Canuckflack

Jon Stewart, speaking to a Magazine Publishers’Association panel:

“The way news is driven today is not through print,” Stewart said. “I don’t consider print media as relevant.” When Carter argued that television news consistently siphons what first appears in print, as evidenced by its coverage of the 2004 presidential campaign, Stewart said: “I didn’t say you weren’t important; I said you’re at the children’s table.”

In Folio.

You wouldn’t know it from the varieties of flavoured, steeped and blended tea being hawked by beverage companies on this side of the Atlantic, but the market for instant coffee is starting to percolate in the UK - at the expense of the traditional tea bag. (/rimshot)

There’s still hope in the market, though. A new innovation - PG-2-Go - a packaged tea cup with a retractable tea bag (so you can select your own strength) is apparently building market share. The other, more traditional, tea companies are being squeezed between a growing preference for instant coffee and suicidal price wars with grocery companies’ house brands.

The Guardian covered this seismic movement in the British cultural landscape earlier this week. Deep in the piece, an admission from Unilever that their previous attempt to shore up their tea business in the UK had failed:

“Five years ago Unilever boldly tried to resurrect the Lyons spirit and challenge the espresso bar culture by piloting four teahouses under the Cha brand. They have since closed but a Unilever spokesman said: “The experiment taught us a few lessons - one of them was that we are definitely not a retailer.”(Guardian)

What? Does this mean Unilever - with their horde of consumer good products and marques - doesn’t know how to build from hundreds of millions of pounds’ investment in promoting benefits and attributes into a sustainable consumer experience?

Advertising minty-fresh goodness, new cleaning power and ultra lemony sparkle will move individual boxes off the shelf - but now that grocery stores have figured out the tricks behind house branding and discount pricing, are brand-building marketing campaigns strong enough to stop market share erosion?

It seems like the tea companies already know the answer - and they could draw upon a hundred years of emotional and cultural history tying them to their customers.

More details on Unilever’s attempts to diversify into personal services and retail. There’s also a Cambridge case study in the failure of their myhome services.

Thanks to Incite by Design, I found Dean Allen’s mark-up of Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.

Takes a little wind out of the sails, but replaces it with a fresh breath of honesty.

Mau Quote: 16. Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

Textism Quote: Pure pandering to the One Minute Manager. “Your annual report came to look like this, and cost this much, because of some performance art I did in Gstaad with Znaimer.”

Mau Quote: 19. Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

Textism Quote: Except the one about design being frosting to tart up crap to make it saleable. Don’t work that one.

Today, I’m just ripping off a 2001 post from Dean Allen’s Textism:

From the freelance reviewer guidelines of the National Post:
…

15. Years after writing an insincere review, reviewers will sometimes be walking down the street when memory of their phony words comes howling back into their mind, followed by a crippling sense of guilt and shame. Then dogs come and gnaw on their bones. Why go through all that?

Tony Blair’s speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton earlier today is prompting comment -as it should, considering an ongoing leadership insurgency lurks in the background.

For us public relations types with a serious politics jones, it’s the little details that get us all excited: like what song was used to introduce the Prime Minister?

The Guardian’s Conference Blog discusses Tony’s unusual choice of a first generation punk band:

“It was If the Kids are United by punk band Sham 69. The band were known as the real punks of the movement. The band was the “voice of the people in the first wave of British punk” and introduced football chant-style lyrics into their songs.

Mr Blair is in good company. Columnist and critic Garry Bushell is a huge fan of the band - he coined the phrase the “Oi!” movement for the street punk sound of bands like Sham 69 in the early 80s.

Sham 69 gigs were notorious for fights and punch-ups, with the violence eventually leading to their demise.”

Here’s a brand manager’s worst nightmare: a Fark photoshop contest based upon your favourite old board games.

Great little mp3 of the talk and Q&A with Seth Godin at the London Marketing Soiree organized by Hugh in July.

Free CDs (and flexi-discs, if you’re old enough). They’re a well-established marketing gimmick in the U.K. As North American papers and magazines struggle with declining subscription rates, I have to wonder why they aren’t throwing more freebies our way?

I mean, even the magazine distributed by the homeless is moving product!

