First the qualifier: I'm not a reality show junkie; in fact, I dislike them more than I dislike changing a flat tire on the Dan Ryan Expressway during rush hour in January. You get the point. However, I'm hooked on the CBS show Rockstar: INXS. First, it is not like American Idol, which is a [...]
Recruiting Talent In Spite of Yourself
Jun 23, 2005 By Leave a Comment
Joel on Software has some good advice when it comes to recruiting talent, even if you have a negative public image. That's a recruiter who works for Microsoft talking, not me. So, my point to Gretchen, sympathetically, was, “recruiting has to be done at the Bill and Steve level, not at the Gretchen level.” Want [...]
Thugs with Money
Nov 21, 2004 By Leave a Comment
Back in May, I wrote a little about public relations and sports. There was a Wall Street Journal op ed addressing the growing problem. Now we have players brawling with "fans" (I used sneer quotes around fans since some of the audience apparently threw stuff at the players). I don't watch sports for this very [...]
If You Can't Anti-Beat Them, Anti-Join Them
Nov 1, 2004 By Leave a Comment
Adbusters, the magazine, never did much for me. The entire concept can be boiled down to this: consumerism is bad; capitalism is bad; wear biodegradable clothes. There is an intriguing idea or two generated by one of the magazine's founder, Kalle Lasn. In his book Culture Jam, he basically writes that people are so inundated [...]
Macy's Doughnuts
Sep 14, 2004 By Leave a Comment
You can sum up the recent problems at Krispy Kreme with one word: overexposure. Krispy Kreme used to be unique and special. I knew it was over when their doughnuts shamelessly appeared in the local Jewel Osco. Almost overnight, Krispy Kreme was nothing special. Macy's is going down the same path. The analysis in this [...]
Fake Virus = Bad PR
Sep 1, 2004 By Leave a Comment
Queer Eye for the Office Guy
Aug 19, 2004 By Leave a Comment
In a great example of PR, Xerox sponsored an extreme office makeover. The real news here is how a company can function in the environment Mad Science had. Xerox is on to something; I bet there a lot of companies like Mad Science out there needing extreme makeovers. Xerox provided Mad Science with: An Ethernet [...]
Kerry's PR Problem
Aug 14, 2004 By Leave a Comment
I'm going down the political path again, but this is more PR than it is political to me. Forget for a moment that we are talking about a Presidential candidate and think of John Kerry as a business. He's run like one. John Kerry is not running for President by himself–he has an enormously large [...]
kARMa
Jul 9, 2004 By Leave a Comment
Here is a good commentary by Michael Kanellos about ARM. It underscores what I said a few weeks ago about business karma. Specifically, I ranted (who me?) a little about companies built on negativity, suing anybody in their path and ignoring innovation. There are only two ways to make it as an IP company: bend [...]
The Politics of Business
Jun 21, 2004 By Leave a Comment
I want to rant about Jean Ziegler, the UN Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food. He has made it his mission to investigate and disparage Caterpillar Inc because Israel owns some of their bulldozers and uses them to destroy the homes of suspected terrorists. I grew up around Caterpillar equipment because [...]
Unrest by Parkway Drive