Blog Post #8- PR experience with Komen on the Go

I figured I would talk a little about my experience at working for Komen on the Go bus.

First of all, I didn't know that "Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the world's largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting to end breast cancer forever" and that it is the "world's largest breast cancer organization." Taken from the volunteer handout- pretty impressive.

Here's the link for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure website. Most of the topics under "Get Involved" were the ones volunteers and bus visiters learned about through video.

As volunteers, before the bus came, we received a few papers dealing with background information, but mostly about thanking us for giving up our time to help out. In my opinion, this is a great example of public relations. This made we want to work harder and reach more people, and I was happier to be doing my job.

My job was simple: After taking 15 minutes to view the computer education on the bus, I had to go to a public venue, hand out pink stickers, make people aware of the bus's location and invite people to visit.

What I learned: College is an excellent place to pitch for a cause. Before coming to TCU, I was passively taught (by various people, adults mainly) that people who go door-to-door, people who want to come up and talk to you, and telemarketers, just want money. The best thing to do is avoid and ignore them. In college, people are still trying to find what causes they want to participate it and where they stand on certain points. These guys are more willing to sign up for more information, hear a small pitch, or check out a booth for five minutes. They aren't too busy in the real world, yet, I suppose. It would be nice if we continued to have this attitude after college as well.

It's pretty brave for people to put themselves out there and make small interruptions in others' daily schedules, especially when they run the severe risk of getting bluntly and discouragingly rejected (multiple times). But because I experienced working for a cause, even if it was handing out stickers and pitching for just one hour, I'm now more willing to hear what other people have to say.

And as we learned in class, tactics have to be evaluated for their successfulness. As I said before, it looks like TCU is a good place for people to hear out a cause. First, everyone seemed pretty enthusiastic and interested in the bus. Now for the statistics: In all, I was handed about 50 stickers to give out. In under an hour, I had gotten rid of every single one, and only one person refused my offer.

...Who refuses a simple sticker? It's not that challenging to wear one... Maybe she had her reasons, and at least she was nice about it. And she was the only one, which I would say is a pretty good success rate.

PR Post #7B- I don't think this counts as a full post.

Talk about coincidence. I just spent an hour blogging about Kanye West and the like (see below).

Then I go to check my email, and I find THIS on my Class of 2012 update. Appreciate this; I couldn't load the document on here so I printed the update, printed it again because the relative part was cut off on the first one, took a picture of it using photobooth on the laptop, cropped iphoto, edited, and loaded it on here. Nothing's too good for the blog. P.S. if anyone knows how to load pdfs on here, that would be great.

PR Post #7- Forgiven, but Forgotten?

First off let me just say that I'm finding it extremely difficult to add pictures to this post without continually messing everything up. Hopefully I learn the ins and outs of this soon.

Anyway, these are pictures from the October bulletin board in my residence hall; it's featuring ideas for Halloween costumes (if you couldn't tell.) The idea for the Kanye West and Taylor Swift costume was the one that intrigued me the most, from a PR perspective. I'm sure everyone remembers in September when Kanye pulled a less-than-classy move and took the microphone from Taylor Swift at the VMAs that probably had his PR people cringing. (link further down)

This post is going to bring up numerous points, so excuse its disorganized form. First point- This event happened over a month ago and people are still fixated on it. A couple's Halloween costume? Ideas like this can be found just google-ing couples' costumes. This proves that in the PR world, one mess up can be forgiven, but not forgotten.

Second point- What did Kanye West himself do for crisis management? Multiple sources say that before the VMAs were over, Kanye (or someone) was on his blog and posted in all caps: "I'M SOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD'VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED!"

However, apparently Kanye deleted this posting and put up a new one: "I feel like Ben Stiller in "Meet the Parents" when he messed up everything and Robert De Niro asked him to leave... That was Taylor's moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her. I am truly sorry. " This one can be found on his blog.

One has to wonder, is a blog post, especially one put like so, appropriate for an apology? Possibly this strategy was to show fans that he in fact was apologizing, but in my opinion, these don't sound like intelligent and sincere words that should be taken seriously.

Here is a video of what happened at the VMAs. It includes Kanye's interruption, Taylor's reaction that night to reporters, and an appearance made by Kanye on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I like the fact these were all put together, which is why I'm posting it, but please excuse the commentaries added by "LGrier 2008." Note the twitter reference!

Taylor Swift apparently accepted Kanye's apologies (video). She also discussed the incident on the View, shown in the article in the above link, and with Oprah Winfrey (video). Point 3- Oprah is an opinion leader in this day and age, and she clearly is putting Taylor Swift in a positive light and advocating that she handled the situation beautifully. Many people who watch Oprah aren't necessarily in the same crowd as those who are familiar with Kanye West. Oprah is helping people to form opinions of the situation that are possibly biased towards Taylor Swift. Not that I'm cutting Oprah in any way. The point is, as an opinion leader, she is helping people to assess the situation.

This brings us to Point 4- being on the good side of Oprah Winfrey, the media, people's facebook and twitter sites can only be doing wonders for Taylor Swift and her PR, because everyone is advocating that she handled it well, OR they feel sympathetic towards her. Either way, it has resulted in more support for her, and more associations of controversy and distastefulness for Kanye West. Just because Taylor forgave Kanye for his outburst, it doesn't mean she, or the public, has forgotten it.