“I thought it was a joke pitch from the Big Issue vendor: “Free CD with every copy!” But no, the paper set up to help the homeless has joined the game. Twenty-six tracks, poly-bagged with the mag, pounds 1.40. And yes, it made me buy it.” (Guardian)

Here’s a pipe dream: an enterprising indie music promoter finds an MSM conglomerate that’s willing to pony up the money to produce 100k compilation CDs in return for free distribution in papers and online - as a marketing tactic.

Chances are, P&G will do it first, and the CD will have music aimed squarely at the female 25 to 49 segment.

Interesting presentation of data in a chart by 5W Infographic, prepared for a NYT article on the failure of government to serve the citizens of New Orleans. Kind of looks like an old slot car set - where you set the track up to launch the car over the buffet table, or the cat.

From Steve, a perfect example of a tautology: “RSS users are significantly more engaged in online news than non-users, visiting an average of 10.6 news sites compared with 3.4 news sites for non-users.” (from Nielsen//NetRatings)

The hyping of technology aside, what does this mean for the public discourse? I’m a little startled that the average online citizen visits 3.4 news sites. In a world where, before Tim Berners-Lee, people used to be wed for life to one newspaper, 3.4 should indicate a broadening interest in the affairs of business, the state and the community. Or are all those sites of similar political and philosophical bent - only reinforcing existing preconceptions and perceptions?

Advice for advertising types from Sally Hogshead. It all translates well for public relations staff (who are usually known for lifting, rewriting and “repurposing” other people’s work) as well.

1. There are no right answers, including these.
2. The hipster creative with tattoos and piercing rarely does the coolest ads.
3. Dominos delivers to Starbucks.
4. Smart beats clever.
5. You’ll create a better book by breaking the rules than by following them.
6. Spend more time thinking, less time executing.
7. Don’t write like a copywriter.
8. Start art directing with a pad of paper, not a computer.
9. The difference between an A- book and an A+ book is all the difference in the world.
10. Your work can have outrageous attitude. You can’t.
11. Don’t use your mother as a reference.
12. The more concepts you come up with, the better they get. Me, I write a hundred ads for every one I end up with.
13. It’s better to fail by going down in flames than by settling for mediocrity.
14. Idea is king. Emperor. World nuclear superpower.
15. When working on an assignment, try to expose the deepest, most surprising human truths associated with the product.
16. Don’t base your self-image on positive feedback, because you can’t count on that.
17. You can’t outthink everyone, but you can outwork them.
18. By the time an ad appears in an awards book, it’s already a couple of years old.
19. Competitive is okay. Cutthroat is not.
20. Don’t’ waste time or money on ideas you’re not thrilled about.
21. No matter how good it is, somebody won’t like it.
22. Be as respectful to the receptionist as to the president.
23. If you’re happy in your job, it’s easier to be happy in your life.
24. You don’t have to be an asshole, or work for one, to do great work.
25. If you hear the same feedback over and over, make the changes to the work.
26. It’s better to have 8 killer pieces than 30 pretty good ones.
27. You could be unemployed for six months, then get three phenomenal offers in one day.
28. Being creative is only a small part of being a good creative.
29. When you’re a creative director, meet with 10 juniors for every person who meets with you now.
30. Pick out a last name that people can make fun of.

Entry completely lifted from the American Copywriter blog.

Another Hogshead article: Slaughter the Sacred Cows, originally published in Communications Arts July 2005 Illustration Annual.

Read her original “Radical Careering” piece in Creativity magazine.

John Camm writes for the BBC Magazine about the “regurgitated cliches” that dominate contemporary television advertising in the U.K. (and elsewhere):

“6. Married men will flirt with other, younger women but NEVER act upon it.

7. Anyone with a scientific career will have a bad haircut and dreadful clothes.

And a comment from a reader:

“Public transport is a beautifully clean and relaxing way to travel and you’ll always be able to flirt with an attractive member of the opposite sex.
Gareth Davies, Reading“

In Canada, there can be no television watching experience as excruciating as watching a McCain’s Pizza ad - for the fourth time in an hour.

Of course, Canadians seem to be haters for their television pitchpeople. We loved Tom Cavanagh when he was hawking beer: we hated him on Ed.

And Canadians certainly have a thing or two to say about the OCD couple in the Canadian Tire ads. (Something I did not know: the guy with the beard in the ads appeared in an episode of The Littlest Hobo) They must be moving a lot of solar cell battery rechargers, adjustable pocket wrenches and brake pads, because their ads are on during every break in every sporting broadcast, across the country. What I would do for a picture of them shopping at Reno Depot!

