May the People's Pledge against Attack Ads Spread and Prevail

Major kudos are in order to U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Scott Brown and his Democratic rival in the upcoming election, Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren. They recently made an agreement that Brown has dubbed a "People's Pledge" to work to limit attack ads by outside groups during their Massachusetts Senate race. As reported by the AP, "Under the terms of the deal, each campaign would agree to donate half the cost of any third-party ad to charity if that ad either...

Here’s One Save Thomas Can’t Make

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” ~ Warren Buffett In a city consumed by sports excellence over the past decade we have become accustomed to fending off criticisms and low blows from fans and media in other markets. Yet we were ill-prepared yesterday when one of our hometown sports heroes, Bruins net minder Tim Thomas, delivered a cheap shot of his own. By...

The Best and Worst PR Moves of 2011 : Part II [#WorstPRMoves]

We've already given you the #BestPRMoves of 2011. And, as is always the case, our list of the #WorstPRMoves is always longer and, frankly, a lot more fun to compile. Let's see if our list matches your memories of the year's communications faux pas. Best in Class Individual #WorstPRMoves of 2011 This gets a split vote this year. It was a closely fought race between sitcom star cum rabble rouser cum new sitcom star Charlie Sheen, and the "what was...

Surma’s Cool Communications and Precision Navigates the Penn State Debacle

John Surma has been president and chief executive officer of US steel since 2004, yet until a couple of days ago, wasn’t a household name. However, Mr. Surma is also vice-chairman of the board of trustees for Pennsylvania State University and had the unenviable task of managing the public announcement that legendary head football coach Joe Paterno was being relieved of his duties, effective immediately. The fact that the move was not unexpected did little to dampen the hostility of...

Hey, Red Sox. Don't Poke a Stick in the Cage.

Despite the many worthy candidates, including Herman Cain, we just have to award a special "What were they thinking?" communications award this week to the marketing team of the Boston Red Sox for their invitation to "Jingle Your Way to Fenway." The invitation arrived in my email box yesterday morning. Here's part of the cheery message: "Fans showed so much creativity with the Jingle Your Way to Fenway contest last year that we just had to bring it back! To...

How to Avoid Getting Gronk'd

If you follow Beyond the Hype, it's clear that we have a few Boston sports fans at the agency. And because we're PR people, it's impossible for us not to have opinions on the multitude of "PR moments" our teams have offered up lately. During a spirited debate with my colleague, Mike Parker, about New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski's bye week PR blunder, we argued all angles of the story -- from "this is so not a big...

A Lesson in Connecting and Controlling the Message: Theo's Farewell to Red Sox Nation

For those who follow them, the Boston Red Sox are a cross between an addiction, a religion and even a cult. Spurred by a combination of their tragic loser past and their vindicating championships in 2004 and 2007, that following has grown beyond New England into a "Red Sox Nation" with fan(atic)s across the country and even the world. That is why the Red Sox historic collapse this year -- the startling revelations about drinking during games, team disharmony, and...

Damage Control Lesson from Heidi Watney

It's been a rough couple of weeks if you're a die-hard Red Sox fan. The team's September collapse has been widely reported -- gleefully reported in markets that hate the Sox and the succession of victories of Boston sports teams in general in recent years. Fans feel angry, frustrated and betrayed. They want answers to what happened, why did it happen, and what is the management of the team going to do about it? That kind of pent up interest...

Latest "What Were They Thinking?" Department Communication Awards

It was a busy end of September with entries for the much-sought-after "What Were They Thinking?" Department Communication Awards. Given the historic nosedive o f the Boston Red Sox, who were predicted before the season began to be in the World Series facing the Philadelphia Phillies, and who didn't even make it into the postseason, it's not surprising that two of this week's awards are related to their very public crash and burn. It pains me to give the "Timing...

Good PR Skills, Common Sense, Clearly Lackey-ing

I routinely get inquiries from friends and acquaintances as to what PR is all about and what the secrets to being viewed positively in the press truly are. While I normally preface my remarks with my standard “PR is more of an art than a science” line, I find that the explanation is often pretty simple. Good PR stems from applying common sense to interactions with the media. This brings us to John Lackey, starting pitcher for the Boston Red...