Cyrus at VMAs (Photo: jeFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC)In a cross between Elaine Benes dancing and Sydney Leathers doing whatever she does, Miley Cyrus suddenly resurrected her celebrity status at Thursday night’s VMA Awards — for better or worse. Ms. Cyrus’s r̶a̶u̶n̶c̶h̶y̶ twerky performance shocked and awed her way back onto America’s lips and fingertips, usurping Lady Gaga…… Continue reading Miley Cyrus’ Twerky PR Ploy
Category: PR
Ben’s Latest Makeover
David Wolman of The New Yorker takes a look at the reasons behind the two-year delay in the introduction of the re-designed $100 bill. Apparently, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or BEP, as it’s known in the Beltway, has some issues with bleeding ink. “The cause of the latest blunder is something known as…… Continue reading Ben’s Latest Makeover
Chipotle’s Foot-Long Faux Pas
Last Sunday, I retweeted Samantha Murphy of Mashable’s tweet with a link to her colleague Seth Fiegerman’s story “Has Chipotle’s Twitter Account Been Hacked?” Everything about this is strange. Has Chipotle’s Twitter Account Been Hacked? (via @sfiegerman): http://t.co/s2RQGh0xLG— Samantha Murphy (@HeySamantha) July 22, 2013 In the piece, Seth captured a series of nonsensical tweets from…… Continue reading Chipotle’s Foot-Long Faux Pas
Content is King, Distribution is Queen
The hype surrounding native advertising, sponsored content and/or promoted content is deafening. Online publishers, faced with diminished digital ad dollars and un-engaging ad creative, have turned to marketing-driven content that natively mimics editorial to invigorate reader engagement and revenue. Suddenly, a cottage industry has risen to help commercial entities come off as, well, less commercial.The…… Continue reading Content is King, Distribution is Queen
A VC Getting Its PR On
I read with considerable interest the news this week in which venture capital firm First Round Capital has started “a publishing platform to share secrets of startup success.” It follows the company’s announcement in October of a platform called hackPR, which is “a site where journalists can reach out to several companies at once around…… Continue reading A VC Getting Its PR On
SCOTUS Spins The Media
As legal news goes, it doesn’t get much bigger than what transpired in the U.S. Supreme Court this week. Legal pundits went ballistic when the politically partisan wing of SCOTUS decimated Martin Luther King’s dream by killing key elements of the venerable and still sorely-needed Voting Rights Act. In effect, the court’s Republican retrograde jurists Alito,…… Continue reading SCOTUS Spins The Media
Google Goes On The Offensive
Edward Snowden (Photo: VentureBeat)The NSA revelations from one strange cat named Edward Snowden and his enabler, the lawyer turned political activist turned commentator turned journalist Glenn Greenwald, put Silicon Valley’s biggest brands on the defensive.Reports by Mr. Greenwald writing about Verizon’s breach of its customers’ privacy (in the news hole of The Guardian) were quickly overshadowed…… Continue reading Google Goes On The Offensive
Apple Trashes a News Release
Mossberg, Swisher, Cook (Photo: Asa Mathat D: AllThings Digital)One has to appreciate the chutzpah of Donald Leka, chairman and CEO of Transmedia, maker of the Glide OS app that allows individuals to fluidly access their files no matter what mobile or desktop operating system they reside on. The company this week released its first app…… Continue reading Apple Trashes a News Release
The Perfect PR Storm
Jay Carney on the Hot Seat (Photo: Saul Loeb, Getty Images)You gotta feel for Jay Carney. Not one, not two, but three concurrent crises for which he alone has been saddled to articulate the Administration’s positions. Well, not exactly alone, but compared to how previous administrations have handled such affronts — political or otherwise –…… Continue reading The Perfect PR Storm
A Rare Tumblr Stumblr
Consumers of today’s most edge-worthy media have more than their fair share of caustic fodder to digest, what with Gawker and its sibling sites. I mean who doesn’t relish Hamilton Nolan’s periodic profane-laden posts? Those sites’ owner, Mr. Nick Denton, recently resurrected Valley Wag to add some much-needed spice to the echo chamber that dominates…… Continue reading A Rare Tumblr Stumblr