Even Don Draper Needs Coaching

Like everyone who is hooked on Mad Men, I eagerly awaited the season opener this past Sunday. As someone who has done PR for a living for many years, I was curious about the name of the season opener, "Public Relations." As with everything related to this terrific AMC original series set in the 50s and now 60s world of advertising, public relations had multiple meanings in this episode. Copywriter Peggy Olson teamed up with account services lead Pete Campbell...

5 Ways for PR Interns to Get Hired Quickly

It’s not easy to get an internship these days. And once you nail down the position, it isn’t always easy being an intern. I know this both from personal experience (albeit from a long time ago) and also from recent experiences of my children who are in college or graduating into a tough economic period in which even unpaid internships are competitive and difficult to attain. My colleague Don Jennings, pointed out this recent blog post: Are Internships Worth it...

Is it real life or is it social media?

My 17-year-old convinced me to see the movie "Inception," a summer special effects blockbuster that is not my usual fare. It has the intriguing premise that there are skilled operatives who can infiltrate your dreams, mining for valuable information about you and architecting dream worlds that can seem so real that the operatives carry "totems" -- solid objects like a metal top that won't fall over in the dream state -- to help them quickly determine if they are dreaming...

What do Old Spice and Google have in common?

It's day 2 of the Old Spice Guy social media campaign, with more video responses to the brand's followers on all forms of social networks. As of this writing, Old Spice has posted over 170 videos between 15 and 50 seconds in length that are, in effect, personalized commercials. The writing for each one is just as hilarious as the original TV commercials. In addition to responding to everyday consumers, Old Spice smartly targeted responses to large brands, social media...

Exhibit A why social media and sanitized information don't mix

Over the last few weeks, the passion for the World Cup has been palpable, even in this country, which is not as soccer mad as the rest of the world. People who normally crowd around the television in our company's break room for major golf tournaments or significant playoff games in other sports were glued to the set to watch many of the matches. The incredible fervor of the international football fans in this country for the US Men's National...

What the King James spectacle teaches us about publicity, communications and image

LeBron James' over-hyped, overblown, over-analyzed and ultimately over done free agency signing saga has treated us to a fascinating lesson in the power of celebrity, publicity, communications and image. As the most celebrated free agent in the history of sports, LeBron and his handlers knew that his choice would be be huge news. The question they faced was how did they want to manage it? Ultimately they chose to play it out like a combination of The Bachelor, with teams...

Twitter is not the medium for a balanced view

Not only is the fourth estate under siege for economic reasons, now journalists who step out of line during the frenetic 24/7 need to report, analyze, comment, speak, write, blog and tweet, risk losing their livelihoods. The latest to fall is Octavia Nasr who clearly was ushered out of her 20-year position at CNN after the flap caused by her tweet: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah..One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot..#Lebanon." Nasr...

I love Austin

I am warning you - this post is a sales pitch for the City of Austin. So if you're not a fan, I'd discontinue reading. If you are, you might be surprised by some of the notable acknowledgments the city has attained this year. I moved here from San Francisco 9 years ago, in the spring of 2001, which as most people fondly remember, was just as the market was really starting to crumble and no one, I mean, no...

What Google, Viacom and Prince tell us about the Web in 2010

The Hollywood Reporter said it best: "The Google geeks have beaten Hollywood chic." The article went on to describe the clear message in federal judge Stanton's ruling in favor of Google, which had been sued for $1B in damages by Viacom over perceived copyright infringement on its YouTube subsidiary: When user-generated video sites implement reasonable takedown procedures, they are shielded from infringement lawsuits based on the copyrighted content that users upload. 'If a service provider knows of specific instances of...