Canuckflack

Usually, home-grown surveys provide an easy news hook for your pitch - especially if they’re tied to a topical and timely subject, like the growing popularity of blogs, natural allergy remedies or anticipated Christmas purchases. Or so the Brewers of Canada thought when they decided to release a survey of student perceptions of drinking behaviour, just in time for the new university and college sessions.

Unfortunately, these surveys can sometimes prompt criticism, cynicism or sarcasm from reporters and readers alike. Even if you emphasize careful statistical work and present a balanced viewpoint in your pitch, you and your issue can experience backlash.

According to the Brewers survey:

First, the survey found that the majority of students (63%) drink twice per month or less. However, 80% of students believe that their peers typically drink once per week or more often. One-third believe that their fellow
students drink at least three times per week.

Second, most students (64%) consume 1 to 4 drinks at parties or bars. The survey found that 67% believe students consume 5 or more drinks per occasion at parties or bars. One-quarter of students believe that average consumption is 7 or more drinks. These first two results indicate that most students overestimate both the quantity other students drink as well as the frequency with which they drink.

I guess this is a situation where the glass is either half empty or half full. The Brewers would prefer to believe that the majority of respondents answered truthfully about their own drinking habits, rather than recognizing that university students often revert to third party descriptions of their own drinking behaviour, especially when speaking to authority figures or unknown third parties.

For example, if an uncle asks about activities during the first week in residence, the average freshman would respond: “Of course, I wasn’t there, but I heard about this wicked kegger last weekend where they filled the bathtub with Purple Jesus.”

The Ottawa Citizen covered the survey in a balanced manner (sub. req.), but influenced the reader’s perception of the issue by topping the article with an image nearly as large as the reporting - an image showing Will Farrell doing a funnel of beer after speaking to the Harvard graduating class this spring.

Finally, the drivetime radio shows this morning were taking calls from actual university and college students about their own drinking habits. Moderation was not the key theme here.

A social issue like binge drinking will obviously prompt people to take sides and offer opinions - even if an interested party like the Brewers of Canada makes a legitimate attempt to explore the problem in more detail.

The lesson to take away from this? Do not sell your management on a home-grown survey as a painless exercise guaranteed to produce favourable coverage. As with every communications issue, make sure to identify the negatives along with the positives.

So, your graphic designer has brought in the cover concepts for the new report. It’s not meant to be an award-winner. Just a strategy document, to show to the advisory council next month. The designer’s pulled out all the tried and true graphic stereotypes for a strategy document: a compass, a ship under sail, even a Patagonia-clad climber on a West Coast cliff face.

You can live with those concepts - even if your co-op student could have whipped them up in an afternoon. Your real quibble with their ideas? The colours. What’s with all the browns and oranges? Where’s the blue? The taupe?

The Man in Blue is running an online survey to measure the colour sensibilities of designers versus the unwashed heathen: you.

Designers like to get people to worship our superior aesthetic sensibilities; which is easy given the revolting taste in color, shape, font, layout and imagery that the average person possesses. However, there’s never really been any quantifiable research done into this area that has allowed designers to scientifically prove their God-like abilities. Until now.

Fine, fine. You’re a god. But can you deliver this for under 65 cents a copy - including postage?

I have to echo Tom Murphy’s comments about an elegant and persuasive weekend pitch from Dan Price. In my case, Dan opened up by discussing a previous post on VNRs that references his site, and then dropped in a casual mention of his new book, Slick.

If you’re reading this by RSS, do you prefer the excerpt or a full post? I’m thinking of changing the setting. colin(at)canuckflack.com

Steven Colbert, of the Daily Show, has a short interview in the September Esquire. Two excerpts:

ESQ: How do you make a candidate feel relaxed and trust you?

SC: I approach all interviews with fear. I’m frequently afraid that somebody is going to take a punch at me. It’s only cowardice that keeps me from laughing …

ESQ: How will your election coverage be superior to the networks’?

SC: One word: pyrotechnics . And lots of smoke machines. All of the correspondents are going to be flown in on harnesses in spider costumes, and our new motto is “We’ll catch you in our satirical web!”

They can be your allies or the bane of your existince. They can provide valuable strategic advice, or shred one of your documents beyond legibility. They’re the corporate counsel. The Houston firm Fulbright & Jaworski surveyed 300 US general counsels about their corporate and professional concerns, and there are startling parallels for PR folk.

