A Dirty Public Relations Scandal in China

In Beijing, a company start rumors about another company for producing baby formula that could possibly harm infants. This rumor that was produced targeted a company called Yili which is a rival of Mengniu. The company announced that the plan was created by a manager a Mengniu in order to boost sales for the company. Also the posting that were displayed on the web were by some members of Mengniu. They posed as pregnant women and posted statements such as, "Yili's formula caused my baby to become ill" and "I will never buy this product again because it is harmful to my children." This was not only a campaign to benefit Mengniu, but it was also to destroy Yili. The campaign cost $41,000 dollars and drew 280,000 readers. Because of the manager at Mengniu, both companies are suffering. Many parents are not letting their children drink formula from either company. The manager and three other employees were arrested and will probably never find work again because of a stupid act. This is becoming a normality in China. Many people take just a little bit of money and cause problems for other companies. A person will get paid $2000 dollars to talk bad about a company over a chat room and rumors just spread from there. China's Public Relations firms have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to clean up the messes now and the messes produced in the future.

The Plan

I don't think that our PR projects could have come at a better time. I must concur what has already been said about the Public Eye and how well they pulled off their campaign. The time has come to implement this plan to help the emphasis, the department, and the field of public relations as a whole.
Just yesterday I was asked that haunting question that we often come face-to-face with: "what do you do with a degree in communications?" Except this time the inquiry didn't come from a fellow student or peer, it was from a 50-year-old relative. I proceeded to tell him about the diversity of the degree and how it has provided me with essential skills that are necessary for a changing work environment. I told him how these sets of skills are missing in other disciplines. He seemed satisfied with the answer I gave him, and I hope that he now has a clearer understanding of what our field entails.
This is what we're hoping to solve with our class project. We aim to create understanding which will lead to involvement. It's a daunting task, but I think that our class is full of capable minds that can get the job done efficiently.

Isn't it strange how our profession attempts to build and maintain relationships with a variety of publics though mutual understanding and yet there are a great many people who cannot define public relations or even know what to do with a communication degree?

Let's put a stop to that.

Tim Tebow

One of the most important things we do in PR is develop an image for our clients. It is our job to define our client in a way that is mutually beneficial for our publics. As we speak, Tim Tebow is learning the importance of this.

Tim Tebow is phenomenal. Disagree? Well you probably should. He’s not an accurate thrower, he can’t play under center, and he’s easily spooked. But you can’t disagree. The man is phenomenal.

I was reading ESPN.com the other day when I came to the realization the Tim Tebow and the people around him have done the most excellent PR possible. The author of the piece was describing why he’s a supporter of putting Tebow in as the new starting quarter-back, but more specifically, how he was converted to the Tebow religion.

That’s what they have done, the Tebow team. They have created a persona that goes well beyond the team he plays for, or even if he plays well. They created a persona that raises above the game. And that is why, today, Sunday the 23^rd of October, there are more people at Miami stadium cheering for Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos than are rooting for the home team. That is the definition of a good PR plan.

What Will You Go As?.

I love Halloween. It used to be for the free candy, then the parties and now I just love the creativity of dressing up. Apparently so do many other females. When I say "creativity" in the dressing up I mean something funny, unique, inexpensive. For others "creativity" means finding something to be that requires as little clothes as possible.

Media Orchard wrote an article on the 5 sexiest Halloween Costumes. No this wasn't a "which one is hottest to a Guy" but rather it was focusing on the type of stereotypes they perpetuate when girls continually dress up in them.

The top 5 sexiest costumes were:

1)Cheerleader

2)Nurse

3)French maid

4)Stewardess

5)Woman cop

I never thought of it this way, when females annually dress up in these "sexy" costumes they are forming a brand on these professions. "It affects what both men and women think of these professions," wrote Media Orchard. The question is do these costumes affect these professions in a negative or positive way? Media Orchard reveled the answer.

For Cheerleaders is was a TWO FOUR SIX EIGHT WE DO APPRECIATE. Stereotype Impact= positive.

