The Spin Within

Matthew Broderick is giving us a time-out during the Super Bowl, and for a middle-aged, recession-weary public, the timing couldn’t be better.

Broderick, if you haven’t heard, is reviving Ferris Bueller, the school-cutting, life-loving teen of the 1986 movie. It is for just a brief time, but it is the quality of the moment, not the length, which matters.

The effort comes in the form of a commercial for Honda. That’s right, instead of the wickedly gorgeous, cherry-red Ferrari 250GT California, Ferris ditches work and gets his kicks in a red CRV.

But it works, not surprisingly. With smart writing, an eclectic soundtrack … Continue Reading

Pfizer Inc. has announced that they’re recalling 1 million packets of birth control pills because of a packaging error.  Apparently some of the packets had too many active tablets while others had too few.  Oops!

Pfizer admits the mix-up was a result of mechanical and visual inspection and has since been corrected.  They also remind consumers that the recall is not related to safety but does raise the risk of unintended pregnancy.

The magnitude of this mistake is far greater than a simple “oops” press release.  We’re not talking about a bottle of … Continue Reading

Click here to read the latest News, Noise and Know-How. Get the scoop on Total Quality Logistics, our view on the Costa Concordia disaster, what’s up with Senior Sales Strategist Jill Konrath and more!

This month’s circular from Target featured some seriously cute kids, hamming it up like seriously cute kids do.  One in particular might grab your attention: the little blond- haired, blue-eyed boy on the left, rocking an orange t-shirt like he’s been modeling his whole life.  (You know, all six years of it…)

His name is Ryan and the Target ad is actually his second high-profile modeling gig — he appeared in a Nordstrom catalog last year.  (I couldn’t love the little girl’s ruffled … Continue Reading

Apple Inc. posted its largest quarterly profit ever on Jan. 24. So good, in fact, that it places the iPhone maker among an elite group populated by very few, including oil companies.

Hearing the news, I suddenly wondered if Apple’s super-rich status would degrade its power-to-the-people reputation. This is a company built on the image of individuality, liberty, passion and innovation. A quarterly profit of $13 billion, compared with $6 billion a year ago, doesn’t officially make Apple a fat cat, but with shares hovering at $450, it isn’t exactly a stock … Continue Reading

In a time where the image of and trust in politicians is at an all-time low, regardless of the party, one Congresswoman shines through as the epitome of one who truly wants the best for her constituents.  What all of us wish we’d see in our elected officials.

Gabrielle Giffords will be stepping down from Congress this week.  She needs to focus on her recovery and realizes that her constituents need a full-time representative. Her spirit, grace, fight and passion are remarkable.  And it’s those traits that made her an outstanding Congresswoman.

Cheers to you, Gabby.  May all of your colleagues learn … Continue Reading

When you promise a free anything on Facebook, you better be prepared for it to go viral and for a lot of consumer attention. When you are not prepared, it will bite you in the butt in a big way.

Just like it did for Toronto-based Timothy’s Coffee.

We are a fan of these K-cups at our office. We have three boxes of Timothy’s Coffee in our office right now and we make coffee orders at least twice a month. So if we would have known Timothy’s Coffee was offering … Continue Reading

Sometimes these blog columns write themselves. This is one of those times.

Capt. Francesco Schettino, the person who should have been last to leave the cruise ship Costa Concordia as it began to sink off the coast of Italy, leaves me no choice. When you commit the PR blunder of the year, and it’s still just January, that can’t be ignored in a blog largely dedicated to public relations and marketing.

Now known the world over as the cowardly captain, Schettino told a maritme court his departure from the wreck that caused at least 11 deaths was an accident. He said he … Continue Reading

With a batch of specially made hamburger buns, South African hamburger chain Wimpy showed how successful word-of-mouth is done.

Wimpy wanted to let the visually impaired community know that they now have menus available in braille.  With a sesame seed braille message on just 15 hamburger buns, they managed to reach an audience of 800,000 people.

The video pretty much speaks for itself.

(There is also a narrated version of this video.)

It looks like Carnival Cruise Inc., may come out of its recent disaster at sea virtually unscathed. One look at its Facebook page shows the majority of people who like the page still like Carnival. A recent post from Carnival emphasizing that safety is their first priority drew more than 2,300 likes in the first four hours.  Even the vast majority of the nearly 1,000 comments on that post are positive.

Yes, I would agree that you’re probably just as safe cruising the high seas as you are cruising the highway in … Continue Reading