Monday November 11, 2024

Bad News, Good News

 The seemingly bad news that two COVID vaccine trials have been put on hold is actually good news, or so say medical experts who do drug development.  They say no trial runs completely smoothly.  There is always a glitch that might be due to a new drug and might not, but a pharma company needs […]

Not Good

It has been more than 300 days since the Pentagon has given a press briefing.  That is not smart PR. The public should know what the military is thinking, not the least because it is such a large part of taxpayer funds.  Press briefings also humanize the military — put faces to names and provide […]

Too Good To Work

Build-A-Bear Workshops conducted a promotion that was too good to work and now has to deal with the wrath of disappointed customers.  The creative idea was a “pay your age” discount.  Rather than a usual price range of $20 to $35, a parent could get a bear for a three-year-old for just $3 or for […]

Good PR Though Late

Charleston, SC is apologizing for its deep involvement in the slave trade nearly 200 years ago.  It is late but still a good step to acknowledge its error.  Nothing can change the fact that nearly 100,000 slaves passed through its market.  As the article notes, “Forty percent of Africans forcibly brought to the US set foot […]

Bad Good News

A story like this should make a CEO shudder.  A Teflon reputation can disappear in a second.  It only takes one article that captures the public interest and one’s credibility can be threatened.  CEOs should resist reporters who want to write about a company’s enduring esteem in the eyes of the public.  They should emphasize […]

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Conservationists in Northern Europe are facing a dilemma.  Their efforts to save the white-tailed eagle has been successful, perhaps too much so.  The eagles are now preying on other species of endangered birds.  This has raised the distasteful suggestion that the eagles need culling.  As one might expect that could lead to a PR disaster […]

Perfect Is Not Good Enough

There are times when perfection in the business world is not good enough.  Here is a case.  In the dicey world of rocket launches, United Launch Alliance has had 106 perfect missions in a row.  But, that is not enough.  Newer, cheaper rockets are on the scene and they are starting to make headway against […]

No Good Answer

Sometimes there are no good answers to an event.  Whatever one says or does carries severe penalties.  There isn’t even a way to weigh the lesser of two evils.  This is one case.  Slovenia is building a border fence to bar migrants from the country.  Slovenia already has tens of thousands and is struggling to […]

Good Stunt

A dry lake bed, 11 cars and as many drivers produced a good publicity stunt — a message to an astronaut in space.  This is the kind of creative idea that PR has long been known for, although it is not clear that PR had anything to do with coordinating and making of the message.  The stunt […]

Doing Well By Doing Good

Anheuser-Busch is replacing its diesel trucks at its Houston brewery with compressed natural gas rigs. The brewery says it wants to be “green”.  That may be true but left unsaid is that the price of diesel is higher than that of natural gas.  In other words, A-B is doing well by doing good.  There is […]