PRos in Training

Author: Kelli Matthews

  • You Can be Smart AND Cool… I love it!

    Nothing to do with PR, really (except that everything has something to do with PR, I suppose), but I just love this story. From CNN:

    Danica McKellar has a message for girls: Cute and smart is better than cute and dumb.

    Danica McKellar wants girls to steer away from the example set by Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

    McKellar, who played Winnie on the 1990s television show “The Wonder Years,” is coming out with a book, “Math Doesn’t Suck,” to encourage girls to get into math.

    “When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible,” the 32-year-old McKellar told Newsweek for editions to hit newsstands Monday.

    “But I want to show them that being smart is cool,” she said. “Being good at math is cool. And not only that, it can help them get what they want out of life.”

  • What About the “Ick” Factor?

    The California Supreme Court has banned the sale of Adidas soccer cleats and other products made of kangaroo leather.

    Adidas is the biggest commercial buyer of kangaroo leather, which is considered lighter and more flexible than cowhide.

    Animal rights groups are protesting the use of the leather, and heralding this ruling as a good step in the right direction.

    According to USA Today, activists say the problem with kangaroo leather is:

    “…hunters mistakenly shoot endangered species. They also say abundant kangaroo species are killed cruelly – sometimes shot during night hunting parties, and sometimes clubbed to death as babies.”

    The Predator cleats by Adidas – made of kangaroo leather since their introduction to the market several years ago – have been popularized by none other than superstar David Beckham. Even Beckham, though, is distancing himself from this controversy. His spokesperson responded very tersely to this ruling by saying, “David wears synthetic Predator boots so this ruling has no relevance to us.”

    The Australian government is siding with Adidas (of course) saying that hunting kangaroos is good wildlife management and that the country has more than 25 million of the animals – hardly endangered.

    Other manufacturers use kangaroo leather. But many manufacturers are using very high end synthetics in their soccer cleats and users seem to like it just as well, if not better.

    There seem to be some genuine benefits to kangaroo leather, and I suppose demand prevails as soccer takes over the world. But, as a PR manager for Adidas, you have to be smart about the markets where you sell your products. Seems, based on the coverage in the American press, Adidas should be considering the “ick” factor. American consumers, for the most part, are saying “ick.” (And this certainly doesn’t help me like, or understand, soccer any more…)

    What do you think?

  • Guest Post: As A New Grad, It’s All About Marketing Yourself

    This guest post is from Ashley Sherrick (UO, ’07), an intern at Conkling, Fiskum & McCormick, a public affairs agency in Portland, Ore.

    So I know you have heard this before, but the key to landing your first “real” job or internship out of college is to market, market, market yourself! Just being a recent grad myself, I went through the whole freak-out process of not having a job lined up after school.

    My best tip is to do informational interviews. I know, it may sound like a waste of time because you might think there’s no job potential because it is not a formal interview, but they really do pay off.

    Call a company that you may be interested in and see if anyone is available to do an informational interview. Likely you will be directed to someone willing to spend time some time talking and give you a chance to market yourself a professional with potential. And the best part is that you can relax and be yourself; you’re the one doing all the interviewing – not to mention that you won’t get sweaty pits (read: gross) like you may during a real interview.

    First, be prepared. Do background research on the company and prepare a list of questions tailored to each specific company you interview with. Second, ask your interviewee what experiences brought them to where they are in their career today. Ask for tips for a new graduate trying out the working world and what they recommend for moving up in the workplace.

    Remember this is an informational interview, your chance to do the interviewing, and you may realize that what you thought would be a fabulous place to work is not really what you are looking for.

    Lastly, if the interview goes really well, you may want to ask your interviewee if it is okay that you leave your resume and cover letter… but feel out the situation first. Usually, it is not appropriate to leave a resume and cover letter because the interview is not formal, but as said earlier, feel out the situation. And always ask for another person that you could get in touch with at the company at the end of the interview.

    In my case, I did an informational interview with a woman at Conkling, Fiskum & McCormick, which went great. We ended up talking for an hour and a half just about life in general, as well as a bit about the company, and I ended up landing an internship just from the informational interview.

    Another important way to market yourself is to have a blog. I’m sure some of you have already created a blog or will in the near future thanks to Kelli, but blogs are a great way to let the world, as well as potential employers, see your writing style. It shows that you have a passion for writing, which you should (we are journalism majors for a reason) and it also shows that you are keeping up with the exponentially growing social media and the ever-changing journalism industry.

    Good luck! And have fun.

  • All A’Twitter


    I’ve finally jumped into Twitter. I invite you to do the same. I’m still figuring it out, but I’d love to see you there.

    I’m: kmatthews (or use email: kelli@vervenorthwest.com).

  • Succumbing to the Hype & Watching Soccer

    I’m hoping that ESPN’s coverage of the LA Galaxy and the Chelsea FC (which stands for football club, by the way, I looked it up) will include some educational commentary about how the heck soccer is played… ’cause I’m clueless.

    The marketing and PR machinery behind the Beckham’s arrival in the United States is phenomenal, but as I see a sold out Home Depot Center on ESPN full of fans from both sides of the pond, it appears the results are positive for major league soccer and easily measureable.

    In a celebrity-obsessed culture, it’s not about selling soccer, though, the Beckhams are the commodity. And we’re buying!

    The ESPN team has much more in the works for David Beckham’s debut. According to Ad Week, Portland’s Weiden + Kennedy is leading the charge. The list of tactics (via Marketing Blurb)

    • A television commercial (which I love!)

