Archive for April, 2008
April 16, 2008 at 7:56 pm · Filed under Social Media
Remember AOL?
Back in its heyday the company had a bigger valuation than old world media companies. That stratospheric valuation allowed it to acquire Time-Warner. Today the company is consigned to the history books as an important lesson in media evolution.
Same can be said for Facebook or MySpace or ClassMates.com. Why?
These sites provide great services - they allow us to connect with friends ole and new around the globe. We can reunite because of school ties or assemble for the first time due to shared hobbies and causes, be it cribbage or ending the war in Iraq.
Yet Facebook is building the barriers that will ultimately lead to its demise.
To enter you need an account. Your information remains within the “gated community” and cannot be accessed except by other members. It’s not searchable from outside. And even if you participate and build an entire network, you have to start over if you swap to another site. Look at the poor souls who started on MySpace and now find the “cool” crowd are all on FaceBook.
Last week The Economist penned an excellent editorial citing this very trend.
Today open platform communities allow many of the same functions without the onus restrictions. If Facebook doesn’t reinvent itself soon as an open community it will become irrelevant like AOL.
The idea of a gated community on the Internet is, like, so two weeks ago!
April 7, 2008 at 2:06 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Australia is embroiled in “Wavegate”.
At the weekend NATO conference in Europe Prime Minister Kevin Rudd waved across the room to US President George Bush. The style of the greeting (was that a wave or a salute?) and the recipient (of all the presidents in the room it had to be George Bush) have been causing no end of controversy.
Seems the quasi-salute was too much for many. Barking from the sidelines (and the dog house - who can survive approval ratings of 8%?) was Opposition leader Brendon Nelson. ”I think it’s conduct unbecoming of an Australian prime minister,” the Opposition Leader said (see more in The Australian).
This cooked-up controversy shows the parochial attitude of Australian media - especially when it comes to the USA. Rudd met Bush a week earlier. He walked into a crowded room and gave a familiar face a wave. That’s all.
It’s sad what fills media space!
April 7, 2008 at 2:00 am · Filed under America, Issues Management, Public Relations
Mark Penn stopped riding two horses today - he was forced to step down as Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist. He continues as CEO of Burson-Marsteller. Seems he stopped in on a client meeting with the Government of Colombia - who hired B-M to promote the country (and a Free Trade Agreement that Hillary opposed).
So it wasn’t appropriate for Clinton’s strategist to attend THAT meeting. But no one’s raised the issue of Penn acting as CEO of a global PR firm while dedicating himself to the Clinton campaign. How much was Camp Hillary reimbursing B-M for those services?
The departure comes at an awful time for Hillary. She’s falling in the polls. She didn’t dodge sniper fire in Bosnia. She’d also called for healthcare reform referencing the case of a woman who died in childbirth in Ohio because she didn’t have healthcare coverage. Ooops - girl is fine, baby is fine and both had private healthcare cover.
Penn definitely brought immense depth to the Hillary campaign. He’s a top strategist who authored “Micro Trends”.
But running a global PR firm and leading a presidential campaign was bound to end in conflict of interest. That said it makes it easier for companies aligned with the Republican Party. They’re free to chose anyone but B-M - no conflict!
April 1, 2008 at 10:53 pm · Filed under Media Industry, Australia
Poor Mr. D’Arcy. The father of swimmer Nick D’Arcy is in Perth with his son to see his daughter compete in a surfing competition. Problem is his son broke the jaw and skull of a fellow swimmer six hours after qualifying for the Australian Olympic team. His six hours may prove to be the shortest Olympic career in history. There is a 99.9% chance he will be barred from the team. (see today’s “The Australian.”
So there’s Dad. Off to Perth with his son. And there’s the media scrum. Poor Mr D’Arcy.
Sports stars falling from grace is a fairly common event in Australia. Andrew Denton didn’t let Wayne Carey walk in the park on ”Enough Rope” on Monday night. Our super-paid-aggressive-competitive-superstars are adored when they channel their testosterone on the field. But when they punch up a girlfriend (Wayne) or a team mate (Nick) and we abhor them. But back to Mr. D’Arcy.
We’ve all had our embarrassing or painful family moments. And you can easily recall the anger or shame or hurt of that time. Now imagine that same upset but with a media scrum outside your door at all time. Checking into the Sydney airport. Arriving at the Perth airport. Going to the hotel. Eating dinner. Watching your daughter surf. And all that time cameras are focused on you and your son hoping you’ll bear some emotion. Melting down in the limelight has to be one of the modern world’s most bizarre phenomenon (The Britney Effect is modern parlance). We eat up the photos of starlets with bad bikini bodies - but dive underwater if friends try to photograph us at the beach. We read the details of an Olympic hopeful’s shattered future - but can’t imagine having a camera in our face in similar circumstances. It’s not easy being in the spotlight - especially in times of strife. But we fuel the cameramen and journalists with our insatiable interest in the subjects.
Poor Mr D’Arcy - now, can we get an update on his son?
Nick - six hours earlier
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