Canuckflack

For a long time, people told Chicken Little that he was too much of a downer, that he only saw the glass as half-full. He was always telling prospective clients that they had to get ready for the next big problem, that life was about to deal their shareholders a swift kick in the ‘nads.

But then the plucky little communications professional found his niche: preparing unsuspecting businesses to battle the inevitable online assault on their reputation.

His elevator pitch was very 2005:

“Do you have ten minutes to discuss the unfortunate story of Kryptonite?”

You know the rest of the story: open source solutions presented as proprietary, per diems, markups on technical suppliers, teleconferences, and a credenza full of lucite plaques, quills, pens, and awards of merit.

Oh, and a rough carpet of astroturf everywhere.

Technorati Tags: identity, social media consultancy, crisis, social media expert, astroturf

Remember the faux news conference put on by FEMA last month to brief about the response to the California wildfires?

The Department of Homeland Security has completed an “internal investigation,” and some people have fallen under the bus.

Apparently, some poor decisions were taken in deciding to hold a news conference at short notice, then, when reporters could not make it in time, have agency communications staff substitute for reporters by lobbing questions at the Deputy Administrator.

“Much like in an airline crash or automobile accident that was reconstructed, there were several different points leading up to the press conference where, had a single decision been made differently, the event itself could have been averted,” [DHS spokesperson Russ] Knocke said Thursday (AP, via TPM)

Wow. We get a pretty clear impression of what Knocke thinks of how the news conference rolled out. All it needs is a soundtrack. And Gil Grissom.

There have been repurcussions. The man who was FEMA’s press secretary (read his Potomac Flacks profile) will be working for a public relations agency in Utah (For those of you keeping track at home, that’s Washington to Utah in three weeks). The Director of External Relations had been scheduled to take up a new job with Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That job fell through.

There’s a couple of hints in the AP story that the FEMA staffers fell victim, in part, to a predetermined PR strategy and poor communications between the press shops at FEMA and DHS:

• DHS had asked the agency to hold a press conference before the DHS Secretary and the FEMA Administrator landed in California that day; and
• FEMA’s press secretary had sent an email to his boss and the DHS official responsible for communications, asking for more time - but only 43 minutes before the scheduled start of the news conference.

In the end, the comms shop had about 75 minutes to put the news conference together. Which makes you wonder why they didn’t just allow callers on the teleconference call to ask questions.

The Director of External Relations has begun to speak up in his own defense, particularly in PRWeek. PRWatch provides some other comments from him, which unfortunately don’t sound very convincing.

And, to top it off, the FEMA Administrator seems to imply that the career civil servants could have prevented their bosses from pursuing this course of action:

“Those are career people. They should have stepped up and said something, they really should have. But their bosses said ‘Do this,’ and they did it — some reluctantly, but there’s no excuses for that,” Paulison said. He called the impact on FEMA’s credibility “devastating.” (Washington Post)

This is what happens when you try to throw a media briefing together very quickly - and execute your strategy rather strangely. Unfortunately, the execution has coloured our impression of FEMA’s attempts to get information about the California wildfires out quickly.

And that hits to the heart of effective crisis communications.

Technorati Tags: FEMA, puppet theatre, DHS

Wondering what exactly is happening with the writer’s strike in California? Stee at Plaintive Wail has a running narrative of the strike and his work on the picket lines.

“… I also got into an email battle with the super-douchey reporter Dave McNary whose coverage of the strike in the trade rag Variety has been as slanted as a San Francisco hill. I haven’t been compelled to write a stern letter in a long time, but he pissed me off like no one since some stupid TV Guide critic thought Silver Spoons* was unrealistic. And now it’s REALLY easy to send a stern letter over email. Especially when the reporter has a button you can just click that opens up a mail document already addressed to him.” (Plaintive Wail)

You might expect it from the Writers Guild of America, but they’ve produced a solid video explaining why they’ve hit the bricks:

*You really have to watch the Silver Spoons video I linked. It has Ricky Schroeder and Alfonso Riberio breakdancing!

Technorati Tags: writer’s strike, wga, hollywood, ricky schroeder

Opposition party operatives have always trailed candidates during elections - Canadian as well as American. As technology has become cheaper, the level of data collection has increased. Just ask former Senator George Allen. It’s the YouTube primary.

