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“A coolatta skim, marble frosted donut and a Palestinian kaffiyeh, please.” PC and stakeholder sensitivity are running riot at a donut shop near you. As the Int Herald Tribune explains:

‘The Dunkin’ Donuts chain has pulled an online advertisement featuring celebrity chef Rachael Ray after critics argued that that a scarf she wore in the ad offers symbolic support for terrorism. Dunkin’ Donuts said Wednesday it pulled the ad over the weekend because of what it calls a “misperception” about the scarf that detracted from its original intent to promote its iced coffee. Critics complained that the scarf appeared to be traditional garb worn by Arab men. The ad’s critics say such scarves have come to symbolize Muslim extremism and terrorism. Dunkin’ Donuts says the black-and-white scarf that Ray wore had a paisley design, and was selected by a stylist for the advertising shoot. The chain says no symbolism was intended.

I dunno about you guys, but a PR even having to explain that ‘no symbolism was intended’ in this case seems sorta ‘extreme’. Also, not many of the reports say that this ‘look’ of scarf was v popular amongst hippy-ish students when I was studying PR and Comms in the UK aeons ago.

Via Trevor Cook, a video prezo from Josh Bernoff about how to get the organisational ball rolling about integrating Soc Media into the corporate comms mix; as well as the list of hints below, you can point them to Engage ORM, of course.
1 - Start small, pick one objective and get started as soon as possible
2 - Get an executive sponsor - this is true of all change management, of course.
3 - Don’t hide it; talk to other stakeholders in advance (eg accounting, regulatory affairs etc)
4 - Move quickly. Dell got their blog up and running in 3 weeks. Its best to start and adjust rather than plan for months
5 - Use case studies and examples from other companies
6 - Make friends. Network online using Social Media.
7 - Measure success.

As blogger Paul McKeon reports after seeing me present at the FroComm PR Summit in Sydney yesterday, possibly only 6 out of the 120 or so event attendees are active in the blogosphere. I teased out the reasons why in the breakout workshops, but mostly it’s:
lack of knowledge about where to start
concerns over legitimising ‘rogue’ comments
fear of being engulfed by the new workload and,
not really relevant for our kind of company.

Well, if any of these excuses apply to you, I have education courses that might make the whole thing easier to embrace.
Lee Hopkins is bound to share my perplexion when he discovers these stats!!

Professor Jerry Swerling of the Annenberg School for Communication at University of Southern California in one of my favourite cities - Los Angeles - (it’s as gritty as Glasgow with mucho mas ‘bling’), sent me info on his school’s study of best (US) PR practices. Look at numbers 5 and 6; it’s Digital PR and Issues Mgmt which I’ve long advocated are inextricably linked.
If you can cut-thru the jargon and buzzwords, here’re Jerry’s toplines:
GAP V STUDY PR/COMMUNICATION BEST PRACTICES
1. Maintain a higher than average ratio of PR budget to gross revenue (GAP PR/GR Ratio).
2. Report directly and exclusively to the C-Suite (Chairbody Chief Exec, CEO).
3. Optimize the C-Suite’s understanding of PR’s current and potential contributions to the success of the organization as a whole.
4. Establish an effective social responsibility strategy for your organization.
5. Establish an effective digital-media strategy for your organization.
6. Establish an effective issues-management strategy for your organization.
7. Optimize integration and coordination of PR/Communications, both within the PR and Communications function, and with other organizational functions.
8. Encourage highly ethical practices across the organization, beginning with communication.
9. Encourage the organization-wide adoption of a long-term strategic point of view, beginning with communication.
10. Encourage the organization-wide adoption of a proactive mindset, beginning with communication.
11.Encourage the organization-wide adoption of a flexible mindset, beginning with communication.
12.Optimize the integration of PR and reputational considerations into top-level organizational strategies.
13.Measurably contribute to organizational success.
If you read this far and want to see the whole study, do the click thing…and click Gap V.
Thx Jerry

Excessive PR cosiness alleged in child lead poisoning case
PRs at Swiss miner Xstrata and the Queensland government will be embarrassed by media reports showing how stakeholder liaison seemed to border on stakeholder manipulation. The Australian newspaper claims that Xstrata PR Melanie Edgar and Chief Exec Steve de Kruijff were given access to draft Queensland govt reports and media materials prior to public release.
This was clearly to help ‘manage’ media interest and public outcry over alleged metal contamination of children in mining town, Mount Isa. Documents also reveal Xstrata’s keenness to establish and steer a grassroots ‘group’ – Mt Isa Plus – to address the problem.
Other embarrassing revelations show Qld government’s Rosalie Spencer alerting Xstrata community PR person Mel Edgar about a impending journalism visit. In response, Edgar asks Spencer to outline the Qld ‘position’ vis-a-vis the briefing materials they will supply to the journalist.
But is this a PR disaster? Or simply a portrayal of PRs practicing an effective form of stakeholder relations. Former Mt Isa Chief Environmental Officer Ted Prickett is in no doubt…he believes it’s indicative of a cover-up over child lead poisoning.

Seems not all Aussie editors are enamoured by the multi-layered social media release stylee!!
This month’s (Australia) Marketing magazine features a survey of several top editors advising press agents/publicists how to pitch/present stories. This snippet of sageliness acts as a free teaser on the Marketing mag blog:
“If you send a press release, make sure that I can get as much information from it as possible without having to click on attachments, follow links or make phone calls for more information.
A rather irritated editor slates ‘ PR persistence’ saying:
“Probably the thing that annoys me most about PR and marketing types is when they try to tell me they know my audience better than I do. I have a limited amount of time and a busy job, and someone pestering me in hopes they’ll convince me to cover something I don’t think my readers will be interested in can only do themselves, and their clients, a disservice.

If you’re in Sydney around the end of May, you can catch me speaking and conducting a few workshop sessions on Online Reputation Management. Even better, you’ll hear TV gurus Stan Grant, Marguerite McKinnon and Peter McAvoy blether on, too.
The 3rd Annual FroComm PR Summit has a theme of ‘Do Different’ and is designed to challenge PR pros and their paymasters to look at the new PR with a whole new perspective, and to adopt these ideas in a practical way. With the challenge to engage ORM a hot topic, I’ll be offering many useful tips and tools for PRs looking to leverage the online environment. See you there…

I penned a piece recently about the WA Liberal honcho Troy Buswell’s reputational scrape over revelations that he’d inhaled warmish upholstery immediately after it was vacated by a female co-worker. Remember first off that Buswell denied it, then admitted it under media probing. His questionable authenticity/character was exacerbated when it was revealed that a ‘peckerhead’ Aussie blogger Matt Hayden had written that another skeleton from the Buswell closet involved rumours he’d been playing football using somekinda Aussie marsupial. The media grapevines tinkled with this false, rumour-mongering story; a man wot sniffs a woman’s chair is surely capable of rodent abuse, they reasoned!! Though denying it, Buswell’s ‘denial form’ made it hard for commentators to entertain the possibility.

Over in Perth, former punk-rock kindred spirit/blogger, the Boomtown Rap, says Hayden has besmirched the name of bloggers everywhere. Hayden says it was a joke (maybe the kind Jackie Kelly would ‘get’). So, does one rogue blogger (arent all we bloggers a bit rogue-ish) spoil the greater ‘blogrepute’?

On another note, Rolan (aka Boomtown rap) might agree with my sentiment that blogging is but another evolution of punk rock; the original Damned/Pistols kind, not the Good Charlotte version!

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