Canuckflack

I’m loving the lyrical and logical breakdown of Mims’ This Is Why I’m Hot in the Village Voice.

Richard at Ace Jet 170 has found a novel way to punch up his observations about design type: his Uncommon Knowledge posts have just started up, but they’re presented using the catalog card generator set up by John Blyberg.

Wow. They really keep the local staff at arm’s length at Esso Jamaica:

“A spokesperson at Esso said she was unable to comment at this time as the managing director was off the island. She said the managing director would return next week.” (Jamaica Gleaner)

This was their response to a series of questions posed by the Gleaner in follow-up to a standoff between Esso and their Jamaican dealers last year.

That has to be the most pathetic brush off ever. Jamaica is connected to the rest of the world. What, did the managing director sail off into the distance on a dinghy without a satellite phone? Where in the world could the person go? Guyana?

The managing director is, after all, a country director for Esso. They are always in contact.

That reporter got pwnd. Bad.

Technorati Tags: Esso, Jamaica, spokesperson

Quite a while ago, I studied economic history as one of my specializations at university. I didn’t really have a head for quantitative analysis, or the patience to wait out the drudgery of statistical analysis on a Wintel 286, but I found it interesting.

At the time, I had the feeling that economic history was not a very popular subject, and certainly not among historians. Apparently, that’s still the case. A comment this week wondered aloud about the shift in emphasis from economic history to economic history.

“… Partly, technical innovations in economic methods made it difficult for the untrained to understand the new economic history …Economic history might have moved out of history departments for market reasons as well.

If, to pursue economic history, you had to master technical skills that would make you eligible for an appointment in an economics department, you would probably prefer that to an appointment in a history department: economists get paid more because they’re eligible for employment in government and business as well as universities.” (Darrin McMahon, The New Republic Open University)

OUCH! All those people that were in graduate history studies at the same time as me, doomed to a life of irrelevancy and poor career prospects in the private sector?

I guess the world needs bookstore clerks too, to misquote Judge Smail.

Historians used to lord their writing skills and capacity for thematic analysis over the heads of their economist colleagues. Who wouldn’t prefer a stirring retelling of Catherine the Great’s equine mounts over a dry presentation of recurring tables full of numbers and equations?

Then Steven Levitt, the University of Chicago economist, came along. And he made studying economics seem interesting. And popular. He wasn’t the first economist to accomplish this, but he has drawn a lot of attention. A piece by Noam Scheiber in the latest New Republic refers to Levitt’s influence while discussing the trend among economists to work on simpler and more popular studies:

“… In the search for what’s known as “clean identification”–a situation in which it’s easy to discern the causal forces in play–Levitt has turned to such offbeat contexts as Japanese sumo-wrestling and the seedy world of Chicago real estate. He has studied racial discrimination on “Weakest Link,” a once-popular game show, and reflected on the scourge of white-collar bagel-filching. This has, in turn, inspired a flurry of imitators, including papers on such topics as point-shaving in college basketball, underused gym memberships, and the parking tickets of U.N. diplomats.

Within the frequently tedious body of economics scholarship, these papers stand out as fantastically entertaining. …”

A debate over the conclusions in Scheiber’s piece is developing. Granted, a thorough training in economics also helps prepares you for a career in finance (and, dare I say it, hedge funds?) so there is a greater financial attraction to studying economics rather than history.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to straddle the fence, reading articles from the Journal of Economic History while skipping over those difficult math parts.

A leaflet on a telephone pole. On many telephone poles downtown.

About time that the Anarchists get organized.

Blogger relations programs have moved a little farther up the hype cycle and are, as a result, running into some minor problems. Public relations agencies, old line marketers and word of mouth specialists have been at the game for about two years now, and niche markets have finally begun to overlap.

Example one: I have a friend who is a mommy blogger. She was the grateful recipient of a Nokia N6682 last year. This year, Motorola’s sent her a KRZR.

This would be expected at more focused blogs. For example, you’d expect a travel writer to receive more offers for free travel, or at least a phone call from a charter airline operator.

