As a blogger, a contributor to business and trade media, and as a podcaster, I get my share of pitches from fellow PR professionals. One of the things I notice quite often is how the pitches usually center on assumptions, ‘revelations,’ or other news hooks that are all about things we already know.
A new study finds that consumers avoid higher prices and go for discounts.… Read the rest
The following blog post was originally posted on January 28, 2020, just before the pandemic that would change everything. Baseball wasn’t the same that year or since. In anticipation of next week’s MLB Opening Day games across the country, we’re re-posting this slightly updated version.
The grass on baseball fields in Florida and Arizona is getting lush right now, ready for the annual rite that is Major League Baseball spring training and those sunny exhibition games.… Read the rest
After decades of working with and dealing with the media on a wide range of topics and matters, one of the more common patterns I’ve noticed is something that President Teddy Roosevelt spoke about in his famous “Man in the Arena” speech. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Before we do, it’s important to understand what this has to do with the public relations business.… Read the rest
There is a shell game being played by a number of politicians, Big Tech executives, news media executives and journalists, and well-known PR people that goes like this:
I’ve known a few people who’ve made a living as business ethicists and two of my problems with their tendencies are: 1) They tend to adhere to the ethics of relativity (but not really); and 2) They work hard to completely disassociate any religious or traditional moral code from business ethics.
To be sure, in this diverse world where people of many faiths come together to work, it would be inappropriate to try to impose a single religious code on all.… Read the rest
Since 2018, I’ve produced over 230 episodes of the Shaping Opinion Podcast, which is released weekly. In all of those episodes I only had to go back and edit one after it was posted because I made the mistake of letting the guest name names.
More to the point, the guest told a few stories that were unflattering to the two or three individuals mentioned in our interview.… Read the rest
One of the exercises I’ve done in media training workshops is to ask participants to spend two minutes quietly writing down the answer to this question. In five words or less, what is the meaning of life?
Typically, it doesn’t take long for participants to get started, and in less than two minutes, most can tell you clearly and unequivocally what life is all about to them.… Read the rest
One thing that gets talked about a lot in the public relations business is crisis communications. You read articles like this one, perhaps you go to conferences or participate in webinars on the topic. You follow people on social media who give you a steady diet of crisis PR tips and tricks. But what is the current state of your crisis management readiness?… Read the rest
The biggest misconception about the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as “March Madness” is that it’s all about basketball. It’s not. If it was, fans would watch a lot more college basketball between December through March.
So, what is it about?
In a word, it’s about “community.”
Start with the annual rite of filling out a bracket.… Read the rest
One of the mistakes people make when they point out someone else’s hypocrisy is that they assume that everyone understands that the inherent inconsistency undermines the credibility of the hypocrite.
Years ago, that may have been more practical but not today.
One of the more glaring examples of this is when a group of students who don’t like a visiting guest speaker, so they decide to shout down that speaker when he comes to campus.… Read the rest