Happy Earth Day

Happy B’earth Day, Gaia.

How are you going to celebrate?

What are you doing tomorrow?

And after that . . . ?

Think before you hyphenate!

It’s now two weeks into my internship and so far I have done a lot of writing, editing and reading and I have to say, I’m going bananas – to hyphenate or not to hyphenate?

It seems I’m not alone. Everywhere you look, writers have gone hyphenation haywire! Slow down people! Not all word combinations need hyphenating. There are the obvious adjective-noun-noun combinations, but there’s also your adverb-adverb double-word combo, like enivironmentally friendly people or the adverb-adjective-noun combo, such as readily available cash.

You want to hyphenate it, don’t you? Should I? Shouldn’t I? You write it out both ways to see what it looks like or to jog your memory. You look it up and it doesn’t help. And then the words speak to you and whisper softly in your ear — Don’t hyphenate me; I am an individual and my strength allows me to stand alone as one word. Be brave, take the plunge, make a decision and most importantly of all, be consistent.

Oh, that only happens to me? Okay, well anyway . . . I did say – Bananas!

So, as of this day, I hereby decree — Think before you hyphenate!

smiles

Have you ever been caught at the tail end of someone else’s smile? Like today, I was out walking my dogs and I passed a stranger pleasantly smiling at me, so I smiled back. Then I realized it wasn’t meant for me. I noticed his hand reach inside his pocket, replacing his phone to a safe place. The smile was for the person on the phone. And then I felt ripped off, because I was just being nice and had flashed a hearty smile in his direction and in return, received a smile that had lost its fizz.

Or there’s the smile that’s not a smile at all but a grimace. Like the sweaty guy on a bike that I passed and smiled back at, only to realize it was a pained expression from overexertion.

And then there’s the smile that gives you the creeps. Take the scenario of the two friends who promised each other the first day of spring to go jogging. They’re pumped, eager and charge out of the gates too fast, only to burn out at the end of the block. Then they spy someone walking their dogs, so they pull themselves up and start jogging again and pick up speed and as they get closer, they get faster and then they notice it’s a woman, so they suck in their guts and run even faster, grinning foolishly as they pass by, sweating, eyes bugging, faces red, bald heads under wraps of a sun hat.

And I thought to myself as I passed them by, because I was the “person walking their dogs,” that their sweaty, flushed, buggy-eyed expression is probably the same as when they’re in a less compromising position. And I looked back over my shoulder as we passed and there they were walking or rather, dragging their butts, gasping for breath, and holding each other up. And it made me smile.

I don’t think we smile enough. Smiling makes you feel good. Smiling is free and fun. Smiling is good PR. Smile and the whole world smiles with you.

 

For Gloria, who still makes me smile.

I’ve Seen the Signs

I only have 10 minutes before bedtime and wanted to post something, so here’s a quickie — signs I’ve seen whilst driving around and about:

Green Germann Lawyers (Burlington, Ontario)

Basic Hebrew Burials (Toronto, Ontario)

Fresh Sue’s Market (Richmond Hill, Ontario)

She’s a real goer, our Sue!

Rules For Living Well

Have you seen the Renaissance TV commercial for The Bay? Am I missing the point here or is this advertising at its worst?

For those of you who haven’t seen it, let me roll it out for you.

The voice-over says, “Rules for living well: walk to work,” and then there’s a shot of a group of models in fashionable dresses and high heels strutting alongside a tall office building. Who are they kidding? Are we to believe they walked however many kilometres to work in those high heels? Chances are they walked across the parking lot and that is it.

Next, voice-over guy says, “Reuse your bag,” and a picture of a model in flash-edit, fast wardrobe change — different dress, different day, same handbag. Same handbag? Wha?

Next, voice-over dude says, “Don’t idle,” and a shot of lovely models jogging in fashionable HBC leisure wear.

Next, voice-over says, “Reduce packaging,” and a skinny model discards her jacket in slo-mo.

