Flash mobs and public relations

I’ll admit it. I don’t know anything about flash mobs. But I guess I’ll find out Wednesday at Kent State. Here’s the story.

One of the great things about teaching is to see students take an idea in the classroom and then make it come alive. And that’s what’s happening with an independent study class of public relations majors who are participating in the Do It Now College Challenge, a campaign sponsored by Donate Life Ohio. The goal of the campaign is to recruit 400,000 new organ donors in Ohio.

The college challenge is a statewide competition involving 14 colleges and universities. And the Kent State Do It Now team is organizing a flash mob Wednesday afternoon at 2:15 on the Kent campus in the Risman Plaza between the Student Center and Library. The idea is to present information about organ donations — and give students and others the opportunity to register to become organ donors. And while I’m certain Kent’s public relations students will win this competition — it won’t hurt to give them a little support and help. Right?

If you’re on campus. Stop by. Here’s an example of what you’ll see.

And at Kent State we work hard to give students the opportunity to gain professional experience while still in the classroom. Here’s a story about the Do It Now College Challenge written by Jillana Gall, an English major working this semester with Flash Communications, our student-run public relations agency. So if you’re not on campus, this gives you more background and ways to support Kent’s public relations team.

The “Do It Now” College Challenge
Save a Life. Be a Donor.

Jillana Gall

Kent State public relations students are hard at work promoting an important issue and competing with students at other Ohio universities as part of the “Do It Now” College Challenge.

In Ohio today there are nearly 2,500 people waiting for an organ transplant, and one Ohioan will die every other day because not enough organs are available. And Donate Life Ohio, a statewide division of Donate Life America, is helping to meet a national goal of increasing registered organ donors from 60 million to 100 million by teaming up with college campuses across Ohio for the “Do It Now” College Challenge.

Kent State’s campaign to increase organ donors was developed in the fall 2007 Public Relations Campaigns class and is now being implemented by seven junior public relations students who are participating in an independent study created by Assistant Professor of Public Relations Michele Ewing. The students on the campaign team are Julie McKinney, Deborah Pritchard, Lyndsay Elliott, Brittany Thoma, Jackie Lloyd, Katelyn Luysterborg and Brandi Neloms. There are 14 Ohio universities participating in the campaign and it is financed by The Second Chance Trust Fund and Ohio’s organ procurement agencies.

The challenge to the student teams competing at 14 Ohio universities is to register as many new donors as possible by May. Each university has its own predetermined registration goal, based on its surrounding population. The goal for Kent State is set at 14,571, and there have been 7,429 donors registered as of late March.

Kent’s PR students are using a variety of tactics to increase donor registration, but one of the innovative ways they are increasing awareness for this campaign is through the social networking site Facebook. Students have created a Facebook page to inform other students and peers about the campaign.

The page provides general information about the campaign, as well as links to the Donate Life Ohio and Do It Now Web sites. There is also a discussion board where members are invited to talk about what influenced their decisions to become organ donors. This is an open group, so any Facebook member is eligible to join. If you are interested in viewing this page, visit http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8182077415.

The Kent State Donate Life Ohio team look forward to a busy month in April, which is National Donate Life Month. They will be holding registration drives on campus, attending Kent State events to increase awareness for the campaign and implementing other online tactics to drive people to the registration site.

The Kent team will present its plan and results May 14 to the DLO Advisory Council. An overall winner will be selected among the 14 universities and awarded a donation of $5,000 to a campus student organization. If the Kent State DLO team wins, the money will go to the Public Relations Student Society of America. Other awards include a $250 donation to the best plan and most creative tactic implementation. Individual students on the winning teams will get the opportunity to have an interview for an internship at select Ohio marketing and public relations firms or with regional organ procurement organizations. Team members also receive reference letters from Donate Life Ohio.

If you are interested in becoming an organ donor, you can register by completing a paper enrollment at one of the Kent State DLO events or visiting http://www.doitnowohio.org/kent/. You can access additional information about “Do It Now” College Challenge at this site. The DLO Kent team needs volunteers to assist at events. If interested, visit the Kent DLO Facebook page.

Football and conspiracy theories

This one comes with a tip of the helmet to Bill Sledzik. And I know I should be focusing on something really important — like the pros and cons of the social media news release. But what the hell. It’s Friday afternoon. And as Alan Jackson so correctly observes: “It’s five o’clock somewhere.”