Mommy blogs, though, seem to be a more valued target for blogger relations programs. Maybe its their open and frank discussion of real-world problems and events with their readers. They certainly fall into the right target demographic.

Clearly what’s needed is some sort of clearinghouse, where PR, marketing and WOM agencies can compare notes on the blogger relations programs currently in the field.

Maybe that’s something the the Welcome Wagon could take over - now that the internet and hyper-effective direct mail have destroyed their marketing model.

Technorati Tags: blogger relations, Nokia program, WOM, Word of Mouth

As the social media monks, acolytes and proselytes run in ever tighter concentric circles chasing the tails of honesty, transparency and conversation, we need to pause and remember the greater world that surrounds our very small community.

Take, for example, the billions of people who have very little exposure to modern consumer society. While we obsess about the potential uptake for podcasts and blogs, there are villages considering buying washing detergent or headache powder for the first time.

“Unilever figures that 1.2 billion consumers will buy packaged goods for the first time by 2010 — most of them in the developing world. … Each week, 40,000 people in Asia use a washing machine for the first time.” (WSJ)

Even more significantly, sometimes a blog is simply a tool for a dispersed team to share news of life and death amongst themselves.

Technorati Tags: Digital and Social Media Syndrome, DSMS, Shutdown Day, Moratorium March

Do you remember the story of Ragu Pasta Sauce? How Howard Moskowitz‘ scientific experimentation helped the company expand its product line to over 30 different varieties? Malcolm Gladwell mentioned it in The Tipping Point (and here he discusses it at TED 2004) and elsewhere.

Well, Moskowitz explains the history of sensory evaluation and experimentation as part of the Technometria with Phil Windley podcast. Moskowitz is energetic about his subject, and the nearly hour-long podcast just zips by.

For more information: the Sensory Evaluation blog.

Technorati Tags: brand, Moskowitz, Gladwell, Ragu, sensory evaluation

How does an industry react to calls for change - like improved safety monitoring or increased regulatory oversight? More particular to public relations and public affairs types - are predictable rhetorical tactics rolled out in response to these sorts of challenges?

Chris Hoofnagle prepared a paper on these tactics as part of his work as a consumer protection lawyer.

If you can imagine the most nervous and change-averse organization, then the Denialists’ Deck of Cards will likely seem familiar.

“In this context, denialism is the use of rhetorical techniques and predictable tactics to erect barriers to debate and consideration of any type of reform, regardless of the facts. Giveupblog.com has identified five general tactics used by denialists: conspiracy, selectivity, the fake expert, impossible expectations, and metaphor.

The Denialists’ Deck of Cards builds upon this description by providing specific examples of advocacy techniques. The point of listing denialists’ arguments in this fashion is to show the rhetorical progression of groups that are not seeking a dialogue but rather an outcome. As such, this taxonomy is extremely cynical, but it is a reflection of and reaction to how poor the public policy debates in Washington have become. ” (Social Science Research Network)”

(Pointer from Center for Media and Democracy, original post by Chris Hoofnagle on his blog)

And why don’t I get crate after crate of Cadbury’s creme eggs delivered to my office? Oh - because I work for the government.

(cross-posted to my new blog, SoSaidThe.Organization, which is dedicated to government communications)

Crispin, Porter & Bogusky has quit the Miller account.

“We just have fundamental differences over creative and strategy,” Alex Bogusky, chief creative officer at Crispin, said in a statement released this afternoon. “And although we made every attempt to find common ground, the process of multilayered approvals of creative and strategy has made doing work we can be proud of increasingly difficult. So it seems to be in the best interest of both parties to part ways. We wish them the very best.”

In other words, death by committee. Oh - and beer commercials don’t need to be too cerebral to be successful. Don’t overthink the buzz, man!

Technorati Tags: CP&B, Miller, beer ads, viral isn’t golden

Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Oh - and Fox News would like you to wear a tie, please. this from The Hill newspaper:

“Men have to get it right, too. They “can’t wear a suit that’s purple,” [Fox News’ Megyn Kelly] says, but a purple necktie or one with patterns is good. A blue shirt looks exceptionally good on TV — Bill Hemmer, Kelly’s co-anchor, “has about 30 different shades of blue for ties and they all look great,” she says.”

