Author: Jim Horton

Watch this.  It is comedian John Oliver’s attack on sponsored content online, and the satire is devastating.  He first defines the difference between Church and State as it has existed in the media for much of the 20th Century then he shows how the line has blurred between the two since the rise of the internet.  The humor is scatological, but the points he makes aren’t.  PR practitioners, especially, should be worried about the blending of advertisement and editorial.  The power of PR depends on impartial media who confer credibility by independent reporting.  If online news gathering becomes pay-for-play, there isn’t much reason for media relations.  Simply fork over the money and watch them write.  That can be done by any media buyer.  Aside from a threat to PR, the increasingly foggy distinction between Church and State in the media takes a hammer to the credibility of the media as well.  Newsrooms know that if publishers do not.  There is room for more satire on this subject, but it would be better if publishers restored the bright line sooner rather than later.

This fellow has been mocked enough for his blatant appeal to reporters to follow him and his boss on social media.  The question is how should he have approached the media, if at all.  For one, the idea of a “bribe’ should never be considered.  No wonder he was held up as an oaf.  Rather, one should remain as factual as possible.  “My boss is tweeting.  Here are some things he has covered and more he will address in the future.”  If the information is of use to the media, they will follow the tweets.  If not, they won’t.  One learns quickly who the journalists are following the company.  The jocular manner in which he wrote the pitch also is a no-no, especially the winking emoticon.  I don’t know what this fellow’s boss is saying to him now, but it can’t be good.

This is funny satire on the online way of gathering and reporting information.  It’s all in clicks and clicks determine both copy and especially, the headline.  News is watered down to titillation.  Important information is banished.  If a reader fails to open a story, all is lost. The trend hearkens back to the era of Yellow Journalism when circulation was everything and facts beside the point.  This trend will pass in time as readers demand more information to help them understand the world and make decisions.  It won’t go away completely but it will moderate.  Serious news consumers will gravitate to media that serve them best.  Lowest common denominator readers will seek excitement.  From a PR perspective, both kinds of media are important to getting information out.  PR practitioners need to learn multiple styles of writing to appeal to click-bait readers and to serious consumers.  PR can’t afford to cut off one or the other if it is to get information widely disseminated.

Goldman Sachs is predicting a slow decline for Walmart and Target as customers look elsewhere for convenience.  The two companies are fighting erosion but haven’t been successful in stemming their declines so far.  They are facing one of the toughest business and PR/marketing conundrums — how to win back customers.  There is no easy answer once a shopper has changed habits.  There are multiple considerations including price, quality of goods and service.  Falling down in any of these three categories is a death sentence. In other words, convenience is only the beginning of the sales equation.  A Big Box store may have everything one wants but one must able to navigate it to find an item — a constant problem, especially when store personnel don’t know themselves.  It is easier to go to a place where there are fewer choices that are easier to find in the aisles.  This is a secret that some food retailers have discovered — i.e., Trader Joe’s. Target and Walmart are filled with experienced merchants so there is a good chance that they might turn around, but the longer it takes, the less likely that will happen.

The Israeli shelling of a UN school in the Gaza Strip was a misstep for the country and its military.  It was most likely an accident but tell that to the Palestinian families who are grieving at this hour.  Relations between the two peoples could hardly get lower at a time when they should be improving.  As an outsider, it is hard to blame Israel.  Shelling suspected sites is part of the “fog of war.”  As much as one tries to protect civilians, they inevitably get into the line of battle.  And, Hamas’ random firing of rockets into Israel is an open attempt to terrify Israeli citizens.  Violence begets violence unless one side is utterly defeated and will broken.  There doesn’t seem to be any move yet on either side in the conflict to give up warfare, so more civilians will be killed.  One can only hope that both sides come to their senses sooner rather than later.

