In Search of Clarity

Lynne M. Doll, president of The Rogers Group (TRG) and widely-respected leader in the public relations industry, died Aug. 3 of a stroke at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in California. She battled cancer for three years and was cancer-free at the time of her death. Lynne was 48. For more than 25 years, Lynne was instrumental in expanding the breadth of TRG’s expertise and leading a series of high-profile and award-winning campaigns for major corporations, brands and government agencies. A nationally recognized crisis communications ... Read More

I'm in love with the Old Spice guy. My husband doesn't know (unless he reads this post). But he need not worry, since I'm sure it's just a passing crush. It's probably more accurate to say that I'm in love with the campaign that features Isaiah Mustafa, the Old Spice guy. The television campaign started in February with a commercial that began with Mustafa's deep baritone, "Hello, ladies..." and ended with "I'm on a horse." It instantly went viral ... Read More

If you're Apple, an internationally respected consumer brand, what do you do when a highly respected publication, Consumer Reports, suggests that the best way to make a new $199-299  iPhone 4 work is to add a little duct tape?  And, Consumer Reports says this is the first iPhone it cannot recommend.  Ouch. The online community and media have gone crazy writing about the new iPhone.  First, they breathlessly anticipated the new product, with its video calling features, retina display, multi-tasking ability and HD ... Read More

In the last four days, Facebook has informed me that a former employee has been playing Farmville at least 15 times during office hours.  Another former colleague's Facebook post recently let me know he was drinking in his office... at three o'clock in the afternoon.  From the frequency and content of her LinkedIn updates, I'm guessing that a third former employee is looking for a job. Apparently, these smart PR folks haven't given much thought to the unintentional messages they are sending through ... Read More

Have you "checked in" today? Are you the Mayor of your local coffee shop? How many free taco coupons have you cashed in? If you think I'm writing nonsense, then you're not one of the almost 1.8 million fans of Foursquare, the increasingly popular location-based social network. Sometimes referred to as "the next Twitter," Foursquare is gaining about 15,000 new users a day. The concept is simple: as you travel around your neighborhood and beyond, you "check in" at venues via text message ... Read More

In the early days of the Internet, some enterprising entrepreneurs secured the URLs for lots of famous brands. They hoped that Coke, Nike or other major companies would pay big money to buy their own URLs. It worked... until trademark lawyers got involved. Today, companies, celebrities, politicians and even the Swedish Royal Court face a new online challenge: Twitter impersonators. It only takes about a minute to create a Twitter feed, though attracting followers takes patience and creativity. Some anonymous tweeters are using ... Read More

Public outrage over the BP oil spill continues.  People who know I am in the public relations and crisis management business ask me, "How can the company recover from this public relations nightmare?" My first answer is the most obvious, "Stop the oil spill."  BP most certainly understands that as long as oil continues to gush into the Gulf, its reputation will continue to be (pardon the pun) tarred.  But after that, what can the company do? Bruce Horovitz at USA Today asked me ... Read More

5,000? 20,000?  70,000?  These are all estimates of the amount of oil spilling into the ocean from the BP disaster off the Louisiana coast, as reported by media in the last week.  The lowest number -- 5,000 barrels a day -- often has been attributed to BP, but, in fact, the company has steadfastly refused to give an estimate. On May 13, the New York Times reported: "BP has repeatedly said that its highest priority is stopping the leak, not measuring it. 'There’s just ... Read More

Imagine this: The janitor tells a high-ranking executive that someone is leaving cups of pee in the conference room trash cans. It's happened multiple times. The executive, who was recently promoted and no doubt wants to establish a reputation as a leader, decides he needs to put a stop to this outrageous behavior. He sends this email, his first-ever communication to the 350 staff who now report to him: "This morning the janitorial staff notified me that someone has been leaving cups of urine in ... Read More

The headline on this post was just too obvious to ignore. BP is battling to stop the environmental, economic and reputational damage caused by a massive oil spill from its Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Media already are reporting that it may become the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. In some areas, BP deserves high marks for its communications operations. The company has established a Web site dedicated to its clean up efforts, in addition to a joint ... Read More