Now what about football? Seems like the NFL owners at their annual meeting next week will consider a proposal to “ban players  from having hair flow from their helmets below their names on the back of their jerseys.” Not sure I know exactly what hair flow means. But I guess we get the picture.

Call it the Troy Polamalu rule. Good grief. Couldn’t they just make the helmets bigger?
I guess you could argue that this is a safety issue. Yet when I see 350-pound linemen plowing into each other at full speed it seems like safety isn’t the NFL’s top concern.

And I’m not much for conspiracy theories. Although I still have reservations that Oswald could even hit the side of a building if he were standing right next to it.

So doesn’t it seem strange that when we last even thought about the NFL a few months ago Senator Arlen Specter was threatening to hold congressional hearings concerning the Patriots and their fondness for video taping games and practices?

What ever happened to that?  Could it be that this idea to shear Polamalu is really only a ruse to coverup the video scandal? Remember Nixon and Watergate. Stranger things have happened.

And remember that this proposal comes only a short time after the death of one of the leaders of the Steeler Nation: Myron Cope. 

Hmm.

Public relations and management

I wonder if the University of Akron has a department of management. If so, it might want to send someone — during normal office hours, please — to visit with Ronald Levant, dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences. Seems the dean is in some administrative doo-doo.

As Channel 19 in Cleveland would say — Bill Sledzik had this story exclusively in this area last week on his ToughSledding blog. I won’t go into the details. Bill does that, as usual, very well.

But the story basically is this. Howard Ducharme, a tenured UA professor and now former chair of the philosophy department, claims he was fired from that position by Levant for not being in his office every weekday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Almost too funny to be true. But that’s the story, and Ducharme is sticking to it.

Last week, Carol Biliczky wrote an article in the Akron Beacon Journal about this: “Professor says he lost chair job for lacking chair time.” (I’m not going to provide a link. They disappear from the Beacon Journal’s Web site faster than Joe Biden in a presidential primary.)

But here’s one part of the story:

“Levant declined to disclose why he relieved Ducharme of his duties, but said the issue of office hours ‘”was not the driver of that decision.”‘

So that statement gave Bob Dyer, a Beacon Journal columnist, the opportunity to join in the fun this morning. He writes:

“Dean Ronald Levant apparently believes his people should be chained to their desks.”

“Levant denies it. [Removing Ducharme as department chair for not being in his office 8 to 5.] He told the Beacon Journal’s Carol Biliczky that Ducharme’s office hours  were ‘”not the driver of (the) decision,'” but declined to identify the driver.”

“Autopilot, perhaps?”

Ouch.

A national story in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Bill Sledzik’s blog. Two stories in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Who says the University of Akron can’t generate media coverage? Of course, this makes Levant and the university look ridiculous. And here’s my point. From a public relations perspective, why let this happen?

If Ducharme’s allegations are true — then best to say nothing. And I’m not an advocate of a “no comment.” But the fact is that a management decision has been made that can’t be explained with any credibility. Why try? But if there is more to the story from Levant’s perspective, then why not be specific? Or if the situation involves personnel issues that can’t be discussed publicly, then say so. If true, that’s at least a credible response. As it stands now, Levant is giving what former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee called the “nondenial denial. ”

And when I first read about this on Bill’s blog I thought Professor Ducharme would be philosophical about this. Apparently not. And since UA apparently has no communications strategy here, stay tuned.

And talking about management, just another quick thought. The NCAA tournament continues tonight and by now my picks are mostly sitting at home watching TV. But I was thinking about this while running this morning.

Doesn’t it seem like the person who organizes and conducts the office pool is the same person who doesn’t seem to have anything to do the rest of the year? Well, if nothing else, I hope he/she at the University of Akron is doing it 8 to 5.

China and public relations

Too bad Ed Bernays, the so-called father of PR, didn’t spend some time writing a definition of public relations. Instead he gained his reputation, at least in part, by planning publicity stunts like the one that encouraged generations of women to begin committing suicide by cigarette — as Vonnegut said, referring to his own addiction. And gee. Was Bernays in this instance practicing public relations at all?

Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not sure I can define public relations. But I have a number of views about it. Here’s one. Advertising and marketing can alter your view of reality. After all, Pepsi is only colored sugar water and a dream. And Starbucks isn’t about coffee. It’s about creating a community of dilettantes willing to stand in the queue for an unlimited time to buy an over-priced honey latte. But I digress. Public relations, if done ethically, can only in the long run reflect reality. It can’t save Bear Stearns from pathetic mismanagement. And it can’t enhance a country’s (or an organization’s) reputation unless it’s justified — and true.

Here’s what got me thinking about this. As I was running on the treadmill this morning, the talking head on TV opined that China was heading for a public relations disaster. Oh, my. It appears that the Olympic Torch didn’t advance from square one in Greece yesterday before protesters jumped up to criticize China’s current actions in Tibet. Something tells me it’s going to be a long road to Beijing and the Summer Games.

Is this really a public relations problem? Or is it a problem involving the Chinese government and people who don’t really believe that China is as open and free as officials would like the rest of the world to believe? The Beijing Olympics, after all, were intended to showcase China to the world. Well here come protests — government restrictions — and dare I say it: reality. Good luck to the PR guys and gals.

So now, if you are a corporate sponsor of the Olympics, what would you do? Anne Applebaum has an interesting article in Slate that looks at this issue and others: Boycott Beijing: The Olympics are the perfect place for a protest.

The article says in part:

“We believe the Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations and we hope that all people attending the games recognize the importance of this.”

That, according to the article, is the view of Samsung Electronics, one of 12 corporate sponsors. And I agree. Much better to protest at every store in the world selling Samsung products. But, again, I digress. And the sponsors knew what they were getting in to. Did they think they could change reality?

And another aspect of the so-called public relations problem. China, according to an article in The New York Times, has told broadcast officials that it will bar live television shots from Tiananmen Square during the Summer Games. Ouch. NBC , according the The Times article, paid $2.3 billion for rights to broadcast the Olympics in Athens, Turin and Beijing.

The marathon starts in Tiananmen Square. This should be interesting.

NBC declined to comment.

Three press officers with the Olympic organizing committee declined to comment.

Wonder what happens if someone has to clear a body or two from the track before the start of the 4×4 relay?

So China has a public relations problem? Nah. How about a reality problem.

Where’s Ed Bernays when we need him?

Poets and public relations

This is going to be a stretch — linking poets and public relations. But here goes. Last week I wrote about the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war and said that we didn’t always in the country view wars with such apathy and acceptance. And I mentioned to my daughter that maybe it was time to alert the poets.

Then over the weekend I was in Washington.  And guess what? Poets were leading a demonstration at the White House protesting the war. Who says a blog like this can’t shape public opinion? Well, OK. I won’t take any credit. Bill Sledzik apparently has the power to paralyze Northeast Ohio with a blizzard with a mere mention on Facebook. But then his Technorati rating is about 1,000 times higher than mine.

But the poets were heading to the White House — and back in the game. Here’s an article — Averse to War — in The Washington Post. It says in part:

The poets are in town. Dozens — no, hundreds. Hundreds of poets. Can you imagine? They are everywhere.

And more:

Also, to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, they are ready to march on the White House.

Who isn’t right?

But poets?

Well, I don’t know about you but I’m encouraged. Maybe the poets can help us get out of this mess. Doesn’t appear that anyone else — or any other group — has the interest or ability to shape public opinion against a war these days. Maybe when American Idol is over for the season.

And sorry. Guess I couldn’t figure out a way to link poetry to public relations after all.

PR, the war and Country Joe

Today is the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. And I’m somewhat hesitant even to write this. This war has touched the lives of thousands of people directly and indirectly. We owe them our gratitude — and realistically, they are the only ones who have any credibility on this mess at this point. The rest of us are just sitting on the sidelines hoping for the best.

But there are some continuing lessons here in public relations and media. Last week in my ethics class at Kent State we looked at the video Toxic Sludge is Good for You. For those of you who haven’t seen it or read the book by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton it’s a critical look at the public relations industry — to say the least. I’ve seen the video several times, but one section really jumped out at me last week. It’s the view that unethical and deceptive public relations practices essentially got us into the first confrontation with Iraq and the Gulf War during the administration of Bush Senior.