While the actual survey findings deal with litigation trends, the comments made by participants in the “2004 U.S. Corporate Counsel Litigation Trends Survey” can apply equally to PR agencies. Here’s a sample of their advice for legal firms:

No matter if it’s tricked-out, grassroots or just plain pimped, Clive Thompson appreciates the work consumers and companies alike have been putting into customizing their technology.

Anyone can mail off a picture of their dog to put on a mouse pad, but conceptualizing an entire electronic device takes, y’know, work. … I lust after iPods or Mini Coopers not because they’re unique, but because they’ve been so artfully made that I couldn’t imagine doing it better myself. And there’s also something fun about owning the exact same gadget as millions of other people. It makes you part of a tribe.(Slate)

Of course, there’s more than just well-crafted design behind the success of the iPod, Mini and Michael Graves toilet brushes: there’s oversize marketing budgets and well-targeted integrated campaigns at work as well.

But some members of the tribe don’t appreciate the careful and stylish blending of design and technology, in particular when it prompts a stampede of consumerism and shakes their thin grip on individuality/elitism. Some NY DJs really have a bone to pick. Their complaint? Celebrity guest DJs with their iPod playlists are ruining the club scene:

iPod-people can’t “beat-match,” blending songs rhythmically together into a seamless, layered flow, or deconstructing them into something new, unlike with a traditional twin turntable and mixer setup. … “The novelty of the technology has clubs dropping their standards,” says [D.J. Adam] Goldstone. (New York Metro)

Clive goes on about the intermingling of readily available customization, attractive and efficient design, and the disposability of modern technology. It’s worth a read.

Dilbert had a thought about product designers this weekend. Victor Papanek had more than one thought about design, but this non-sequitur is a good one to end a post:

“To create lipstick for honest whores is one thing, but to create deodorant for her pimp is another.”

The National Post’s Aaron Wherry has analysed the lyrical stylings of the anchors hosting the coverage in Athens.

It’s not that we hate Bob Costas. It’s just that he makes us feel like our decidedly pedestrian existence is little more than a piece of wax that has fallen on a termite, who is choking on the splinters — a sentiment we steal from Beck, a singer/songwriter of fragile heart, who is as skilled at conveying irrelevance as NBC’s Costas is at convincing us of another unknown athlete’s importance.

Thankfully, the best snippet is exposed before the subscriber wall.

Digging into my clippings pile, I saw this tidbit about the highly targeted marketing of The Passion DVD, due out today:

“We’ve initiated outreach to churches and para-church organizations,” [a FOX SVP] says. “There have been a variety of mailings and e-mail campaigns, much of it at a grassroots level.” In a unique promotion, Fox offered churches a preorder discount on bulk packs of 50 DVDs or 50 VHS tapes. For an additional fee, the packaging on each copy could be customized with the church’s name, a quotation from Scripture, or some other personalized message. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Even more intriguing was the observation that this DVD would prompt many Christian families to finally move their viewing habits into the 1990s:

There will be an extraordinarily high number of sales in the box loads. That’s something you don’t normally see,” says Scott Hettrick, editor-in-chief of DVD Exclusive, an industry publication. “This title is bringing in a lot of people that never converted from VHS to DVD. You’re getting quite a new audience.”

Really? Where have these people been? What do they look like?

Greg’s played off a Marginal Revolution post and NYT article to make an important point about public policy communications:

The takeaway: If you’re trying to do more with PR than just push laundry detergent or the newest spring line by Hugo Boss, then you need to get people educated about not just your issue, but the basic underlying policies or market forces that affect your issue. Take the lowest, most baseline understanding that you expect people to have — and lower it. A lot.

Having trouble with your syllables? Try this game from the BBC.

It’s becoming glaringly obvious that ticket sales are down at the Athens Olympics. Empty seats scamper across the background of many camera shots. The event organizers are becoming, justifiably, defensive. Michalis Zacharatos is the Athens Olympic Committee media general manager, and he’s slowly being pilloried in the international media for his upbeat forecasts.

“As the competition grows in excitement and more medals are won, as the best teams continue to move forward, we will see a big increase in ticket sales” - … Michalis Zacharatos does what his job demands; puts on a positive front, ignores the empty stadiums and buries his head in the sand. (London Times)

Let’s remember the poor man works for a large Athens Olympics organization which, in turn, reports to the monolith that is the International Olympic Committee. Their performance this week is stellar compared to the horrible battering they took in the press leading up to Salt Lake.

