Thursday April 25, 2024

Military Burial

I was out of the office for two days last week to attend a funeral and military burial.  The flag ceremony at the gravesite is deeply affecting and full of symbolism as is the playing of taps that precedes it.  The country is communicating its thanks to the family and friends of the deceased.  In […]

Et Tu, McDonald’s?

Who would think the CEO of McDonald’s would be fired for a relationship with an employee?  It happened, and he is gone, waiting for severance.  It shows a healthy concern for public relations and perception on the part of the board.  It also forestalls power plays and favoritism on the part of the CEO.  The […]

50 Years

Fifty years ago this week the internet was born.  It was called ARPANET then, but it contained the technology that drives the worldwide system today.  For the first 25 years of its life, it was a backbone of science and engineering then with development of the web, it exploded into the commercial and individual entity […]

Internal Relations

First, it was the employees of Google expressing their opinions publicly.  Now it is the workers of Facebook.  They are objecting to Facebook’s policy of allowing politicians’ ads to lie and spread false information.  And, there is a good chance they will be heard.  With the advent of social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, there […]

When Publicity Hurts

Since ancient times, publicizing the names of mass murderers and other evil-doers has been a problem.  It stimulates others to do dark deeds.  The phenomenon is called social contagion by the scientific community, and it has been a work in America.  Mass shooters have become more common.  They are aping one another in seeing their […]

On and On

Britain’s reputation has been taking a beating over Brexit and the inability of parliament to resolve the issue of leaving the EU.  Now the EU has granted another extension until Jan. 31 with the hope that the UK can decide by then what to do.  Brexit has never made sense economically.  The country is tied […]

Bush League

Amazon has descended to bush-league marketing with its “curated” toy collection for the holidays.  It turns out you can get your toy selected for the guide if you are willing to pay a ton of money to have it there.   Editorial space for pay is hardly a third-party endorsement that carries the weight of credibility.  […]

On The Other Hand

President Trump has reversed himself over selecting his Florida resort and golf resort for an upcoming G7 meeting.  He blamed Democrats for the decision but he was also facing a revolt from Republicans who saw the selection as corrupt.  Whether he went forward with his plan or not, it is one more nail into the […]

Tough Calls

Social media platforms like Facebook are trying to determine what content to take down from their sites because it is injurious and what content to leave although it skates to the edge of truth. This is a tough call under any scenario.  The First Amendment, which might not apply in the social media world, is […]

What Can Go Wrong

This is an old story but it is a reminder of what can go wrong even in publicity stunts.  After six months of planning and anchoring a giant net over a downtown block, the United Way of Cleveland had thousands of volunteers fill 1.5 million balloons with helium and launch them to the underside of […]