7 PR Lessons Komen for the Cure Didn’t Know It Was Giving You
Update at 11:40 am ET: Since this post was published, Komen has restored funding to Planned Parenthood, which you can read via this statement they released today. Special thanks to Jen Zingsheim for noting in the comments that she learned this via Jezebel, which is how I found out.
I’ve been fascinated by the way the Komen drama – over its new grant policies resulting in withdrawing funds for most of the Planned Parenthood programs that were formerly recipients – has been unfolding.
Kind of like watching a train wreck, isn’t it? That’s what it feels like to me, at least.
Before we go any further: I do care about women’s health (I have my own issues that I deal with every day), and have donated to Komen by supporting friends who’ve participated in their walks, but not directly. I have friends who’ve survived breast cancer (among other cancers). I briefly met Nancy Brinker some years ago, when I was a “scrub” on a client event, and the American Institute for Cancer Research is a former client.
Black Swans and Ground Hogs: Communication, Not Prediction
Happy Groundhog Day, WUL readers!
If you are anything like me, you’re a big fan of the once famous Bill Murray movie surrounding one of the littlest celebrated holidays in American culture.
It’s a day when a small number of people in Pennsylvania wait to see whether or not a rodent of the family Sciuriade “thinks”certain meteorological conditions will persist for six weeks or if inhabitants of the northeast US will be able to break out their flip flops a little early.
This annual ritual, if taken seriously, leaves a slew of questions for any hard-nosed reporter who can’t take a joke:
- For starters, how do we know if Punxsutawney Phil is afraid of his shadow or something else?
- Have scientists developed some unusual way of communicating with groundhogs or translating their grunts or gibbering into language as we know it today?
- And who exactly are the top hat-donning handlers, known as the Inner Circle, who take care of Phil?
PR vs. Journalism: Why Rivalry Hurts Both
While perusing my Facebook stream the other day, I came across this article on Business Insider. Its title alone (What PR People Really Think Of Journalists) told me the article was link bait.
What it didn’t tell me was that in attempting to “end” a decades, if not centuries, old rivalry, is that it would make every public relations pro look like an immature jerk.
For a very long time, public relations has used the media to tell the story of its clients. That’s changed a bit in recent years, thanks to the Internet, but that fact still holds true.
What a segment of this industry apparently doesn’t understand is that bloggers, reporters, commentators, anyone you’d define as a journalist, don’t owe us – PR pros – a damned thing. Continue reading »