How much thought have you put into your music collection? Do you have mp3s of obscure early 80s Mod bands like the Lambrettas and the Merton Parkas - electronic files whose parents are passed-around mixtapes, and grandparents are “import LPs with the limited edition target label”? Or have you pulled all your music off P2P with no thought to genre or auteur?

Stereogum’s linked to a New Republic article decrying the thoughtless stripping of music - to the detriment of rock snobs who have spent years collecting and hoarding limited edition Wayne Newton covers of Blind Melon Chitlin originals, first pressed in Eastern Europe.

One of the comments, however, had some sage advice that applies to public relations staff, especially those counselling their clients that blogs are the shiny new longboard, the Prius, the Segway of communications: “don’t be a format cheerleader.” Make sure your new technology pitch takes the planned obsolescence of most “next new things” into account.

“”rock snob” is a term invented by some blogger whose girlfriend left him for someone with a little grey in his hair, who owns vinyl, but still wears converse.

I am that guy and I know how to treat her like a lady.

I’m not sorry I saw the original CLASH while you’ll have to settle for the Tim Armstrong-fronted version. But even we thought people who obsessively collected were kind of bogus, dude. Music is how you remember events in your life. The Buzzcocks guided me through breakups in 1997 and 1980, and that is why a little of me dies when I hear them in a car commercial.

Here is my advice to the kids. Don’t be a format cheerleader. You’re going to look like an asshole in a few years when IPODs are as relevant as 8 track tapes or cassettes, and you’ll have to go out and buy, beg, or borrow all those songs all over again. This is how capitalism works. Mini disc anyone?

Posted by: snobby mcsnob-snob at September 15, 2005 03:24 PM”

Dahlia Lithwick, currently dissecting the Roberts nomination hearings for Slate, is providing some valuable commentary on how expert witnesses can handle themselves when faced with hostile questioning.

“John Roberts is putting on a clinic.

He completely understands that he needs only to sit very quietly, head cocked to signal listening-ness, while senator after senator offers long discursive rambling speeches. Only when he’s perfectly certain that a question has been asked does he offer a reply; usually cogent and spare. Here’s a man long accustomed to answering really hard questions from extremely smart people, suddenly faced with the almost-harder task of answering obvious questions from less-smart people. He finds himself standing in a batting cage with the pitching machine set way too slow.

… It’s increasingly clear that Senate Democrats are giving up. They are taking a cue from the petulant Joe Biden, who telegraphs exactly who these hearings are really for when he refuses to let the nominee answer any of his questions. … Knowing there will be no Perry Mason moment—there won’t even be a Lionel Hutz moment—they dully read their questions from a script and avoid the follow-up altogether. ” (Slate, Tuesday)

Come on, people. Let’s give popular culture lawyers their due. Lionel Hutz isn’t the only foil you can use in examining Roberts’ nomination. What about Judge Smails? Angie Harmon? Even Benny, the file clerk from L.A. Law?

An HBR excerpt from Thomas Davenport’s new book tells us “Why Office Design Matters” to companies employing knowlege workers.

“… organizations need to provide [knowlege workers] with the ability to work and be productive outside of their offices. The most obvious instantiation of mobile work environments is the laptop computer, but there are others—for example, access to physical work artifacts such as books and files, the ability to use telephones, computers, and messaging technologies while traveling.”

Two things concern me with this paragraph - the use of the intelligent-sounding but wholly unnecessary word “insantiation” - and the phrase “…access to physical work artifacts such as books and files…”

Artifacts. Great. What’s wrong with “items”?

Still, I guess books and files are on the way out, if all the proponents of the paperless office are to be believed.

Then again, we all have colleagues that print out all their emails.

How do you communicate to 10,000 people stranded in the Astrodome? People so desperate for information about their family that they stick post-it notes to a common blackboard, searching out basic information about emergency supplies, housing, jobs .. the basics of life?

Volunteers on the ground are the best response. Well-informed volunteers. On-on-one conversations can help to mitigate the stress and uncertainty inherent in an emergency as far-reaching as Katrina. Other information - more pedantic but equally valuable - like administrivia, even music, can be conveyed through mass media. In the case of the Astrodome, we’re talking about arena loudspeakers and the jumbotron.

