PAN Communications prSPEAK

We just had to post this video of Boston-area weatherman Pete Bouchard (@pbouchardon7) to see if Channel 7 will send us a DMCA takedown notice, too.

This story by Mike Masnick @TechDirt tackles fair use and whether or not Channel 7 actually can demand people not use the clip, which until now had stayed semi-under the radar.  Of course, the very best way to generate more unwanted publicity for video, audio or text posted to the web is to hire a bunch of lawyers to spook the few people who posted the video and moved on, until they got spooked by lawyers.

It’s like poking a tiger in a cage.  First bloggers will echo the story, then pundits move in to dissect the situation (which is where we’re at now), then the story will get more blown out of proportion by mainstream outlets.

Of course, with events in the world being what they are this is not anything of consequence.  But still, there’s something interesting in watching digital media (mostly open) wrestle with legacy media (mostly proprietary, filtered) over control of content’s soul.

Mommy blogger community site Momdot.com got exactly what it was after when it announced a P.R. Blackout Challenge to its community of mommy bloggers: more publicity.  Smart.  But it’s a red herring: something done to wave you off the scent; a diversion for reasons other than what’s been stated, and the entity that stands to gain the most from Momdot’s appeal to moms to forego working with PR people for a week, is Momdot itself.

I’m in PR; I’ll get that out right up front so there’s no misunderstanding about which side of this debate interests me more.  But, I also don’t presently represent any companies that have a stake in the audiences mommy bloggers’ attract, so I’m not part of the problem which has led to Momdot’s call it quits on posting reviews, give-aways, recommending something, etc. (unless I’m guilty by industry association).   I’m just fascinated by what does and doesn’t make good PR, and this PR Blackout business makes for good PR.

The Momdot appeal is not misguided; I think it was made with the best of intentions.  But what strikes me is the rationale:

Truthfully, I am waiting for the shit storm of social media suicide to hit. Meaning that women are so incredibly stressed with caring for their families, their friendships, and now their online reputations, blogs, companies and obligations, that they are at the edge, the brink, of a real disaster.

Hyperbole?  I find it hard to believe that successful (successful in any definition that suits your particular situation) women would be “on the edge of disaster” if they continue down some road dictated to them–which is the implication–by obligations they’ve made to people interested in getting in front of their blogs’ audiences.

Where’s the free will?  This sort of leaves you thinking these women aren’t in control of what goes up on their own blogs.  If you read through the comments as to who is and isn’t participating in the self-imposed blackout you’ll see some great, measured responses but also a fair amount of piling-on.  I’d be remiss, however, if I didn’t make a special note to say just about all of the comments about PR folks are positive (with the exception of not wanting to talk to us for a week) .  The relationship can’t be so bad, can it?

It’s easy to say no to PR; it happens to us every…day…all…day.  Believe it.  Don’t get the impression there is a ton of pressure on you to do something nice for a company that would like to speak with your audience–it’s YOUR audience.  They read you because when you decided to put your thoughts down on a blog you struck a nerve and created a connection with the person on the other side of your monitor.  That’s your connection, mommy blogger, and you’re the gatekeeper.

If it makes sense for you to take a week and not answer any come-ons from PR people, great. But if, as a result of working with PR you’ve been offering things to your readers that they like and you feel rewarded by doing so, why would you stop?  That doesn’t benefit you – but all this talk about a blackout does benefit Momdot.  Will they take down the PR Contact link at the top of their homepage during the blackout?  I’ll be interested to see.  Momdot also hosts a lot of ads (probably not for free) which presumably pays some bills–will those disappear too?

Update: blogher.com weighs in and does a better job than us of articulating how weird and unnecessary this PR blackout thing is.

Fisher Price announced this morning a recall of 1 million toys. The toys potentially have lead paint in them. If you have small children, you should check out the full recall list. Toys include Sesame Street, Dora and many more.

Nike has a serious PR problem brewing in the blogosphere.

If it doesn’t move swiftly to distance itself even futher from Michael Vick , though he hasn’t been convicted yet, the brand will start to suffer some real damage (it sure feels like people are just getting warmed up). The results page above is from Google Blogsearch. A regular Google search still brings up pages and pages of corporate Nike landing sites, but that’ll change as more people add their blog and comment voices to this dogfighting thing.

Oh, the Atlanta Falcons are (rightfully so) taking shrapnel, too.

As more details unfold about the incident in Boston last week concerning Turner Broadcasting, the more we can see how quickly an organization’s precious reputation can crumble to the ground. If it wasn’t bad enough that the guerrilla marketing techniques caused havoc in the Boston area, the news that one of the two men responsible for the campaign videotaped police removing the suspicious devices and neglecting to say anything seemed to cross the line.

Although he has every right to stand by and watch his clever marketing ideas play out, some think he should have stepped up and responded to police the minute things got out of hand. If he would have taken responsibility as a player in this incident, or if Turner acted more quickly and responded with an effective press conference without talks of hairstyles, there might have been a chance they would have come out of this episode unscathed.

As a graduate student in public relations, this topic has brought our coursework to life and has been discussed several times this past week. Even though the incident generated a variety of opinions among students, everyone agreed that a valued reputation is too good of a thing to waste, even if it is on witty marketing scheme.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/06/suspicious.device.ap/index.html