Time for a horn toot (or in light of the coming Jewish High Holidays, perhaps a Shofar) — our company was mentioned in a BusinessWeek article on tagging, as part of their "Best of the New Web" section. The article mentions how we incorporate tagging into our modern media seminars and training courses (we haveContinue reading “BusinessWeek and Tagging”
Category Archives: PR & Marketing
MGM Mirage Press Release Not Good, Just Bad and Ugly
It’s nice to know that six years removed from running a major PR agency, I can still spot press releases that read like someone regurgitated a bowl of B.S. gumbo. The release — a "stop the Earth from spinning" pronouncement from MGM Mirage about a new casino project — is so long (1,200 words) youContinue reading “MGM Mirage Press Release Not Good, Just Bad and Ugly”
Memo to FEMA’s Michael Brown: Best PR Move is to Leave
In another shining example of the mainstream media exercising its newly-found investigative spine, the Associated Press reports on a memo from FEMA Director Michael Brown to Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff: “The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 HomelandContinue reading “Memo to FEMA’s Michael Brown: Best PR Move is to Leave”
Rubel Peppers Jeremy, King Sweetens Lance and Robertson Just Sours
It’s been almost two weeks since my last post, which in “blog time” is equivalent to being dead. Not that I try or care to keep up – Steve Rubel, for example, sometimes posts more items in day than I do in two months. I’m more like a Jay Rosen as far as my postingContinue reading “Rubel Peppers Jeremy, King Sweetens Lance and Robertson Just Sours”
Press Releases are Dead Tired — And So is the Debate Over Them
Amy Gahran is challenging PR pros to come up with alternatives to the press release. Now I like Amy, respect her writing and her citizen journalism project, “I, Reporter” (in fact I’ll be talking to some corporate “PR pros” about it next week as an example of the growing CitJ movement.) But am I theContinue reading “Press Releases are Dead Tired — And So is the Debate Over Them”
I Blog, Therefore I Hate Myself
Apparently some “journalist bloggers” don’t like PR people, and some PR people don’t like journalist bloggers because they apparently don’t “understand” PR. I’m a journalist blogger and a PR person, so therefore I must conclude that I hate myself. On the plus side, at least now I know how White House Press Secretary Scott McClellanContinue reading “I Blog, Therefore I Hate Myself”
Modern Tools for Modern Media Relations – It Begins with the Blog
My business partner and I conducted a seminar recently at a Public Relations Society of America workshop on media relations. Linda is posting a summary of the presentation on her blog, Znetlady: Modern Media Modo, in three parts. The first post is on – what else – blogs. Check it out here, and then goContinue reading “Modern Tools for Modern Media Relations – It Begins with the Blog”
Hahn Solo: L.A. Mayor Succumbs to the “Fleishman Effect” and the Dark Side of Public Relations
James Hahn was never going to be a political giant. In four years as L.A.’s mayor, he exuded all the charisma of gelatin. He looked more like a Wal-Mart greeter than the mayor of the nation’s second-largest city, a guy who could coach your kid’s soccer team but not lead 3.6 million people. But that’sContinue reading “Hahn Solo: L.A. Mayor Succumbs to the “Fleishman Effect” and the Dark Side of Public Relations”
Israel Seeks Public Relations Makeover – Bring On Ty and the Gang
This is one of those news items that would be a lot funnier if it wasn’t true: “Israeli missions abroad and the Foreign Ministry are hoping to "rebrand" Israel by focusing less on the regional conflict and more on Israel’s achievements in science, culture and other areas. In cooperation with the Advertisers Association, the foreignContinue reading “Israel Seeks Public Relations Makeover – Bring On Ty and the Gang”
A Disturbing Peek Behind the PR Curtain
In the film The Wizard of Oz, a very early and innocent display of mass media deceit, we learn that the Great Oz is nothing more than a huckster from Kansas who hides behind a curtain, pulling levers and pushing buttons to make people – and scarecrows, tin men and lions – believe in aContinue reading “A Disturbing Peek Behind the PR Curtain”
Gary Goldhammer -- Strategic storytelling for brands, organizations and executives 