The Spin Within

Last month Susan G. Komen for the Cure allowed politics to affect its decision making. It eliminated most of its financing for breast cancer education and screening to Planned Parenthood and subsequently became the subject of a PR controversy. Almost immediately, Komen realized it had made a mistake, reinstated its financial support to Planned Parenthood’s women’s health programs and publicly apologized.

Sure, the decision makers at Komen made a PR blunder of epic proportions. But it has passed and things are back to where they were.

At least in terms of the relationship with Planned Parenthood…. Continue Reading

As a publicist or a communicator on behalf of someone else, your job is to secure and control the media surrounding them, not create a flurry of negative press about yourself. Well, that’s exactly what Sara MacIntyre, the new director of communications for B.C. Premier Christy Clark, did.

Watch this video to find out why she’s an enemy of the media for life:

For the full, unedited video, click here.

Perhaps I’ve been asleep all my life but I hadn’t heard of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) until the organization awakened my awareness using the classic public relations 1-2 punch — survey research results accompanied by a quiz, in this case, a sleepiness quiz.

That’s right I said a sleepiness quiz. Not just any quiz, a quiz based on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, a tool doctors use to test sleepiness levels. If you rate “sleepy” on this scale, a chat with your doctor may be in order.

You’re saying, “I get sleepy sometimes. Where is this quiz? Bring it on.” Sorry, you’re … Continue Reading

So says Gosh P.R., a public relations firm in the UK that was hired by the state of Kentucky to promote Kentucky tourism to the Brits. Golly gosh, Gosh P.R., that’s not a nice thing to say.

Being from Kentucky myself, I am laughing at this. It’s funny. There are a lot of places and things I make fun of on a daily basis, but not on a web page I created for a client. I’m not that dumb, thank you very much.

But apparently the folks at Gosh P.R. … Continue Reading

Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday. And I’m pretty sure he’s turning in his grave.

I have fond memories of reading The Lorax to my two boys as we cuddled on the couch. Unlike their other favorite Dr. Seuss books, I liked the fact that The Lorax had a message about conservation and protecting the environment.

When the book was published in 1971, some parents and critics viewed the book as too scary for children.  But today, it’s not as common to see such gloomy stories of despair targeted at children and … Continue Reading

Being only 2 hours away from Indianapolis, the tragedy that occurred at the Indianapolis State Fair last summer is still fresh in people’s minds here. Many of us Northern Kentuckians and Cincinnatians attended the fair or knew someone who was there when the concert stage collapsed and killed 7 and injured numerous others. My parents have attended benefits to help raise money to help fund the medical bills for a friend and her daughter after they were seriously injured under the falling stage.

What happened was truly a tragedy, but now that Indiana has already paid out the $5 million to … Continue Reading

Health care marketers should have the dates March 26-28 circled on their calendars. Rarely will America’s newsrooms be more fertile ground for their pitches, press releases and opinion pieces.

Over the course of those three days next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear six hours of oral arguments on constitutional challenges to President Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act, testing whether the government can force people to obtain insurance. The hearing schedule has few, if any, precedents in modern history. Arguments usually are a single hour.

The nation and the world will be watching — figuratively. As of this … Continue Reading

These are no doubt the words a few men heard this Valentine’s Day when their order from 1-800-Flowers failed to arrive. Oops.

1-800-Flowers is under fire this week for failing to deliver countless orders on Valentine’s Day and giving no reason why. When customers were stuck on hold ‘endlessly’ – as some say – they turned their ire to 1-800-Flowers’ social media pages. Here are just some of the comments:

- @kyrauff, “How many couples broke up because of @1800flowers’ no good, very bad Valentine’s day?”

- @vancouverkate, “I’ve already been waiting 14 … Continue Reading

You are about to hear the pen ultimate example of the beauty of keeping it simple in PR.

I’m not in the market for a new pen. I don’t collect pens. I couldn’t even tell you the brand of pen sitting on my desk as I type this blog. But thanks to the magic of a PR campaign that is absolutely beautiful in its simplicity, I happen to know that Paper Mate is selling a new InkJoy line of pens that deliver a revolutionary writing experience at an everyday price.

There’s just one reason I know about the InkJoy. The DJ’s on … Continue Reading

Perhaps it has something to do with our general fondness for footwear and do-goodery, because when it comes to delivering a positive image, Zappos.com walks pretty tall even if the headlines are bad.

Zappos.com recently announced that it was the victim of a data breach that affected 24 million customers. Yet it did not appear to suffer the same consumer or media scrutiny as did other companies in the same spot.

This is in part because Zappos.com responded quickly and pretty transparently. But I have a hunch that Zappos.com’s investment in goodwill among … Continue Reading