Next frame, voice-over says, “Conserve energy,” and a seductive shot of a model writhing on a mattress in the middle of what could be taken for a rain forest.

Next frame and voice-over says, “Use less water,” and a model is shown in front of a wall of Energy Star washing machines.

Then, voice-over says, “Renew your resources,” while a model looks admiringly at herself in a mirror and applies moisturizer. You mean to say, I can stop global warming by taking good care of my skin?

Voice-over: “Cherish your environment,” and a shot of a woman relaxing on a thick pile carpet next to her Dyson vacuum cleaner.

And finally, a shot of a bed and a bra and the voice-over says, “Turn out the lights” — not because you’re environmentally conscious, but because the bra is off and someone is feeling flirty.

In closing, voice-over turns into a dudette and she caps off the commercial with a redundant statement: “New renaissance on now at The Bay.”

Reuse, reduce, renew — jumping on the green band wagon to tout your wares! Does The Bay have no conscience? Is this not borderline astroturfing? I tell you what it is:  CRASS!

PR Tour in Tibet a Travesty

China is at it again. After posing a media blackout and travel ban for foreign journalists, they decided to open their gates and stage a news conference, complete with pre-selected Buddhist plants for those all important sound bites, to make it look like they are in control of the situtaion. But they were upstaged by 30 protesting monks, crying and shouting, “Tibet is not free,” and “There’s no religious freedom.”

Embarrassed Chinese officials ordered the journalists to leave, as troops from the People’s Liberation Army moved in on the monks’ temple. This is nothing but a PR disaster and has not helped Beijing’s profile, as they head towards the summer olympics. Accusations that the Dalai Lama is responsible for the violence and riots is nothing but ludicrous. That’s like calling the Pope an anarchist.

And it doesn’t end there. The Chinese Ambassador in Canada, Lu Shumin, held his own news conference, claiming that China has been maligned and falsely portrayed in the media. Shumin proved his point with a 27-minute documentary put together by China Central Television, a state broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist party. The film showed a mob throwing stones at Chinese police, but didn’t show what had provoked this attack.

Shumin blames Tibetan separatists and the Dalai Lama for spreading propaganda about the police crackdown. He says, “The Dalai Lama has presented himself as a peaceful, like an angel sort of figure for such a long time and the Western public take this for granted to believe. [sic]

During the conference, Shumin said that Tibet’s traditional governance is like Nazi Germany and the exiled spiritual leader is a compulsive liar: “The Dalai Lama has been telling lies to the world for decades.”

Yeah, and the Easter Bunny is out to get ya.

sPRing

The PR of spring. What is the PR of spring? Or better yet, who are the best PR practitioners for spring? Anyone? Anyone? Feel free to comment at the bottom. No, really – it’s free.  Answer: Poets.

Okay, before you all tune out and turn off, allow me to be self-indulgent. When I first started this blog, my goal was to talk about language and anything to do with language within the parameters of PR. Ha! Didn’t happen that way. The quest for PR took over. And then spring arrives and suddenly I start craving poetry.

If language was a client, then poetry would be the PR agency for language and the poet would be the PR practitioner. Poetry is rich with key messages and sound bites. So, I thought spring, poetry, poets, PR blogging, it all came together somehow, and yeah, I know it’s a stretch and I take responsibility for the cheese factor, but spring does that to a person.