Even Duke’s in the game. Today, he offers advice on how YouTube could help Senator-in-limbo Larry Craig get out of his predicament:

Cartoon from Doonesbury, naturally.

An additional tactic to respond to YouTube crises, and something I missed when it was originally floated on American politics blogs back in June: flooding the zone.

“… To flood the zone, upload dozens and dozens of random videos which have absolutely nothing to do with the clip you’re trying to make “disappear.” The real strength of the clips you’re uploading isn’t to respond directly to the video, but to confuse the YouTube user and make it impossible for them to find the video they’re looking for. The one thing every campaign can count on is that any web user has a slight case of undiagnosed ADD (attention deficit disorder). If they don’t find what they’re looking for seconds after the search has begun, they’ll tire, and give up the search …” (David All)

Wow. Just like having a “black site” in your back pocket, ready for an emergency, do you have a staffer maintaining dozens of YouTube identities, waiting to deploy them in a flood?

Or is that something you hire a consultant for?

Comments in the many references to David All’s original blog post note that Google’s ranking algorithm wouldn’t be fooled by this strategy, and that most YouTube videos spread virally - the correct link would be bounced from inbox to twittr account, oblivious to the flood of moronic fog.

Zinedine Zidane. The Rugby World Cup. The New Zealand All Blacks, perhaps the best rugby team in the world. A nice public relations campaign organized by Adidas in France to build awareness and create an opportunity for French fans to meet a soccer god and rugby behemoths.

Too bad some of the largest news agencies and chains in the world boycotted the event.

It’s the result of a battle that pits some of the biggest names in traditional wire journalism against major sporting organizations - all because of the increasing pressure from fans and audiences for up-to-the-minute coverage of major sporting events online and on 24 hour sports channels.

The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse and others are very upset that the International Rugby Board is trying to impose restrictions on coverage of the World Cup by media organizations that are not paid sponsors of the event.

“… The agencies are fighting against IRB media restrictions such as that no organisation can post more than 40 images or three minutes of news conference or “locker room” video online during any match.” (Guardian)

The members of the news coalition are boycotting all events and promotions leading up to the World Cup, which begins today. They are pressuring the IRB to lessen the restrictions imposed upon media accredited to cover the World Cup. The French government has weighed in, as has the European Commission.

The IRB is arguing that similar conditions are already imposed by the Olympics and the soccer World Cup. After all, commercial considerations must be taken into account:

“We think our rules are fair to everyone, to those who pay for the privilege to buy certain rights which helps us reinvest in the game, and also to those who get to come along without paying any rights fees [said Mike Miller, Chairman of the World Cup].” [AFP]

The full detail of their statement is available online, and the explicit mention of news and photo distribution by mobile phone underlines the central role media disintermediation plays in this dispute.

Unfortunately, the boycott will mean that coverage of the World Cup will be restricted to those organizations that have bought access through sponsorships or are driven to cover the event by their rugby-mad readers (like the Welsh, the Australians, the New Zealanders and the Brits).

In North America, rugby will continue to struggle for attention in the thin oxygen of the subscription sports channels.
On the other hand, this is the first time, in four years of blogging, that I have used disintermediation in a post. Yay me!

Technorati Tags: rugby, Adidas, International Rugby Board, All Blacks, World Cup boycott

“‘Death by Chocolate’ cookies could be hazardous…Bella Cucina’s Death by Chocolate cookies contain walnuts, which are not declared on the label and could be hazardous to anyone with nut allergies…” (CBC.ca)

And that’s why the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued an allergy alert about the cookies.

Interesting sidebar: this allergy alert has created problems for a completely separate cookie company based out of Delaware with an unfortunately common name.

“Bella Cucina… is not affiliated with a separate cookie company in Delaware called Bella’s Cookies. Recent news releases surfacing about the mislabeling in Bella Cucina’s “Death by Chocolate Cookies,” has search engines retrieving combinations of words like “Bella” & “Cookies”… Bella’s Cookies in Delaware is a completely different company…

Thanks,
Mark Leishear
Director of Sales & Marketing, Bella’s Cookies”

That comment from the Delaware company was posted in response to another blog posting that noted the allergy alert for the Canadian company.