Sure. And Bill Hemmer also looks like “the frat boy most likely to be left behind naked at the grocery store during Rush Week.”

“On last Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Richard Perle, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, wore a blinding orange tie with a matching leather watchstrap. Didn’t work.

… And forget about going sleeveless. “I object to seeing any armpits on air. I don’t need to see that.”

That’s sleeveless for women, I hasten to point out. No-one needs to see Richard Perle in a sleeveless blouse.

Department stores can live and die by the quality of their back rooms: the change room, the bathroom, and the back office.

Paul has pointed this out before.

J.C. Penney’s is getting a lot of love for its vivacious new Saatchi ads.

Of course, when you start with the bar set very low, anything at all creative is a tremendous leap forward.

Technorati Tags: J.C. Penney’s, Saatchi, Lovemarks

In London, WPP”s Sir Martin Sorrell is dragging his former country chief for Italy, Marco Benatti, into the dock for libel. In Chicago, Lord Crossharbour is being tried for fraud and racketeering. His wife, Lady Barbara Amiel Black, is along for the ride and moral support. One side is enjoying the spotlight. The other appears to be barely holding on.

“At one point, Mr. Sorrell bounds out of the courtroom declaring, “I love to see lawyers wriggle.” Later, he mischievously taunts journalists by saying we were “missing a treat.” (AdAge)

It’s easy for Sorrell: he’s chasing payback for some apparently scurrilous allegations Benatti and a colleague posted about him.

For the Blacks, this is a trial long in the making. Lord Crossharbour’s media empire started falling apart three years ago, and the lawsuits began flowing soon after.

It seems that Lady Black finds the constant attention from an international corps of journalists a little more offputting than Sir Martin:

“Forced to travel from the courtroom in a lift packed with journalists, Lady Black said: “You journalists are vermin. I used to be a journalist and I didn’t doorstep people and I didn’t hold my nose in the elevator.”

It was a producer from the Canadian television broadcaster CBC who appeared to trigger the tirade. Lady Black shouted at her “you slut”. Alana Black, who is Lord Black’s daughter from his first marriage, giggled during the incident.” (Independent)

She lost me when she pandered to her 24 year old stepdaughter’s sense of humour. Much less Oscar Wilde, much more Dan Akroyd. On top of that, she insulted the journalist while the elevator doors were closing. Class act, eh?
A selection of Conrad Black’s quotes, courtesy of the Toronto Star.

(congrats to Eric Eggertson for his namedrop in a Canadian Press story)

Technorati Tags: Sorrell, WPP, courtroom behavior, courtroom behaviour, Amiel Black

An airline is an extremely complex system developed to manage complex technology and effectively manage risk and, frequently, the human element can be lost in the machinery. Despite some recent problems, it’s evident that Southwest Airlines has taken a conscious approach to ensuring the lines of communication are reinforced within the system - both with employees as well as customers.

Fred Taylor is Southwest’s senior manager of proactive customer communications, and his job is to explain delays, incidents and worrisome smells to customers. As well, he writes an internal report to help other employees explain these service problems.

One of the keys to his success is direct contact with the senior operations officers. Like most communications officers, he had a hard time nailing down the straight facts at first.

“…  Over time, he won their trust. “When something goes wrong, Fred is one of the first people I call,” said Steve West, senior director in the operations control center. Mr. Taylor then gets word out to the rest of the company about what happened. “And my phone will stop ringing,” Mr. West said.

Mr. Taylor, despite that access, tries to keep the customer’s point of view. In his daily report he wrote of a San Diego-to-Las Vegas flight that was diverted to Los Angeles on Nov. 17 because the landing gear would not stay in the wheel well.

“The landing was routine from a piloting perspective. The customers’ perspective was another story,” he wrote, because they had been told to assume the brace position on landing. “We’ll send a follow-up explanation and an apology for scaring the stuffing out of these customers.”  (NYTimes)

YOU MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO! Your life discussed, in a constant refrain, with plenty of sexy animated Venn diagrams. GO NOW. NOW! Le Grand Content is inspired by indexed.blogspot.com. Pointer from talent imitates, genius steals.

