ve got to tell you: I’m so happy.  I know it’s cliche to say “I love my job,” but I really do.  And maybe I’m still in the honeymoon phase and am just ecstatic to be employed, but I really enjoy what I’m doing.  I’m helping people.  As an assistant, I not only get to help my colleagues, but that in turn helps the clients.  I’m helping all over the place!  And it feels so good.

FourSquare – “Four” Better or “Four” Worst?

As a relatively new member of the FourSquare community, I am observant of how other people are using it.  For the most part, I’ve been using it to give free advertising to each venue I choose to.  For example, when my friends and I go to Trivia Night at a local restaurant on Wednesday nights, I’ll “check in” and “shout out”: “At trivia with friends!”  This message is then “pinged” to Twitter so it shows up on my Twitter feed.  So, for the most part, I’m an advocate-FourSquare user.

Today, I was browsing through Twitter, getting the latest news from Baltimore, and I came across a negative FourSquare tweet.  It said, “Worst ———  ———- ever! Don’t go here!”  This FourSquarer has become, what we in the PR world call, an assassin for the brand.  Rather than peacefully avoiding this brand and ignoring its existence, she is calling out to her fellow social media apt friends to stay away from this brand no matter what they do.

So, here is my question: Is FourSquare really a beneficial application for consumer businesses?  With enough negative “shout outs,” the business in question would lose valuable customers and maybe even reputation points.  Or a better question, will FourSquare eventually rise in popularity so much that businesses will offer better service in order to avoid a negative “shout out?”

I like the idea of social media rising so much that it would be important enough in a business plan, but I’m not sure FourSquare is going to make it there.  I feel that FourSquare might get outdated before social media has risen to the aforementioned level, but here’s hoping that more of the world catches on to the trend!

Oil Crisis Advertising

This post is not really what you think it’s going to be about.  I have yet to see a PSA about the Oil Crisis, aside from the half PSA/half advertisement for Dawn Soap that donates profits to multiple wildlife foundations.  (But really, that one had been airing since before the newest oil crisis in the Gulf Region).

No, this post is more about how beaches are advertising now that oil is slowly creeping its way along the Atlantic coast line.  And I’ve thought, myself, about my upcoming beach vacation and how different it’ll be this year.  Will we see the oil?  Will the water be too contaminated to get in?  Are we going to witness dying animal/plant life?  Those questions will be answered soon enough.

But I have seen several commercials for beaches that tout their “still-clear waters.”  While this may be true, and we hope it stays true, I feel that it is a tasteless display of advertising.  So what if your waters are still clear!?  There are thousands of animals dying every day because of the oil spill!  The more important issue is to fix this problem and to band together to help all the wildlife that we can.  I know that beach vacations are one of the most popular things to do during the summer, but it hardly seems time-appropriate to be advertising this instead of ways to help out.

This oil spill is now worse than the Valdez oil spill more than 20 years ago.  The amount of life that is being lost is devastating and I wish that advertisers would realize that and consider that before they create any more beach vacation commercials.

Susan G. Komen and…KFC!?

I realize that I am not the first person to think or write about this, but you have got to be kidding me, Komen Foundation.  My post today is about the KFC commercial with the pink buckets.

I have been thinking about this post for a really long time and wanted to get my point out there, and then show you how other people are thinking the same thing.  Let’s start at the beginning.  My mom is a 12-year survivor of breast cancer, the disease that the Komen Foundation is striving to find a cure for.  Throughout the last 12 years, my family has contributed to the Komen Foundation, participated in 5K’s and bought “pink” things to help donate toward the cause.

In any one of the numerous health classes I’ve taken as a student, I’ve learned about cancer.  It’s all review, as I learned about it for the first time when I was 9.  What a lot of research has showed is that diets that are high in fat can lead to an increased risk of breast cancer.  Additionally, obese women have a higher risk of getting cancer than women in similar conditions who are of a healthy weight.

So here is my question: What were you thinking teaming up with a fast-food restaurant?  As the family member of a survivor, I am unbelievably angry that you would so blatantly disregard research to collaborate with another party that could have increased the risk of cancer in multiple people.  If there is research that links cancer to fat, why in the world would you team up with a place that sells FRIED chicken?  I understand that there are a considerable amount of donations coming in and that KFC now sells grilled chicken, but this is possibly one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen.

Maybe you wanted to reach the audience of people who eat KFC because they are getting the disease.  But let me guarantee you that those people do other things besides eat fried chicken.  Please target them another way that doesn’t endanger their health by contributing to the national obesity epidemic.

My second question is: Who thought it would be a good idea to do this?  Where was the PR team?  Where were the interns who do the research and provide information on why this is a bad idea?

I’m so confused by this commercial and so agitated by it that I tell everyone I know.  But clearly, this is not a unique feeling.  Here are a few articles I found that resound my sentiment:

MinnPost.com

Selfish Giving

Examiner.com

GettingAttention.org

NY Daily News

Need I go on?  And that’s only half of the first Google page.

In conclusion, I am appalled that the Komen Foundation would make a choice like this.  I am hoping with all of my might that they had some kind of reasoning behind it, but I think it is ridiculous.