Still, he does come across as a Ron Ziegler wannabe:

“We are happy to announce that so far we have done an excellent job.” (National Post, sub. req.)

If you’re a student in a college town, there’s only one data point you regularly seek out in your community newspaper: entertainment options.

Lawrence.com, an award-winning mixed media site serving the students and residents of Lawrence, Kansas really knows its audience.

Today’s drink specials points the thirsy Kansan - or traveller - to the cheapest drinks around. Each bar listing is also cross-referenced with past reviews, upcoming music shows and scheduled events.

This isn’t the ideal application of community journalism, but it does speak to community needs - in a very direct manner.

BTW - Lawrence.com also features music from local bands, including this tidbit. A browse is highly recommended.

Joey’s asked for CanCon (Canadian Content) songs from the 80s and 90s - songs that didn’t cross the border.

You’ve huddled, evaluated the situation and decided no good can come of responding to a reporter’s questions. It may just be a timing problem. Improbably, the VP actually is on vacation. Maybe you’re in a mandated quiet period. Now you have to rebuff the reporter’s firm advances in as few words as possible. What’s your favourite catchphrase?

I’m a month late on this meme, but it’s still a valuable read for PR folk. “Manifesto for the Reputation Society” is an exercise in sketching out the benefits and hindrances of encouraging a growing reputation system, based on easily available information, shared opinions, personalized experiences, categorized relationships and maybe a touch of accreditation or regulation.

The paper examines how reputation societies might grow, using increasingly popular social networks as building blocks to compile information, gather critiques, solicit opinions and bring together communities of interest to influence the decisions made by consumers, companies, markets and governments.

PR folk will be challenged by this paper. The future of the profession isn’t explicit in the system being proposed - unless you see your future in obfuscation, falsification, and the consternation of your audience.

Deliberate skewing of reputations by those who benefit from their inaccuracy is one of the greatest operational problems reputation systems will face, once they have dealt with implementation issues like privacy and authentication. The public relations agencies of today may evolve into the reputation manipulation and repair agencies of tomorrow, with expertise ranging from understanding why one’s reputation is in trouble to underhanded ways of gaming reputation systems.

Arenas with more heterogeneous interest groups like politics and commerce will naturally have more pressure for skewing reputations — consider the present–day difference in deceitfulness between commercial and educational Web sites.

We put a lot of our energy into developing relationships with reporters: how much effort will we put into understanding all our other stakeholders? You will have to understand the entire public environment affecting your issue, staff, development, process or company if you’re going to play in a reputation society.

It’s official. Wired has thrown in the towel. The hype of 1998 is over. We don’t need to capitalize internet anymore. Or web. Or net. As Tony Long, Wired’s copy editor, notes:

… in the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information …

Okay, but as a friend just observed: why are we still calling it the internet?

Long continues, with a well-deserved shot at marketers (and PR folk as well):

True believers are fond of capitalizing words, whether they be marketers or political junkies or, in this case, techies. If It’s Capitalized, It Must Be Important. In German, where all nouns are capitalized, it makes sense. It makes no sense in English.

Corinne Maier is a trained economist (among other things) working for Electricité de France, a state-owned utility. She’s penned Bonjour paresse, a hit guide for the disenchanted and disengaged employees of France. In a stunning example of institutional blindness, her employer is now pursuing disciplinary action against her - because of the book.

Over lunch at the Café Bonaparte off the Boulevard Saint Germain, the 40-year-old mother of two says it is time for wage slaves to hit back. “Businesses don’t wish you well and don’t respect the values they champion. This book will help you take advantage of your company, rather than the other way around. It will explain why it’s in your interest to work as little as possible and how to screw the system from within without anyone noticing.” (FT)

It seems Maier has the system figured out: she works 2.5 days a week, and has written 8 books since 2001. Nevertheless, it appears that the bosses at Electricité de France have very thin skin. they’ve called her in for a disciplinary hearing - on August 17th. The company’s move seems unusual, since almost all of France habitually goes on vacation in August.

The book has been out for several months, and sales apparently weren’t spectacular - until EdF tried to turn the screws.

