Dealings with a call centre recently reminded me of the perils of putting young people at the receiving end of society’s problems and issues.
Call centres like to use young people. They’re cheap. They’re (mostly) quick. They’re technologically savvy. And, by and large, they don’t tend to take the problems of the world and load them onto their own shoulders.
And therein lies the rub. From a public relations perspective, is callow youth empathetic enough? More…
Another week, another apology. This time it was the turn of Telecom, with a swift U-turn over its try-hard ‘Abstain for the Game’ campaign. It, of course, followed hard on the heels of the adidas non-apology of the previous week for the ‘distraction’ caused by the furore over its apparel pricing.
Rugby World Cup madness has truly set in. What on earth was Telecom thinking? Why did it feel the need to go public with such a tacky little campaign? More…
Good on Rebel Sport, Briscoes and Whakatane Sportsworld for taking a stance on the rugby jersey price issue. While adidas’ reaction to public outrage over the fleecing of Kiwi rugby fans has been little short of Kafka-esque to date (referring all local media enquiries to adidas HQ in Germany, who then promptly refer the calls to adidas in NZ), the emergence of a sympathetic stance among local retailers has been refreshing.
adidas’ initial reaction to the pricing criticism was typical of a large multinational for whom public relations is simply an ancillary publicity function bolted onto the marketing department. More…
Seriously, who writes this stuff? Earlier this month I received a letter from broadcaster Sky, telling me all about how it has added more channels, “worked hard” to secure the best programming, upgraded a sports channel to High Def and lots more blah, blah, blah.
The letter was on its way to the bin, already damned as a gratuitous piece of marketing puff, before a small alarm bell rang in my mind and I snatched the missive from its trajectory of doom.
Sure enough. There it was. More…
Back in the 80s, when press releases were sent by telex and ‘cc’ literally meant ‘carbon copy’ I was a wet-behind-the-ears junior account assistant at Spectrum, at that time a leading southern African PR consultancy headed by industry doyen George Foot.
The very first thing George ever taught me was the PR 1.01 staple: “never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel”. Followed closely by: “there are a thousand ways to skin that cat”. More…
I’ve taken part in, and eavesdropped on, several wonderful discussions recently about whether Aussie PM Julia Gillard is a nasty person because she didn’t show much emotion about the Queensland floods in front of the cameras, and whether Queensland premier Anna Bligh’s tearful moment at a press conference cemented her position as Australia’s Communicator-in-Chief.
Particularly memorable was a discussion in the Twitter feed of Aussie journalism maven Julie Posetti. More…
Happy New Year! Here’s to the next 12 months – I hope they bring us all health, happiness and hilarity.
Speaking of hilarity, I’m still shaking my head in bemusement at the latest twist in the Hanover Finance/Mark and Amanda Hotchin affair.
There can be few in New Zealand unfamiliar with the story of busted investment company Hanover Finance, the many investors who lost their shirts, and its owners Mark Hotchin and Eric Watson.
Three days ago high-profile media commentator and PR consultant Dr Brian Edwards posted on his widely-read blog an email from Hotchin’s wife Amanda, in which she lamented the ‘hate campaign’ being waged against her family by the NZ media. She drew attention to several instances of reporting which she claimed were “fabrication”. One in particular, if true, would clearly support her claim that recent coverage appears to prioritise sensationalism over accuracy. More…
Most rallying cries revolve around some spontaneous heartfelt outburst or, by contrast, carefully chosen prose. For either to be effective it must capture the imagination and establish a connection with the cause.
So where does “don’t touch my junk!” stand in the epoch-making stakes? Up against ‘eich bein ein Berliner’; ‘we will fight them on the beaches’; and even ‘I shall return’ it’s fairly low profile but it does capture the mood and the moment.
If you’ve had your mind on other matters here is what the fuss has been all about. A traveller, John Tyner, queuing up for a flight out of San Diego, took exception to what he perceived was overly ambitious probing of his private parts. He let fly with the catch cry: “Don’t touch my junk!” More…
NZ Police and their Minister Judith Collins have now had a peek of the international press pack in action and they don’t like it.
They won’t be able to change it, though. Unless of course they want to go the way of China, North Korea and Zimbabwe and start banning media or dictating which questions can and can’t be asked. More…
Oh crumbs! ‘Cookie Monster’ gets the sack
This was just too good not to stick up here.
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