I really wonder if history hasn’t repeated itself. Even knowing and believing to be true what happened years ago, I trusted the Bush administration — and Colin Powell with his nifty presentation at the United Nations — again this time around. That, for me, ain’t likely to happen again. And the national news media didn’t from what I recall raise any red flags. So we are where we are five years later.

When I am thinking about these things while running I always manage to recall that scene from Animal House. You know, the one where the guy in the fraternity grabs the baton and leads the marching band down the one-way alley smack into the wall. I guess we can only hope that whoever grabs the baton in November can figure a way out. Doesn’t it seem like it is starting to get a little crowded in the alley?

And I am totally opposed to a military draft. Yet at some point someone is going to run that up the flagpole to see who salutes it. Particularly if John McCain is correct and we are going to be in Iraq for the next 100 years, give or take a decade or two. And maybe, ironically, a military draft would be a way out. Something tells me that would get a lot of us off the sidelines and back into the game. For those of you too young (or in my case sometimes too old) to remember, here’s a reminder that there was a time in this country when wars weren’t accepted quite as easily as they are today.

PR and why management matters

Bill Sledzik suggested to me several weeks ago that I take a look at Jim Horton’s blog Online Public Relations Thoughts. I’m glad I did. Jim has excellent insights about public relations, and he provides good links to other blogs and information. He also apparently posts a lot around 4:30 a.m. or so. Good. I view 7:30 or 8 a.m. as midday.

I was going to add a comment to Jim’s posting yesterday about Bear Stearns “The Cost of Incredulity.” But either he doesn’t allow comments or I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Doesn’t matter.

He focused on themes that I believe get right to the heart of public relations: trust, character and credibility.

And in the context of other remarks about the Bear Stearns situation, he writes:

“How much could public relations have done to save Bear Stearns? Little, it turns out. The bank tried to calm investors, but fear and greed ruled. The bank did not have enough friends to stand by it in the end.”

I’ll take that a step further. I don’t believe there was anything public relations could have done. Bear Stearns went belly up because of pathetically inept and arrogant management that apparently made one bad decision after another. If the management group had stepped aside last week, maybe effective public relations could have helped. If the bank had any credibility left at that point — which I doubt. And as I mentioned in my post yesterday, I still think that something smells about the announcements Bear Stearns made last week. But I’ll let that go. Clearly there are bigger fish to be fried at this point.

Anyway, this is why management and leadership matter. I get so tired of hearing people (and reporters) say that (fill in the blank here with the name of any organization) has a public relations problem. Ah, no. Once you hear or read that you can be assured that the organization has a management problem.

And ask the 14,000 Bear Stearns employees what they think today. Here’s from an article written by Associated Press reporters Dan Seymour and Eileen Aj Connelly:

“Employees own about a third of Bear Stearns, which means the company’s plight has bled its roughly 14,000 workers’ portfolios by $3 billion this month alone and more than $5 billion this year.”

I’ll bet that if you asked those employees most would still think highly of Bear Stearns — but not the management team that caused this debacle.

Trust. Character. Credibility. Jim, you’re right. And in every organization it has to start at the top.

Bear Stearns and the stench test

Well, I guess we’re all long-term investors again. Isn’t that the advice we receive from financial planners and others every time the stock market tanks? Well wahoo. We’re in for a wild ride.

I learned while running on the treadmill this morning that the Federal Reserve took drastic action yesterday to help calm jittery financial markets and that JP Morgan is going to acquire Bear Stearns for the fire sale price of $2 a share. Better that I ran outside and took my chances with the garbage trucks at 5 a.m. Running is becoming less stressful these days than the news reports.

But I’ll admit that this is another example of why I am delighted that I am no longer working in corporate public relations. Some poor smuck in the PR organization at Bear Stearns will have to try to explain all this to investors, employees, reporters and others. As far as I can tell it looks like the explanation could be fairly simple: mismanagement and greed. Want to bet you won’t see that in any news release that Bear Stearns distributes any time soon.

Yet here’s what you did see in a press release the bank issued March 10.

The announcement said in part:

New York — New York — March 10, 2008 — The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. today denied market rumors regarding the firm’s liquidity. The company stated that there is absolutely no truth to the rumors of liquidity problems that circulated today in the market.

Alan Schwartz, President and CEO of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc., said, “Bear Stearns’ balance sheet, liquidity and capital remain strong.”

OK. Good. Let’s get back to seeing what Britney is doing today.

