May 16th, 2008
It’s been a busy week of accusations, gnashing of teeth, and protests of innocence.
The Middle East? No, I’m talking about the ongoing debate between bloggers and journalists on one side and public relations folks on the other.
Most bloggers (and many journalists) seem to assume that the only thing a PR does all day is dream […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 1 comment
May 14th, 2008
What a schmozzle.
The recent uproar after the firing of an employee over her decision to give a free bite-sized snack to the young child of a customer lead the Tim Horton’s chain to unfire her.
The optics of firing a single mother for an act of kindness put the fast food chain in a bind.
Is […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 2 comments
May 7th, 2008
Customers of VOIP phone services are supposed to alert their service provider if they move, so the instructions can be changed for emergency services responding to a 911 call.
But that doesn’t mean the company is off the hook. A family in Calgary lost their 18-month-old son after ambulance crews were dispatched to an old […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 1 comment
April 30th, 2008
Lawyers are often very good at helping organizations achieve their goals. But when it comes to plotting effective public relations moves, they too often forget how that legal action can be seen as aggressive overkill to the average person.
Case in point, the chill effect attempted by lawyer Clifford Shoemaker on behalf of his clients, who […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 0 comments
April 15th, 2008
A student of public relations can see a belligerent pattern in the Chinese government’s reputation defence during the past year.
Accusation: producing unsafe productsDefence: blame sloppy manufacturing specs provided by clients.
Accusation: human rights abuses in TibetDefence: allege Dalai Lama’s of conspiracy to cause deaths of ethnic Chinese
Tactic: Olympic Torch Relay protestsDefence: glorify noble athletes standing […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 3 comments
April 11th, 2008
There are some rules of engagement in online games. Learn them and you can play Call of Duty 4 and World of Warcraft without becoming a pariah.
Apply them to business, and you will have some back-up when the going gets rough. (Business implications in parentheses.)
1) Learn the game offline before joining group play. That way, […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 6 comments
April 10th, 2008
Talk about having your symbolism hijacked. The Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have seen the usual positive tenor of the international torch relay degenerate into a platform for political protests over human rights.
The challenge now is to pretend that the torch is being peacefully passed from hand-to-hand with the world looking on […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 0 comments
April 6th, 2008
Stealing someone’s identity to defraud someone is a serious criminal offence.
Borrowing someone’s identity to take the piss out of them, as the Brits would say, is a time-tested satirical technique.
The skewerer gets props for cleverness. But the one who is skewered often also gains visibility, possibly a wider audience, and kudos for having a sense […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 5 comments
March 27th, 2008
You would think George Bush’s massive failure to communicate himself out of the Iraq invasion quagmire would serve as a lesson for other major powers.
The Chinese spin on the Tibetan protests are clear and consistent: the Dalai Lama is a lying, scheming radical fomenting rebellion in an otherwise peaceful part of China.
In an almost unprecedented […]
By Eric Eggertson -- 0 comments
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