Crazy Cat Commericals

I’m one of those people who now DVRs everything, even if its live, and then zips through the shows sans commercials. But, with the Olympics, I can’t…so this is the first time I’m really seeing those silly cat commercials. Have you seen them? They are beyond stupid. I mean…really now. I do hope that the cat food manufacturers realize that the cats don’t watch the commercials. The one that got me going today was was Purina Friskies “Adventure” [...]

Seth Godin - A True Linchpin

Seth Godin is a prolific author, a brilliant marketer, a visionary and one of the kindest human beings walking this planet. He makes the world a better place. And his makes my life better and he can do the same for you. He embodies the modern day work force. He gets how we tick and what motivates us as workers, consumers and bossess. And he is our biggest cheerleader. He’s a linchpin – he’s indispensable. And he wants the same for [...]

A New PR Title-An Apologist

Man, every time we turn around – it seems like some public company or public figure is apologizing. If you are skilled in crafting apologies that can be read well, but don’t have much meaning then you’ve got yourself a highly sought after career. [...]

Fatgate - A Lesson in Social Media Crisis Communications

Since Saturday, Smith and Southwest (SWA) have been going back and forth about the situation. Each have blogged extensively about it and it’s become quite the mess, but it’s an excellent lesson for us PR professionals in how to handle a bad situation from an [...]

Valentine's Day PR Crises - Edwards, Pitt, etc.

The Edwards situation I simply do not understand. I don’t know who’s handling their brands and with so much personal info publicly known thanks to Young’s book, I don’t know if they can ever rub the tarnish off the family silver so to speak. The damage has been done and there’s not one side that is looking good at this [...]

Google Super Bowl Ad - Simplistic Brilliance

At first blush, I tweeted that I thought the Google Super Bowl ad was a blah commercial. But, after much thought, I was in awe of its simplicity and how well it described its true function. The commercial was on point and perfectly described what it did and then some. For if you really think about it, how else would you describe Google other than its an amazing search engine. It’s made to search and search everything. Thus, this commercial was spot on. Perfect. It was true to its product and use. [...]

Toyota Pushing the Pedal to the Metal

Does Toyota ever need crisis communication– for this once-stellar company is hemorrhaging everywhere. Every time a new edition of an online report comes out there seems to be some new allegation or fine being imposed on this global Japanese car manufacturer. They are in a heap of [...]

Toyota's Accelerating PR Problem

Toyota’s recall media plan is steeped in corporate jargon. Where’s the personal touch-where’s the assurance that this problem will be 100 percent fixed by installing a shock absorber to the pedal. More importantly, where’s the assurance that the vehicles on the recall list are safe to drive until they are fixed. People are skeptical that this is the cause. There has been some finger pointing between Toyota and the pedal manufacturer which has been raising eyebrows. This needs to be cleared up in the public’s [...]