One wonders why anyone would feel it necessary to copy another’s work verbatim and claim it as his own.  But that is what this fellow did, and it could cost him his Senate race.  He is claiming Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome as the reason for doing it.  That seems to be a stretch. Other classmates at the US Army War College had been in battle as he was.  Granted that he has a history of depression and is still taking medication for it, but how does that contribute to copying without attribution?  Senator Walsh has created a PR problem for his campaign and reputation.  It will be interesting to see how he handles it.  It would be best if he comes clean, confesses to plagiarism and takes the consequences early on.  The more he tries to quash questions, the worse it will get for him, especially since the War College is investigating his 14-page paper and thesis.  He should be convicted of laziness.  It takes little time to footnote and only a little more time to write in one’s own words.  What he has done, unfortunately, is open a question about his character that will be hard to dismiss.

And not good publicity either…  Say, you have a client, a mayor of a city, and you fake a press release for the client.  A reporter picks it up and calls the client who knows nothing about it.  That is what happened here.  It comes under the category of “What was the PR person thinking?”  There is a rule in the agency business.  Clients approve all releases that go out on their behalf.  There is never a time when that rule is violated, especially for flackery.   I don’t know what has happened to the publicist who sent then tried to justify the release.  In agencies I have worked in, it would be a firing offense, one that would also have the client leaving for another firm.  The Raleigh mayor might not be so upset, but he should be.  If you can’t trust your agency to do the right thing, who can you trust?

So, you short a company’s stock and set out to destroy it.  You give public presentations explaining why the company is fraudulent.  If people believe you and sell the stock, you will win big.  If they don’t, you will lose billions.  That’s the position that Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager is in in his quest to destroy nutritional supplement company, Herbalife.  Yesterday, after his detailed presentation on the company, its stock rose rather than fell.  The feeling was that he didn’t produce a smoking gun that proves the company is a culprit rather than besieged.  There is something about Ackman’s anti-PR that makes one want to see him fail.  On the other hand, if Herbalife is shady, he will have done a public service.  Time and stock trading will tell soon enough whether his shorting the stock was a good or bad idea.  And the government has yet to weigh in based on its investigation into the company.  Should the FTC sue the company, Ackman will be a winner.  If it decides against penalties, Ackman will have to start over to rebuild his fortune.

Russian citizens are being given a broad range of excuses and conspiracy theories over the downing of Flight MH 17 in rebel-controlled Eastern Ukraine.  The reasoning is preposterous and outrageous and one wonders how any citizen could swallow such drivel.  But then, during the previous disappearance of a Malaysia Air flight this year, CNN explored the possibility that aliens had taken the plane.  Fortunately, there were many news agencies covering the event so one could get a variety of views on what happened.  However, in Russia’s case now, there doesn’t appear to be reporting that alleges the plane was shot down by a missile.  In other words, Russian citizens are being given an altered perception.  How many of them believe their government?  Putin has vested interest in keeping the spotlight away from him and so far, he seems successful at home, if not in the rest of the world.  Sooner or later, however, the reality of the tragedy will reach Russian citizens and will create a public relations problem for Putin and his autocracy.  Will it be enough to cripple his power?  Probably not, but his strong man image will be dented, and that is a first step in eventual downfall.

A food retailer like McDonald’s depends on suppliers for its fare.  The fast-food chain sets standards for quality and cleanliness and suppliers pledge to abide by them.  To make sure, restaurant companies audit suppliers regularly.  Still, it is possible for suppliers to cheat when not watched.   That is why this incident is maddening for McDonald’s and Yum brands.  It is expensive to stand over a vendor’s employees to make sure they are following rules.  Yet, that is what the fast-fooders might have to do.  They cannot continue to grow in China if they are compromised regularly by their supply chains.  It seems part of the problem is cultural.  Chinese employees might not be concerned about picking something off the floor and throwing it back onto a conveyor belt or mixing old meat with new.  The vendor, OSI Group LLC, works around the world, and it is unlikely that it tolerated what its workers were doing.  Almost certainly, it didn’t know.  This means management at the Chinese plant was lax and should be changed.  Now, McDonald’s and Yum have to rebuild their reputations in China.  It won’t be easy, but one can be certain they will watch their suppliers closely.