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Public relations These short items discuss the following:
Paul gets accredited As of January, Paul gets to add the letters APR after his name. Short for "Accredited Public Relations," the designation means that Paul has passed a rigorous testing process instituted by the Canadian Public Relations Society. Only one candidate in three passes the test, which determines whether candidates have the skill and the knowledge that successful PR people need. The next PR generation Here's a worrisome nugget from the March issue of PR Tactics. The downsizing of the early 1990s took an entire generation out of the PR business, leaving little
middle ground between the seasoned pros and the raw newcomers. PR Tactics is also worried about the generation coming on board now. A recruiter in Cleveland noted an alarming lack of cultural literacy among the young,
as well as poor grammar skills and non-existent etiquette skills. These sound like mere quibbles, but the PR business is all about understanding the cultural climate around us and writing effectively to influence that
climate. If you're uncomfortable with either, stakeholders will notice and your effectiveness will deteriorate. PR's Academy Awards
With the Oscars now behind us, let's look at the "PR Academy Awards," as presented in the February 1999 issue of PR Tactics, for everything from Best
PR Heroine (Gwyneth Paltrow's restaurant PR pro in "Sliding Doors") to Worst PR Villain (Elaine Hendrix's vineyard publicist in "The Parent Trap"). "The Siege" gets a nod for having an
FBI spokesperson who also "negotiates with terrorists, supervises investigations and fights evil between press conferences." The extended AOL commercial called "You've Got Mail" attracted notice for
the failure of a bookstore owner's media campaign: like failed campaigns in the real world, this one was all tactics and no strategy. Other cinematic PR notables include Judge Reinhold, who in "Office
Politics" is warned: "You were supposed to tell our side of the story. You weren't supposed to tell the truth." Of course, no round-up of 1998 celluloid PR can be complete without "Wag the
Dog," which PR Tactics calls "a tour de spin that traded on the most cynical caricature of PR consultants--amoral, powerful manipulators." Microsoft's PR does more harm than good When it comes to Bill Gates, there are two camps. Either you think
he is the ancient Greek god of business and technology, or you think he is Darth Vader's meaner older brother, wielding his Windows like an even darker Dark Side. Microsoft's PR people are trying to move more of us
from the latter camp to the former, but it appears they may be trying too hard. Seideman says that Microsoft is used to wielding enough power to determine what is said about it. Through its media relations operatives at Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft has tracked its press coverage with
"spreadsheet precision and wooed select tech reporters for key media outlets via command audiences with Bill." But for Seideman, the downside of this controlled spinning is that everyone says exactly the
same thing. Moreover, what they are saying so often and so loudly is, often, not exactly in line with the facts. He blames this on what he calls a cult-like atmosphere within Microsoft, although surely any corporation
fighting for its legal life is going to be very careful to ensure that nobody is saying anything that can hurt in court. Seideman sees this spinning as Microsoft's Achilles heel, concluding, "there is a point
beyond which commitment becomes catastrophe -- and relentless adhesion to a corporate culture leaves no room for the glimmering light of reality to seep in." Perhaps. But it brings to mind the old joke. How many
Microsofties does it take to screw in a light bulb? None. They just declare darkness to be the new industry standard. As Microsoft controls more and more of the central aspects of doing business, it will increasingly be
in a position to decide just how dark it wants things to be. A PR "oops" Teen singer Britney Spears has become enough of a phenomenon to warrant a quickie biography from St. Martin's Press, in which we learn that "part of what makes Britney unique
is the quirky, individualized spelling of her name." Apparently, it was more quirky and individualized than St. Martin's could handle. In its media release, the company refers to "Brittany,"
"Britany" and "Britney," a confusion that earned Spears the "Loser of the Week" award from "Entertainment Weekly." Getting more creative ideas Five steps for more creative ideas
Get lots of information. Think about it for a while. Forget about it and let your subconscious take over. Let ideas pop up when you least expect them. Work out the kinks in the new ideas.
Source: James Webb Young's A Technique for Producing Ideas. Seven tips for more effective staff meetings More effective meetings can make a real bottom-line difference; an Oakville, Ontario communications company found that it can cost $120 to have an executive at a meeting!
