Everyone by now knows about the rotten blog known as “Stru_ _ette.†I would like to say that I absolutely abhor this blog. I believe this blog must have come from the sewer because it is crap! The blog not only degraded women. But in my opinion, made men look like dogs. Neither one of these portrayals are correct.
I am not here to say that there are no stereotypes in the PR world, but to say this blog was a cowardly way of talking about it. It takes no courage whatsoever to say what was said when the coward uses a fake name. No courage!
What does take courage is talking about it by signing your real name. That is how REAL men and women do things. They don’t hide behind a character. They stick their necks out to stand-up in what they believe in.
This blog was cowardly and very degrading. And it makes me sick.
I hate to say this, but I am glad the topics of the aftermath are being discussed. They are topics that needed to be discussed, but I hate they had to be brought up because of the sick blog.
Some blogs I would suggest reading are Robert French’s and Andrea Weckerle’s. They wrote some great pieces that are worthy of taking the time to read.
A couple weeks ago I was filling out an application for an internship at a theme park. How this didn’t strike me then I don’t know, but it is striking me now. Two of the questions were about visible tattoos and hair length. Appearance is very important to this park and other organizaionts as well.
As I think about this topic, I can’t help but think of my friend with visible tattoos on his forearms. Are those tattoos going to come back and bite him? If he wanted to work at this theme park then…yes.
Appearance is something that is overlooked by college students. I go to class looking like a slob and don’t really care. Sad to say, but sometimes I go to work looking a little sloppy. But in the “real world†that shouldn’t fly.
I raise the question, should an organization penalize (not hire) someone for something they did when they were 18 or 19 years old?… I think it depends on the situation.
· If a company has a dress code or a policy about employees appearance before the person applies, I say they can turn them down. No questions asked.
· But if there is no policy about appearance then turning someone down for tattoos or appearance, I believe is wrong.
What can I do about it? Nothing really. I can only make sure that my appearance is the best it can possibly be when I start applying for jobs. I have realized that means no visible tattoos for me. Thus, no tattoos for me at all because who wants a tattoo if it isn’t going to be seen? Not me.
All I am saying is BE CAREFUL. The decisions we make today may have a great impact later in life.
Get a visible tattoo if you want it. But don’t complain if you don’t get a job because of your visible tattoo. You should have thought about that when you got the visible tattoo.
In my PR Case Studies class we looked at a case to try to keep a hospital building standing, even though it was not being used. They hired a huge PR firm and spent a lot of money only to see the hospital be razed. But Randolph County, Indiana did things a little differently.
The courthouse was scheduled to be razed. But there were certain citizens that did not want it to be razed. So what did they do?
They made a calendar, not just any calendar, but a nude calendar. The calendar featured senior citizens (women) from the community that were from ages 76-94. WOW!!!! Who would have bought that? I don’t know, but they made $20,000 and because of the calendar the courthouse is still standing.
These women are no PR professionals and MIGHT be going senile. But they were able to accomplish something that a professional firm was not able to accomplish. The thing I am impressed with the most is the idea to come up with the calendar. People that age aren’t expected to come up with brilliant plans to get things accomplished. But these ladies did. But you have to remember these are no ordinary senior citizens. They are geniuses.
Ladies you grossed me out, but you impressed me at the same time. Congratulations on keeping your courthouse standing.
I am one of the happiest people on earth right now. The first weekend of the NCAA men’s tournament is over, and it was FANTASTIC. I got to watch every game that I wanted to because of two reasons: My girlfriend watched it with me and CBS for allowing March Madness on Demand.
March Madness on Demand is the best thing for college basketball fans since the dunk was allowed. MMOD lets people watch any game for the first three rounds online for FREE. Free I tell ya…..FREE!!!! What a great move.
There are always one or two games I don’t get to watch because of regional programming. A game will be shown that I don’t care anything about, but it is my regional programming so I have to watch it.
Not this year. Because of MMOD I could watch any game outside of my regional programming for FREE. Have I mentioned that it was free??
I honestly think CBS made a great move allowing this because it allows for more advertisements. Granted, there were no commercials online, but there were advertisements like any other website. So it was a way to make money and please the fans. I used to hate CBS, but now I love it.
I am going to be sad if the same feature is not offered again next year. It had been offered before, but for a fee. There wasn’t just a huge demand if people had to pay. But it was free this year. So I would bet that more people watched it online this year than in years past.
I know at least one extra person watched this year. And I’ll keep watching it as long as it is offered for free. Actually, because I have had it this year I may not be able to live without it, and I mgiht pay in the future……….Oooooh I hope that isn’t the case.
You will never believe this. But I am now an associate contributor on a new PR website. The website is called Forward. Forward was started by a good friend of mine, Erin Caldwell, to help up-and-coming PR people.
There are several parts of the Forward site that are a tremendous help to PR people. Recently there was a post about how to send your resume to a potential employer. It is a question that comes up frequently that no one ever really has an answer to. Well, Forward asked and got a response about what an individual should do. It is useful questions such as this that makes Forward so special.
The way Forward works is like a blog. There are principal contributors which are professional PR practitioners or those that have been blogging for an extended period of time. These principal contributors know what they are talking about. So read their posts. They eat, sleep and breathe PR. Their knowledge will be what makes this site a success.
Then there are associate contributors like me. Most of us are students at Auburn University. That is it we are students so we don’t know everything about the field. We are just able to put in our two cents worth because we do know something, not much about PR. But it gives us opportunities to improve our writing skills and our blogging skills. It is a tremendous honor for me to be allowed to post my thoughts on this site.
