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Lethal Weapon -- a bromance ? FOX Broadcasting recently barraged Twitter users with paid Tweets to promote its TV re-boot of the 1980s “Lethal Weapon” films. You’ll need to be a superb Twitter surfer to avoid them. PR practitioners run a risk in carpet-bombing social media audiences with overhyped promotions. They can alienate as many potential viewers as they attract. Actor Danny Glover, not in the new Lethal Weapon TV series, Photo credit: Georges Biard [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons In fact, FOX got dusted by Twitter users, many of whom weren’t old enough to see the 1987-1998 Danny Glover-Mel Gibson buddy pictures. The TV studio – largely bankrupt of original ideas since “Glee” – positioned the new series as a bromance . That word didn’t exist in run of the original films, which leaned heavily on gunplay, banter, and exploding toilets. Is bromance anything more than a piece of forced marketing-speak? (Not counting the short-lived MTV reality series o...

This one's pretty simple, really. CBC talk show guru Jian Ghomeshi was let go last week by his employer. And before tongues started wagging, he got out in front of the story, publicly describing the circumstances surrounding his departure in an online missive. Jian Ghomeshi (2009) By Penmachine (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)  or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons Both CBC and Ghomeshi claimed he was sexually active. Sometimes past the point you might expect. The Vancouver Sun has a succinct summary of activities to date: Jian Ghomeshi’s CBC lawsuit is hopeless — even if he’s telling the truth Credit Ghomeshi for getting his story out first. He defused the kind of protracted gossip and speculation that fuels much of the U.S. media's obsession with celebrity misbehavior. The PR lessons: Tell your story first, with a singularity of voice and message Do it without a news conference Give ...