Years ago when I was designing incentive programs for Carlson Marketing Group I got invited to a customer appreciation night with a vendor that distributed one of the Swiss Army Knife lines. I was admiring the new line of watches on display (I have a weak spot for nice watches) and one of the account managers who looked after the retail channel and started to bad mouth the other Swiss Army Knife company’s watch line. Back then I thought it was in poor taste trashing someone else’s product as a result I bought more from the other Swiss Army Knife company.

Flash forward to this past week, The Economist published an article highlighting the trend in advertising where one brand trashes another. That brought me back to that night in the product showroom and why that made an impression on me. The one bit of marketing advice I stand by is this, DO NOT TRASH OR BAD MOUTH YOUR (CLIENT’S) COMPETITION’S BRAND OR PRODUCTS/SERVICES. Did everyone hear that clearly? Good.

I am well aware times are tough, I am looking for work in PR during a recession, I know how rough it is out there. I am standing by what I said above, trashing your competitor’s products/services in earned and paid media, along with web 2.0 is cheap and smells of desperation. Companies/clients who choose that tone for their key messaging usually are in trouble with their own business.

I am a firm believer in speaking up the attributes of your company’s product/service along with a third party endorsement goes a lot further in earning trust from consumers over the long run. Going down and dirty on a competitor’s product or service could blow back and customers will question the integrity of your products/services.

It’s a small world, if you were the one who signed off on key messaging for a marketing communications campaign and later on through circumstance are interviewing at your competitor for a position, it could be an interesting conversation. Taking the high road in terms of Messaging will earn more respect for the brand you are working for and you.

Official Graduation from the Ryerson University Public Relations Program and other things

I received a letter today from the Office Of Curriculum Advising, I have officially graduated from Ryerson University's post degree certificate in Public Relations. I am getting the certificate mailed to me in a few weeks, it is an important turning point but I just want to move on, I still have this job search to contend with.

In other news this morning I met an independent PR practitioner and photographer Helen Grose for coffee at my favourite local meeting spot, the Green Bean. It was productive meeting, we talked about PR, Helen gave me some sage advice on managing managers, how to approach certain people in the Southern Ontario Public Relations community and provided all important contacts for me to follow up with.

I met Helen online through flickr, as both of us are photography enthusiasts. I admired her work for several weeks and it also turned out we had mutual friends. Moral of today's events, potential contacts are everywhere including your extra curricular activities that have nothing to do with work, so always be at the ready for potential networking opportunities.

The Oliphant Inquiry or the Mulroney/ Schreiber Circus

I replied on Twitter recently to a posting the Joseph Thornley made in regards to the current Parliamentary inquiry exploring the business dealings between former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and German businessman Herr Karl-Heinz Schreiber. I took an opposing view to his, stating that inquiry has lost its relevance in the grand scheme of things. Thornley begged to differ on my comment in that regard.

Here is my take on the whole thing, freed from the 140 character confines of Twitter, it’s pretty much a given that Mulroney’s behaviour does not pass the ethical smell test. He is what I best describe is a flawed individual with bad judgement accepting $75 thousand cash payments from a sketchy character as Schreiber, I should also point out has an outstanding date with the German legal system regarding bribery scandal with the Christian Democratic party of Germany that makes this one small potatoes.

The Germans take white collar crime seriously so of course Schreiber wants to avoid the one way trip home. At the moment he is a star witness of this inquiry and is going nowhere near an international departure lounge anytime soon. The big question, what will be gained of this inquiry other than providing a nice platform to boost the careers of some opposition MPs, make some expensive lawyers happy and keep one German lobbyist away from his homeland’s justice system?

I think Canadians have already by and large made up their collective minds on the whole Mulroney/Schreiber bribery scandal and moved on. The former PM is not going to jail and has already settled with the Canada Revenue Agency, so what’s being gained from this exercise? Mulroney had few fans going into this and has even less now. How can you damage further the reputation of an unpopular Prime Minister? Canadians are already cynical about the political system and that pre-dates this current scandal. I don’t think that opinion is to change any time soon.

If you want to see a real scandal, follow the events in the United Kingdom where Conservative, Labour and Liberal-Democratic MPs are on the hook for raping and pillaging their expense accounts. This will sink political careers on both sides of aisle in Westminster and could affect the outcome of the next British election. Our bribery scandal is over events that happened in the early 1990s, the players are out office and the medium-long haul Airbus aircraft Air Canada purchased that triggered this mess at that the beginning are going to be replaced shortly with Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Know when to let one go

There was an opportunity I was considering applying to, a think tank based in the Mars Discovery District in Toronto, decently funded and focused on promoting Social Innovation. What they are doing is pretty interesting, I wrestled with the requirement of the application for Communications coordinator position, a 700 word essay on why Social Innovation is Important and I realized the opportunity is not for me.

It's rather interesting to use a short essay as screening device, on the surface it is a writing test for employers but more importantly it forces perspective communicators to think seriously if the organization and cause is for them. I decided I would not be a good fit for Social Innovation Generation. I have the hard and soft skills to the job and what I don't know I learn pretty quick. My problem, I am not a "just drank the grape kool aid" believer, the SIG is looking for someone who believes. I am not, I find what the SIG is doing with social innovation is interesting but the reality is it would be a square peg in a round hole situation.

Fit is everything and I don't think it was right for me for this particular communications position. The secret is know thyself to the core and understand what will work best for you, if you don't, it could get really uncomfortable really fast.

I stopped working on the 700 word essay and I am going back to lining up networking opportunities with different PR agencies.

Two pieces of news

First Piece of News
My write up of Ron Shewchuk's PD Seminar on the roll of Social Media in Internal Communications has been published in the March-April 2009 IABC Toronto Communicator.




Second Piece of News
Under my "Other Duties as Assigned" as PR Director and Membership Coordinator of the Oakville Camera Club I act as the club representative on the Community Arts Space Advisory Board. It is a grass roots organization that has worked very hard to get an arts centre for Oakville. Guess what, Town Council has approved the renovation of QE Park High School into a community centre with a almost 60,000 Square feet of arts centre within the complex.

Entertainment Publicity Scares Me

One part of the public relations realm I have no interest in is handling publicity for celebrities. I think Billy Bob Thorton's interview this week on CBC Radio One's Q is a good case in point. For those who have not heard the interview, here is the youtube clip, I would not have been so gentle with Thorton if I was in Jian Ghomeshi's chair.

I give credit to the members of The Boxmasters (Thorton's band) for stepping up in the interview while their famous front man was being an asshole. If Thorton is genuinely interested in taking his career in a different direction with his Modbilly band, he scuttled it with is interview behavior. What I found interesting is how fast this spread all over new and old media outside of Canada and how the consensus was not flattering.

Truth of the matter, when the brand (Thorton) itself is behaving erratically in media interviews, that's bad thing and it does not take a PR pro to realize that. Doing a quick scan online the consensus is either Thorton potentially sabotaged his singing career or he is doing a lame attempt at mimicking the erratic behaviour of actor turned rapper Joaquin Phoenix

My suggestion, don't buy Thorton's music on iTunes or the CD, instead check out Wilco's Summer Teeth or Big Star's self titled debut albums.

A Quick Postscript

Billy Bob Thorton and the Boxmasters received a rough ride at Massey Hall opening up for Willie Nelson and have since pulled out of the their Canadian tour. A big surprise? I don't think so.

At a loss for words this week.

I am at a loss for words this week, however I have been very prolific with my photography lately. If you are interested, please visit my photography blog via the link below for something different.

My photography