PR Resource

After 11 years of court battles, denials and evasions, cigarette companies are now being forced to run ads that tell the truth about smoking. They are not putting much effort into it. I saw one of them recently and it referenced the government requiring that the ad be run. It was inartfully large black type run on a plain background. There was no hint of design nor of the marketing prowess used to sell cigarettes in the first place. It is clear that the companies are taking minimal responsibility for their actions. When questioned about it, one company executive said they are working to develop less risky tobacco products, barely an admission that the “coffin nails” they still sell are dangerous. They also wrangled with the regulators to avoid showing photos of the effects of smoking.  This after paying billions to victims and states for their bad behavior in the past.  They haven’t reformed, just changed their tactics.

Amazon and Walmart are in a battle for supremacy online. The winner will have consistently lower prices than the other and will win market share as a result. It is a tooth and tong war with each shaving prices to upend the other. The winners will be consumers. The losers are retailers who don’t have the marketing muscle of these two heavyweights. It is hard to stay out of the way because both companies carry a broad and deep inventory of consumer goods. Chances are virtually everything a store will sell is featured on Amazon and/or Walmart. The only upside for the smaller retailer is that some customers like to touch goods before buying them. The rest — and soon the majority — prefer the ease of shopping online and delivery of goods to their doors. It is uncertain at this juncture who will win the battle between the two, but it is interesting to watch as it changes the retail landscape.

A fool for a leader puts a strain on everyone who works for and is associated with him. One is constantly covering for the boss and bending ethical guidelines to explain that he did not mean what was said or he did mean it but in a selective way or he was right in a sense. One is left twisting mentally trying to make a wrong a right. The consequences of stupid statements and positions is that one is forced to justify what isn’t justifiable. It is a lousy place to be in for a PR practitioner, especially when the boss gets facts wrong and persists in flogging them. Fortunately, there aren’t too many fools left in leadership positions at American corporations. In fact, they are a rarity because they have been vetted on their way up the career ladder. Errant missiles are usually founders of corporations who never have been reined in by their boards, but even these are getting their comeuppance, as was demonstrated at Uber. Donald Trump is painful because he never acknowledged defeat in his business career and he never left off self-aggrandizing. He could twist any disaster into victory and expected those around him to support his position. As President his behavior has continued and he has put the country under strain. He is a fool who gives both business and politics a bad name.

The annual turkey pardoning at the White House is a long-time publicity stunt that has endured under Republican and Democratic Presidents. It hangs on because it is cute and is a reminder that millions of turkeys give their lives on Thanksgiving so humans can celebrate. Citizens line up at the White House to watch the ceremony and the media faithfully cover it. One would think the stunt would get old and at some point a President will give it up. That time hasn’t come yet, and each year the pardoning reinforces prospects for the event in the following year. It’s an automatic renewal, as silly as it is. It is also a reminder that the Commander-in Chief can have fun along with the rest of the country, and of course, it gives social media something to talk about.

Macy’s, according to this article, is entering a make-or-break Christmas selling season. The store has been discounting to compete with Amazon, but it would like to re-position itself as a taste-maker, a leading-edge retailer that has gifts and clothing people want and are willing to pay full price to buy. It’s a tough road for a retailer to take. Department stores as a class have faded in the American consumer’s mind and habits. Getting them excited to return to a store and brave crowds is a tall task. It is too early to predict whether Macy’s strategy will work. But, once one has learned to shop online and compare goods and prices, it becomes harder to pick through racks and shelves. Macy’s is not attempting to compete with Amazon, which has everything, but to feature the one or two best products of a type and the right clothing at the proper price point. It will take savvy buyers to pull this off and creative merchandising. One wishes the chain good luck.

It has always been true that the media have a narrow focus. Reporters and editors will ignore an issue, then suddenly illuminate it with a deluge of stories, only to drop it again after a time. This has been a headache for media relations practitioners since the beginning of modern PR. An example of this is the media’s concentration on proposed tax reform in Congress while overlooking an even more important issue of funding the government to avoid a shutdown. CNBC has made an issue of it but few others have. Turning the media’s attention to the funding vote will come as the deadline looms. Meanwhile, it takes a back seat. Media relations requires a sense of timing — knowing when to push an issue and when to let it rest. Practitioners need to maintain close attention to the arguments of the hour in order to hook their news to them if possible. It is a dicey business and often unsuccessful.

What is a painting worth? The materials that go into one cost a few dollars. The labor cost of the painter is gauged by demand for his work. Most do poorly or barely make a living. But in the secondary market, long after they are gone, hype can increase a canvas’ value many thousands of times. Thus, the Leonardo Da Vinci Salvator Mundi sold for $450 million. The art world has been shaken by the extraordinary amount. It was achieved through clever marketing by Christie, the auction house. Will the buyer ever recover his money if he goes to resell the painting someday? There is no way of knowing, but one should not be surprised if he doesn’t. Values rise and fall with market sentiment.  here are times not to put a work up for bid and other moments when the fever is at a new high. There is no way to program a machine to forecast accurately what a painting might bring. The same is true for other markets like real estate. Value is what one is willing to pay. Time will tell whether the buyer of the Leonardo paid too much.

Sean Hannity has been cited as the top conspiracy theorist on TV. He is not one whom a PR practitioner would want to approach. Those who see deceit under every rug are not given to sticking with facts. They have to spin them into a web of insinuation and outright falsehood. One’s client is at great risk of being caught in a warp of opinion presented as truth. It makes no difference whether conspiracy theories come from the political right or left. Both are bad. The media we should approach have a respect for facts and for the most part, avoid opinion. They go where facts lead them, and if facts delineate wrongdoing, they report it. They don’t exaggerate. They are willing to listen and to report both sides. What should one do for a client caught in a web of conspiracy theory? Assemble the facts and communicate them fiercely. Fight fire with fire.

The argument that markets should be free and unregulated has never been true. Human behavior is not always honest. Consider cryptocurrency. It still is an open and wild marketplace where scams and schemes are prevalent. For digital coinage to be of general use, it will need to be regulated and cheaters controlled. So too with every other marketplace. That is why when companies call for free markets, they really do not intend for the them to become Darwinian and capitalist. They want fairness and equal competition. This government provides. Communicators who profess to be free marketers need to be honest with themselves. Rather than calling for less regulation, they should opt for effective rulemaking that guides behavior but doesn’t squelch it. And, there should be penalties for the dishonest. Free markets have never been free of bad operators.

When one loses his reputation, people abandon him — even if he is on the cusp of victory. That is the case here. Five women have now come forward and claimed that Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama, had molested them as teenagers. Moore is refusing to leave the race, even though Republican senators in Congress have already disavowed him. He is a man twisting in the wind. Even if his contention that he is the victim of “fake news” proves correct, there is little to no time for him to recover before election day. If he should be elected, Senators have already said they will move to deny him his seat by expelling him. If he did molest these women, that is the least he deserves. Sexual harassment has become the new social sin. There is a confluence of power and sex that many have gotten away with it until now. More reputations will be lost in the coming months.