Media

Quotes for the week ending 27 February, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Orbiting swarms of junk careen into each other like billiard balls, creating unpredictable sprays of debris, which in turn meld with other space garbage to weave a moving net around the atmosphere.”

The Wall Street Journal‘s Robert Lee Hotz, on the debris of space junk caused by colliding satellites.

“My love of TweetDeck just keeps growing …Love, love, love it.”

IABC Chair, Barbara Gibson, on the new features of Tweetdeck.

“Twitter users may donate their avatar and replace it with an image of the red female sign.”

“NCMFathom, which is asking Twitter users to micro-blog to raise 0.10 a tweet from March 2 – 5 this year.

“After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you.”

Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz, on her blog, Yodel Anecdotal, about her first one and a half months on the job, and the changes being made.

“Sometimes the face of a brand is a fictional character.”

Chris Brogan, on the Bigelow Tea company’s project, Constant Comments. The company’s president Cindi Bigelow is a prominent figure in its communication.

“There is a differance (sic) between op/eds and news.”

Reader comment on the Rocky Mountain News web site, in response to the last story of the newspaper, “Goodbye, Colorado.” The paper began in 1859. The reader suggested that it demonstrated market forces were doing the right thing.

Bobby Jindal’s not ready for prime time

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

I don’t want this to sound political, but it might come off that way. Please skip this post if you’re disinterested in the wacky 2-party system in the US.

But the moment I started listening to the Republican response last night, I could see why Bobby Jindal, who has all the street cred of a long-shot presidential nominee, was a wrong pick.

I’m going by the communication parts of the response, remember.

  • Badly needs teleprompter training
  • Desperately needs a speechwriter –especially when trying to jam in a family story
  • Uses wrong anecdote/case study to make the point: He used the predictable Katrina example, which would have been wonderful, had he not used it as a reason why ‘more government’ is bad. Bobby, that was Bush government, remember? Your party’s fearless leader at that time.
  • Repetitive phrase tactic (as in “I have a dream”) only work for grand ideas; not suitable with grocery store analogy.

The odd thing is –perhaps being Asian, but more because I have watched him closely over the past two years– I was rooting for this guy a few months back. I just wish he studied others who bombed in front of the camera (there was, ya know, the other outsider) a bit more before making such a debut.

The “soft-tissue of all our consumers”

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There’s an old, but relevant video from BringBackTheLove, about the failing, dysfunctional relation between two people –actually two institutions, Advertisers and Consumers.

More telling than this  story –a messy ‘breakup’– is the sequel where the advertiser, talks to his agency to try to repair the relationship.

At one point, the advertiser takes him to a flip chart and violently circles a messy diagram saying they could  “blitzkrieg the soft tissue of all our consumers!” Funny? Sure. But it’s also a sad statement of how marketers see consumers –as some thin layer of tissue.

Truth is, the consumer ain’t ‘soft’ (insert other 4- and 5-letter words like ‘dumb,’ ‘easy,’ ‘loyal’ etc ) as people think. She makes hard choices, whether wanting to pay $1.75 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, or $1.07 for a refill (by taking in her own coffee mug) at Einstein Brothers. Empathy, not advertising, intimacy not infiltration will get through the soft tissue.

As the recession deepens, marketers will have to learn how to reconnect with their customers in more intimate ways, minus the lame, expensive blitzkrieg type tactics.

Quotes for the week ending 22 February, 2009

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“I would be happy to buy him a cup of coffee –decaf!”

White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, to the press, on the CNBC host Rick Santelli’s rant about Obama’s housing plan. Gibbs suggested Mr. Santelli ‘download, hit print and read the report.’

“It’s a crisis that strikes at the heart of the middle class. It begins with one house at a time in Mesa, Glendale or Tempe…”

President Barack Obama, on his visit to Dobson High School in Mesa, Arizona, where he announced the details of the housing plan that intends to address the key issues at the heart of the financial crisis.

“Thank you all for watching out for my brand, I appreciate each and every message”

Jeremy Owyang, to the many people who have informed hiom about the fake Twitter accounts in his name. Reported by Jacob Morgan.