PR Post #6- Greetings and International Publics

My communications teacher in high school was also an international model. She told us that before going to any country, it was important to know how to say "hello" or how to greet people in the native language. People appreciate that you took the time to learn how to greet them in their native language, and as a result they will be a lot more friendly and helpful.

From a PR perspective, I would say this goes hand-in-hand with dealing with international publics. In addition, something so easy and that takes so little time is worth doing.

In PR principles I am working on the Diversity Calender, which involves researching major holidays in the most populous countries and compiling them into one calender. PR practitioners will be able to use this when traveling or working with international publics to their advantage. I figured I would add the element of saying "hello" in major languages to my research and I am providing the link to the most extensive website that I found on my blog.

Site number 1- includes over 800 languages

The set up is a little confusing. Each line is devoted to one language. The first part of the line is the language itself. After in parentheses is the country or region in which the language is used. After in brackets there might be a specific situation the phrase is used, (specifying to a man or women, etc) after the brackets is the phrase itself.

Ex.

Aguateco (Huehuetenango Guatemala) [to man] Tzu ta'

This site's home page and drop bar also have links to lists to 15 other phrases such as "thank you," "please," and "My name is..."

Blog Post #5- Shoeing and International Customs

When dealing with international publics, it very important to know their customs or faux pas standards. Things that seem trivial to us can make or break a relationship. Take for example how the Islamic world regards shoeing, or shoes.

Most people have become slightly aware of these ideas through the "shoeing" of former President Bush, seen here.

Video of "shoeing"

According to wikipedia.com, "On December 14, 2008, during a press conference at the Prime Minister's Palace in Baghdad, Iraq, journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at United States President George W. Bush. "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog," yelled al-Zaidi in Arabic as he threw his first shoe towards the U.S. president.^[1] "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq," he shouted as he threw his second shoe."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeing

According to Professor Ramez Maluf, shoes, particularly the soles of shoes, are regarded with distain in the Islamic culture. When people walk into a Mosque they take off their shoes and you are never supposed to show anyone the sole of your shoe. Also, calling someone 'a shoe' is derogatory.

More can be found here

Another incident: Former U.S. presidential candidate Bill Richardson, while negotiating the release of two hostages, showed his shoe sole to Saddam Hussein while crossing his legs. Saddam abruptly left the room, and Richardson did not know if he could secure releases for hostages, a grave situation which called for zero mistakes. Here is Richardson's story on The Daily Show, start at 4 min, 22 sec

There are two points to be made.

1. Neither Bush nor Richardson seemed to express knowledge of just how serious these incidences were at the time. Bush didn't seem to know that he had received one of the worse insults possible, and Richardson didn't seem to realize or necessarily mind the extreme consequences his mistake could have made.

2. Richardson's mishap could have been easily avoided by some simple research and prepping before his negotiations took place. Instead, he ran the risk of not only losing two hostages, but as a representative for the U.S., his action certainly did not contribute to Hussein's good image of Americans.

PR lesson: Know international customs when dealing with international publics! It could completely determine how an issue or relationship turns out!

Blog Post #4- Good Causes

Chapter 6 in our textbook says, "organizations that embrace CSR (corporate social responsibility) are 'a positive force for change to help improve the quality of people's lives.'" In my opinion, this is a major factor in what designates a "good brand," one that you would want to support through your time commitment or money, from one that you might not be so keen on supporting. The textbook goes on to say that CSR is a social expectation that contributes to a fully functioning society, meaning that organizations who use CSR contribute to the well-being of their communities.

The most compelling statement that gave me the idea for this post: 89% of Americans born between 1979 and 2001 say they will switch from one product to another if the second brand is associated with a good cause.

I found this a bit hard to believe; I have learned throughout all the history and economic classes that Americans are first and foremost consumers. We look for the most efficient bargains and we try to get the most out of our time, work efforts and money. Would we really switch to possibly less efficient or less well known, thus credible, products or organization just because they are for a good cause?

I started evaluating my own personal choices and settled on a choice I'll have to make in the near future. I'm growing my hair to donate it to an organization that makes wigs for cancer patients. Originally I was going to donate to "Locks of Love" because it was the most well known, and I figured the most credible.

Locks of Love website

Upon further research and talking to friends who have donated to Locks of Love, I found out that most of the time these wigs are not given free of charge. Financial aid is based on assessment, and most of the time health insurance does not cover wigs. Regardless, when faced with overwhelming medical bills and the emotion of fighting cancer, who wants to worry about paying an extra $1200.00 for something that just provides a sense of normalcy in one's overturned life?

Friends recommended that I donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Pantene website

This website says that all of these wigs are given free to cancer patients. In addition, while Locks of Love needs 10 inches of hair, Pantene only calls for eight inches- more efficient, and in my opinion, a better cause!

In essence, it's a true statement that people are willing to switch from one thing to another is the second is for a good cause. This is why we recycle, use "green" products, and protest the usage of sweatshops. This is an excellent reason for organizations to demonstrate ethics while simultaneously helping their causes.