So, in celebration of spring, I’d now like to share with you, oh loyal readers, in the hopes I don’t turn you away but inspire you, some Emily Dickinson and ee cummings sound bites:

The Robins stand as thick today/As flakes of snow stood yesterday (ED #64)

The Neighbors do not yet suspect! The Woods exchange a smile! Orchard, and Buttercup, and Bird — In such a little while!/And yet, how still the Landscape stands! How nonchalant the Hedge! As if the “Resurrection” Were nothing very strange! (ED #74)

in Just-spring when the world is mud-luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it’s spring (eec ~ in Just)

Toronto Rocks

Every time I go to an event now, I turn into a critic. I critique the signage, reception, food, schemes and themes, publicity, etc. The other night I was at the Air Canada Centre with a group of Centennial College chums for the Toronto Rock lacrosse game. I’ve never been to a lacrosse game before or even seen it on TV. The closest I came was bumping hips [foreshadowing irony -- read ahead] with the athletic girls in the hallway with their crosses slung over their shoulders, looking formidable and important. 

Being the curious sort, I decided to research the history of the game of lacrosse. According to Wikipedia, lacrosse is a 15th century invention of Native North Americans. The name, like the game, has gone through many changes, such as dehuntshigwa’es in Onondaga meaning “men hit a rounded object,” da-nah-wah’uwsdi in Eastern Cherokee meaning “little war,” Tewaarathon in Mohawk meaning “little brother of war,” and baaga`adowe in Ojibwe for “bump hips.” It was the French that later named it lacrosse meaning “stick” — a bit reductive, but there you have it.

For Native North Americans these games were spiritual and a way of giving thanks to the Creator. Teams were made up of 100 to 1,000 men on a patch ranging from 500 yards to two miles long and could last for days. Players could be badly injured or even killed. These games were also highly respected as good training for young warriors. Often a game was played to solve conflicts between tribes. In those days, the balls were of deerskin, clay, stone or wood.

So, back to the ACC and the event itself and rubber balls. Seems kind of trivial now that I’ve brushed up on the history of the game, but anthropology tells us that contact sports are a good substitute for combat and war. So, I shall press on.

The game was divided up into 15-minute segments and then there would be publicity moments. We had the Molson Genuine Draft dancers with three-minute high-kicking numbers and then a squeaky girl with a microphone would appear on the Jumbotron, making various announcements for sponsors, as she roamed the lower levels of the ACC handing out free stuff like Pizza Pizza – nothing for the Plebes in the cheap seats.

There were games for specially selected audience members, involving tricycles, wardrobe changes and races that resulted in gift certificates from Home Depot and the like. And truckloads of girls in spandex tossing beer coolies into the crowd. That was unexpected. There was never a dull moment and it was all quite entertaining (or is that distracting?) This is what you might call double strategy — publicity that involves the crowd, whilst providing entertainment for those Plebes in the cheap seats.

I particularly liked the signage — digital signage. Home Depot graced each exit vantage point in prominent orange. Screens circumvented the venue at each level and responded to the publicity girl and the crowd, depending on what was happending at the time — like they all do at every game, but still effective. Toronto Rock lost, but put on a good game.

I wonder if they know about bumping hips. I wonder how the spirits of warrior chiefs feel about girls in spandex prancing about on the playing field that was once a place of honour. And I wonder how the Creator feels about not being thanked. I wonder why no respect is given to the origins of this game. The national anthem is played at baseball games, why is nothing similar done for lacrosse? Why are the deep-rooted traditions of this game not celebrated? It’s a mystery.

Astroturfing, PR and Kyoto

Back in 2002, Canada’s largest PR firm National Public Relations was hired by “a coalition of those that stood to lose the most from Kyoto — automakers, mining companies and, of course, oil companies, according to Zoe Cormier in This Magazine September/October 2006. They gave themselves ”a progressive-sounding name — the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions — and lobbied against provincial leaders, the media and the public.”

Cormier goes on to say that “CCRES didn’t refute the existence of global warmng itself, but argued instead that Kyoto was simply the wrong solution to the problem. Appealing to Canadian’s common sense and nationalism. NPR’s fly-by-night coalition asked them to reject a one-size-fits-all solution in favour of one ‘made in Canada.’”

