The Bowl Championship Series, also known as the BCS to non-college football followers, has recently hired Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary, to work on its more than negative image. Now if you’re unclear about why the BCS is so hated it’s because they “prevent college football from choosing its champion in a rational way,” according to an Adage article.

They’ve launched a PR campaign that includes facebook, twitter and a series of interviews for executive director Bill Hancock. Now to someone who is about to finish a Public Relations class (and feeling like I learned a great deal) this would seem to be the best option for the BCS except that it might be too late. Judging by the public’s reaction to the Series campaign it looks like they’re going to need to do more to convince them that they actually care about college football. I read a Sports Illustrated article devoted to explaining how the BCS plans to do the seemingly impossible by spinning the BCS into a positive asset for the college football. By the end of the article James Carville concluded by advising the BCS to acknowledge, “that some things just aren’t spiffable.”

The good thing about all of this is that the BCS is finally aware that something has to be changed. They’ve had a negative image for a long time and simply haven’t cared and the fact that they’re finally trying to do something to fix this is important. However, the bigger issue is how they’re going about this. They’ve turned to social media, which is okay for organizations that need to build awareness or recognition but not so good for the BCS who is already very well known and hated. Social media allows for followers to push their negative opinions on others, which is not what the BCS needs. Overall, I’d say it’s a little too late for the BCS, which is upsetting when you think about what good PR has done for other organizations and companies.

In the spirit of college football rivalry week, I felt it necessary to recognize a well-known business rivalry that has been going on for years, AT&T and Verizon. The recent battle between the two wireless companies has been ignited by Verizon’s new 3G coverage advertising campaign, “There’s a map for that,” a play off of Apple’s Inc’s ads, “There’s an app for that.” Verizon launched the campaign through commercials that highlighted how its fast, 3G network has wider coverage than AT&T’s 3G system. Lastly, throwing in that Verizon has 5 times the coverage as the number two wireless company, AT&T.

AT&T sued Verizon over the “map” ads, not because they were untrue, but instead because AT&T felt there was a danger that viewers could become confused into thinking that AT&T had no coverage where it didn’t have 3G coverage. A judge disagreed with this argument and refused to force Verizon to pull the ads causing AT&T to make the next attack of this battle.

AT&T began a new commercial campaign starring Luke Wilson that made claims that AT&T has “The nation’s fastest 3G network.” In the wireless world, speed tests are very tricky and often depend on how many people in the area are accessing at the same time. The ad doesn’t use any sources or figures and while Mark Siegel, AT&T spokesman says the claim is made on extensive testing the company still isn’t providing the details that would prove this. The commercial also fronts that with AT&T it’s possible to talk and surf at the same time, claims that AT&T “has the most popular smart phones,” and “access to over 100,000 apps.”

So, Is this public relations? I would most definitely say this is public relations. Whether I would say it’s good or bad PR is a different story. Comparative Advertising is always tricky and in some ways can do more harm to your product than good because it can give the competitor product advertisement just as well as your own product. I think that Verizon’s ad was a great use of comparative advertising. It only makes the comparison to AT&T once at the end of the commercial after it has shown you what it wants you to know. Now, on the other hand, with AT&T’s advertisement, I’m not convinced they took the necessary time and research needed for an effective rebuttal ad. It also is not good public relations for the company when the lawsuit confirms Verizon’s ad by pointing out that AT&T does have less 3G coverage than Verizon.

In my previous post I discussed the importance of treating your employees with respect and decency because they can make or break a business through word of mouth. However, there are also important things that need to be addressed concerning the internal communication of companies, not just the treatment of the employees. The purpose of an internal communications department is to keep all employees of a company on the same page.

An article on the Basics in Internal Organizational Communications states that experts in management and leadership understand that effective communication throughout a company is the foundation to a successful company.

Another article found on bnet discussed many ways to achieve effective internal communication. One of the important ways to communicate within a company is an organization’s intranet. The article also stated that the ideal internal communication department should be structured and should report directly to the CEO.

When it comes to duties of the PR practitioner within internal communication, it is there job to make sure the channels used for communicated are kept up constantly and quickly while also allowing employees to communicate back in some way. All effective communication is two-way, with equal speaking and listening.

It’s important for companies to understand that employees are stakeholders that hold just as much power in your product as the customers that buy and consume it. If employees like the environment they’re working in then they are more likely to promote your company in a positive light. If you treat your employees with respect then they can convey better word of mouth advertisement than your best marketing campaign. However, if you mistreat your employees then they can cause irrefutable damage to your company. In a recent article I read on Employee Relations it stated that companies must make a conscious effort to engage employees in “two-way communications and progressive employee programs.”

On October 30, at 7pm the Foo Fighters followed the lead of the popular band U2 and allowed fans to stream a live concert of their own. The concert was broadcasted live via Facebook straight from the Foo Fighters’ home base in Los Angeles, Studio 606. The bands intention was to create awareness for their Greatest Hits album, which was set to release November 3rd, 2009. In addition to all thirteen of the bands hits it also included two new tracks produced by Butch Vig.

This concert was very important to the band because there have been mixed reviews on the bands new music. There have been remarks from fans that the band has been slowly changing through the years and they aren’t the same “rock” that the fans knew and loved. The concert gave the band a chance to not only play the music for their fans but also communicate and show their fans they still care.