Bella’s Cookies is responding quickly to a potential problem, and the rapid response may be a reflection of their effort to establish a solid online presence.

Mark Leishear, the gentleman quoted above, is the principle author on a Bella’s cookies blog. Makes sense, since he and his partner run the company. They’ve also created a Squidoo lens, and Leishear’s been loading a YouTube profile with cookie-friendly content.

So far, the Delaware company seems to be winning the Google juice battle.

Technorati Tags: recall, consumer safety, risk communication, chocolate cookie, comment policy, organic

When the I-35 bridge collapsed last week, the local alternative newspaper City Pages had already printed its weekly edition. The editors, journalists and photographers turned to their existing blog to report on the disaster.

AAN.ORG interviewed Editor in Chief Kevin Hoffman. Here are some excerpts:

What advantages did the blog medium offer your staffers in developing this story?

“Alternative weeklies have historically been at a disadvantage in covering breaking news, because of the delayed publication schedule. But with the Internet, that’s changing. The blog allowed us to file stories in real time, as it was happening …

How have you publicized this blog to the community?

We haven’t really had to publicize it. We have a very web savvy audience, and a fairly high Google ranking, so it was more a matter of providing fresh content throughout the day for people to read. Links from other blogs sent traffic to us, and readers even began digging through our archives, finding new relevance in old stories about our transportation infrastructure.”

Wow. What a month for professional sports. Which is the worst personal failing currently staining the reputation and future of a professional sport?

• Jordan and Eric Staal, two National Hockey League players are booked for “harassing passing motorists” after a bachelor party in Minnesota (that’s right - NHL players go to Minn. to party!)
• National Basketball League referee Tim Donaghy is accused of fixing basketball games he both officiated AND bet on;
• Michael Vick, the quarterback for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, is implicated in a horrid dog fighting training camp;
• The parade of bicyclists caught doping just continues, effectively eliminating the race leader and three Top-5 contenders from the Tour de France.

The crisis management skills at NHL head office aren’t being called upon, but every other sport has been facing a nightmare.

I bet Barry Bonds is glad everyone chipped in to overshadow the great debate over whether Bud Selig will be at the ball park when Bonds breaks the great career home run record.

Technorati Tags: NFL, NHL, Staal, NBA, Tour de France, bicycling

From The Friendly Ghost, a lesson that a truly prepared guest can counter an aggressive interviewer. An interview between Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys and Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador to Afghanistan, sputtered for a moment when the diplomat supported his arguments with fresh reporting from the BBC’s own website:

“…A short way into the piece, with Humphrys trying his best to put him off his stride, my ears pricked up because Cowper-Coles suddenly said “You only to have to see your own website this morning where quoted on it is an Afghan villager on a superb feature on the BBC website saying the Taliban is the biggest threat to the future of Afghanistan.”

“That’s brilliant,” I thought. “He’s saying ‘this is what you’re broadcasting on your own site - and I’ve been prepared enough to read it. I’m using your own techniques against you.’”

Cowper-Coles arrived for the interview with facts and personal anecdotes to support his position. This sort of preparation should be second nature for any communications specialist and spokesperson - and will help prepare them for any tense or confrontational moments during an interview.

The audio is on the BBC site - and his quote is right up front.

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)

Let’s get back to how KFC is handling the rats in their kitchen crisis. Unfortunately, the rats footage has already been mashed up, and I have to warn you, there’s a fairly disturbing picture of the Colonel getting his face gnawed off.