The Coalition didn’t last long — only five months from its inception in September 2002 to its last media release in February 2003. But it was around long enough to sway public opinion and gain favour with certain cabinet ministers. Cormer says that “the phrase ‘made in Canada’ caught on, and it is now experiencing a renaissance. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, (with the co-operation of major news organizations) have resurrected the phrase to describe new plans to deal with climate change, which involve cutting 80 per cent of the budget for Kyoto, axing almost all of the Liberal’s global-warming programs, and shutting down the federal climate change site.”

Now that’s progressive!

The National PR lobbyist in charge of this campaign was “Guy Giorno, Mike Harris’s old chief of staff and ultimate Tory party insider,” says Now magazine’s Josh Matlow, who wrote an article in October 2002 entitled Big Oil’s Kyoto Party, Harris Whiz Kid Pulls Strings at Wine and Shrimp Fete. This article gave a detailed account of an event organized by Giorno:

Some of Ernie Eves’s top cabinet ministers partied last week with Kyoto-bashers the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions, a lobby group with close ties to both Ralph Klein and the energy industry.And through a combo of stealth and strategy, I managed to crash the soiree.

It took place in the Queen’s Park dining hall and was a very chummy shrimp-and-wine gathering, a chance for members of the coalition — the Canadian Association of Oil Well Drilling Contractors, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Landmen, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, etc — to schmooze Tory heavies.

There were speeches by coalition organizers, and a particularly passionate Ontario energy minister, John Baird, made his anti-Kyoto rallying cry. Needless to say, the audience was very receptive. Baird’s parliamentary assistant, Scarborough MPP Steve Gilchrist, who at one time helped block developers’ plans for the Oak Ridges Moraine, was busy propping open doors with chairs to give relief to a very hot and stuffy room.

I couldn’t help remarking to him that perhaps the room was so unbearably hot because of climate change. He was not amused.

Two days after the meeting, Giorno sent every MPP at Queen’s Park an e-mail suggesting what they might say in op-ed news pieces or letters to their constituents about Kyoto.

Kind of puts Event Planning into a whole different light.

National PR is affiliated with one of the “world’s biggest — and most notorious — PR firms, Burson-Marsteller,” says Cormier. “It has purportedly worked for some of the most infamous governments of the twentieth century, including the military junta in Argentina in the 1970s, Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship in Romania, the government of Indonesia (following the massacre in East Timor) and the Nigerian government (to discredit reports of genocide). It has also reportedly worked for many years with Monsanto (in particular to push for approval of synthetic hormones to force cows to produce more milk,  and to lobby against mandatory labeling of milk from treated cows in the US) and for Dow Corning to fight legislation to limit the use of silicon implants.”

But it’s not all bad news. Thankfully there are PR practitioners out there like James Hoggan, who owns Vancouver’s largest PR firm, James Hoggan and Associates. He says, “PR companies have been out there defending corporations, and now they are doing it with climate change — and it’s a far worse problem than all the other ones.”

Hoggan created desmogblog.com, a domain where bloggers keep readers up to date on PR spin and climate change and scientific evidence of global warming.

Hoggan says, “To create understanding with [public relations], there’s nothing wrong with that, but when the goal of our communications is actually to confuse people, to create doubt about existing science — that says you are up to something unethical right from the start . . . . An ethical approach to PR involves creating a dialogue with the public that is transparent and open — relationship building — rather than advertising or manipulating your way out of problems.

“Being against climate change is pretty stupid from a PR point of view. If you don’t want to end up looking like those cigarette executives standing in front of Congress a few years ago, telling us that there is no evidence that cigarettes cause cancer, don’t fight something that you are inevitably going to lose.”

Client/Agency Relationships

Client/agency relationships were the topic of discussion at last night’s IABC’s Munch n Mingle. Three case studies were showcased and each team demonstrated how important building a relationship is to the success of a campaign.