The really cool thing about the concert is that it allowed the band to see live status updates from fans across the world listening to the concert. The band even took time out of the concert to acknowledge, comment and take song requests.

This is a great example of public relations because of three reasons. The band showed the fans that they are not only interested in making money and they still care about what their fans think. It brought awareness to the bands new album and also the two new songs that were included on the new album. Lastly, the concert was great PR because it not only allowed fans to listen to the concert but also they communicated directly with the fans. Two-way communication is one of the most important aspects of PR and Foo Fighters have not forgotten that.

(http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10387818-26.html)

I recently read a case on Starbucks and their Corporate Social Responsibility to coffee farmers and the United States. Starbucks is one of, if not is the largest coffee distributor in the country. They have very strict regulations for the coffee beans that they use in their coffee because they want a specific quality of coffee to represent their business. One of their six guidelines to their mission statement is to “Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.”

As an early company, Starbucks started out by giving back to the community and countries where its coffee was outsourced. In 1999, Starbucks formed an actual CSR department that oversees Starbucks involvement in community, society and environment. They have five areas of focus that include: business practices, environmental issues, community affairs, corporate giving and the Starbucks Foundation. They also recently partnered with Conservation International (CI) which is a company founded outside of Washington D.C. with a mission to conserve Earth’s living natural heritage and its global biodiversity. CI’s efforts focus on the 25 areas of the world identified as “biodiversity hot spots” that are most threatened. CI identified coffee as an important commodity that affected biodiversity and launched a Conservation Coffee Program that will preserve and promote shade-grown coffee. This partnership is a great example of Starbucks CSR because it proves that they really are interested in the environment, not just using it as a mission statement without follow through. (Most of this information came from my Mgt 415 casebook)

Corporate Social Responsibility is a relatively new concept to organizations and PR. CSR is where organizations consider their responsibility to society, economy and the environment and the impact that their company will have on customers, shareholders and employees. Since CSR is a somewhat new concept it is important for PR practitioners to become more involved and interested in this.

As far as CSR within Public Relations, it is important for a company to understand and recognize their importance and impact they may have on our environment. It is critical that a PR practitioner display the company they represent in the best light and handle any situation they might be faced with that could put the company in a negative light (SourceWatch).

I also found an MBA CSR toolkit for a company that explained very clearly the importance of CSR and PR together. The toolkit explained that it is important to have an effective two-way link between communications and CSR. They also included that CSR is evolving into an important PR position where they must inform and create awareness for their company connecting it and society.

Another critical aspect of business that needs to be addressed is ethics and the importance of it to PR. A lot of people have a negative opinion of public relations because they thing that all PR practitioners are dishonest and only tell you what you would like to hear. While this might be true to some individuals, ethics should be and are found in PR. The PR Society of America actually has a “Code of Ethics” and is useful for members to carry out ethical responsibilities.

In a recent blog post, “PR & Ethics: Yes they do go together”, an individual gives very impressive tips to follow when faced with an ethical dilemma in a workplace. Know and apply the PRSA Code of Ethics, ask questions to supervisors while still being professional, find a mentor and consult with them and most important, remember it’s okay to say “no.” I’ve always found that being honest about ones client is more important than trying to cover the truth. It will eventually come out and it’s easier to fix something if you have been open and honest about it than if you have tried to hide it.

This week’s lesson was about the law and it’s importance to public relations. The First Amendment is one of the most influential laws in our constitution and contributes a lot to public relations. The First Amendment’s purpose is to protect our right of expression and free speech and this is clearly critical in PR. In the Handbook of PR, states that the constitutions protection does not apply to all messages at any medium. The Supreme Court is more lenient on political speech for example debates on public issues. Commercial speech is more restricted than political speech because it is based on making a profit. However, now pure commercial speech is protected to a certain extent.

In addition to the constitution, there are other federal agencies that regulate speech. It’s important for PR practitioners to understand all of these agencies and what exactly they regulate. The last thing a PR practitioner would want is to jeopardize their company or client by unnecessarily breaking a law, something like that can and should be avoided at all costs.

As I’m reading through the chapter in our book on the tactics of PR I find the author speaking again about the importance of a plan and how specific tactics should work into your PR plan. The chapter discusses traditional and non-traditional PR tactics that every person in this field should be aware of. I think one of the first things one must realize is that you cannot always control the media that your company or client may receive. In today’s society there are millions of people who wish to get their opinion out. They’re using social media sites like youtube, facebook, twitter and so many more. Social media is everywhere and you can’t control what others say but being aware of it and using it to your advantage is a very important tactic. I recently read a blog on how PR tactics have changed in the past 10 years, newborn tactics. The author of the blog included things like reputation monitoring, corporation podcasts and viral marketing. Things that if we had even mentioned the idea of ten years ago we would have been laughed at. I also read on a website 7 tips for using PR tactics effectively. These included things like focusing on your newsworthy attributes, using newswire services and sharing expertise through articles. All 7 of these tips are helpful in taking traditional tactics and applying them in non-traditional ways. I think that one of the most important tactics in today’s society of PR is to remember the past but prepare for the future. If one can do this than they will be ready for what their company is faced with.