The videos prepared by the KFC executives are an honest first start. Still, popular expectations are changing. An earnest and sincere spokesperson is not enough: YouTube has upped the stakes. A viral video that has caught fire, I’m arguing, demands a response that includes new and contemporary qualities:

• basic honesty, visualized. The trappings of corporate America, including corporate offices, large desks, carefully positioned flags, reassuring family photos in wood frames and wood panelling no longer impart authority. A spokesperson should acknowledge the facts and the impact of events on their business or community - without much varnish or camera trickery.
• a glimmer of a sense of humour. I don’t mean knee slapping or sight gags, but a spokesperson should be able to see and reflect the absurdity of some situations. After all, if we expect honesty and truthiness from corporations, shouldn’t they be able to call out the raving masses on the ridiculousness of some situations?
• more context. Standalone videos won’t work anymore. Corporate communications shops and crisis consultants need to include more contextual information in their videos: shot on location, with other company managers, affected suppliers or even community stakeholders.
• a relaxed script, if one is needed at all. People need to have a heart-to-heart with their lawyers. Unless significant corporate harm will come from a frank and open statement, the lawyers should be held off. And if the lawyers feel that strongly about the consequences, then maybe the company needs to re-examine its viability on a going-forward basis.
• open access. Stop putting the damn things behind Flash players, or hidden deep in corporate websites. Or is this a weakness of the wire services, who haven’t figured out how to make this type of crisis response video available to all audiences in a convenient manner?
• interactivity. How do you expect your customers to react? How will your company respond to public discussion of the crisis and your response? Under the traditional crisis response model, your spokespersons made themselves available to local or trade media, and maybe even arranged community forums and information sessions to field questions. How is that old model being translated to the brave new world? Or are you just throwing your arms up in the air (and waving them like you just don’t care)?

As a community service, I provide a sample script for an improved KFC ad:

[open to grainy, HD camcorder shot of a quiet New York street. Delivery trucks are dropping off fresh food. People are just coming out of their buildings and down the street on the way to work]

[grainy shots of a KFC/Taco Bell franchise. There’s activity inside. Following script is NOT rehearsed. It’s only a suggestion.]

Voiceover: My name is Gregg Dedrick. I’m the President of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[shot of Dedrick and an employee arriving at franchise. Interview takes place on doorstep of franchise.]

Dedrick: This is Madeup Namehere. She’s the morning manager at this franchise. She and 40 other hard working New Yorkers arrive here every day to provide you with quick and filling meals. This same routine happens at XX other franchises across the city.

Madeup Namehere: Running a restaurant in New York is difficult. Every New Yorker knows we all fight a daily battle against dirt, pollution and critters. Obviously, some little bastards got through. But we never stop. We track them down, day by day. We talk to our neighbours about prevention strategies. We bring in the hired guns.

Dedrick: KFC is behind Madeup Namehere and all her coworkers. We have high standards for quality and cleanliness, and never stop trying to improve them. We will not open our restaurants in Manhattan until we make sure they are comfortable for all our customers … with two legs.

I know this can appear contrived and “spun.” The spirit, though, is to present a more human face to a problem and its solution.

Alternate Ending:

Madeup Namehere: I’ve heard what our neighbours are saying. That the local taquerias don’t have the same problems with rats. That the personal touch at your local bodega/taqueria means higher quality food and cleaner facilities.

Give me a break! The only reason taquerias don’t have a carpet of rats greeting you every day is because of the cats - the cats that they’re storing for the Friday lunch platter special. For realz, people!

Technorati Tags: KFC, rats in the kitchen, Yum!

Looks like Yum Brands is tackling the latest health crisis in its portfolio a little more seriously. First there was the spinach scare at Taco Bell, now a scurry of rats at a KFC/Taco Bell in Manhattan.

KFC has a direct link to information on the situation in New York on its main web page. Below that, there’s a link to a video from Yum! Brands President Emil Brolick, and buried somewhere in the site is a link to a video from KFC President Gregg Dedrick.

To quote Dedrick: “We believe we have the highest quality hygiene standards at each of our restaurants, and that they are being followed” … well, expect for that one in Greenwich Village.

This is still a traditional crisis response, however. The two videos are the now-standard “executive with an unbuttoned shirt appeared concerned, with very little hand or head movement” variety. At least we’ve moved away from the “authority figure in a sports jacket behind a very serious desk” model. Unfortunately, they both appear to have been filmed outside the executive’s office. (Or, in Dedrick’s case, outside a suburban hotel’s conference room.)

