branding – Page 5 – Andy writes!

No wonder public relations gets such a bad rap. Even PR’s comrades in marketing, the ad folks, are presenting PR in a negative light and perpetuating the slick spin-doc stereotype.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/fAdAq98nb_o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I’m referring, of course, to Apple’s latest Mac vs. PC TV ad. The one I saw last night features a PR spokeswoman for the PC guy (John Hodgman) who tries to put a positive spin on the problems with Microsoft’s Vista operating system. It’s one of three new Mac vs. PC ads Apple has rolled out recently, and as Digital Journal reports, the new ads are more mean-spirited than previous ones.

I haven’t seen the other two ads — only the “PR Lady” piece — so I’m not qualified to comment. But it isn’t the mean-spiritedness that I mind as much as it is the way fellow marketers are perpetuating the corporate PR stereotype. For instance, as Digital Journal reports, “When PC admits how many users have gone back to XP after facing challenges with Vista, the PR rep says: ‘By downgrading he means they’re upgrading to an older, more familiar experience.'”

Besides, what PR person ever says “No comment”? Again, another stereotype.

It seems the new PR Lady ad might say more about the state of corporate ad agencies today than the PR business.

—————-
Now playing: Albert King – Can’t You See What You’re Doing To Me
via FoxyTunes

The Internet is full of unsolicited advice. Some of it is even useful. Here are five bits of counsel that may interest you:

For writers: Five easy steps to editing your own work, by Anna Goldsmith of The Hired Pens, guest blogging at CopyBlogger.
For marketers struggling with ROI of social media: Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent offers some ideas about measurement as part of a marketing meme making the rounds.
For communicators, marketers, history buffs and closet socialists: FutureLab offers a lesson in mass communications with Soviet Propaganda – The Art of Mass Persuasion. Posted by Ilya Vedrashko on Thursday, the 90th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, it features Vedrashko’s slide show of images that “showcase some of the tools and techniques used by the Soviet AgitProp (agitation and propaganda) as well as other governments, democratic and otherwise, and how some of the imagery was borrowed by brand marketers.” Makes you wonder who really won the cold war.
For web designers and managers: Sam Jackson’s take on why college and university web sites don’t make the grade.
For alumni relations folks: Andy Shaindlin (alumni futures) introduces a new Facebook group just for you.

Bonus link: discovered later but for everyone — be they writers, editors, designers, marketers, bosses, bureaucrats, teachers, students … anyone and everyone: 10 Simple, Sure-fire Ways to Make Today Your Best Day Ever. Just gloss over the metaphysical portions if you like (although I recommend reading the whole thing). If you don’t read it today, read it before you go to work on Monday.

—————-
Now playing: The New Pornographers – Adventures In Solitude
via FoxyTunes