As I wrote this post over the Fourth of July holiday, it seemed fitting to recall the words of one of our nation’s Founding Fathers: “It is natural for man to indulge in illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth. For […]
This morning’s edition of PR Week – which, ironically, is a daily — brought the news that GE has launched the GE Artistry Series — a line of kitchen appliances designed to appeal to Millennials. How, I wondered, would one design a stove to make it more appealing […]
In my last post (http://wp.me/p35ZJ7-63 ), I included a link to a document that explains the concept of “completed staff work.” But I thought I would post the text here to make it easier. I am told that the original version of this essay appeared in the Army-Navy […]
Oddly enough, I was overlooked once again to serve as a commencement speaker this year. In fact, although I have been available most Spring weekends for the past few years, not one institution of higher learning (or lower, for that matter) has called upon me to make a […]
Historically, the advertising and editorial departments of news organizations are supposed to be walled off from each other. But that wall seems to be crumbling in a way we could not have imagined fifteen years ago. It may be unintentional, but it’s still a little weird. The other […]
There’s a post rocketing around Facebook from Ragan’s PR Daily (http://bit.ly/10ZgwEj) purporting to list the “ten signs you are an old-school PR pro.” As far as I can tell, it is being read and shared mainly by old-school PR pros. Anyway, I have reviewed the items on the list, […]
Thanks to the ups and downs of business cycles, most companies find themselves in the midst of constant change. Whether to meet or exceed the expectations of ravenous shareholders or just to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the enterprise (or both), companies are always looking for ways to […]
A PR agency I once worked for had a large chemical company as a client. One day, I was summoned to a meeting with one of the agency’s senior leaders, who asked if I would take over as the senior relationship manager for the client. The person who had been in that […]
For the last several years, I have had a white board in my office on which I have written a number of adages (currently 24) that have come to mean something to me over the years. The list changes now and then, with new entries supplanting older ones […]
Could you land this? A fellow communications practitioner once said to me, “I may be the PR guy, not the CEO, but in an emergency I could land the plane.” What did he mean by that? He meant that he understood enough about how his company worked — […]
Chris Atkins’ Random PR Thoughts