Here is an interesting PR problem. Purchasers of Dell Laptops are complaining that their new machines smell like cat urine. Dell says it has fixed the situation in its manufacturing process and it is taking in affected machines for repair and/or replacement. As laughable as the situation sounds, Dell has to treat it seriously. The […]
Posted on October 31st, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1,185 Comments »
Is there such a thing as pure evil in a person? As this article points out, the answer is no. Even the most violent personalities can have likable human qualities. This highlights the dangers of demonizing others, something PR shouldn’t do, but which happens. Blackening another’s name can set up cognitive dissonance when a bad […]
Posted on October 30th, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 203 Comments »
Have we entered an era of big fines and large settlements, or is it more of the same?. Penn State, JPMorgan Chase, Chevron, BP … All face huge penalties. Are they just compensation and do they change behavior? There are arguments on every side of those questions. From the viewpoint of PR, they are large and […]
Posted on October 29th, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 177 Comments »
News continues to appear that the National Security Agency bugged the German Chancellor, the French President and now, it is claimed, 60 million Spanish phone calls. The White House is trying to keep as much distance as possible from the PR nightmare by claiming that President Obama did not know about it. Maybe not, but […]
Posted on October 28th, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 197 Comments »
Amazon.com doesn’t talk to the media. It leaves everyone guessing about its intentions and meanwhile, continues to expand quickly as the premier online shopping site for America and beyond. It spends heavily to build systems, warehouses and delivery. Returns to shareholders are paltry to non-existent, but it is still a hot stock because investors are […]
Posted on October 25th, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 198 Comments »
Everyone knows you don’t blog or tweet anything that can come back to bite you. So, why then was a White House staffer tweeting critical comments about his bosses under an assumed name? How dumb can that be? Of course, he was discovered and fired, and he has work to restore his reputation. What did […]
Posted on October 24th, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 185 Comments »
President Obama’s leadership reputation is taking a ding with the snafu-ed rollout of the ACA web site. There is a case to be made that his underlings and possibly, the President himself, should have known that large programming projects are normally behind schedule and over budget and many fail. Whether or not the project “didn’t […]
Posted on October 23rd, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 184 Comments »
According to a new book, PR staff for Fox news used dummy accounts to counter negative postings about the company. Was that unethical? It was not transparent, and it was dishonest. Should PR be doing this kind of sub rosa defense work? Some say yes, others no. My inclination is to say it is out of […]
Posted on October 22nd, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 181 Comments »
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co., is in an unfamiliar and painful position. He can’t stop a criminal investigation into his bank. So, not only is the company facing a record fine at $13 billion but it must continue to suffer the indignity of prosecutors turning over rocks throughout the institution. It must be […]
Posted on October 21st, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 182 Comments »
As this story illustrates, once you have a database, you can mine it for PR purposes. For years, I have told clients that data they collect from customers and others is a source of stories, opinion pieces and commentary that can position their businesses accurately and interestingly. There are two challenges to achieving that, however. One is proprietary. Clients […]
Posted on October 18th, 2013 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 193 Comments »
