Your PR Architect

While Pope Francis led a spiritual resurgence of faithful Catholics in Cuba, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City last week, a different resurrection was taking place a few steps away from St. Patrick's Cathedral. Brian Williams went back on TV Thursday to deliver news of the Pope's visit, working out of studios at 30 Rock. Except he's on MSNBC, the cable news channel that has fewer viewers than any other NBC-Comcast-Universal property. By fimoculous from Seattle (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons Mr. Williams, you may recall, fell off the NBC News' anchor desk seven months ago, after sharing tall stories about his exploits in Iraq and New Orleans that proved inaccurate, to put in kindly. Williams -- affable, credible, and a good front man for NBC's news product -- had fibbed. He was suspended, and only through the graces of new leadership at NBC News, was given an opportunity to resurface at MSNBC, where he began his network career a few decades a

One of the classes I teach involves helping students understand the concept of Big Data . And it gives me a headache to think about it. Big Data describes all the digital transaction information organizations acquire about us. Our health records (supposedly safe) are part of Big Data. When I buy kosher hot dogs, orange seltzer, and Tums (don't ask) at Wegmans, the loyalty card I carry tags my purchase in some data file. That becomes part of Big Data. By Thierry Gregorius (Cartoon: Big Data) , via Wikimedia Commons Taken together, an immense database contains our online purchase histories, our health histories, our online tussles with Microsoft, and so on. Most companies struggle to sift and manage this trove. And few can explain how hackers get into their computer servers and swipe it. In 2013, Target experienced a major data breach. They were hacked. The chief information officer resigned. A few months later, after Target experienced an awful fourth quarter, the CEO qui

You've got to admire an online news release distribution channel called 24-7 Press Release. They're honest about their service: they take a news release you write, and distribute it to media outlets via a newswire-style service. What they won't do is also pretty clear: "Please do not attempt to contact 24-7 Press Release Newswire. We are unable to assist you with any information regarding this release." In other words: "We aren't the writers or people quoted in the news release you're reading. We're not set up for media relations." Honest? You bet. Helpful? Not so much, at least if you  read releases on 24-7 Press Release -- in this case, "Fresh Design Studio is the First Millennial Agency in the Midwest" .  Millennials, I guess. Courtesy: http://www.todomktblog.com/ 2013/11/millennials-marketing-mkt.html The release's lead was a head-scratcher."Fresh Design Studio, LLC, a leading creative agency, ann

Burger King earned itself a moment of PR limelight with its recent invitation to McDonald's -- yes, that McDonald's -- to collaborate on a joint sandwich, later this month on Peace Day (Sept. 21). McDonald's' response? "No, thank you." McWhopper, as seen on NBC's Today Show. Full segment: http://tinyurl.com/plwa5kx From one perspective, Burger King's armistice in the "burger wars" helped it gain some visibility, albeit at the cost of full-page newspaper ads, a Twitter account (#McWhopper) and a clever-ish website . The strategy borrows a little of McDonalds' luster to portray Burger King as a near-equal. The reality is different, however. According to QSR magazine, McDonald's is still the reigning champ, with annual sales around $35 billion. Burger King clocks in at No. 5 -- $8.5 billion -- behind Subway, Starbucks, and Wendy's. McDonald's is shuttering restaurants, paring back its menu choices, and experimenting w

A few weeks ago, I chided pen make Bic for its sexist ads. I'm not the only one.  Here's an amusing take on what others did with the Bic ad campaign:  http://magazine.good.is/articles/bad-ad-backfires?utm_source=TSE&utm_medium=FB&utm_campaign=pd&ts_pid=2