At the end of July, however, Le Monde, the leading daily, unexpectedly devoted a front page article to EDF’s disciplinary action against the book’s author …

Failing to see the funny side, EDF accused Ms Maier of “repeatedly failing to respect her obligations of loyalty towards the company,” and of running a “personal campaign, clearly proclaimed in the book, to spread gangrene through the system from within.” Citing her habit of reading newspapers in meetings and of leaving one gathering early on May 3rd, the charge sheet also alleged she had neglected to secure permission to mention on the back cover that she worked for EDF.(FT)

Here’s an interview with Corrine Maier from l’Humanité.

Sometimes even a good Rugby World Cup parade won’t completely rehabilitate a symbol. In past years, the cross of St. George has been dragged into the gutter as the visual of choice for unreasonable bigots and heavy-drinking football hooligans.

Billy Bragg, however, thinks that the flag, as it is rehabilitated through careful community liaison, may grow to represent a building and positive multicultural English identity:

Take a look at the 11 men who wear that shirt on the pitch. They are a visible representation of what England is: a multicultural society in which the right to play for the national team is not decided by race, but by talent.

Far from representing a narrow definition of English identity, those thousands of St George’s flags could be seen as an endorsement of this idea, in which the right to be English is accessible to anyone, no matter what their background.

English football fans aren’t only relying on lowered arrest rates to improve their standing abroad. Someare taking steps to improve their image abroad. During Euro 2004, several groups of fans visiting Portugal organized 5 a side games, school visits and academic seminars with the help of the British Council.

Still, there were the inevitable bonehead disturbances.

Nevertheless, many other Englishmen and women felt the St. George’s Cross could be reclaimed through exemplary behaviour and an open spirit:

Is it not possible that supporting this nation in a sporting tournament and showing the flag actually takes power away from those who once corrupted its image? By reclaiming the St George’s Cross we can ensure that the sight of it is no longer a reason for fear or revulsion. (St. Alban’s Observer)

Bragg thinks that a combination of fan moderation, travel bans, and energetic community relations are succeeding:

I believe that the events of recent months have put the flag of St George in a neutral position within our culture. It no longer automatically represents a belligerent nationalism spoiling for a fight. It has become one of a number of symbols that we use to identify ourselves at international sporting celebrations.

…let’s bring the flag of St George home and reclaim it as one of the symbols that we use to express an alternative identity that is diverse, outward-looking and inclusive.

There are many other political currents flowing around what flag, party identity and cultural ancestry you choose to claim in Great Britain. Bragg touches on these as well. I don’t have the depth of knowledge to begin an intelligent discussion of this area, unfortunately.

David Akin, a Canadian tech journalist who also blogs, has whipped up a remarkably honest disclosure statement. It doesn’t just identify his professional allegiances - it it also makes clear his relationships with his service provider, AdSense and TuCows.

But where’s the information on his domain registrar? Is there a tale waiting to be revealed?

Remember Bullshit Bingo? It was funny, and you flipped it to all your colleagues as a joke. But there was a horrible, cruel, irony in your actions: you probably used three to five words from the bingo card every day. (empower, parking lot, vertical)

Any longtime tech-head can build a good drinking game out of the chart I’ve posted today. You could probably start a couple of fights arguing about the accuracy of the chronology, or whether the authors have overlooked a seminal evolution in technology (like Civilization, Pong or Dungeon). It’s pulled from a new report, “Online Communities in Business: Past Progress, Future Directions,” prepared by Jenny Ambrozek and Joe Cothrel. It’s available here. It’s worth a read.

A friend of mine has some service issues with Chase Manhattan, his bank; enough to drive him to actually put pen to paper.

Dear Chase:

I know this won’t do anything, but can I just tell you what drives me crazy about you guys? I deposit two checks on Friday, totaling over $8k. (Again, pocket change to you guys, but hey…) Anyhow, I deposit it on Friday. Shows up as a deposit on Monday. But doesn’t get credited until TUESDAY, with the notation that the funds won’t be available until the end of the business day on THURSDAY. So basically, you’ve held my money for an entire WEEK, despite my having been a customer for over 5 years, never overdrawing, etc.

Just kinda sucks, you know? It’s kind of like, “Well, Mr. Shankman, we know you’ve been a good customer, and have a company that’s managed to do very well, even in this crappy economy, but you know what? We just don’t trust you, regardless of what you do. Now, if you’d just deposit $500,000 or whatever into our accounts, we’d be happy to clear your money ASAP.”

