Category: Public Relations

Two-Time Oscar Winner Dropped by PR Firm

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It was recently announced that two-time oscar winner Hilary Swank was dropped by the PR firm representing her, 42West, for attending a party that was for the Chechen President, Ramzan Kaydrov.

Ramzan Kadyrov, Jean-Claude Vann Damme & Hilary Swank, Photo Credit: http://www.eonline.com/news/hilary_swank_jean-claude_van_damme/268602

The New York Times does justice at describing Kaydrove as a leader who has succeeded in making Chechyna (which is located in Russia) to be “one of the more stable republics in the restive North Caucasus region. But only at the expense of widespread human rights violations, including abductions, torture and assassinations, according to international critics.”

You can see why this would be a problem if Swank was partying it up with this guy. Not to mention that she reportedly received a heft paycheck for attending the event.

42West and Swank apparently parted ways due to disagreeing on how to deal with the situation at hand… Hmm, wouldn’t a PR firm know best?

To make this PR-fiasco better, Swank also spoke at the event.  She was caught saying, “Really, truly, for me this was a great honor to learn more about you and your country and what you’re building. Happy birthday, Mr. President.” However, Swank did try to redeem herself by vowing to donate the money she made off the event to a charitable organization.

And then, to add insult to injury (more…)

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Event 101: VH1 Save The Music Family Day

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On October 22nd, the VH1 Save The Music Foundation hosted “Family Day” at The Anderson School on the upper west side of Manhattan.  I spent all summer and some time after helping plan this event, brainstorm activities, spread the word via social media, pitching to advertisers, and so much more.  So, needless to say, I was pretty stoked for the event the day of. And even though I couldn’t have felt more prepared, or excited, or ready for the event to happy already, I’m not sure anything could have prepared me for the day that was “Family Day.”

Photo Credit: http://features.rr.com/photo/03oLeBx2205ks?q=VH1 Hanson & Voca People

I landed in New York on Thursday afternoon, and just 24 hours later I was on the LIRR on my way to Penn Station.  From there, I would walk to the VH1 STM offices in Times Square.  It was a whirlwind once those wheels stopped moving, let me tell you…. (more…)

#OccupyWallStreet takes on Times Square

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Photo Credit: http://s1.proxy03.twitpic.com/photos/large/424761930.jpg

…and the counter terrorism unit, apparently.

It has been reported, and tweeted (trending, no less), that Occupy Wall Street has moved to Times Square today.

Now, the news that was anticipated for today was how the protests spread world-wide… but, of course, the original #OWS gang is stealing the spotlight, yet again.

Seriously, though, moving to Times Square today was the quite the move on their part.  I’ve read, via Twitter, that the estimated numbers of people there is expected to exceed the number normally there on New Years Eve.  That’s a reported 60,000+, folks.  And growing.

Not to mention that the police have definitely taken notice.  I’ve also read on twitter that there are police officers, police horses as well as the counter terrorism unit showed up to barricade and control the crowds.  It’s even being reported (yes, still on Twitter) that all protestors present in Times Square are subject to being arrested…

As of now, only one protestor, and two police officers has been reported as injured.  However, updated from the one arrest earlier, it was reported that 42 people were arrested in Times Square.  I heard, though am not certain, that these several of these protestors were arrested for wearing face masks, though, which could have been easily prevented… The march is said to continue on tonight to Washington Square Park at 10p, which hopefully means out of Times Square (for everyone’s sake.)

Now, as I follow all of this unfolding on Twitter, I can’t help but wonder… where is the mainstream media news?  Seldom articles have been found by even the NYT or CNN (though, they are starting to appear, but it they took their sweet time to trickle in), but the fact that this is happening on Twitter is probably the most mesmerizing to me.  People aren’t going to their regular news sources, they’re following these events on social media.

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The Many Personalities of College Kids

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In high-school, most mornings I woke up around 5:30a to be at school by 6.  I had meetings and organizations I was leading that I was in charge of being present to help lead and represent, then I went about my school day until 2:30p.  Then, after school, I would have band practice and/or play rehearsal until about 9p that evening, only to go home that night to do homework, go to bed, wake up, and do it all the next day.  Boy, let me tell you, trying to throw a job in that mix was a task I certainly failed at.

Little did I know, this was only a warm-up for the marathon I’d be racing in college.

Most often, you hear adults, teachers, whoever, talk about college age kids… usually in a negative light.  It’s usually about how all they like to do is sleep, hang out with their friends, waste time on the computer and “The Facebook,” or consume certain substances.  Or, there are the teachers and professors who wholeheartedly believe that their class is the only class, the most important class, and everything in their students lives should come second to that class.

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SoMe Relationships

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Facebook vs Twitter

Today in my Social Media in Public Relations class, we got into this discussion based on social media relationships — specifically, Facebook vs Twitter.

One side was that Facebook is better for relationships.  Why? It’s not as public, you can control who sees the things you post, you can interact more, you can simply do more.

The other side, Twitter, was that it’s more about sharing thoughts, ideas & content and not making and maintaining relationships.

Valid arguments were made both ways, but it made me wonder, why can’t they both used to build and maintain relationships?

Just as we all have different relationships with different people, why wouldn’t we have different relationships on Twitter than we do on Facebook?  Twitter is a great way to get your information out there, to share content, to get the point across (you do only have 140 characters, after all).  It’s also a way, though, to connect.  Twitter is one of the only media that can allow you to easily search for people of common interests and follow them with an easy click.  Then, suddenly, you’re allowed into their world of tweets, thoughts and other various content they decide to share, which will (most likely) coincide with your interests (given that, after all, you decided to follow them.)

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