In the same theme (and from the comments at ti,gs) What Does Marcellus Wallace Look Like?

PlanningLondonLifeStuff has four great slides that help explain the fundamental role of communications: Awareness; Salience; Relevance; Engagement.

The Ten Biggest Cocks in British Advertising (that means idiots, not appendage. Come on, people!) - from BBC4’s Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe

Technorati Tags: account planning, venn diagrams, communications, presentation, bad ads, marcellus wallace

• Advocacy Calls vs. Push Polls (and DON’T call them push polls) from Stuart Rothenberg. “As I have argued every year for the past five and apparently will have to continue doing until I have taken my last breath, push polls are really advocacy calls aimed at thousands of recipients. They are like television or radio ads, except they are delivered over the telephone. They seek to convey positive or negative information to influence a voter’s final vote decision.”

• Not wanted at SXSW: NO MAN PURSES!
  

• Latest WebTrenz from the San Francisco Bay Guardian: “Using micropayments, Annoturk helps you pay people in the developing world very tiny amounts of money to annotate all the information on all the wikis you’re supposed to be using. It’s like micro-outsourcing. You might pay 50 cents to a guy in Sri Lanka to add historical information about Lowell, Mass., to a wiki devoted to an upcoming Boston-area conference you’re planning. Or you could pay kids in China’s Shandong province to write small articles about every noun on your work-collaboration wiki. Annoturk is good for the developing world, and it’s good for writing. Plus, it’s just convenient when you’re trying to fill up space with information.” (it’s a joke, folks)
  

I would suggest that the practice of hiring someone to pump up your wiki could be called “wiki baking.”

• More SXSW: Lee LeFever on community lessons from SXSW and Community 2.0; Chris Carfi liveblogs the SXSW session on Community Ecology; SXSW Interactive podcasts

Technorati Tags: push polls, advocacy, man purses, wiki baking, community ecology, communities

Even as the bleeding-edge johnny on the spots continue to preach transparency, responsiveness and honesty to any and all considering a corporate presence through any type of social media, it is useful to refer to similar experiences in the offline world. Like Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia, who have been reflecting customer needs and interests for fifty years.

Chouinard gave the 2006 Von Gugelberg Memorial Environmental Lecture at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in October (the podcast just came out, but the video is available on Stanford’s site). Chouinard made the point, repeatedly, that a publicly held company would have a hard time repeating Patagonia’s example, simply because of the pressures for quarterly performance - to the detriment of the long term planning needed to implement sustainable practices.

Even with a company full of dedicated staff and clearly set goals for sustainability, transparency and responsiveness, Chouinard emphasized that criticism will continue:

“…leading an examined life like that, where you have to questions everything you do, is a real pain in the ass, let me tell you!” (Social Innovation Conversations podcast)

That’s an important observation for all of us, as we argue for companies to experiment with social media.

It’s been above 5 degrees celcius for more than 24 hours now, we can see the brown grass under the snow, and there’s a hint of spring in the air. Where are my summertime pop hits? What’s the buzz? Who’s going to be the flash-in-the-pan sensation of 2007?

Wave Babies. California Girls. When It’s Over. Steal My Sunshine. All high quality summertime pop. And fine videos (for their time) to support them.

What does a good summertime video need?

• scooters and/or a convertible
• a band with more than three members
• a catchy CasioTone backbeat
• at least one shot of a crowd pretending to dance to the song
• swimsuits and sand
• a band member being dragged out of a crappy job to go party with the others
• go-karts
• maybe one band member being mercilessly mocked by the others
• brother/sister act
• shots taken at a Six Flags park actually open to - you know- real people

What we don’t need in a summertime video:

• some jackass with a scraggly beard
• more than one shot with an exposed brick wall
• any shot of a basement apartment
• Randy Newman
• irony (fake interview of band; simulated rise and fall of band; faux 80s look)
• ostentatious flash of bling
• too many Abercrombie & Fitch hoodies

As for last summer, folks, I’m still up in the air about Lily Allen. Some of her music was a little whiny sounding, maybe a little too dark, to qualify for real summertime pop status. (Although I did like her cover of The Specials’ Blank Expression)

Technorati Tags: summertime music, pop, video

It’s not that I’m a twitter hater.