Granted, you’re probably not even saying that, because, well, I’m not big enough for you guys to even worry about, but hey - just thought I’d bring it up.

One more note - I have more than enough to cover the entire deposit in there ALREADY. But that doesn’t seem to matter.

Like I said, I don’t expect you to do anything about this, (I’m a lot of things, but naive isn’t one of them…) But I feel a lot better now that I wrote it.

Thanks.

-Peter Shankman

(Customer who probably means jack to you because I don’t have a few million in my business account.)

Judging from this site (Chasebanksucks), there are plenty of other people irritated with Chase Manhattan (and it comes up third on Google!)

I hope to God there’s some sort of editorial screening in the new European Elle promotion. Readers can superimpose their own picture on the latest cover, then print it out?

This screams out for some form of culture jamming. You know, though, that we’ll see far more covers of naked and fat Europeans.

Waylon Smithers, Snagglepuss and T.G.I. Fridays? Misty Harris, a columnist for the Canwest papers, has deftly pulled all these popular cultural references together in a discussion of the expected “outing” of a Simpsons character next season.

Two great quotes jump out. They speak to a continuing obsession among many cartoon viewers: figuring out which of their favourite characters is actually gay:

Some people consider it a practical skill to have,” explains [Robert] Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University. “If I can detect Barney Rubble’s sexuality in fiction, perhaps I can avoid an embarassing situation at T.G.I. Fridays.”

The Springfield townsperson (Apu? Barney? Moe?) won’t be the first gay cartoon character - only the first confirmed one. As Bryce Eberhart of PlanetOut noted to Harris:

No one has any question about whether Snagglepuss is gay,” Eberhart says matter-of-factly about the Hanna Barbera character. “It’s clear he’s gayer than a Fabergé egg.”(behind a subscriber firewall, unfortunately)

A fantastic short documentary on the delicacy, detail and devotion of John Kristensen’s Firefly Press to letterpress printing.

Produced by Chuck Kraemer for Boston’s WGBH, the documentary has a disconcertingly staggered narration. It reminds me of fresh reporters trying to mimic the famous and exaggerated intonations of BBC Radio reporters - with a little Charles Kuralt or Charles Osgood “Sunday Morning” thrown in.

Signal vs Noise featured this movie last week, and there are some good observations and complementary links in the comments section.

Other short pieces on Linotype and the Monotype keyboard are available through Type Culture.

I seem to have a comment spam problem from one particular knobgobbling spammer. If this keeps up, I’ll have to turn off the comments until I can identify a solution.

MarketingSherpa has pointed to Godvertising, a brand new blog ostensibly about church sign marketing. Some of the examples are amusing, but not as gut-wrenchingly hilarious as the signs found at Church Sign Generator or Jesus Hits Like a One Liner! Apparently, there’s a real market in helping uninspired, non-creative pastors put butts in the pews.

Vainly, Carter Eskew tried to stop Ryan Lizza from contributing to the swamp of political process stories coming out of the Boston convention.

“There’s some silliness about all the reporting about the policing of the message,” says Carter Eskew, one of the Democratic Party’s most respected media gurus. “There’s nothing new about that. That’s what a convention is.”

Nevertheless, Lizza filed on the Democratic Party’s efforts at message control last week.

Vera Stratford, a British pensioner with MS, has an usual way of doing her shopping. Once a week, she calls her son Mark and he books an online delivery from ASDA, the British grocery chain.

But Mark lives in Toronto. When ASDA heard about the Stratford’s unusual approach to shopping, their executives arranged for Mark to deliver his mother’s groceries personally. On her 80th birthday.

What a great approach to customer service. I’m sure there are many companies that would have changed their online gateway to block access to foreign IPs. Even more startling - ASDA is a Wal-Mart company.

3M Canada has a step by step schematic guide to folding, cutting and taping up your own duct tape wallet.

Down in New Zealand, the Minister of Environment pulled a blog out of her hat during a Question Period exchange with opposition Parliamentarians about the Resource Management Act:

Hon MARIAN HOBBS: First of all, I want to draw that member’s attention to Russell Brown’s very good blog, Hard News, in which he lines up Mr Mallard’s statement with those made by Michael King in Being Pakeha, and by Allen Curnow.