Communication

Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar

Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar

While on a business trip in London this week, I read a story in the Financial Times about HSBC's planned layoffs.

What could have been a "routine" story (layoffs are unfortunately all too common in financial services organizations these days), became front page news when HSBC decide to get tricky with its word choice describing the redundancies.  Instead of using straightforward, transparent terms, HSBC announced it would be "demising" 942 roles as part of a plan that would "impact" 3,000 employees.

Demising?  That kind of creative, vague terminology was just begging for critical attention - especially in the snarky UK media market.  Apparently, according to the FT, the announcement caused a great deal of anger among employees.

But HSBC is not alone in its insensitivity.  Unfortunately, in our profession, we often see many companies step on similar landmines. A financial institution I know well (which shall remain nameless), recently announced its plan to be a "best place to work" and an "employer of choice" in the midst of an announced restructuring that will result in the loss of thousands of jobs.  Well-meaning as leadership was, there’s no question that working to secure such awards, is a bit insensitive to the employees who are waiting for the ax to fall.

The reminder to all of us PR practitioners is to not only make sure we guide management and organizational leaders to be sensitive, but to always err on the side of being direct, regardless of the temptation to use language, nuance and creative terms to hide the truth.  It’s always better in these cases to be transparent and clear, to take your lumps on announcement day and then let it pass.

The Financial Times didn't write one story, but two on HSBC's insensitive word choice.  The second story also pointed out that the use of a noun as a verb (demise into demising) was not only in bad taste, but it's just plain bad grammar. Ouch. End of Story

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No Comments » Written on April 25th, 2013 by
Categories: Communication, Public Relations
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Image courtesy: The Wall Street Journal

Image courtesy: The Wall Street Journal

And there it was.  In the blink of an eye, 145 points on the Dow were wiped off the map.  While certainly not as large as the Flash-Crash of 2010, which saw glitches in exchange-trading software punish markets by several hundreds of points, yesterday’s market dip following a fake tweet posted by someone who hacked into the Associated Press Twitter account was, appropriately, a tweet-sized re-enactment.  It also showed the increased influence of social media on financial markets.

On the heels of last week’s events surrounding the Boston Marathon tragedy and the White House ricin scare, a hacker broke into the Associated Press’ Twitter handle yesterday and tweeted “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” Markets instantly plummeted until the tweet was reported to be false a few minutes later.  The hacker would later identify itself as a member of the Syrian Electronic Army which, according to The Wall Street Journal, has targeted other media outlets in the past.

Because of how strongly social media is proving to impact financial markets, legislators are scrambling to gain more control over these situations.  Revisions are being made to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that, if passed, would allow employers to access personal social media pages to ensure laws such as Regulation FD are not being compromised by interactions with friends or other social media contacts.

This raises several points:  first, there is the lingering issue of automated trading.  Part of the reason the market crashed so quickly following the hacked AP tweet was due to automated trading machines which scan social media sites for major news and place trades accordingly.  While tying up less human capital by using electronic trading is efficient, the system in place is proving to be anything but, evidenced by the failure of these machines to assess the credibility of yesterday’s fake tweet.

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2 comments Written on April 24th, 2013 by
Categories: Communication, From the News, Journalism, Media, Social Media
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Welcome tailgaters and avid consumers of foods containing immense amounts of protein. In today’s ad watch, we’re going to take a few moments to enjoy some of the finer things in life. Specifically, we’re going to focus on the luxuries of conveniently wrapped and easily accessible meats from a variety of farm animals who in turn came from potentially debatable origins. Yes my friends, its time to brush up on your weenie whistle skills and rev up your Weinermobiles, for we’re going to take a look at some of Oscar Mayer’s most recent advertising campaigns. (Interesting fact: Did you know that the Weinermobile actually has a “hot dog smell” button? Me? Of course I knew.)

Over the past six months, Oscar Mayer has pushed out a handful of advertising efforts in both social media and television formats that have succeeded in being both amusing and informative. These aforementioned campaigns have come from talented agencies such as McGarryBowen and 360i. While all of these efforts have focused on the convenience and deliciousness of Oscar Mayer’s vast array of meat products, the general themes from the ads have varied. For example, the commercial seen in the top right of this post concentrates on a grandpa who takes being literal to a whole new level of beautiful awkwardness. Mostly, I think this man needs a hug, as he’s clearly a little too impressed be a luminous transparent container of ham. Okay, it wasn’t exactly gleaming, but it might as well have been. After all, this was the only thing that could impress straight-talking grandpa.

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No Comments » Written on April 17th, 2013 by
Categories: Advertising, Communication, Marketing, Social Media
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What can we in the media world learn from apes, elephants and several other animals? Besides the occasional eye-opening Discovery Channel documentary and some great cartoons, there’s more to uncover here than you might think.

Emory University’s Dr. Frans de Lost in TranslationWaal published an interesting study in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend detailing the flaws in how we as humans approach the study of animal intelligence. Using several examples, de Waal illustrates that our previous perception of animals being purely primitive and instinctive in their IQ level is actually a competence flaw among us as humans. Here are two quick examples of what these tests on animals reveal about humans:

The Elephant Test: Originally scientists tried to entice an elephant to use its trunk to reach for a stick that would help bring an out-of-reach piece of food closer, not realizing that picking up the stick with its trunk would block its nasal passages, thereby making it unaware of the food. They mistakenly concluded the elephant was not intelligent enough to perform the exercise.

The Chimp Test:  Scientists put chimps through facial recognition exercises using only human faces and, when the chimp delivered an average performance, they mistakenly concluded that chimps were not smart enough to perform facial recognition. After discovering their blunder, they replaced the human faces with those of other chimps, and the test results skyrocketed.

So What?

De Waal’s study reveals that as humans, we often assume that animals think and communicate the same way that we do. I believe that this problem also applies to how we communicate with other humans. We often assume that other people “speak our language” when in reality, we all have very different ways of communicating.

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No Comments » Written on March 28th, 2013 by
Categories: Communication, Industry Tips, Miscellaneous Musings
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After nearly four years spent working in-front-of the camera as a television reporter, I made the decision to transition behind-the-scenes. I began my first week at Prosek Partners, just a week after the New Year.

While many of the skills I gained while out in the field are transferable in my new career, during the past two months I’ve learned copious amounts about the ins and outs of life on the other side. And, as is often the case, the more you learn about a subject, the more you realize how much more there is to learn. For me, navigating through this professional change has been aided by a strong support system; both at work and at home.

From day one, I was encouraged to ask questions and encouraged to have a voice and get involved. It also didn’t hurt to be able to participate in Prosek’s winter offsite, new hire training, several hour-long educational sessions and a client’s Global Public Relations Summit in just my first couple of months on the job.

Knowledge truly is power. Power to grow. And power to change.

In addition to the educational opportunities, there are several other things I believe have helped with the transition thus far.

Here are some of them, outlined by Career Sherpa Hannah Morgan in an article for U.S. News and World Report:

1. “Ask your new manager for a meeting.” This was already arranged during my first week at Prosek, and both she and I expressed interest in making it a bi-weekly occurrence; this way, I’m constantly in-the-know of where I stand and how I’m doing and it’s also a great opportunity to get to know one another.

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No Comments » Written on March 12th, 2013 by
Categories: Communication, Industry Tips, Media, Public Relations
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