Nurses Stereotype Impact= Negative. The Center for Nursing Advocacy is actually very concerned about the sexual images that are being linked to the nursing profession. A "naughty" nurse creates an un-respected nurse AND an underfunded nurse.

French Maid Stereotype Impact= Negative. I've never heard of a french maid complaining about this but this stereotype is apparently creating dangers for young women coming here from abroad. Who knew?

Stewardess Stereotype Impact= Neutral. Apparently stewardess's in the 60's and 70's were advertised as attractive and friendly. They used to wear one outfit to greet passengers and then change into another for serving meals...this changing was called an "air strip"....yikes. Young, unmarried and attractive woman were hired. While those on the opposite side of the demographic were left to the dust. As you could guess unions and laws changed this and has left the stewardess association in the dust as well.

Woman Cop Stereotype Impact= Negative. This is creating a hassle for REAL women cops that they do not need.

So, as you prepare for this year's Halloween ladies remember, you might be branding another woman's profession ...so choose wisely.

NBA Lockout

So with the NBA announcing that it will not be having the first two weeks of the basketball season at least, it is looking like there is no hope for the National Basketball Association for this year and years to come. Players with a big persona are beginning to leave to other countries without caring about what the fans think. All they want is money. LeBron James and Dwayne Wade made 17 million dollars last season, the last thing that they care about is the fans. The thing I am most worried about are the jobs that are going to be lost at least till the NBA is back in business. Public relations, advertising, general managers, players with not as big of contracts that just love to play the game. Everyone is going to be out of a job. Another question I want to ask is how are the Public Relations professionals connecting to the public and trying to clean up the way that fans are viewing the NBA now: "Organization all about money and not about the people." Although I feel like the commissioner and general managers are to blame for not getting a collective bargaining agreement going to we can have a basketball season. Players are getting older and public relations professionals as well as people within the organization are running out of time to solve this. Goodbye NBA and hello hockey. I hope you enjoy hockey because this is what we have got to look forward to this year.

Bravo

I just wanted to boast a little bit about our class group projects. I personally thought everyone did very well considering the magnitude of the project and the time that was allotted to complete it. All three plans were very thorough and well thought out. I can't say for sure whether the department will use any of the projects, but I'm confident that they'll take some bits and pieces here and there to construct an effective campaign that will strengthen the department and eventually bring a PRSSA chapter to the university.
It was a bit humbling to hear the comments made by our faculty judges. At first it seemed like they weren't impressed with any of the projects and sought to discredit our research and ideas. But I see now that their comments were very valuable and beneficial. I know that I wont forget some of the things that were said. Yet it wasn't all criticism. I felt very good wit the praise that the judges gave to us. Overall, I feel very satisfied that we were taken seriously.
I also noticed that we all, at one point, got pretty defensive of our group projects. Naturally, this might have caused a little bit of contention among us. But in the end, it seemed like we were all on the same page about what needs to be done in the comm. department. Personally, I want to thank all those who had questions and concerns for the group project that I participated in (Pentagon). I think in future campaigns, I will try and have other people review my research and ideas in incremental stages before presenting the overall plan to a client. I wish that I would've thought of giving our plan to someone else to look over prior to presenting. In saying that, the discussions we had with Prof. Chung were very beneficial to us.
Once again, good job everyone. Private Eye, Bosses, and Pentagon. I think as a class, we have a lot of potential.

Where Have All The PG's Gone?

I went to a movie in the theaters this weekend. I rarely go to movie theaters but a group of friends wanted to go see a certain movie that I had never heard about (which isn't a rare thing since I don't have a T.V. or go to the theater). I should have asked more questions about the movie but soon realized 5 minutes into it that it was an R-rating. My Dad love's war movies so I have seen my share of R-rated films but over the past 4 years I would say my taste for R-rated films is turning bitter.

