Day: March 12, 2003

PR in war, the Google brand and PR in local government…. 

Wonder what’s it’s like doing PR on the front lines?  A story in the KnoxNews looks at how  Lt. Linda Rojas handles 600 reporters in Kuwait.

If you’d like to try your hand at it, why not have a look at CNN’s student assigment: “Develop a public relations strategy for Mr. Bush or his opponents”.

Interesting article by Monica Horten from UK marketing firm Pragnetix on how Google has built a brand without using the tools traditional associated with brand building.

Baltimore are turning to professional PR help in improving how the city government delivers PR programs.

Ethical treatment of PR professionals…..    

Given that our profession regularly suffers from the sub-standard work and ethics of a very small minority of shady “practitioners”, a strong professional code of ethics is vital.

So the news that the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (Global Alliance), which represents national public relations associations around the globe, has announced that member organizations have agreed to standardize on a professional code of ethics by the end of 2005 is great news.

Here is the proposed wording.

This new work on ethics will supplement existing national codes and the existing international code of ethics known as the Code of Athens.

Crisis communications online…..  

The Internet clearly has created an environment where crisis can occur faster and more frequently.  Over the past few days many marketing websites and blogs have been abuzz with what was purported to be the latest Puma print ads. [Viewer discretion advised :-)] The ads are “controversial” to say the least.

The first stories claimed these ads were from Brazil, while other reports claimed they were from a campaign in Europe.

Puma have now come out with an official statement that these ads are in fact fake.

In parallel, Puma are conducting an outreach program to blogs that are carrying the ads (and the companies hosting those blogs) in an effort to have the offending ads removed.

So Puma are fire-fighting a crisis solely enabled by the Internet. 

Now there’s a Nokia ad doing the rounds [Cat lovers beware] that may or may not be real but is sure to cause a stir.

The Internet is viral – and like any good superhero you can use that power for good or evil….

Update: Sarah Carey believes the Puma furore is a double bluff. She thinks that there’s a good chance (given the professional quality of the shots) that they sent these ads out themselves to stir up a bit of controversy and are now releasing statements disowning them…. this is getting complicated!