Where Do You Stand?

Terrible media pitches make me laugh, often by their mere stupidity (for examples, see here and here). But when a painfully obvious PR stunt somehow garners international attention, something just isn’t right.

Take the headline-grabbing story about Josephs and Marys being offered a free hotel room on Christmas. The news release is posted on the British hotel chain’s Web site. It’s pretty darn flowery cheesy. I’m sure somebody with extremely religious fortitude might even find it offensive. Here’s a sampling (though I have to admit I cleaned up some of the egregious errors because they made me cringe):

The “gift” of a free night’s stay is to make up for the hotel industry not having any rooms left on Christmas Eve over 2,000 years ago when the original “Mary and Joseph” had to settle for the night in a stable.

Today’s Mary and Joseph will stay in a spacious Travelodge family room, which can also cater for a baby and a manger. A free car parking space will be provided for the donkey, and there are plenty of £29 rooms available for the Shepherds and Wise Men to book. The couple can stay anytime from Christmas Eve to the Twelfth Night.

It’s mid-December, so news outlets are feasting on soft news like this right now. But this is pretty far out there. Nevertheless, the story is making the rounds on all of the major news Web sites. CNN ran a story about it on Saturday, even infusing the story with PR lingo (“Josephs and Marys in search of a room at the inn this Christmas are being made an offer they can’t refuse”). Believe it or not, the story is considered photo-worthy “breaking news” in Trinidad and Tobago.

It’s a clever idea, I guess, but the PR smell is hard to ignore. What do you think of the story? Have you run across any others that scream “PR stunt?”

The Ten Commandments were carved into a stone tablet, and now The New York Times, “Harry Potter” and other modern fare will be available in tablet form. Reading’s one big cycle, I guess. What I’m referring to is Kindle, Amazon’s bold foray into the world of electronic books and magazines. The product was announced on Monday.

According to Amazon, Kindle is a wireless, portable reading device that will provide instant access to more than 90,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers. I stare at a computer screen all day and am not sure if I’m ready for this, but the idea of being able to lug more than 200 books around with me (and at just over 10 ounces) is pretty appealing.

What do you think? Are you ready to turn the page (yes, a bad pun) on the traditional reading experience?

NBC kicked off its “Green is Universal” initiative on Sunday night by turning off the lights during “Football Night in America.” While you can’t fault the television powerhouse for trying to make an environmental impact, the situation has the makings of being a PR stunt. Sending out a news release to brag about your initiative to help raise environmental awareness seems a little over the top. But maybe it’s just me.

Here’s a promo for the upcoming “Green Thursday” on NBC:

And here are a few tips that NBC could consider to have an even greater impact on the planet:

• Change “Football Night in America” to “Football Afternoon in America.” Think how much energy could be saved by not having the stadium lights on in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sunday. Plus, television viewers could watch an afternoon blowout of the Patriots over the Bills in a room lit by sunlight. And locally, it would provide alternative programming to our town’s hapless Rams.

• Quit carrying Notre Dame football games. They stink anyway. Maybe you could strike a deal with CBS to air the remaining episodes of “Viva Laughlin” or bring “Joey” back for another run instead. It might even encourage people to shut off their TVs and explore the outdoors.

• Save some airfare and bring Hiro back from feudal Japan. Send him by boat. Film his “Heroes” scenes on a beach in Los Angeles. Rumor has it that “Entertainment Weekly” needs more pictures of Masi Oka to run since they’ve used the two dozen they have on file. They could get a nice paparazzi shot during filming.

• How about creating the show “Law & Order: Alaskan Circuit Court?” Film it over the summer when there are nearly 24 hours of daylight. Or film on location in the South Pole during the winter.

• Air repeats of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Oops. Writer’s strike. This is already on the way.

• Film another episode of “The Office” on Dwight’s beet farm.

• Quit shaving Howie Mandel’s head every other day. Seriously. Stop it. People miss his curly locks.

What do you think of this “Green is Universal” initiative? Any other suggestions for NBC?

There’s a new study out that claims profantity in the workplace has a postive impact on morale and motivation. On first glance it seems like a load of ____ [the study doesn’t say if cursing is appropriate for a company blog], but perhaps I’m overlooking the merit behind this long-overdue research project. 

Letting fly with a good F-bomb every once in a while can be cathartic, but there’s always a time and a place. If you’re around your peers or co-workers you’re extremely comfortable with, perhaps it’s OK. But in front of a client? I don’t think there are many instances where a potty mouth is appropriate. 

Here’s the Budweiser take:

What do you think?

I’ve been involved in some awkward media interviews over the years. There was the time I interviewed a pet psychic and had to suspend my disbelief and withhold my laughter as I learned about the inner feelings of dogs, cats, hamsters and other pets. And there was the time I had to track down a city administrator, at his home, shortly after he was relieved of his job duties amid a scandal. I can admit that I wasn’t on my game during those interviews. Reporters are just people – they have bad days, their own views, etc. But through it all, they have to keep chasing the news, asking tough questions when necessary. 

Well, the other night while watching television I stumbled upon one of the most awkward interviews I’ve ever witnessed. It was beautiful in its tense moments, often hilarious and occasionally shocking. The interview was being conducted by Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. He was talking with Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney (see Part I and Part II). Anyone who’s watched the program with much regularity knows that Stewart hasn’t been too kind over the years to our country’s VP.  

In one exchange, Stewart asked Lynne if her husband is as secretive at home as he is in his public office. She said he’s normal at home, except “every once in a while, he’ll bite the head off a live chicken.” That got a good laugh. She really deserves some credit for being such a good sport, and Stewart deserves kudos as well for having Lynne Cheney as a guest, using his nervous energy to great effect and ending the interview by inviting and then quickly uninviting Dick Cheney to be a guest on the show. And me? Well, I should get something for sitting through those tense 10 minutes of must-see television.

Yahoo, always on the heel of faster-moving rivals, is about to launch a new social networking site. Mash, which is not the Mansion-Apartment-Shack-House game you used to play when you were a kid, is the newest entrant into the realm dominated by Facebook and MySpace.

For now, Mash is an invitation-only program in the testing stages, but expect it to launch soon. While Mash may never play up to the participation level of its rivals, it’s another tool that will not only impact the communications industry, but the businesses for which we work. Users will have the ability to not just edit their own profiles, but to make edits to the profiles of friends. This will allow for an interesting, Wikipedia-esque approach to social networking.