Mr. Yuk is Mean

When I was a young child my family took a road trip to a small town in Central North Dakota to help clean out the house of a deceased relative that I had never known. It was a fun occasion for my brothers and I as we did not know the relative and we got to dig around in a bunch of old buildings looking for treasures.

When we entered a garage that was all but caved in we were disappointed to only find an old set of gym lockers in the corner. We finally managed to work the rusted handle there were several containers of old chemicals. Almost everyone of these chemicals had a ridiculously scary little green face sticker marking them. I had never seen this little green face before but I knew that he was warning me against something. My oldest brother stood guard over the ominous containers when our middle sibling and I ran for our parents.

When they entered the garage and saw what had caused our concern they laughed at the little green face and explained that it was Mr. Yuk. A public service campaign started by a hospital to warn children of the dangers of poisonous chemicals and cleaning products. Even decades after the popularity of the campaign had died down, Mr. Yuk still did his job.

Years later I stumbled across the youtube video of one of the first commercials featuring Mr. Yuk. Anyone that watches will agree to the creepiness of the campaign.

Occupy Protesters May Need Some PR Managment

There is much confusion surrounding the Occupy Wall Street protesters. For one it is hard to decipher what their actual demands are. So far the only consistent thing I have heard is that they are critical of the nation's wealthiest 1% saying that they hold an inordinate amount of the wealth when the other 99% is suffering.

Perhaps they have a point but their most recent protest in Oakland did nothing to hurt that 1% and instead enacted its toll on some of the hardest working in that 99%, dockworkers. Over the weekend they shut down the Oakland port, hindering operations for almost two days. Everyone from the local dock-workers union to the Oakland mayor have criticized this latest protest saying that the Occupy group needs to take a harder look at who their actions are really hurting. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was quoted as saying the "people in this city will be crying this Christmas." Maybe the Occupy group should find a little direction. If they lose anymore support from campaigns like this they will soon lose their support from the people they supposedly are fighting for.

CNN Link

An End to Loud Television Advertising

With recent legislature passed by the Federal Communication Commission, television providers will be required that loudness of commercials does not exceed the volume of program that they are apart of. According to the FCC, there have been around 6,000 complaints received since 2008 in regards to the volume of television advertisements. These were passed along to television providers who did not deem it a big enough issue to address.

While part of me is happy to hear that I will no longer be subjected to deafening commercials in the middle of a program, the other part of me is concerned as to how only 6,000 complaints over a less than 4 year span warrant our legislature being tied up with issues like these. Why is advertising a point of interest for our Government? Apparently the issue was not big enough that advertisers and television provider thought it necessary to change but they are now forced to.

CNN Link

Where's the money, Joe?

Joe Corzine is under scrutiny from a senatorial panel that is asking him what happened to $1.2 Billion when the company that he previously was an executive with, MF Global, collapsed. According to a Fox News article this will be the eight largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Corzine was quoted as saying "I never gave any instruction to anyone at MF Global to misuse customer funds."

The important question to someone like Corzine who, up until now, has had an illustrious career is how can he win back his public image. Regardless of whether he is found guilty his image is tarnished but is it beyond repair? Luckily Corzine is at an age (and probably wealthy enough) that he could retire quietly but what happens to younger executives that find themselves in the same position?

Linky Here

Herman Cain Steps Down... For Now

This story is a couple of weeks old but holds legitimate education for those studying public relations. Herman Cain was running a fairly successful campaign to obtain the GOP nomination for the next presidential campaign. Of course there were a couple of bumps along the way. For instance, quoting a Pokemon movie and not knowing it origins. But he was running on some simple ideals that interested much of the American public. His 9-9-9 idea seemed to be transparency at its finest. His demeanor gave him the appearance of a pleasant man that seemed to generally care.

The biggest road bump came in the form of an adulterous accusation. The first to come forward was Sharon Bialek, claiming that he made an "unwanted and rough physical advance" towards her a decade and a half ago. Karen Kraushaar then came forward claiming that Cain made her feel so uncomfortable that she was forced to quit her job. Two other women who chose to remain anonymous then stepped forward with similar accusations.

On December 3rd Herman Cain suspended his campaign during the media fiasco but it is important to know that he used the word suspended. Perhaps with proper public relations working his case he will make a return to the pool of candidates.

