The 99%…
Written by Noemi Pollack on December 29, 2011.
It seems that the “formerly” meek actually “did inherit the earth” in 2011 – in part, of course.
It’s now old, but still current news that the “formerly” meek rose up and grabbed the political reins with varying successes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and then spread to Yemen and certainly Syria, (which is in the thick of it right now), not to speak of the growling that has arisen in Russia.
But another kind of “formerly meek” moved right in here, at home, in the form of OWS and claimed to be the 99% group of America. It eventually made such a national din, that the movement escalated and spread virally. I guess it’s a numbers game by now. 99% is really overwhelming.
Getting consensus from a large cross section of the 99% does have some surprising problems. While the ever-escalating mainstream and online media interest and coverage was enthusiastically welcomed by the movement, the emerging Occupy Wall Street PR is not, according to the very person who played a role in igniting the initial protests, Adbusters Editor-in-Chief Kalle Lasn, who says that “the OWS doesn’t want PR — the term or concept is tarnishing its brand.”
Really? What brand? What message? There are so many of them, 99% being only one core economic message that has resonated as a “headline“ but is in need of more substantiation. It would seem a natural evolution for the next step of OWS to have a clear-cut purpose of “what happens next” or “where does it go from here” or “what does the end game look like?”
Two sites have emerged, initiated and produced by PR and advertising specialists; 1. a well-meaning attempt by Workhouse PR to editorialize the movement and compile OWS-related coverage and content (art, music, film, graphic design) on a specially created site, OWSPR.com, and 2. Occupy.com designed by David Sauvage, a freelance commercial director who worked on the crowdsourced TV ad for OWS, which is coming soon.
Lasn’s point of view that these sites have “lost a little of the purity of the movement and that this is “not what this movement is about” and “that the word PR demeans what human beings really do” — sounds altruistic, ivory tower-like academic and is totally detrimental to the movement’s root beginnings. A movement for the sake of itself is going to stay just – a movement.
The PR discipline is the best medium to amplify and defend the 99% message refrain and move it toward fulfilling its purpose. Keeping people engaged is a good thing and the sites are clearly meant as extensions of the protest. But the 99% have to want change to happen. Otherwise why bother?
Let 2012 be the year, when the profound changes initiated in 2011, solidify.
Happy New Year and Peace To All!




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At a recent dinner party, the conversation at our table of eight, centered politely on the introductory question — “what do you do” — and went slowly around the table to each guest. When it was my turn and told that I am in public relations and marketing, my dinner partner to the left, a dentist, probed further as to what that really means and exactly what do I really do. By the time dessert came around, I had given him a detailed rundown of all the tools and strategies the we, PR professionals, employ to impact marketplace perceptions and changed behaviors. It didn’t make a dent. He was still at it when dessert came around and, in total defeat and exasperation, I made a lame excuse and left the table.

A great among the “Greatest Generation,” as Tom Brokaw coined the WW II generation, former CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Andy Rooney will be missed. His death, although expected at 92 and in poor health, has the sense that something important has passed, beyond the person. The WSJ capsuled it best saying, “Andy Rooney was America’s bemused uncle, spouting homespun wisdom weekly at the end of “60 Minutes,” a soupcon of topical relief after the news magazine’s harder-hitting segments.”
Negative publicity is akin to touching a hot stove. Once you experience it, and sustain damaging “burns”, you will surely find the means to avoid the risk.
It takes a village, in this case tens of millions inside the village, to pitch in and help. It is, and has always been, the American Way – you know, helping to “pull someone up by their bootstraps” type of thing. We have a history of that. When disasters, as in hurricanes, foreclosures, terrorist threats, or others strike, it is the people in our big USA “village” that come to the rescue in whatever personal way they can — with blankets, food, money, simple ingenuity or maybe just an extra shoulder on which to lean.
JCPenney had the distinction to make Anderson Cooper’s “Ridiculist” list on CNN on Thursday night. Their new “back to school” product, a t-shirt that reads “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me” was launched and instantly produced a massive raucous. Besides Anderson’s piece, Twitter and the blogosphere lit up with added ridicule and protests. Moreover, the biggest ire came from the bloggers who decried the “sexism” innuendo –, “girls need only to look pretty, while boys should do the work. Ouch!
Groupon, a company that’s in registration to go public and thus forbidden by the SEC from pumping up the company stock in advance of an IPO, had a hard time staying quiet this week. In case you did not follow the story, the intrigue sounds much like a thriller. First the VP of Communications resigns abruptly on Wednesday for unknown reasons. Then, instead of staying quiet when some negative news about the company and its earnings was reported in the media, Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason, chose to send an internal memo to employees defending the company against “insane accusations,” which then got mysteriously leaked to the popular tech blog AllThingsD. Now Groupon really took a hit with negative news.
They say mistakes are often the cost of learning what not to do…
I know this through first hand experience…
There is something to be said about the choice of words, or put differently, the art of wordsmithing.
This tweet showed up recently: “The Uni of Iowa is offering a $37K scholarship to its b-schl fr the bst tweet by a prspctive MBA student.”
Spirit Airlines jumped on Weiner-gate faster than most, with their well-known marketing prowess. From the same company that targeted Arnold Schwarzenegger a couple of weeks ago, they promoted, this time around, a Weiner Sale that is “Too Hard to Resist,” with the text of the offer reading, “Hurry to book now, before this sale gets hacked.” Tasteless? Definitely, but somehow irresistible and in line for a company who’s president/CEO once shoved himself in an overhead bin to defend his company’s carry-on charges.
Suddenly it matters. Finally, the Made-in-America label has become entwined with national pride, domestic job growth, fine quality production and is slowly turning around decades-old perceptions that anything made in Italy or France, the powerhouse countries of design, are not necessarily “must haves.”
Within the political arena negative campaigns are commonplace, even expected and accepted. It seems to be the norm to engage political gurus in stealth tactics to “uncover” opponents’ weaknesses or momentary ethical lapses. But short of the political arena where all is “game,” the days when smear campaigns actually work are over, given this transparent world.





The anticipation surrounding the Super Bowl ad rollouts, is rivaling that of the game itself, for smart marketers have unleashed the ad buzz weeks ahead of the game, with multi-week contests and teasers, extending their exposure of ad expenditures of up to $3 million for prime Super Bowl, well past just the traditional one-time showing during the game.
Wal-Mart played it smart recently, when it keyed into the First Lady’s passion about fighting childhood obesity with its commitment to improve the affordability and health qualities of the food it sells. According to The Washington Post, Michelle Obama, who participated in the company’s press conference, said that Wal-Mart‘s effort is “a huge victory for folks all across this country” and said it has the “potential to transform the marketplace.”
In today’s world of crowdsourcing and outspoken self-proclaimed critics, the answer may very well be that it is simply another chicken and egg story. Some will say the company, while others will point out that the customer is always “king.”
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