AT&T Gets Hit with iPhone Video Ad Parody

AT&T's exclusive carrier agreement for Apple's popular iPhone is coming under fire from consumers, as Adrants reports "AT&T is dreading the day [that] its iron-clad exclusive contract with Apple expires, allowing Verizon to carry the phone [and] thereby causing millions upon millions of iPhone owners (yes, they'll likely need a new phone) to switch from AT&T to Verizon all on the same day."
Video pro Pat Lee created a spoof spot touting AT&T's alleged less-than-perfect service for iPhone users, which can be viewed via YouTube here.
A PR nightmare for AT&T staffers and agencies alike, methinks.
This, coupled with the United "broken guitar" national PR crisis (spawned by distribution of an on-target video posted also on YouTube), will keep PR crisis communication professionals busy for some time to come.

Last Words of Priceless Wisdom from David Ogilvy

As this week's Fortune magazine points out, yesterday (July 21) was the 10th anniversary of the death of arguably one of the greatest communicators of the 20th century: David Ogilvy. If that's an unfamiliar name to you, then if you have any interest in top flight, high quality communication practices, you owe it to yourself to check out Confessions of an Advertising Man or Oglivy on Advertising from your nearest library or bookstore.
And if you're a business owner, you will find the following short summary to potentially be some of the greatest advice you could solicit during this time of economic turmoil - all free of charge. Hats off to Fortune's Patricia Sellers for sharing this priceless document (which Ogilvy hand wrote out for her in November of 1991):

1) Remember that Abraham Lincoln spoke of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He left out the pursuit of profit.
2) Remember the old Scottish motto: "Be happy while you're living, for you are a long time dead."
3) If you have to reduce your company's payroll, don't fire your people until you have cut your compensation and the compensation of your big-shots.
4) Define your corporate culture and your principles of management in writing. Don't delegate this to a committee. Search all the parks in all your cities. You'll find no statues of committees.
5) Stop cutting the quality of your products in search of bigger margins. The consumer always notices -- and punishes you.
6) Never spend money on advertising which does not sell.
7) Bear in mind that the consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Do not insult her intelligence.

David Ogilvy
Charleston
November 15, 1991

Cronkite - Reasoned Information vs. Fulsome Rhetoric

Growing up in the 1960s and watching the news meant one thing: if you watched Walter Cronkite, the perception was that you were going to get it straight. Whether or not that was totally true, Cronkite was trusted. As evidenced by his obvious emotion in announcing both the assassination of President Kennedy and the first step on the moon, Cronkite came across as totally and irrevocably human. He was larger than life, but he was also one of us. Vietnam was the first televised war, and Cronkite played a huge role in its presentation to the American public (and to the world). What a legacy.
The oft-forgettable rubbish that passes for television journalism today is obessively ad- and ratings-driven, which may well account for why consumers increasingly seek customized content online. Whether broadcast or online, where is the next trusted voice and image?

CEO must be accessible to media - Financial Times

In the midst of this reputation-busting recession, many CEOs may be tempted to duck under cover. Few things could cause more reputation damage, particularly given the fact that whether executives want to realize it or not, the CEO is the living personification of most organizations, public or not-for-profit. The absence of a CEO's comment, even in the middle of bad news, sends the wrong kind of message to customers, vendors, clients, stakeholders, shareholders, and perhaps most importantly, key influencers.
As the Financial Times recently reported about a London business conference: "Ian Davis, the former head of consultants McKinsey , argued that many do not speak up because of the media’s unrelenting cynicism towards business. But Jeff Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, said that in spite of this, leaders needed to communicate with the outside world as part of being good corporate citizens."
A robust discussion follows in the Financial Times coverage, including this statement: "The reputation of corporations and their leaders is at an all-time low. How much more evidence do business leaders need to recognise that communicating with the general public, as well as customers, employees and shareholders is mandatory?"
As one expert put it, strong leadership and a CEO presence in publicly responding to negative trends is "mission critical."

How the Dark Side Transformed the Internet

In these days of social media, new consumer digital voices and other consumer advancements, it's very easy to think that all of this online technology prowess erupted from scores of benevolent IT experts and informatics innovators. Certainly the latter group is responsible of much of that, but the dark side of the Internet had much more to do with it, particularly in the early 1990s.
According to CIO magazine, the next time you use streaming video, online payments, post your family pictures online or take part in a peer-to-peer network, you do that courtesy of initial major innovations spawned by the pornography industry, who largely pioneered all of those technological advancements.
Hard to believe? Check out CIO's chronicle of the dark side here.

A New Style of PR dominates in Silicon Valley

Whoa, did I make that up? Here's the confirmation from the New York Times:
"This is the new world of promoting start-ups in Silicon Valley, where the lines between journalists and everyone else are blurring and the number of followers a pundit has on Twitter is sometimes viewed as more important than old metrics like the circulation of a newspaper.
"Gone are the days when snaring attention for start-ups in the Valley meant mentions in print and on television, or even spotlights on technology Web sites and blogs. Now P.R. gurus court influential voices on the social Web to endorse new companies, Web sites or gadgets — a transformation that analysts and practitioners say is likely to permanently change the role of P.R. in the business world, and particularly in Silicon Valley."