“Business journalism sources come in all shapes and sizes, and my experience is that the ones who purport to have the most explosive stories are typically exaggerating their claims.”

Chris Roush, blogging at BusinessJournalism.org, on the need to verify a source that claims to be a whistleblower, in relation to a story of one in the Bernie Madoff fraud case

“Micro-payments won’t solve newspapers’ pay-or-perish problem, at least not under current proposals.”

Marshall W. Van Alstyne, associate professor, Boston University joining the debate on how to rescue journalism

“Twitter has a lot of power to, with simple changes like that, change the ecology of the system.”

Leo Laporte, host of the podcast, This Week in tech (TWIT) on the new feature that Twitter adds that gives some users a hugs boost in followers.

Joe The Plumber’s fingerprints in Mesa

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

In less than an hour from now President Obama is coming to a school less than a mile from my home, to make the big announcement to address the housing crisis.

So I couldn’t resist driving by Dobson High a little while ago to check out the mood out here.

Contrary to what you might imagine watching some of the morning news reports, it’s not all human chaos and traffic snarls in Mesa. Traffic was moving smoothly, as people made their way with signs, lawn chairs, flags and cameras.

But along the way a little detail struck me as an example of how out of touch, or completely ignorant people are. Little signs on stakes –the kind that usually advertise weight-loss cures or ‘we buy ugly houses’ — try to lecture to Obama that ‘socialism is not the answer’ with allusions to the healthcare rescue plan. Has Joe the Plumber being recruited to do some sort of poster-PR for the other side? Someone did not get the memo that the Palin-led socialism canard flopped.

The people lining the streets outside St. Timothy’s Catholic Church have more to hope for and worry about than socialism. They see the economy through a different lens.

Audacity of suing ‘Hope’ by the Associated Press

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I can assume the Boston Globe will not sue me over linking to this juxtaposed image.

They don’t usually get that silly, as the Associated Press has been when it threatened to sue Shepard Fairey, the street artist who turned the man on the left to the icon on the right.

The HOPE poster is so well known there are ways to render your own mug shot with the same color and brush strokes.

But last week, as the story got more twisted —Fairey got arrested on an unrelated charge in Boston, and then sued the AP — one wonders what kind of image management the venerable Associated Press is going for. Especially since this is not the first time it’s let its lawyers handle its PR.

Last year AP went after bloggers trying to put limits on how much of its content could be considered fair use. It later retreated. Forget the power of mashups for a second. Making a street artist the poster boy of copyright violation doesn’t  score any points for AP.

Quotes for the week ending 15 Feb 2009

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“To the young people of China, please learn a lesson from this…”

Michael Phelps, in a another apology, this time to Chinese fans on a video call.

“Mass for us is a business that doesn’t work.”

Tom Ascheim, Newsweek‘s chief executive, on the redesign of the magazine that will focus on a narrow segment.

“Amazon’s new Kindle e-book reader gets slimmer”

Amazon.com’s release of a slimmer version of its Kindle electronic reading device for $359

“I watched Nadya’s publicist on Dr. Phil the other night, and was ashamed for our profession.”

Linda VandeVrede, on ValleyPRBlog.com, commenting on a post about PR becoming tainted by ‘publicists.’

“The worst thing about the Suleman story is the way the freak-hungry media has rewarded her delinquency every step of the way.”

Tina Brown, writing for The Daily Beast, about the media’s swooning over Nadya Suleman and the cctuplets story

“Possibly in his law office, his feet on a cluttered desk, …his clothes a bit too small to fit his uncommon frame — maybe wondering if somebody might call him up and ask him to be commerce secretary.”

Barack Obama, using Abraham Lincoln’s birthday as a way of making light about how yet another nominee, Judd Greg, for the commerce secretary post withdrew from the post.

“It is like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of thugs.”

Arnold Kling of the Cato Institute, one of those making symbolic but noisy objections to the new stimulus package that was approved by the Senate and the House this week.

“Reporters, bloggers, and the general public are being denied an opportunity to review one of the most important pieces of legislation sent through Congress in a long time.”