    • A digital takeoever of ESPN.com the day before the game
    • Print ads in USA Today and ESPN the Magazine
    • Radio ads
    • Full coverage of David Beckham’s debut game with expanded pre and post show reports and interviews
    • ESPN special one-hour documentary, David Beckham: New Beginnings
    • A “Beckham camera” which will follow solely what David Beckham is doing on the field during his debut game for visitors at espn360.com

    Will this translate to more fans in the long-term? I don’t know. Seems that ESPN and MLS is going to have to keep people’s attention for a while (and Beckham is going to have to be the stellar footballer the Galaxy is banking on). I’m already 27 minutes into my first soccer game… so we’ll see.

    Image: Carl de Souza/AP/Getty Images

  • Now That You’re Graduated… Which Social Network Tool Should You Use?


    The choices are numerous, and the opinions about which is best are diverse.

    LinkedIn: Touted as the “grown-up” MySpace, I’ve struggled to find a useful purpose for LinkedIn except to just build my list of contacts. There has been a rare occasion that I’ve used LinkedIn because I lost an email address… so I guess that’s good.

    Facebook: Not just for college kids anymore. I highly recommend making sure your Profile is up to date and you monitor your wall and news feed carefully. Lots of people are on Facebook now that it’s opened up to the general public. I read a great post here that got me thinking about how I could better use this resource.

    MyRagan: The PR social network, I think it’s got a lot of value, particularly in the forums and message boards. I’m not as active on it as I was initially, but on occasional login I see that the forums and message boards are extremely active. The site boasts more than 7500 members.

    Those seem to be the big three. Are there others you’re using?

  • Unfortunately Some Things Don’t Stay in Vegas

    I’ve been posting a lot of videos lately … it’s summer! give me a break!
    This ad series from Rubin Postaer and Associates is really creative and I had to share. I think the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” campaign is genius and this series is a great play on that campaign. Enjoy!

    “Misty”

    “Party Girl”

    “JJ”

  • Just Freaking Adorable!

    What happens when you put your money in a Coke vending machine? Magic…

    The commercial:

    Coca-Cola – Happiness Factory

    Posted Feb 04, 2007

    So just what happens when you put your money inside of the vending machine?


    Happiness factory -Behind the scenes
    Uploaded by firat

    Rumor has it, some of the voices are actual Coca-Cola employees. Created by Weiden + Kennedy’s Amsterdam office.

  • International Student Job Search Tips

    I often get asked for job search advice from international students who want to stay and work in the United States. Karen Miller Russell at University of Georgia tapped a former student for these tips: Tips for international students who want to work in the United States.

    My favorite and the one I might not have thought of off the top of my head:

    2. Look for jobs in the want ads in the foreign language press and on Websites for people [from whatever country you’re originally from] now living in the U.S. If an organization is looking for a bilingual speaker, that’s where they’ll advertise.

    Thanks Karen (and George!) for these great tips.

  • Sprint Should Do the Right Thing

    Sprint is skeptical. A Tacoma family insists that their phones are being hijacked. They are getting death threats, someone is watching them through the cell phone camera and leaving terrifying voicemails on both cell and home lines. You can see the Today Show story here.

    I’ve heard the story on a couple of news outlets, most recently on NPR. The NPR host characterized Sprint’s response as saying it was not possible to do what the family says was being done.

    From the Tacoma News-Tribune: Complaints to their phone companies do no good – the families say they’ve been told what the stalkers are doing is impossible.

    From KIRO-TV: “We are unaware of technology that would enable the activity portrayed in this story to occur, and we will support law enforcement as appropriate on investigating the issue,” Caroline Semerdijian with Sprint Nextel said.

    Media have trotted out a series of experts that say, yeah, it’s possible. In fact, not only is it possible, it’s relatively easy (like teen-prank-easy).

    According to James M. Atkinson, a Massachusetts-based expert in counterintelligence who has advised the U.S. Congress on security issues, it’s not that hard to take remote control of a wireless phone. “You do not have to have a strong technical background for someone to do this,” he said Tuesday. “They probably have a technically gifted kid who probably is in their neighborhood.”

    An old story on MSNBC even has Sprint saying it’s possible to hack into a phone. So, it’s possible that Paris Hilton’s phone would get hacked, but not this regular person from Tacoma?

    Others disagree, saying is possible, but very very unlikely. Many fingers seem to point at someone the family knows as behind this. And some are even pointing at the 16-year-old daughter.

    The family matriarch was interviewed saying that they were going to take a break from cell phones for a while. She’d just received her disconnection notice from Sprint and told them she had no intention to pay the bill.

    This is an opportunity for Sprint to step up and do the right thing – even if Sprint thinks the family is full of crap. The family is working with local law enforcement, the FBI and even Homeland Security. Clearly the threat is real to each of them.

    Sprint should:

    • Provide new cell phones. New phones, new accounts, new numbers. They should ensure that the numbers are secure, locked, blocked and as anonymous as possible.
    • Comp the family’s service until this is worked out.
    • Be visibly cooperative with law enforcement.
    • Start and lead a new industry-wide “cell phone security” campaign to educate people and work to develop protections for its customers.

    Sprint should not:

    • Discredit the experiences or feelings of customers. Any customers, much less those who are getting national media attention.
    • Make any kind of absolute statements saying this hijacking just isn’t possible.
    • Avoid commenting on any media story (you can tell Sprint is NOT doing the right thing because they are avoiding the spotlight. If they were being good corporate citizens, they would be talking.)

    Any potential financial loss that Sprint would take here is going to be returned 100-fold in enhanced reputation. The wireless industry is cutthroat and if I were a Sprint customer, I’d be thinking twice about renewing my contract with them.

    What are your thoughts?

    Photo: Allison Yin/News Tribune

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