Presenters included Cathy Cowan, president of Cowan and Company and Ana Marie Atkinson from Casey’s Grill; Ken Evans, vice-president of APEX public relations and Kelly Harper, director, marketing head, retail investment products, BMO Financial Group; and John Thibodeau, vice-president, Media Profile and Cynthia Keeshan, manager, corporate communications and public relations, Microsoft Canada.

Cowan and Casey’s began working together in November 2006 to introduce a new prototype to Casey’s menu. The challenge was to acquire media coverage over a 12-month period. Cowan put together a month-by-month proactive media plan that was updated and revised throughout the year.

An open dialogue played a key role in the success of this campaign. Casey’s included Cowan in meetings with their advertising agency, updates and events with franchisees, the culinary team and suppliers. Keeping the dialogue open regarding the budget paid off. “When the Summer menu campaign and the Casey’s Cocktails campaigns were exceeding the initial planned scope of work, due to the higher-than-anticipated interest levels and success of the campaigns, we flagged this in advance and Casey’s decided to continue pursuing hot media opportunities to maximize coverage and in return decided to reduce activities planned for other campaigns in order to strike while the iron was hot and maximize overall ROI.” The new menu was a hit and sales took a favourable ascent.

BMO hired APEX to help them design a campaign for a new retirement savings plan for boomers. BMO and APEX found that early engagement and extensive research helped them focus on “target audiences’ attitudes about retirement and identify a course of action that would position BMO as the first and only financial institution to publicly recognize changing retirement attitudes, and as such shift the way in which this customer segment perceived BMO’s services.”

The APEX/BMO team says that “working collectively as strategic partners where the client integrates their outside PR experts into the planning process at the very beginning helps generate a wide range of advantages.” These included:

More comprehensive due diligence on the effect and influence of a new system, service or product on the target market

Takes the trial and error out of the equation

A more efficient strategic planning process better enables collective creativity and strategic discipline

Campaigns serve a purpose, but focusing on the cumulative effects of a string of campaigns or activities over a one to three year period is a better barometer of success

The last team, Media Profile’s John Thibodeau and Microsoft Canada’s Cynthia Keeshan delivered on a campaign whose objective was to “create a strong corporate citizenship communications strategy that positioned Microsoft Canada as a Canadian company that was committed to addressing uniquely Canadian concerns.”

They did this by setting up the following initiatives:

Digitizing libraries so that visually impaired Canadians have access to printed works

Bringing technology into children’s hospitals so that critically ill youth can stay connected with school, family and friends

Bringing technology to communities of “at-risk youth” like Jamestown in Toronto, where technology can inspire and get youth on the right track

Working with police to create technology solutions to help them apprehend those that seek to abuse children online

Media Profile and Microsoft Canada provided an extensive list of the importance of “true partnership.” I think it bears repeating:

Client

Bring your agency to the table — too often clients use one person to brief the agency on everything that happens in their company rather than inviting the agency to the table to experience the full spectrum of the client’s business goals and working environment

Don’t be a “gatekeeper” — don’t shelter your agency from senior management. Build relationships and trust in both directions

Share information — overwhelm the agency with paper, briefs, industry research

Invest in long-term goals — strategic transformation takes time and won’t show results overnight. Trust in the process

Invest in the agency — build the bench strength and institutional knowledge of your team

Allow dissention (to a point) — agencies can provide their best insight if they are given permission to disagree with the client’s view sometimes. This includes providing critical feedback on how you work together

Agency

Learn the client and the industry — it may go without saying, but building expertise on every aspect on your client’s business and industry is crucial. Invest in that knowledge, even if you can’t bill for it

Welcome critical feedback — be open to criticism and respond to it quickly

Understand the client’s internal processses and challenges — success often depends on tailoring your work and recommendations to fit the client’s internal marketing and sales deadlines and to describing your work and succeses in language that resonates for your client

Understand your role — What is your role? PR results? Impressions? We believe that our role is something different — partnering with out client to achieve whatever measure of success he or she has defined

Lots of good information here for PR students. Hope you find it useful.