The Sunlight Foundation’s Paul Blumenthal, on the dangerous practice of ‘hiding’ the stimulus bill from the public and slamming it through.

“It could have been a computer failure or a human error.”

Russian space expert, Igor Lisov, on the collision of a Russian and US satellite, that raised the questions about the need for some type of international air traffic control with so much of space junk.

“Yesterday I testified before the Senate Budget Committee…”

Douglas Elmendor, Director of the government’s Congresional Budget Office, in a blog post about controlling health care costs. His no-frills blog is one of the many social media initiatives taken by the Federal government.

Quotes for the week ending 7 February, 2009

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“If people have ideas about how better to use these tools, please let me know…”

Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton at a town hall meeting with state employees on the need to use new technologies to communicate with people across the world.

“Dear Orlando Hilton: Your coffee is tasty, but $4.50 4 a bottle of water?”

Tweet from IABC’s Leadership Institute event in Florida, an event covered by many IABC tweeps.

“We have many measures in place to reduce the likelihood of your posts being seen as SPAM, but instead look much more natural and real.”

The latest attempt to automate twitter, and let marketers target people with ‘pre-defined messages’ to followers. If it smells like SPAM….

“Reckless”.

Britain’s Tory party, opposing the government’s use of Big Brother-type use of millions of closed circuit cameras and a DNA database for surveillance.

“I engaged in behaviour which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment.”

Olympic gold medalist, Michael Phelps, apologizing after a British newspaper published a picture of him smoking marijuana.

“It says it’s sunny in Arizona!”

Child in video for GE about the ‘smart grid’ that has a companion web site with some clever animation about alternative energy.

“From icy Davos to snowy London. No10 admin is gazing at a foot of the stuff outside his apartment window. Thank heavens for remote working!”

Tweet by Number 10, Downing Street, suggesting Gordon may have been telecommuting, too while London froze.

“Obama summoned a conga line of Anderson, Katie, Brian, Chris and Charlie…”

Syndicated columnist Maureen Dowd on President Obama’s use of the media to get past the Tom Daschle faux pas

“bad script, lame sets, and horrific acting.”

Blabbermouth‘s Jeff Goodman on the success of GoDaddy Super Bowl ads that use misogyny and a risqué script to drive viewers to the ‘store.’

The risk of blogging will only increase

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Journalists-turned-bloggers know the risks involved, because they understand the laws of libel and defamation. But there is a wide range of risks involved when it comes to political blogs –from simply getting beaten up, to being on a black list, to a frivolous lawsuit.

I came across two this week — a week that has seen live blogging from the congressional hearings of Bernie Madoff–  that speaks to this risky business.

Last year, we saw a spate of attacks on bloggers aross the world. Iran, China, and whenever one group finds itself under the scrutiny of bloggers. What’s next? Lawsuits filed against Twitter users? Going after people filing video iReports?

Those who cannot easily threaten and muzzle traditional media suddenly find it much easier to bully someone –usually it is an individual, not a syndicated blog — engaged in social media . The laws will have to adapt fast as the lines between old and new media blur.

Phoenix media’s warm glow. It must be the sun!

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

For every three bad news stories you hear about traditional media, there  is one good news story.

Guess what, I have three!

Cenpho TV – CenPho, which stands for Central Phoenix (at Cenpho.tv) is a media site that features video stories about events in downtown Phoenix. Featuring Dave Brookhouser and Jacqui Johnson, they are carving out a media format that has not been tried this way with so much social media elements.  Traditionally cities and entertainment venues go only so far in publishing their fare, with eNewsletters etc.  CenPho uses  Twitter, posts videos to YouTube etc.

Tech News Arizona – an online news portal, TechNewsArizona focuses on another niche that is often covered badly here in a state. Ariziaona likes to think of itself as a technology business haven, so this is an admirable attempt by my friend Ty Young to fill the slot. This slot –science and technology– they believe could be the engine of the our future.

Arizona Guardian. This is a business idea begun by former staffers of the Tribune. It’s at ArizonaGuardian.com. As my friend and co-blogger Len Gutman describes it, it covers politics and the Capitol from all sides — “Right, left and no holds barred.” By the way, it’s also got a great blog!