One idea, admittedly more reliant on equipment than word-of-mouth , is low-power FM-band radio. Community broadcasts. Guerilla radio. Even plain old airport information radio.

Houston volunteers, seized with the idea of providing a community radio for the residents of the Astrodome, found growing support from across the States. They quickly pulled together the necessary emergency license from the FCC and the required radio equipment. They even found thousands of battery-powered radios to pass around the arena.

Their fledgling radio station, however, has ground to a halt, challenged by the complex calculations involved in managing an emergency response of this size - and the usual conservative reserve (caution? paranoia?) of any government bureaucracy.

WFMU and Boing Boing point to more details about the effort.

“… Rita Obey, a local official from Harris County Public Health Services … speaking to Wired News, explained that the [Joint Information Center currently operating the Astrodome] couldn’t see a use for the radio station when they had the ability to communicate via the loudspeaker system and newsletters.

“I did not see the utility,” said Obey.”(Wired)

In the Village Voice, even more details:

““They wanted unlimited access to the buildings, which we could not give to anyone in the media,” said Gloria Roemer, a spokesperson for Harris County, which has jurisdiction over the Astrodome complex. Currently reporters are allowed in only on 15-minute guided tours.

According to Roemer, FEMA officials also believed they could not allocate “scarce” electricity, office space, and phone and Internet access to the volunteer station—even though activists say they offered to run the station on batteries and use their own cellphones.”

Slate notes that Seinfeld references are popping up in television advertising, whether it’s a catchphrase like “They’re real and they’re spectacular,” a Seinfeld character like George Costanza, or a recurring actor like Ping Wu.

“Seinfeld writers haven’t seen a dime in the way of royalties, and Peter Mehlman, who wrote “The Implant” and “The Yada Yada” episodes, is irked by the casual deployment of his best lines. “Coors Light, their commercials to me are like the lowest ebb,” says Mehlman. “The way they use [the spectacular line] is so disgusting.” He continues, “It makes you wonder about just how incredibly lazy ad writers have gotten. ‘Use a Seinfeld thing! Let them write it!’ That’s 13 years ago that I wrote that episode.”

“The genesis of a Seinfeld episode“: a 1995 interview with Mehlman in Playback magazine.

Oh, thank you god. Instructions on how to reach a human through an IVR phone system. Unfortunately, the list is limited largely to U.S. companies. And not Apple ITunes.

Courtesy of “Twenty Things They Don’t Want You to Know” from PC World.

Stereogum dredges up memories of an old Pepsi promotion - “Cool Cans” - which featured Young MC desecrating the lyrics to his hit “Bust a Move” as part of the 1990 campaign.

“Cool cans are coming so don’t be afraid / If you get lucky then you might get paid.”

“To be cool and be somewhat respectable / Pick up Pepsi in these hype receptacles.”

Young MC was no fool. In fact, he was a business grad, so the ancillary tie-in with Taco Bell made perfect sense:

“Three cups in all/So Don’t Stand Still/And If you have an empty cup you get a free refill/Go to Taco Bell and place your order/Take my advice you’d better run for the border.”

Tangentially related - who in the world needs an acoustic guitar overly-sensitive version of “Bust a Move”? Really? Is there no boundary to point out your “creative and alternative interpretation of B-list cultural touchstones” is really just a lazy-ass attempt at irony? And poor-sounding at that?

You really want to play the cross-generational hipster advertising game? Four words: William Shatner for Priceline.

Or an in-movie ad for “Noah’s Arcade” from Wayne’s World:

“Come bust a move where the games are played/it’s chill, it’s fresh/it’s Noah’s Arcade.”

Has anyone else seen the horrid insurance tv ads running in the aftermath of Katrina? I’m pretty sure they were for GEICO. Not the usual “lizard doing the robot” stuff, but more of a corporate training video shot on a sound stage.

Pleasant, unstressed and ethnically diverse victims wander around a space in front of a GEICO emergency claims trailer. Under an awning, welcoming and smiling adjusters have clipboards at the ready, and you can just imagine a stash of $100 bills slipped inside their traveller’s belt.

Everyone seems to be wearing selections from Land’s End spring catalog - bland colours, traditional collar and sleeve styles, innocuous and unfashionable.

