Mistletoe, "Fatuous Grumps," and Other PR Blog Jots

Smirnoff Gets Mistletoe Wrong; Guerilla Campaign Right

Strategic Public Relations

Kevin Dugan stumbled upon a PR event promoting Smirnoff Ice in Cincinnati this week involving a man dressed as mistletoe and participants toting “Save the Mistletoe” campaign signs. He compliments the guerilla marketing campaign as extremely well-executed, even if the mistletoe costume left something to be desired. “But this shows how thorough Smirnoff is in their execution of Save the Mistletoe events. From planning and execution to tracking and responding to buzz, Smirnoff seems to have all of the right steps well-thought out.”

PR as Romance; the Media Needs to be Wooed

Common Sense PR

Eric Eggerston examines new research from Edelman on the changing trends of traditional media, and how best to integrate them into clients’ communications plans.  He compares media outlets to potential romantic partners, claiming a PR pro needs to be in tune to their “potential partner’s” needs in order to close the deal.  “Think these trends don’t apply to the media you deal with? Have you taken a close look lately? Chances are the journalists and owners are under a lot of pressure to respond to trends that are threatening traditional media. Or maybe the partners you should be approaching aren’t traditional media at all.  If you haven’t already, it’s time to spend some time studying what media outlets now reach your target audience, and how they’re changing the way they serve up information.”

Wall Street Journal Brushes Off Bloggers

Micro Persuasion

Ironically, the Wall Street Journal editorial which dismissed blogs as “written by fools, read by imbeciles” was one of the most blogged-about topics of the week.  Steve Rubel responds to the piece by suggesting that perhaps to stay relevant, bloggers ought to stage a mini-boycott, turning less to mainstream media resources for newsworthy topics and instead relying on each other. “Well, my fellow ‘imbeciles,’ (geez is that strong or what?) if there's one point here it is that too often we rely on the mainstream media as our air supply. Perhaps it's time we start spotlighting some new, emerging voices and skip the papers for a bit. I am getting a little tired of the same people linking back and forth to each other and to the same stories.”

Big Words Do Not Equal a Decent Argument

BL Ochman

B.L. Ochman joins Rubel in dismissing the WSJ editorial critical of the blogosphere.  She takes the author to task, joking that his editorial barely made sense and his over-use of fifty-cent words weakens his argument. “Jeez, what a fatuous (to use one of his favorite words) grump he is.  Rago uses the words logorrheic and solipsistic in the same sentence. He throws in "valorizes", "a coagulant for orthodoxies", "vastation", "fatuities" and "fatuity" in the same sentence; "ancien régime," "reductive habits." And yet he has the balls to call political bloggers "excruciatingly boring."