McDonald’s CEO, Don Thompson, recently received a question from a 9-year-old girl, Hannah, asking why they sell food that isn’t good for children, followed by “don’t you want kids to be healthy so we can live happy lives?” It was a tough question, but Mr. Thompson knows how to establish the positive image of his brand. In response, he thanked …
“Biting the Hand that Feeds You”
Every employee is an ambassador of the brand s/he works for … good, bad or ugly. A recently-fired employee of Taco Bell, perhaps believing that one photo on his mobile phone of his licking a stack of empty taco shells wasn’t attention-getting enough, decided to post the picture on his Facebook page and Reddit, leading to a viral headache for his former fast food …
A Stitch in Time
The old saw of “a stitch in time saves nine” (mending the tear before it goes any farther) was never more timely than in the brave new world of new media. Now, a 7-year-old soundbite can suddenly go viral and do damage to a brand within minutes. Case in point, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries’ less than diplomatic and arrogant 2006 …
BRAIN FREEZE
Comedian George Jessel once said that the human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. It’s believed that everyone’s #1 fear is public speaking, with loneliness at #7 and fear of death at #5. Probably, because you don’t have to live through the lonely experience of being “up …
When Hip Hop & History Collide, You Get a “Belieber”
After touring the Amsterdam hiding place of the young Holocaust victim and diarist, Anne Frank; hip hop sensation Justin Bieber decided to leave his mark in the museum’s guest book: “Anne was a great girl. Hopefully, she would have been a Belieber,“ (a believer in Justin Bieber.) Her chronicle, The Diary of a Young Girl is recognized as one of the most …
The Medium Is the Message
In his presentation Trends, Fads and Transformation: The Impact of the Internet to Santa Barbara’s City College Lifetime Learning series, USC Annenberg’s Director of The Center for the Digital Future, Dr. Jeffrey Cole talked about how the Internet has altered mass media, societal social norms, and ecommerce. News is less often read on paper, more often on the internet; we …
FORE…Guns & Golf Clubs
A National Rifle Association spokesperson was quoted as making a case for guns with “[a gun is] a recreational tool like a golf club or a tennis racket. You can kill someone with a golf club, you know!” When considering a soundbite, consider the audience you’re attempting to reach and/or persuade. This spokesperson was trying to make a point. That, …
Winning The Audience Over
In accepting his Best Actor award as Lincoln at the 2013 Academy Awards, Daniel Day Lewis offered laughs and lessons in being Ready to win. Instead of merely thanking his presenter Meryl Streep and director Steven Spielberg, he joked that “three years ago, before we decided to do a straight swap, I had actually been committed to play Margaret …
The End of Illness
In a recent speech to the University of California, Santa Barbara Arts & Lecture series, leading cancer specialist, Dr. David Agus surprised and delighted his audiences with startling opinions and data-backed statistics. For example, Dr. Agus believes that sitting at one’s desk for a 5½-hour stretch is equivalent, on a health basis, to smoking a pack-and-a-half of cigarettes. “Walking works,” …
The Accidental Archivist
In contributing to the February issue of Vanity Fair with an article entitled, “The Accidental Activist” commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, New York investigative journalist Joshua Prager found among Jane Roe/Norma Mc Corvey’s abandoned documents: a card from the Los Angeles media training firm Ready for Media with a typed list of pointers. (“Say Versus rather than …