And the lighting is so orchestrated, there’s not a shadow to be seen. And there’s no water on the ground. And the trailers are clean. And not a single person is crying, or holding a screaming baby.

The final giveaway? In an effort to make the scene seem busy, couples wander in and out of the shot, ostensibly finding their way from their flooded car to the respite of a GEICO travel trailer kitchenette … But their movement is so choreographed and without evident purpose that the set piece they create looks like it was lifted directly from an ad for a shopping mall. Or a mattress store midnite madness sale.

The worst thing a company can do, in the face of such destruction and personal grief, is trot out a generic “emergency claims” ad in an effort to demonstrate your corporate compassion.

I have to admit I haven’t spent much time wondering what Sheila Copps has been doing with her time after leaving politics.

Not much, it turns out.

“A former deputy prime minister and long-time cabinet minister, Ms. Copps didn’t run in the 2004 election after a nasty battle in which she lost her riding to Government House Leader Tony Valeri.

Instead, she dabbled in a little acting. She made her debut last October playing the role of Clairee Belcher in the play Steel Magnolias at a dinner theatre at the Howard Johnson’s in Kingston. She received mixed reviews.” (Globe & Mail)

Now, I don’t have anything against amateur theatre. Some of my best relatives are amateur actors. But wouldn’t you expect a little more from a formidable politician who, two years ago, was battling to lead the government of Canada?

Another memorable 80s rock memory from Jefito:

“… “Rosanna,” a song so completely pervasive that it seemed to overtake entire station playlists. Jeff Porcaro’s drumwork notwithstanding, “Rosanna” is a song (and video) that, to this day, I can’t even think about without gritting my teeth. I’m not a violent person, but if I could somehow punch “Rosanna” repeatedly in the stomach, I think I would.

I hate “Rosanna.” I hate it not only because it’s a ridiculous, insipid, craptastically awful ballad, and not only because it’s a poisonous earworm that I find myself humming against my will after inadvertently hearing it, but because it set the pattern for a big part of Toto’s future recording output.

It’s true that they’d been naming lousy songs after women as far back as Toto (”Angela”), but they did it all the time after “Rosanna” was a hit. In fact, on 1988’s The Seventh One, they did it twice! It’s a foul, foul song.”

Fantastic. ‘xcept that I’m humming the damn song now.

Fortune takes a look at the evolution of the Michelin Man - who, you may not realize, is a bit of a party animal.

“To this day his official name is Bibendum, the Latin gerundive meaning “drinking to be done.” The name comes from the first series of posters featuring him, which bore the Latin legend Nunc est bibendum—”Now is the time to drink”—and depicted the tire man hoisting a champagne goblet filled with nails and broken glass, sometimes garnished with a horseshoe. The seemingly tortured conceit, as the ad copy spelled out, was that “Michelin tires drink up obstacles”—i.e., they wouldn’t puncture easily.”

The antique Michelin Man poster found above courtesy of Vintage Arte (it’s always cooler with an extra “e”).

Bibendum also makes a larger-than-life appearance as a mosaic in Michelin’s former UK headquarters - first opened in 1911.

Some rejected suggestions for Starbucks’ “The Way I See It” - an attempt to both patronize customers with high-falutin quotes from the gliterati, as well condescend with down home customer suggestions printed on the side of the coffee cup.

“The way I see it, Lloyd is crazy. Not just short-pants-in-winter kinda crazy but batshit kinda crazy. Wears-a-velvet-cape-to-get-the-mail kinda crazy. Eats-imaginary-ice-cream-cone-while-talking-to-the-ghost -of-his-long-dead-Aunt-Hettie kinda crazy. Doesn’t mean
he shouldn’t be allowed to drive a bus, though. It’s just the
way I see it.”

“A clandestine collaboration between Eli Lilly, the federal government, and Starbucks to put Prozac in the coffee? Did you hear anything about that? You’re right, it’s probably bullshit. You finished reading the Entertainment section yet?”

You probably know the legend of Terry Fox, the young cancer survivor who attempted to run coast-to-coast across Canada during 1980 - despite having lost a leg to the disease.

Adidas has launched a replica of the old-school (and orthopedically crippling) running shoe Terry used during his run, with the cooperation of the Terry Fox Foundation. 6500 pairs are available, at $100 a pop.