By no means is this website closed to just a few people associated to the Auburn community. We want EVERYONE to get involved in Forward to offer as much insight as possible to the way things really happen.
This website is a great idea and I believe it will be a huge success.  So check us out at Forward, you won’t be sorry.
I had a previous post begging police and authorities to catch those responsible for starting the church fires here in Alabama. I am excited to write that those responsible for the fires have been caught. But I would have never guessed those responsible would have come from Birmingham Southern and UAB. Wow!! But Birmingham Southern has handled the situation exceptionally well.
Birmingham Southern is probably the most prestigious colleges in the state. It is a complete shock to most to think that the arsonists actually came from Birmingham Southern. But Birmingham Southern doesn’t want its name to be dragged through the mud with the arsonists names. So it is trying to turn a negative into a positive.
Birmingham Southern has suspended the students from the college. But the most important thing it has done is agree to help the churches that were burned. It has agreed to help re-build the churches. This a tremendous thing for Birmingham Southern to do.
Birmingham Southern officials say it is not for PR gain. I can honestly believe that, but because it isn’t being used for PR gain doesn’t mean it isn’t good PR. I think it is fantastic PR.
It is going to take time to build the Birmingham Southern name back up. But aiding the churches is the best move possible. I don’t believe every college would have done that. I dare say most would not help. That is why I think it is fantastic PR. It is doing something most other colleges would not even consider doing. It only helps prove why Birmingham Southern was/is so respected.
I don’t blame Birmingham Southern for the fires. It wasn’t its fault. But it is living up to its name by helping the churches out. I hope that people read about Birmingham Southern re-building the churches rather than burning them.
March Madness is here whooo hooo!! I didn’t do much blog and news reading this week because of all of the basketball. But something happened in the world of basketball that is worthy of some PR consideration.
After most important games there is usually a press conference. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim flipped out and dropped the “F-bomb†during the press conference. Everyone knows that collegiate and most high school basketball coaches curse. (It is almost as automatic as J.J. Redick used to be at the free throw line.) There is no rule that says you can’t curse during a press conference, but quite frankly it doesn’t look good.
Why does it matter if a coach looks good in a press conference or not? First off, he is trying to recruit kids to come play basketball for him. The coach not only has to impress the player, but the player’s parents as well. If parents see a coach flip out during a press conference it is going to put doubt in their minds about the coach. If there is doubt, the son probably won’t be allowed to play basketball for that coach.
Secondly, it looks bad on the university. Athletic coaches and players represent not only themselves, but also the university. Athletics is a way of recruiting athletes AND non-athletes. (I personally came to Auburn because of football.) People want to go to universities with good athletic programs. And part of a good athletic program is a good coach. Yes, winning is involved. But winning doesn’t happen without a good coach. I digress.
I think coach Boeheim did the right thing by reprimanding the media. The question/statement he responded to should have never come up. Almost every coach would have reacted the same way coach Boeheim did to protect his players. I respect that a lot. But coach Boeheim not only did the right thing in the press conference he did the right thing the next day.
Immediately following the next game, coach Boeheim apologized for using inappropriate language during the press conference. He realized it wasn’t the place to say the word he did. But he didn’t and shouldn’t have to apologize for protecting his players.
I think Syracuse University has an extremely classy coach in Jim Boeheim. I personally believe he helped himself and Syracuse much more than he hurt them.
As advertised I am just a beginning blogger and don’t know a lot. But recently I learned something that other beginning bloggers may find useful.
I had been blogging for almost two months before I knew what RSS or XHTML was. I had heard the terms, but I had no idea what they meant until I saw a webcast by Josh Hallett. The webcast has been very helpful for me, and I would suggest watching it.
RSS and XHTML in layman terms, are ways of viewing a website. To be able to view a site in RSS or XHML you must have a reader. There are many RSS readers out there, but I use newsgator, which is completely free.
Newgator allows you to subscribe to websites. When you subscribe to these websites you will never have to go to the actual site again. You will only have to go to newsgator.com. This is much more convenient and efficient than having to go to a million sites a day.
Your newsgator account will only list the website if it has a new post for that day. Therefore, you don’t waste your time going to the website and finding nothing new. Newsgator handles that for you. When there is something new you just click on the article and it loads right there in newsgator. So you read the article or blog without typing in the address. It is so convenient.
It is easy to subscribe to the sites. All you have to do is enter the web address into newsgator and then it is added to your feeds (folders).
It is ridiculous how convenient RSS readers make blogging. I used to waste hours on end trying to read blogs seeing what was new. Now I don’t waste a second of my time finding new posts. They are all right there for me at newsgator.com. If you have not been using a RSS reader I would suggest starting. It will make your life so much easier.
Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s, is taking a huge risk in building his own personal city. His city, Ave Maria, is going to be a Catholic haven in Florida. There will be no condoms, no birth control pills and no pornography. How will that be enforced? I don’t much think it can be. But, something remarkable about this city is the building of a Catholic university. It will be the first Catholic University built in the United States in 40 years. Impressive but………..
Will this step pay big dividends for Monaghan? I am not so sure this Catholic utopia is a very good idea. I can see this place as a retreat for youth groups, but not a place to live 365 days a year. What is he expecting to get out of this town? I guess he is trying to get away from all the sexual corruption that is in the world today…. But build your own city? How about just not participating in the corruption?
I am not sure that Domino’s will hurt because of its founder new city, but people may look at Monaghan like he is crazy. Well, maybe he his crazy. But, he has enough money that he can take on this endeavor and risk failure. If his town is a success I will be incredibly shocked and impressed. I just don’t think a utopian city will EVER work. I just hope his decisions don’t put Domino’s out of business. But that may be the price paid for a utopian city.