What’s missing is the visual. Viewers on countless television websites, file sharing sites and the ubiquitous YouTube can watch the rat revelry in full glorious colour. You think Dedrick could have flown over to New York to film his video on site - thereby demonstrating action rather than a simple recitation of a text? Or even head on down to the demonstration kitchen at HQ in Louisville?

ON TOP OF THAT - both the videos are embedded in a Flash player. Might as well start off the video with a rolling text that says “we want to appear concerned, but really don’t want to share control of this messaging with anyone at all. Please listen to this and go away. Or maybe navigate over to review our tempting specials for the chicken snacker.”

I may post a draft script for such an on-site video later today.

Judging from the statements, YUM and KFC have thrown the NY franchise holder under the bus in this case. The action plan seems to emphasize ensuring that the area franchisee gets his stores up to standard, and seeks to limit the collateral brand damage to only the NY area.

That distinction, while useful to the corporate folks in Louisville, means very little to actual consumers.

I am a loyal Taco Bell customer, and I STILL haven’t returned to the restaurant chain - even though none of last year’s e.coli contamination took place up at restaurants in Canada. I am picking up my information from traditional and online media, who are more than happy to pass on gross stories like “rat in the kitchen.” (wasn’t that a mid-80s reggae tune?)

Yum! seems to be straddling the technological divide between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. And that doesn’t work. The consumer is no longer slow to react, and the impact to the bottom line can be immediate and cumulative. Bad news is no longer a drop in the sea: the ripples go on until a larger wave swamps them.

Technorati Tags: KFC, Taco Bell, YUM, Rats in New York, Kentucky Fried Chicken

Jet Blue is trying its hardest to correct the damage done to its reputation. Let’s take a quick look at how TJ Maxx and its Canadian subsidiary, Winners, are pointing to information online after a stunning loss of customer data.

One text line. That’s it. Not even a starburst to attract the reader’s attention. The priority on the page continues to be corporate gabspeak aimed at a vaguely defined consumer audience, with details of growing customer security issues buried TWO links behind that one line headline.

Details like:

• even more security breaches in 2005 and 2003; and
• if you made a return in 2003 and 2004, your driver’s licence may be compromised.

That’s right. If you actually found some of the products at Winners or TJ Maxx wanting, you may be at HIGHER risk of complete identity theft, rather than just losing money on your credit card.

Now, TJ Maxx has been extremely detailed and open about how they are reacting to the breach and have called in some powerful consultancies to drill down into how the company handles personal data. Still, their online presence doesn’t reflect a corporate spirit to make information about the breach front and centre.

EVEN BETTER: I’d like to link to the detailed news release, but the primary link is a JAVA link, which then leads to a pop-up, which has further JAVA links. The news release isn’t even available in the media/press pages on either the TJ Maxx or Winners sites. The only link is off the parent company’s site, which I’m sure most consumers don’t know about.

I thought the normal way to bury bad news was to make negative information only available from your online media room: it seems that TJ Maxx and Winners have found a way to make access even more difficult.

Last thing you want is someone linking to such bad news, after all. Especially news that compounds the impact of previous reporting.

Technorati Tags: TJ Maxx, credit card fraud, Winners, identity theft, bad customer service

• The Blogtrotters: behind the scenes at Umbria, trend trackers and blog monitoring service. (Denver Westword)
• Playing Dirty: the inside scoop on the role public relations industry in selling the “made in Canada” solution to global warming. It’s a full colonic, including a discussion of astroturfing and how the technique is used in policy lobbying by the big PR consultancies. (This Magazine)
• Phoning it in on a lazy Sunday: the NYT runs the yearly story on how tshirts and caps - preprinted with the loser’s logo - end up in Sierra Leone.
• How to keep the IM Generation involved - Paull Young’s notes on the AlwaysOn session.

Technorati Tags: astroturf, blog monitoring, blogger relations, climate change

“There’s always going to be two sides to every story. Mine’s going to be `No comment’.”

That’s Malcolm Lee, the head of a bus company in Northern England. Upon losing a labour tribunal ruling, he was ordered to pay 2,300 pounds to a former employee. He paid up in full - a one thousand pound cheque, and a huge and heavy box of small denomination coins to make up the other 1,300 pounds.