Interestingly, the Foundation has taken steps to emphasize that the no profits would be made from the sale of the shoe, and that a detailed statement would be produced to account for each shoe. (see news release here)

In fact, there is a long-standing relationship between Adidas and the Fox family:

“They were there when others were not providing moral support as Terry logged over 5,000 kilometres,” [Darrell] Fox said before giving his brother’s shoe to Adidas as a token of appreciation.” (CP)

This is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Terry’s run, and Adidas, while clearly marketing their brand, is carefully building upon their long-standing relationship with the Fox family - one based on shared goals and a sense of community.

If Terry Fox were attempting his run today, what sort of swag would sponsoring companies make him wear? Headbands during photo ops? Removable logo tattoos?

Journalism and public relations faculties across North America are confronting diverging student attitudes about their future employment prospects. This, apparently, was evident at the latest AEJMC Convention in San Antonio. Ed Wasserman, writing in the Miami Herald, notes:

“Why PR appeals now to young potential reporters no doubt has to do with the heavy cloud of economic gloom hovering over the news business. …

But PR is also promising something else to the young and impressionable: A role in contemporary affairs that’s way beyond message creation, brand maintenance or advocacy. The PR professional is proposed as a senior counselor not just on what is persuasive and effective, but on what is right — as chief integrity officer.

As James Lukaszewski, a PR practitioner who consults on such matters, has written: ‘’The primary goal of public relations will be to create an environment of integrity within organizations.'’ That’s heady stuff.” (Miami Herald, sub. req.)

Abstracts of the papers presented at this year’s AEJMC convention are available, and the papers themselves may become available on the AEJMC archive at some point.

According to a survey of visitors to model homes, conducted for Merillat earlier this year, the “new home shopper is ready to buy.”

This graphic gets the idea across cleanly and clearly - with a hint of retro appeal in the choice of pen design.

You know what the first rule of the disaffected and the ironic is, don’t you? DO NOT QUOTE FROM DILBERT.

Still, Scott Adams took a pretty big swipe at internal comms folks and departmental newsletters yesterday.

Richard Edelman points out that the emperor, in the case of Katrina, is wearing no clothes. Citizen journalism, in the case of the poor and disenfranchised, consists of shouting at CNN cameras and a Mayor driven to the point of despair by apparent neglect and slow response.

“There is no co-creation of the narrative as in London or during the tsunami, where the best content came from participants in the unfolding tragedy. Why? Because the tourists at Phuket were armed with digital video recording devices that could capture the oncoming wave and resulting devastation while the victims of the subway bombing who could snap photos on their cell phones.

Web devotees will point to statistics such as Technorati reporting that seven of the top ten search terms on Tuesday were hurricane-related. Or they will cite Wikipedia, the user generated encyclopedia, as being the authoritative source on the latest developments. But as BBC News reports, “It was not a news story entirely dominated by citizen-led news and images as the London terrorist attacks had been.”

The fact is that we are now seeing the tangible evidence of the digital divide. The poor do not have the means to communicate their situation. You can bet that if David Weinberger or another star blogger were trapped in the Superdome, he or she would have been posting continuously until relief arrived. And those posts would have reached to the highest levels of the media on the very first day of the crisis.”

As for citizen journalism, here is a Livejournal blogger currently in the Astrodome.

Notwithstanding the above, Josh Hallett points out that Public Information Officers, charged with distributing information and directions during a crisis or catastrophe, should make a point to include bloggers in their lists - and even have an RSS feed.

Katrina Kerns is a Ford model. She has wonderful bone structure, and her hair is apparently impervious to repeated abuse at the hands of stylists and high powered wind machines. Oh - and she’s part of Sufjan Steven’s retinue.

But this infomercial makes her seem like a real bonehad.

Zach Klein, who provided the link, notes that her spoken dialogue is actually a palindrome.

“But, it took only a few moments of watching before my balloon of joy was pierced by an arrow of sorrow. Just watch for yourself! Is she a little slow? No no no — the question was really really hard!!!

Would you have gotten into the industry if it weren’t for Model Search America?

If I were her, I would have had my publicist on the phone just seconds after the interview ended, demanding to know why the questions weren’t approved in writing BEFORE the Q and A. Jesus Christ! How personal can those SO-CALLED VIDEO JOURNALISTS get?”

Then again, she may just be overextended, for it appears that she is also a NoCal real estate agent.