It’s that my friends are.

They’re a very bad influence on me.

At least that what’s my mom says.

She won’t let them come over.

I don’t have anyone to play on the Amiga anymore.

Technorati Tags: twitter, twitter hater

Don’t you find the Scandinavian trainee managers at Ikea slightly offputting? Seriously, those guys (and gals) need a joy buzzer. A serious drunken bender. Or for Ikea to introduce a conveniently priced, attractively packaged and cleanly designed series of personal “massage” products.

Actually, now that I think about it, their quiet and determined demeanour reminds me of someone with a massive hangover, just trying to make it through the day quickly and quietly. Who knows what those crazy Swedes, thousands of kilometers from home, get up to at night?

Getting back to my post: bringing new meaning to the term “markets for everything” : two completely made up clowns were strolling through the Ottawa Ikea this past Sunday afternoon.

That’s them at the checkout line.

There’s a lot of symmetry between the colours found at Ikea and on a clown, don’t you think?

Technorati Tags: clowns, Ikea, market for everything

Sometimes the music industry can be, you know, a real sack of snakes. Jeff Vrabel, via Jefito.

Trilling, by Catherine Ross. “Trilling recombines footage from the early 80s sitcom “Three’s Company” into a sequence of travelling gestural loops. Trumpeter Taylor Haskins collaborated on the audio track, creating a unique improvisational response to each clip.” I also like the older “Waiting Work.” (via David Byrne)

“I got into a fight at the Marina Safeway” … with Orville Reddenbacher. (the comments are even better than the self-centred rant)

Stanford swim coach punishes swimmers who have fallen out of favour with him … by deleting their achievements from the Stanford media guide?

By the way, the hour-long discussion between Russell Davies, Richard Huntington and Mark Earls - all reknown account planners - is well worth the time.

Hey. Aren’t you tired of writing the same boring, careful, formulaic sets of questions of answers? Have to prepare for an upcoming news conference? Better grind through a set of dirty Qs & As to steel the execs. Building a new web site? Better whip out some ready FAQs to lead the blind and unwilling.

I often find writing questions and answers very dull work (except for the occasional thrill of inserting a question I know my clients will either find impossible or impossibly uncomfortable to answer).

That’s why I grabbed “I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews” off the library shelf this week. Warhol’s approach to the utilitarian question and answer session could swing from barely responsive to creatively destructive: he would break out of the boundaries of the interview - often by drawing other members of his Factory group into the conversation, or by consciously undermining the implied authority of the interviewer by producing his own microphone and tape recorder.

There are many well-known quotes from his interviews. I’ve pulled from two pieces in the book: I may pull out more as I work through it.

Warhol on the routine of the interview genre:

“Interviews are like sitting in those Ford machines at the World’s Fair that toured you around while someone spoke a commentary; I always feel that my words are coming from behind me, not from me. The interviewer should just tell me the words he wants me to say and I’ll repeat them after him. I think that would be so great because I’m so empty I just can’t think of anything to say.” (”Andy Warhol:My True Story”, by Gretchen Berg)

Warhol, being interviewed interviewed by Tape Recording magazine, on his first impressions after using the new video recording technology:

Tape Recording (TR): How will video tape affect home movies?

Warhol: It will replace home movies …

TR: Have you recorded from a television set with the video recorder?

Warhol: Yes. This is so great. We’ve done it both direct and form the screen. Even the pictures from the screen are terrific …

TR: What else can people do with their home video recorders?

Warhol: Make the best pornography movies. It’s going to be so great.

TR: You think Mr. and Mrs. America will …

Warhol: Yes. And they’ll have their friends in to show them.

TR: Any other things you like about the video recorder?