(Newcastle Journal, with a h/t to the Northerner)

Stick figures in peril, the Flickr group. Looks like kids have particular concerns: being struck down by the evil cloud of electricity, and concussions from daddies in a rush.

This sign from Italy warns young lovers that it’s especially risky to try to recreate the “train scene” from Risky Business: not only could you fall out the door at the next stop, but your foot could get stuck between the train and the platform. I call it “booty fall.” 

Pointer from Stee.

… and I don’t mean Kid Rock. Steve-O has signed up with PETA to expose animal cruelty at Ringling Bros. circuses. He seems to have first brought up his distaste for animal abuse while visiting the Tom Green Show (I know! Who knew he was still around!) - and I was surprised to actually hear Steve-O say the words “spend the money on Cirque du Soleil tickets.”

Thanks Steve! Now that Celine is shutting down her Vegas theatre, Cirque is Canada’s main cultural export.

… Back to PETA … Steve-O’s campaign includes a draw for a PETA2 tshirt signed by the Jackass himself, as well as a skate deck. Great way to add to the mailing list!

PETA, who is clearly on the ball when it comes to campaigning, has made a promo video with Steve-O. The campaign page provides the code to stream the video on your MySpace page, and it is also available on YouTube.

Celebrity interviews are a challenge for most reporters. The celebrity has a limited amount of time to build the loudest buzz for their product, and the reporter must not only feign a bond between the two of them, but find some unique nugget of information to share with� readers.

That’s why Steven Devadanam (Houston Press) thought his interview of Enrique Iglesias had gone so well last year. The two had struck it off, and Iglesias had even cracked some jokes.

Unfortunately for Iglesias, one of� those jokes picked up speed - at the same moment losing any sense of humour or irony - and bounced around the gossip echo chamber.

And that’s how we all learned to think that Iglesias, um, has some packaging issues.

Devadanam writes of the interview and the aftermath in the Houston Press this week.

To be fair to Enrique, I don’t think the interviewer clearly positioned his comments as a joke. The interview appeared as a throw-away in an entertainment column, and didn’t include as much context as Devadanam provided in his most recent piece.

The anti Wal-mart crowd gets a big wet sloppy kiss from Fortune. A profile of Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch. Some details from Wake up Wal-Mart’s plans:

“… The PowerPoint presentation entitled “Hope for the Holidays” details how the 1 1/2-year-old union-backed group plans to rattle Wal-Mart’s carefully crafted image precisely when Americans are frequenting the mega-retailer most. It includes a ten-part timeline for attacking the company from mid-October through the end of the year.

The week before Christmas, for example, the group plans a mini-campaign titled “America, Pray for Wal-Mart to Change.” It calls for reaching out to religious leaders and groups, targeted media buys and candlelight vigils in front of the stores, with families and children asking for health care. It’s topped off by a national day of prayer.”

Ian rightly points to the diplomatic imbroglio caused by United Nations envoy Jan Pronk’s criticism of the Sudanese government and his frank assessment of their military performance - on his personal blog. Pronk’s been called back to New York for “consultations”

In most diplomatic incidents, “consultations” are a way for one country to demonstrate its displeasure by withdrawing its most senior diplomatic representative without breaking off all official contract. In Pronk’s case, “consultations” really means “man, you sure managed to piss those guys off, didn’t you!”

Ian links to the most salient observation, from Mark Jones at Reuters:

“… Pronk is experimenting with the limits of diplomacy by blogging. He’s doing so within an apparent UN vacuum — the organisation has rules on what can be published in books by its employees but no guidelines on blogs.

The fate of Pronk’s blog will be of interest not only to those watching the unfolding disaster of Darfur, but also to organisations struggling to balance the benefits of blogs’ openness with their ability to damage reputations and constrain the room for manoeuvre.”

There are three takeaways from this incident:

• The Sudanese government seems to be the first government to take concrete political action based on blog postings;
• The United Nations will have to discuss how will it recruit and best utilize experienced but sometimes outspoken representatives. (This is more common in the “softer” areas of the U.N.: UNICEF and UNESCO); and
• The language and practice of diplomacy is going to change.