My opinion is that many good movies and story lines are ruined with the insane amount of profanity and sexual content. It's my assumption that PG-13's and R's are similar to Wal-Mart's....there are more and more of them because we as a people are creating a demand for them. I found an interesting study completed by David M. Lang and David M. Switzer called "Does Sex Sell? A Look at the Effects of Sex and Violence on Motion Picture Revenues," that proves this point.

In Lang and Switzer's paper they state that "Thompson and Yokota (2004) analyze(d) movies from 1992 to 2003 and (found) that the total level of sex, violence and profanity (SVP) has followed an upward trend."

As economist they were confused about this since "some research has shown that Rrated movies are less profitable" and that "G and PGrated movies perform better at the box office, yet movie studios continue to make more PG-13 and R-rated movies."

Through their study they answer my question, where have all the PG's gone?

To summarize some of the paper’s findings, they show that the overall level of Sex ,Violence and Profanity does not appear to have a significant impact on a movie’s revenues. However, each of these levels examined individually leads to a different conclusion.Violence has a positive effect on revenues, while profanity has a negative effect, especially when one considers foreign box office.

"When separating movies by MPAA rating, we find that a movie’s violent content has the most consistent positive impact on box office revenues. We find that sex does in fact sell, resulting in higher box office sales to adults and students. Finally, we find that movies rated R and PG-13 sell much better to international audiences, which helps explain why movie studios continue to produce much more of them than PG and G movies," said Lang and Switzer.

So where have all the PG's gone? Not to the box office.

Why republicans are losing their own game.

Before I get started, it might be useful to watch this video about what's going on in Utah, to give you a clue of where this is coming from.

 

This year is redistricting year in Utah, and we get a wonderful opportunity that doesn't come along very often: Utah is getting a fourth representative to congress! Usually this would be no big deal. Ten years ago, the last time Utah went through redistricting, it wasn't that big of a deal. Were the lines drawn intentially to limit the power of the opposition party? Yes. Is that legal? Questionable. Why was there no ruckus? Because the opposition party couldn't convince anyone to listen.

This year is different. Why? Because the Utah Democratic Party elected somebody that was good at PR. Jim Dabakis, the current Democratic Party Chair, had the foresight to create a PR strategy guide before he ever became elected. You can find it here. You can also find the other strategy guides (which I believe also fall under PR) here.

Having a full blown strategy, and having a plan for attack, gave the Democrats a leg up this year. Jim Dabakis toured the state, whipping up a hell storm for the republicans. It's gotten so bad that the republicans were forced to start over, and have been forced to compromise.

How is it that the minority party was capable of making the majority party bow to it's desires? PR. Its just that simple. The side with a PR plan one. That's why we do what we do, that's why we're learning what we're learning.

The Chapel Bells are Ringing...

As a few of you who are close to me know I have a slight obsession with all things wedding! Now I know what you are all thinking and NO it is not because I am praying everyday for my prince charming to come riding in on his white horse and sweep me off my feet so we can ride off into the sunset together toward our new life of happiness (not that I would be complaining if that suddenly did happen). I have always just cherished the love story the wedding day tells of the couple. I know, I know cheesy as a bowl of nachos but it is the truth. As I publicly admit this small but completely healthy dirty little secret to you all I pause to reflect on how it actually relates to my future career path.  In all honestly I chose to major in Public Relations because I thought it would allow me to actually pursue a career in wedding planning. Once I realized how slim the market is as well as the constant stress of the field I realized that maybe nuptial arranging may not be “my thing”.  However, PR seems to have placed me in the exact same boat. One that is tossed into the sea of clients, expected to turn a dream into a reality with an unrealistic time frame, budget, and public to please. So in the end…maybe it is “my thing”. Exactly what I was trying to avoid is featured skills in this profession. Maybe I won’t rule it out quite yet, we can all dream right? In conclusion, I now pronounce myself married to the sleepless nights, long hours, hard to please clients, and turning dreams into reality which makes it 100% worth it in my book. Do not despair everyone, I will be sending out reception invites shortly and you ALL made the guest lists!

Amie