Month: October 2002

Over the past couple of days there have been interviews published with two of the PR industry’s luminaries. First last Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times talks with Dan Edelman about the changing face of Public Relations and then today Harold Burson talks to The Commercial Appeal in Memphis about the need for corporate conscience.

So you have embraced the brave new world of the Internet. You think it provides a real medium for communicating and influencing audiences and maybe even fostering new one-to-one relationships with journalists, customers, partners and other relevant publics.

So, what’s the first step? Lie. Yep, grab yourself an ‘alias’ and post untruths about competitors or unsubstantiated boasts about your firm or its clients.

At least that seems to be the growing trend amongst many of our brethern. The race to create ‘online buzz’ – the supposed nirvana for all communication programs – has continued unabated regardless of the economic conditions. But they mostly fail. Why? Well they are obvious, biased and are patently flogging a specific agenda.

I highlighted some examples of this online espionage here previously, most notable the Bivings Groups’ efforts for Monsanto. But there are even more ridiculous examples out there.

The Movie producers (who claim to be the most righteous when it comes to protecting THEIR rights online) are one of the most common offenders. From hiring actors to talk about films in bars and restaurants (pleeze) to posting false film reviews (Sony) and posting ‘excited’ messages to notice boards on the more popular Film websites.

It’s a great case study on how not to spread buzz. The website owners have traced all the posters’ IP addresses back to the movie studios – who claim they don’t sanction it – and they post the SAME message to different websites – DOH!

On top of all that, the movie studio flacks (and I use that term most advisedly) seem to think that the essence of ‘buzz posting’ is bad grammer, bad spelling, lower case and URL’s for film trailers. It really beggars belief.

So let’s all be realisitic. Good communications begins with an understanding of what your audience is looking for. Not lies but information, not subterfuge but value. It’s too easy to expose the liars online, if you’re going to try it, make sure you have a clear response for the angry ‘consumers’ when you’re found out. And here’s the LA Times story that inspired this Tuesday morning rant… [Comments]

According to a story in Information Week, the tech analyst firm, Hurwitz Group has closed due to overwhelming debt. Seemingly analysts were told on Monday that it would be their last day, and clients have not been informed. The website is inaccessible.

The Boston Globe reviews the “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”….. Twenty years on, the Chicago Sun-Times revisits the Tylenol scandal and includes an interesting sidebar on the “brilliant PR response”….. Here’s something to give you indigestion MediaChannel.org’s “PR UnSpun”….. Reuters report that the European Commission (EC) has suspended a five year, twenty two million Euro contract with a French PR firm, Ascii. The steps were taken to avoid any suggestions of impropriety as it was discovered the firm employs three former Commission spokespeople [Reuters]….. AT&T has named Constance Weaver to the company’s Board of Directors as Executive VP of PR….. Fleishman-Hillard is the only PR firm named among the top 100 companies for working mothers….. And, finally the Toronto Globe and Mail has a story on how PR can help keep employees loyal…