But then on March 14, Bear Stearns had another announcement:

Bear Stearns Agrees To Secured Loan Facility With JPMorgan Chase

New York – New York – March 14, 2008 — The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. announced today it reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMC) to provide a secured loan facility for an initial period of up to 28 days allowing Bear Stearns to access liquidity as needed. Bear Stearns also announced that it is talking with JPMorgan Chase & Co., regarding permanent financing or other alternatives. (Note press release as more info if you are interested.)

Ouch. I’m no banking expert. And maybe there was enough of a run on the bank during those four days to change the situation to the point where Bear Stearns had to arrange a loan agreement with JPMorgan. Still, call me skeptical — but something here doesn’t meet the stench test.

In my ethics class at Kent State we use Rushworth Kidder’s How Good People Make Tough Choices. He writes:

The stench test, relying on moral intuition, is a gut-level determination. Does this course of action have about it an indefinable odor of corruption that makes you (and perhaps others) recoil and look askance?

Something about what happened at Bear Stearns during the past few days just doesn’t smell right to me. Maybe the government will pursue this with as much enthusiasm as it had for exposing Eliot Spitzer and “Kristen” last week. Probably not. But we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m on spring break. And I know that somewhere in New York today the public relations staff at Bear Stearns is noodling over the magical words that will make this debacle go away.

Good luck to them. And all of us.

Eliot Spitzer: Some final thoughts

Admit it. Don’t you long for the days when Britney Spears and Paris Hilton dominated the news? I wasn’t going to write any more about Eliot Spitzer. Might as well wait until his book comes out. But as I was running this morning I thought that maybe this affair does provide a teachable moment in a few areas: media, history and writing. So here goes.

First media. Interesting story in The New York Times this morning by Susan Dominus, “Emperor’s Club Sold an Oxymoron: High-Class Prostitution.” Good perspective on sales — and marketing. And then there is the TV promo for Inside Edition promising the scoop on “Kristen” the woman who brought down the governor. Oh really. Wonder how many times she called him?

Next history.  Given all the recent resignations and allegations about senior elected officials isn’t it time that we took another look at the legacy of Richard Nixon? I’m not sure that Nixon is getting the credit he deserves for the actions that led to his resignation. After all, Tricky Dick tried to screw all of us.

Finally writing. Anyone who has taken media writing at Kent State knows this only too well. Much better to be caught frolicking with a hooker than dangling a modifier. Or misplacing an apostrophe. OK. What is it? Emperors Club? Emperor’s Club? Or Emperors’ Club? Even The Times can’t seem to decide. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want my canceled check to show up on e-Bay with a punctuation error.

So it goes.

A crisis management proposal

Poor Eliot Spitzer. I thought he was spending his time screwing the Wall Street rogues who got their jollies by destroying shareholder value. So it goes.

And if the photo on the front page of The New York Times this morning is an actual reflection of reality, Spitzer’s wife, Silda, doesn’t look like a happy camper. Wonder if she is thinking about whether it is too late to get the deposit back on the summer vacation rental property? (You’ll most likely have to pay the $1.25 and get the deadwood version if you want to see Silda standing by her man.)

But as I was thinking about this during my run this morning, it occurred to me that the standard public relations crisis management tactics are so very, well, Web 1.0. You know. It’s the equivalent of a public confessional:

First: I’m sorry. I apologize. I beg for forgiveness.

Then: Pick one or all three. I failed my (fill in the blank). I know I’ve violated the (fill in the blank). It will never happen (fill in the blank).

Here’s my modest proposal to improve this with the use of social media.

Create a video for YouTube. And require that this be done for every elected official immediately upon assuming office. Then you are ready to go when the inevitable happens. No need for the obligatory news conference. And no need to include the spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend in the video unless he or she has aspirations for elected office at some point.

And I’m not an advocate for prostitution, legal or otherwise. But from what I’ve read, the women involved in this situation were charging between $1,000 and $5,000 an hour for their professional services. That’s about what Spitzer will most likely now have to pay to crisis management experts if he wants to salvage his reputation and career. As someone who had to hire a New York-based crisis management company a few years ago, I can assure the Governor he is about to get the screwing of a lifetime.

My advice. Resign — and hire a book agent.

Update: After I hit the publish button, I saw this article in The Washington Post, Ritual of Repentance.