Top 10 PR Blunders of 2008

#10
Hacks attacking PR people. Leave Lois alone! Now, I’m not by any stretch of the imagination defending Lois' poorly penned email. Nor am I endorsing her blast-emailing a 1000+ person media list in hopes that someone would respond. These missteps are enough to qualify for their own spots on the PR blunders list. But Lois just looks so frail. Please, hacks, have some compassion. My mom always told me that attacking other people would only make me look ugly. If she knew how to use the Internet, she would tell you hacks to "be the better person." And those are probably good words for all hacks and flacks to live by. I hope we can all just get along in the New Year. OK, I admit, this really isn't much of a blunder, but it just felt right to slot it in here...

#9
Home Back-Up Protection exploiting the murders of Jennifer Hudson’s family members to promote its product. The company that manufactures shotgun racks sent out a news release within days of the murders entitled, “Could a Bedside Shotgun Rack Have Saved Jennifer Hudson’s Family from Tragic Death?” The story quickly made it around social networking sites and blogs; and, it was thrust into the national spotlight by the Chicago Tribune. C’mon, flacks, do not use someone else’s tragedy to promote your stupid product. It’s not that hard of a rule to remember.

#8
The Dr. Pepper/Axl Rose calamity. Dr. Pepper, it was clever idea. You got tons of great ink and an unpaid endorsement from GNR. Finally, Chinese Democracy debuts, but your servers aren’t prepared to handle the Web site traffic from all the thirsty consumers? Dr. Pepper, don’t eff around with Axl. And, give us our free can of pop dammit. The economy’s in the toilet, and I don’t want to part with my 50 cents.

#7
The “Motrin Moms” social media campaign that suggested wearing your baby was a fashion statement… and a back-breaking one at that. Within 48 hours of the campaign’s launch, Twitter moms took on Motrin, the ads were pulled, Motrin’s VP of Marketing was knee-deep in issuing apologies, and sales of generic ibuprofen were up.

#6
Nike refusing to allow the first woman to cross the finish line at the Nike Woman’s Marathon in San Francisco to be named the “winner.” That’s right, 24-year-old Arien O'Connell, a fifth-grade teacher from New York City, ran the fastest time of any of the women, but since she didn’t start the race with the “elite group,” which is given a 20-minute head start, she was disqualified from winning. I just bought a pair of New Balance running shoes. I hope you do too.

#5
The Beijing Olympics Lip-syncing Opening Ceremony debacle. 7-year-old Yang Peiyi had a magnificent singing voice, but she also had a chubby face and crooked teeth. Chinese officials deemed little Yang not cute enough to represent the country in the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics. An adorable, bright-eyed, pig-tailed alternative was slotted in to lip synch “Ode to the Motherland.” A global PR shamble ensued.

#4
AIG executives throwing lavish parties—complete with caviar and champagne—after getting an $85 billion government bailout. Boo hoo… I’m so poor, can you pass the Cristal?

#3
Calling it a Bailout. Really, the flacks couldn't come up with a better word than bailout? Maybe “loan?” Maybe “bridge?” Seriously, every last sub-bullet of the Bailout’s messaging architecture could have been better flacked by my intern.

#2
The Big Three flying to Capitol Hill on private jets to ask for a bailout. Read my blog post on it.


#1
The biggest PR blunder of 2008 was by far Sarah Palin… You betcha! Why a PR blunder? Because no one bothered to media train the Republican Siren before catapulting her into the international spotlight. And, if she was media trained, we should revoke the trainer’s flacking creds. The Katie Couric interview. “I can see Russia from my house” (ok, actually that quote is attributed to Tina Fey who gave the quote during a parody of Palin). Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe budget. I could go on, but it’s just too easy. I want to be the better person.

Thanks to all my flacky friends who contributed to this list!

SavvyFlack Helps Host Digital Family Reunion

Hi everyone, I’m excited to be supporting the Digital Family Reunion (DFR), an event that will bring together the California technology and business communities for the holidays. In association with some of the region's top trade associations and social networking groups, the DFR will reignite old relationships, spark new ones, and set the stage to kick off 2009 with a bright new start.

Inviting early adopters and legacy participants of the Internet 1.0 and today's digitally apt Internet 2.0 tube dwellers, the DFR creates the optimum conditions for these generations to synergize with one another and inspire opportunities that will serve our industries, our region, and our society at large. The DFR is helping to advance the conversation between these like-minded, yet diverse communities by asking the question: "If we knew how connected we all are, how would that change everything?"

Join the conversation! The event takes place Thursday, December 11 from 5-10 p.m. at the Skirball. Use the promotion code “DFR30” to get a discounted ticket price.

Hope to see you all there!

Girls in Tech Launches in Los Angeles

Finally! Angeleno geek girls have a place to call home! I was thrilled to attend the launch of “Girls in Tech Los Angeles” this week at CauseCast in Santa Monica. Girls in Tech (GIT) is a social network focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology. Engineers, programmers, product managers, marketers, designers, and of course plenty of flacks attended the event. Even a few guys joined in the event.

PS, that is me with James Lee of Lee Strategy Group posing with HER Energy Drink, one of the event sponsors (and tasty stuff might I add!) , and there again is me with friend and fellow blogger Jeremy Pepper, who blogs at POP! PR Jots.