Minimize social chit-chat. Be ruthless. For really short meetings, ban chairs. Only invite those who need to be there. Hold meetings later in the day, when your concentration is usually low anyway.
Distribute briefings ahead of time, so people can read them beforehand. Have an agenda, stick to it, record your decisions and leave with defined action items for the participants. A good trick for ensuring
prompt starts is to lock the door when the meeting begins, forcing latecomers to knock. Also, make the last person take the minutes. A hell of an office party So ... your company is celebrating its centennial. Perhaps you'll rent out a downtown restaurant. Or, if you're Pepsi, you'll hold the party in Hawaii, have the Rolling Stones play, and then top off the guest list by inviting George Bush, Margaret Thatcher and Ray Charles. Hey, you're only 100 years old once. PR blunders & bloopers
The February 1997 issue of PR Tactics looks at some of the biggest PR mistakes of 1996. Here are our favourites. Cancel those campfire songs:
ASCAP, the composers' union, wrote to camps warning them that they had to pay fees to sing copy-righted campfire songs. Some Girl Guide camps refused, and stopped singing the songs. Embarrassed by the attention, ASCAP paid for full-page ads recanting the fee demand.
Infant escape routes: The chair of R.J. Reynolds sniffed that children offended by second-hand smoke could always leave the room. When asked about infants, Charles Harper replied, "At some point, they
will learn to crawl." Fly me out to the ball game:
America West Airlines turned a plane around, in mid-flight, to pick up the California Angels baseball team. The existing passengers, meanwhile, were kicked off to make room for the superstars.
Those hilarious contests: Regular Edge
readers will remember John Leonard, the Seattle student who sued Pepsi over the "joke" in its Pepsi Points contest. Nationwide Mutual Insurance (NMI) went one step further, promising two Mercedes and a trip around the world for a slogan promoting a regional convention. David Mears won. But NMI was kidding. Mears wasn't laughing. He sued, too.
An un-prize for the talkative Here's a prize you wouldn't want to win. Intel hands out the Muzzle to executives who make bonehead remarks in public. The award -- a leather dog leash on a wooden plaque -- was first given to an Intel lawyer who said that "negotiating with the Japanese is like negotiating with the devil." Free PR lists on the Web Media Distribution Services is offering free online guides to American media. Or go to this site for a free online list of government communicators. "PR" ... the dirty word According to O'Dwyer's Newsletter, distributed through CompuServe, media-relations expert Stephen Conn wants to be called a journalist, not a PR practitioner. After all, says Conn,
"I am a journalist and I head a firm comprising journalists helping other journalists to get the full and accurate story." Conn actually does media relations for corporate clients but, to his credit, his
news releases tend to reveal what clients would prefer he conceal. A news release for the Ministry of Tourism of Israel talked about riots in the West Bank. Say Conn, "While we may have credibility with the
media, we have few clients." You don't say? Listservs for PR pros A
listserv is like group e-mail. A moderator keeps the listserv running smoothly (and cordially) and members can see everyone else's messages. One such listserv is PR Forum. To join, send a message containing only the
words SUBSCRIBE PRFORUM to this address: LISTSERV@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU When you want to contribute, use this address: PRFORUM@ INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU Tip sheet: getting free product publicity Ever since Hershey made a fortune after E.T. snacked on Reese's Pieces, companies have been
sneaking
their products into the plotlines of movies and TV shows. But PR firms also try to get products featured in specialty magazines. Here are some examples uncovered in the August 12 issue of Marketing.
The lesson: keep your product low-key and focus on solid news angles or on good graphics. What would Baden-Powell say? England's Boy Scouts may now get a PR badge for placing stories about scouting in the media. The new PR badge depicts a cell phone. Public relations and layoffs Maintaining staff morale through a round of layoffs is hard on communicators,
but the May 13 issue of Marketing offers some advice.
Think small In a special feature on public relations (Oct. 23, 1995, pg. 12), Marketing observed that "even large corporations will go with the individual or small shop they feel can best serve their needs," adding that "big doesn't necessarily mean better anymore." We can't help but agree!
Cornerstone is a writing and editing firm that uses marketing and PR principles to create "words you can build your business
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