Police Publicity and the UC Davis incident

Recently there was an outcry when a youtube video surfaced of a senior police officer spraying a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters with a riot-sized can of OC pepper spray. Of course the first videos to hit the 'net were only short clips showing students sitting peacefully on the ground while the police slowly sprayed them in the face. A short while after there was a longer video that showed the proceeding event of the students surrounding the police officers after some of their fellow protesters were arrested. The protesters shouted commands at the officers to let their friends go and then they would let the police officers leave. Obviously these videos show two very different sides of the story.

What I would like to talk about is not about the ethics of using non-lethal crowd control methods or whether the protesters were legally occupying the campus and the police were infringing on their rights. There are plenty of other places for people to pitch their opinions about that. What I would like to talk about is what steps could the police use to protect their own image in a day when everyone has a pocket sized camcorder built into their cell phones.

One solution that I tossed around was that the police could bring along their own media to record activities during large scale events like that. It would be similar to dashboard cameras in squad cars and even comparable to embedded media with deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. This solution brings up several other concerns, however. For one, if they were actual employees of the government it would place another burden on the taxpayer. Another concern is that if they worked for the government, would they be responsible for protecting the police with their story? This would verge on propaganda and create an ethical dilemma when the police are clearly in the wrong. On the flip side if they acted more as an embedded reporter the police would be responsible for protecting the individuals and they could still spin a negative story for their own gain.

I honestly can not make up my mind as to which is the best answer. Perhaps I am coming up with solutions to fix something that is not really broken as eventually the entire video came out. Hopefully a fellow PR blogger can share some insight I overlooked. Looking forward to comments! 

Below are the two videos referenced in this post. The first is the short video that surfaced soon after the incident and the longer video that came out about a week later.

Some Consumers Feel that Coke Failed at Being Festive

Coca-Cola, the soda distributor that has previously brought us all sorts of holiday cheer in the past, is scrambling to come up with a new design for this year's Christmas cans. In an attempt to keep up with their holiday tradition of putting a special design on their cans, Coca-Cola released an almost all white can with their token polar bears climbing a hill (look left). The issue being that these new regular Coca-Cola cans appear very similar to the Diet Coke cans.


Many consumers have felt the need to e-mail Coke with their concerns and many more shared their gripes on various social networking sites. While the resemblance is clear I find the outcry, regardless of how quiet it is, sad and pathetic. For one the can was designed with cooperation for the World Wildlife Fund to help raise money for their organization. For another thing READ THE DAMN CAN!


Really people. Coca-Cola and their designs have been American icons for almost 100 years. Their cans have sported everything from Polar Bears sharing old-fashioned bottles of soda to a very jolly looking St. Nick enjoying a bottle. To criticize them because a mindless consumer would have to spend more than a split second picking out their product is embarrassing. I'm not even a soda drinker but I am going to go ahead and enjoy a Coke tomorrow as an apology... but only if I can find it in this year's Christmas can.

Click HERE for Yahoo Finance article.

Happy Gilmore and Subway: Possibly the Best Product Placement Ever

"...this fresh, delicious, tasty, meaty, turkey filled, cold cut combo. I eat three everyday to keep me strong!" --Happy Gilmore

There are constant product placements in movies but rarely are they taken to the level of Happy Gilmore's Subway commercial. For those of you too young to remember when Adam Sandler made truly funny movies instead of his recently failed attempts at romantic comedies, please leave your seat now and find a copy of the movie. For those that have watched (and in most cases re-watched) Happy Gilmore, you will surely admit that even today you can not make an order for a sandwich without thinking of Adam Sandler.

The downfall to this type of product placement is a fairly specific audience. Not all can appreciate the witty, albeit sophomoric humor that an Adam Sandler movie from the 1990's has to offer. The Happy Gilmore audience mainly included males in their early teens to mid-twenties. This works for Subway as their website states their target market is adults from 16-39 (Subway FAQ). Not only did Happy Gilmore present itself to a large portion of their main target but the target of the placement was affected early enough that they will remain in their target market for years to come.

Now if Subway wanted to recapitalize on this great product placement they would do whatever possible to cast Adam Sandler in a Subway commercial. He may not come cheap but he would be much more effective than Jared's weight loss or a terrible jingle about $5 dollars for a foot of sandwich. Seeing Adam Sandler as an older Happy, attempting to recreate his "hole-in-one" with a cold cut combo would be enough for me, and many other, to make our dinner plans a little simpler tonight by opting out of cooking and choosing to stop by Subway on the drive home.