Warhol: Oh, yes. You can spy on people with it, too. I believe in television. It’s going to take over from movies. … (”Pop Goes the Videotape: an Underground Interview with Andy Warhol,” by Richard Ekstract)

Technorati Tags: interview, Warhol, Gretchen Berg, question and answer, Q&A

British Home Secretary John Reid is defending the government’s plan to crack down on illegal immigrants, including those who have overstayed their visa. One innovation to be implemented is sending reminders by text message to people who fail to renew their visa - or choose to ignore its expiry.

“… The measures outlined include plans for stopping people overstaying their visas by sending text message reminders to their mobile phones. A three-month pilot scheme of the idea is due to begin next month. (Independent)

via Jeremy Wagstaff

Political criticism via YouTube - “In the Navy” recut to criticize Peter Debnam and the New South Wales Liberal party. Unattributed, but apparently produced by the National Union of Workers. Not nearly as funny as “Peter Debnam’s Crazy Civil Service Sale,” produced by the Public Service Association.

Here’s a political scandal that could be branded “Canadian Style” - except that it’s causing problems over in New York State - the Lobbying Commissioner was caught taking most of his office to an afternoon session of curling, then demanding to know who tipped off the TV cameras that showed up. And no, that isn’t a euphemism for anything. So stay away from my rocks, and keep outta my house!

“I am Ninja” theme song, extended version, as performed by the Neu Tickles on MySpace. Funny, entertaining, and the lead singer looks like a seedy Ben Stiller impersonator.

For some reason, I feel a real affinity for account planners. Maybe it’s my daytime role as a communications advisor to government policy shops. That’s why I like this promo reel for the IPA Effectiveness Awards 2007 via Organic Frog and Serendipity Books.

“Andrew was born, with a planet-sized brain …from an early age, he realized he wasn’t the same … when all the other kids played robbers and cops, he busied himself researching trends … the career’s advice ‘become an advertising planner, you’d be good at it!” … the planner with the planet-sized brain, take the complicated and make it plain, … he intellectualizes, for clients of all sizes …“

100 Greatest Basslines of all time, via Meme Huffer.

Technorati Tags: Peter Debnam, Aussie politics, AskaNinja, Ninja, account planners, IPA, curling, government ethics

What are we talking about? Blogs? I present quotes taken out of context:

“How do you think your work differs from traditional journalism? We’re taking the tools of journalism and applying them to people whom you wouldn’t normally apply them to — people who aren’t famous, people who aren’t powerful, people just like you and me.

What are you talking about? Journalism has always had human-interest stories. But a newspaper probably wouldn’t run an article where a cop remembers one weird incident with a squirrel when he was a rookie. That’s too far from any kind of normal news hook.

What’s so great about flashbacks to encounters with squirrels? We’re documenting things with no particularly uplifting social mission. The mission is that of an ambitious novel or movie: to point out universal feelings and moments.

Do you write fiction? I didn’t have any particular talent for fiction. I took a class in college.

Do you read fiction? No. No. No. No. I don’t know how to read. I get all my news from Jon Stewart everyday.

from: “Questions for Ira Glass, New York Times Magazine.” Talking about his NPR radio show, “This American Life.”

Hey folks. Know what I’ve noticed? Bloggers are most likely to post a critical word or a sarcastic riposte under two conditions:

• a big company with a global brand identity
• a person or company far, far away from your keyboard.

Either way, a blogger minimizes his/her chance of confrontation.

Sure, there are plenty of exceptions. There are some global brands who respond positively to criticism. And there are bloggers who concentrate on local subjects.

But sometimes, the biggest target is the easiest target. And if you swim with the pack, the chances of being singled out are much smaller.

Technorati Tags: bloggers are wimps, blog authority, criticism

Social media (and apparently poor customer service) bites local company in the ass. Back in November, I wrote a positive post about the lawn signage put up by a local snowblowing company, Tony’s Snowblowing. (Pimp my (Snowblower) Ride).

Judging from the negative comments piling up on that post, and elsewhere, the company has bitten off more than it can chew. (The <