Month: January 2018

This is one way to make a statement about the environment. Amazon.com has spent millions building three spheres in which hundreds of plants are growing. Spread throughout the jungle are meeting venues for employees and work pods. The company is demonstrating through its investment both its concern for employees and nature. A cynic might say Amazon would show better judgment by finding ways to reduce the size and use of its shipping boxes. Amazon has an answer for that too. It has instituted analytics to gauge better the size of box or envelope used to package items. The company isn’t perfect, but then it sends tens of millions of boxes and envelopes annually. The spheres might be expensive PR, but they are effective in making the case for Amazon’s concern for nature.

Republicans are facing a difficult 2018 election given President Trump’s low poll numbers. Their task is even tougher given the number of Congressmen leaving office. Thus far, nine chairs of House committees have said they are not going to run again. It is expected that Republicans will lose the Senate where their margin is one vote. Now they have to contend with losing the House as well. It’s a difficult PR challenge for the Elephant Party to turn the tide of opinion in just eight months. It is impossible to show a unified face.  Division within the ranks is too deep.  Democrats can scarcely contain their glee over troubles facing their opponent. They are hustling candidates to take on swing districts, and they are counting potential votes. Republicans, meanwhile, as the party in power are struggling to produce legislation they can point to in their districts. There has been little except the tax law. What will Congressmen say to constituents to convince them to vote Republican again. It will be interesting to watch.

A French grocery chain learned the hard way about marketing to a mob. It started a mad rush for Nutella, the chocolate and hazelnut spread. The riots were caused by a deep discount for the product. Frenchmen lined up at the doors of the grocer then rushed for the bottles. There was fighting. There was damage. There were futile efforts for crowd control. The promotion can be deemed a success, but not one the grocer would try again anytime soon. It clearly had no intimation of demand for the product when it slashed prices. It does now.

Burger King has come up with an imaginative way to explain net neutrality. People ordering a Whopper get served based on how much they have paid for the sandwich. Those served right away pay $26 for their meal. Those made to wait pay the regular price. It’s funny but descriptive of what might happen when net neutrality is rescinded. The scenario is not exactly accurate. In order to reach higher speeds on the Internet, ISP’s have to install new equipment and in some cases, new wires to the home. There is an expense that is left out of Burger King’s argument.  Still, it is amusing to see the growing annoyance on the part of burger customers as they are told to wait while others go before them. It’s a powerful, but flawed, argument, for net neutrality.

Reporters are usually sensitive to anything that smacks of hype — overselling and exaggeration. Yet they do it themselves and a prime example is the Super Bowl. Every conceivable angle is analyzed and beaten to death in the two weeks before the game. One would think we were about to experience an earth-shaking event rather than football. It is odd to see journalists lose their sense of proportion like this. One would expect a more restrained and dispassionate approach. The National Football League aids and abets the mania leading up to the event, and players and coaches go along with it. At some point, one wants to say it is just a game — nothing more, nothing less. There will be a winner and loser, and morning will come and life will continue.

The governor of Puerto Rico says he is going to sell the power authority to private interests. Given its reputation, who would buy it? The electrical grid on the island was a disaster before the hurricanes. The generation plants are old and inefficient. Power delivery was chaotic and episodic. It will need a deep-pocket investor to take on the problems and make money. The governor will find someone eventually, but he shouldn’t expect to get top dollar for selling it. It is more likely a giveaway. The result of a poor reputation is a lower price. One positive point for the power authority. It is getting new poles and wires from the reconstruction after the storm. That won’t help the power plant which needs to be modernized or replaced.

Procter & Gamble has an odd PR crisis. Adolescents are eating the brightly colored packets of its Tide laundry soap. They are poisoning themselves in the process. The company has no way of stopping them but for sanitizing social media where teens boast of their exploits. There are no good ways to seal the tubs holding the packets such that teenagers can’t get into them. The company stopped babies from playing with the soap by doing just that. Teenagers are too smart to be foiled, but they aren’t intelligent enough yet to understand the dangers. Designers didn’t think about this when they developed the packet, and why would they? Who would have guessed that youths would ingest cleaning products as a way of showing off? Nonetheless, it is now a crisis for the company. It is as odd as a previous crisis the company suffered when Born Again preachers claimed that its “Man in the Moon” logo was the sign of the devil.

This year for the first time, CEOs have to report the pay ratio of their salaries by comparison to that of the median worker’s income in their companies. It is shaping up to be a PR nightmare. For one, the media will widely report the numbers. Secondly, although the ratio is squishy and hardly factual, it will provoke protests from unions and some investors. There is little doubt that executive compensation is out of control, although it has moderated somewhat in recent years. The ratio will do little to compress the distance between CEOs and their employees, but it will be a source of embarrassment. Maybe that, if nothing else, will help to narrow the gap. PR practitioners should expect to defend the ratios in the coming proxy season. It might be difficult to do.

The Pope has not ducked controversy, and in his current visit to South America, he was a target again. This time it was for the appointment of a bishop whom lay Catholics claim shielded a clerical child abuser. Rather than back down, Pope Francis called for proof that the bishop was negligent. That was daring in that the practice now is to act first then look for evidence later. The hierarchy has been thinned as a result of child abuse, and well it should be. There is no excuse for putting pedophiles back to work even if there is a shortage of priests. The crime is too great and recidivism too frequent. The Pope stands with the victims, but he also has a sense of fairness, which isn’t appreciated. Victims want vengeance, and they criticize him if they don’t get it. The Pope is in a tough position, but it doesn’t seem to bother him. He takes the blows to reputation and keeps moving forward.

It is not too early to discuss how the Internet of Things will change messaging. Practitioners should be thinking and researching about how to use the connected house and person in persuasive ways. Linked appliances, operations and people will become singular with their own set of data that will define a demography of one. It will require sharp focus on individuals and a deeper understanding of what motivates them. Connection will include invasion of privacy, which needs to be minimized as much as possible. Companies will be required to protect the information of their users in ways they never have before. There will be fertile ground for use of artificial intelligence to determine the best ways and times to communicate to individual householders. Message-sending will become the province of technicians. Are we ready?