Pronk’s blog postings read like the backroom gossip and information that historians are used to finding in archives: the information that is regularly included in diplomatic reports sent home, and systematically hidden away in official files for safekeeping, to be revealed only at a politically and diplomatically neutral moment and only as elements of historical record.

That’s the key to diplomatic communication: politesse and deference at the official level, and frank and open discussion in the corridors. Pronk’s blogs, while welcome and refreshing, open those corridor conversations to a much wider audience.

In this context, the principles of transparency and honesty that underpin social media abruptly run into a well-established expectation that� diplomatic relations be conducted in a considered and somewhat deferential manner - especially when dealing with nations in turmoil.

In Spiegel magazine, there� is a detailed and fascinating article about the team of lawyers, social workers and media advisors working with Natascha Kampusch - the Austrian girl held captive in a basement for over eight years. It deals with the many steps taken to manage her re-emergence into the world, and how her advisors helped the young lady manage the media pressure.

” … Dietmar Ecker has a plan too. He sits on his bright yellow leather chair in his media consultant’s office in Vienna’s eighth district. Everything is very stylish - high ceilings; steel and glass doors; modern art. He was one of the last to join the team of Natascha Kampusch’s advisors, the team that cares for her and protects her from the public. But today he’s the most important person in the team: It’s Wednesday, the day that an interview with Natascha will be aired on Austria’s public television channel ORF.

Ecker sports a six-day salt-and-pepper beard and drives a Porsche. Normally he works as a consultant for trade unions in difficult situations. He also does public relations work for the Republic of Serbia. Years ago, he managed to astound everyone by improving the popularity of an Austrian Finance Minister. Now he’s working for Natascha Kampusch free of charge.

Ecker is a professional. He knows how the media work. He takes a sheet of paper, draws a horizontal line and adds five numbered marks, from zero to four. The zero mark represents the day of Natascha’s escape, August 24. The last mark represents the end of the fourth week following her escape. “This is where the media normally lose interest,” Ecker says. He’s familiar with the phenomenon from election campaigns. The mechanisms are the same, he says, that’s just how these things work - the public’s attention span is predictable when it comes to sensational events …” (Spiegel� magazine)

More about the media’s sometimes unseemly interest in the young lady from the Independent.�

Holla to Marginal Revolution for the pointer.

Know what every scandal needs to ensure longevity? A good nickname. Something that rolls off the tongue, reminds the consumer of the underlying issue, and draws a direct link to the product in question. A nickname like PESTICOLA. That’s a term finding some traction as a quick reference to the allegations that some Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola products in India carry unacceptable levels of pesticides and other harmful residues.

“… Pepsi is putting almost all its ad eggs in the cricket basket, so to speak. The cola major is gung-ho on cricket, and besides regular advertising during matches, it will also be pushing it’s online cricket community, Blue Billion.

The company must surely be hoping that the collective consumer euphoria around the game will help dim the pesticola imagery that the CSE allegations have willy-nilly stuck to its soft-drink brands. …” (Economic Times)

In addition to the allegations of poisoning, there are a number of political, economic and cultural pressures that are influencing the progression of this scandal. Two weeks ago, remarkably, the central government felt it necessary to make the point that the rough ride being given to these two soft drink multinationals would not affect flows of foreign direct investment in the Indian economy.

Ouch. Andrew Young’s comments about� his own experiences with ethnically-owned neighbourhood retail and grocery stores may end up hurting his� erstwhile employers rather than helping them.

You see, Young was hired to head what seems, at first glance,� to be� a Wal-Mart astroturf operation: Working Families for Wal-Mart.

Yesterday, he resigned after comments made to the Los Angeles Sentinel provoked reaction from a range of community and ethnic representatives.

” … Explaining his comments about Koreans, Jews and Arabs, Mr. Young said he was referring to the history of retail ownership in the neighborhood where he lives in southwestern Atlanta.

“Almost everyone who has come into my community has moved in, made money and moved out and moved up,” he said. “That process is still continuing.”

… “The only thing I can do,” Mr. Young said last night before he resigned, “is to ask that people judge me about a life of working together with people who are different and bringing people together without violence and without rancor. I would hope that would count for something.” …” (NYT)

� (BTW - The Sentinel’s