Amy’s Blog

I recently saw a commercial for Sea-Doo jet skis the other day. The commercial advertised the new 3-D videos that you could watch at their website www.sea-doo.net. Out of curiosity I went to this the page just to see what it was about.  The entire set of videos is simply a video of someone riding their newest models of jet skis. I had to laugh when I saw this, but then I thought it’s a pretty interesting new approach to retail advertising.  People can go the website and see the product in action before purchasing it.  Now, I’m not sure how effective this tactic is going to be because I don’t know how many people in the world are as curious as I am.  The only way anyone will see these videos is if they go to the webpage and find them.  The only reason I was curious was because the commercial showed the videos as if they had a plot and told a story.  Now, I went to look at this not because I was interested about the product, but because I thought the videos would be completely cheesy and good for a laugh.   Either way, I applaud sea-doo for giving it a try. In my opinion, it’s always worth it to try a new tactic in a market full of old over-used ones. Even if it doesn’t work out, there’s always that chance that new, fresh idea might be just what the audience was craving.

 

Today Auburn University exhibited public relations at its best.  An on-campus celebration was held to commemorate the beginning of construction of our new student center that will be finished in 2008.  While most of us students that attend Auburn right now won’t benefit from this new addition to campus, an event was still held to get us excited about the growth and improvement of our campus’s facilities.  The even was held at the site of the new building.  Large tents were set up with tables and chairs to allow students to congregate and avoid the predicted afternoon shower.  There was also free food and drinks to gain the attention of the students (because it has been proven that is the best way to attract students to any function.)  Officials from the university appeared and spoke about the new building and what features it will have that will benefit students and faculty alike.  Also in attendance was the Auburn University marching band and cheerleaders that led the students in singing the fight song and other popular cheers that are typically heard at football games.  Immediately when you walked into the area the event was being held I was handed a booklet that contained facts about the new student center and pictures and diagrams of what it is expected to look like.  This was very helpful for my curiosity because I had not seen anything up to this point that explained why this new center was any different than the fully functioning one we already had.  Now, after seeing all of the information, I can understand why it is necessary for us to build the new center and retire the old one.  Our old center simply doesn’t fulfill the needs, especially the technological needs, of the new generations of students that attend Auburn. The new center will provide the space and facilities needed by students that the old center lacks.  Basically, I didn’t know any of this until walking through the celebration therefore, in my opinion, the event was successful.  Now I, as well as many other students like me, understand the plan and support it.

It is the end of the semester and it is certain that every public relations student at Auburn has at least one thing in common…stress.  We all have many different projects going on at one time and each project requires time that we simply don’t have. This can cause students to become rather uncomfortable.  In the field of public relations we will constantly have many projects going on as well.  We will constantly be under large amounts of stress because we will be facing clients and deadlines. And with the development of email and cell phones we can be reached at all times, leaving us available to our clients even after we have left the office. We must begin now to learn how to cope with this much stress in our lives in order to prevent us from losing our minds. I, myself, have already been dealing with stress related illnesses because I have neglected to find an appropriate outlet for my school related anxieties.  Therefore, as students of public relations we should make it a point to learn how to deal with our stress and anxiety as well as learn all the facts from our books. Good luck to everyone with their projects!

With the new observation by many that gas prices are going to continue to rise indefinitely it occurred to me that there are certain companies that could be using this to their advantage.  Researcher are currently looking for any other source of fuel. They are even looking at corn.  One market that should be taking the high gas prices and search for new energy sources very seriously is companies that make solar powered cars.  These companies have never been very well known to my knowledge because the cars they sell are not as attractive as the cars that run on fuel. However, this is a prime time for these companies because with gas prices so high consumers are finding themselves less concerned with the attractiveness of their car and more concerned with its efficiency.  The phrase “strike while the iron is hot” comes to mind.  These companies that sell hybrid and solar powered cars should be launching campaigns left and right to make consumers aware of how much money they could save on gasoline if they sold their fuel-powered car and purchased one that runs on solar power.  Due to recent hurricanes that destroyed oil refineries on the southeastern coast and our countries state of war with other oil providing countries, fuel becoming less and less available.  This companies should be using these facts to help promote their product and convince their audience that this is the perfect time to purchase a vehicle that doesn’t run solely on gasoline.

I know this is going to reveal what a dork I actually am if I haven’t already in prior blogs, but I really love newsletters.  My apartment complex has delivers a newsletter to its residence once a month.  It involves information about events that the complex has had for the residence, the most recent being a Casino Night in the clubhouse. It also gives us information about any new employees that have been hired, updates on any upcoming events, and includes sections that are tailored to that month such as study tips for final exams and maintenance tips for the month.  I really enjoy getting this newsletter every few weeks because it allows me to stay connected with the people around me.  If I have a problem, the newsletter gives me the names and phone numbers of anyone that I should call for help.  I also like the fact that I am always informed about what is going on and what I can do to meet the other students that I live around. Basically, it just makes me feel like I am really a member of a group, and I like that.  I think this is the function of any newsletter, be it for a college apartment complex or a big company.  Getting an update every now and then really allows people to stay connected with the other people involved instead of just getting bogged down with personal business.  It reminds them of who they’re working for.  So, as dorky as it may seem, I think I will always love newsletters and I look forward to writing them! 

Well, here we go again with the infamous Natalie Holloway case.  A new suspect has been taken into custody and the deception and lies have begun to surge again almost a year after the first reports of the Mountain Brook High School student’s disappearance.  In the beginning Natalie’s mother hired a public relations representative to get the media involved with this case after Aruban officials did not handle it in a professional way.  She wanted to get the media involved to expose the corruption of the Aruban government and gain support of her situation. Now that almost a year has past and the media is still following the story as closely as they did in the following weeks of the disappearance, I would say that this was a successful and smart move.  But, how much coverage is too much?  The media did bring attention to the case and probably caused the Aruban government to shape up because they had been thrust into the spotlight, but is this attention that helped improve the case now getting in the way?  Now, every new suspect is bombarded with questions and cameras from the minute they are accused on.  Is this media attention getting in the way of valid answers to questions and the revelation of new information and evidence? I don’t know, but it is an issue that I think should be taken into consideration.  Now, I am not saying that I believe that these boys that have been accused should be babied during their interrogations, but I do think that they have the right of “innocent until proven guilty.” According to the media, these suspects are guilty as charged just because the authorities question them.  This might interfere with how accurate the responses of the accused parties are.

I am in a nonverbal communications class and one of the nonverbal cues that has been deemed as very important in making impressions is appearance. Research has shown that the two most important aspects in making a first impression is physical appearance and vocal cues.  In another blog I read that one of the questions on a job application was whether or not the applicant had any visible tattoos or piercings. I work in retail, and we are required to attend workshops that train us on how to find the customers that are most likely to spend the most money. As awful as it sounds, it was a tactic used by the company to ensure that the highest income was made.  All of these things led me to the question, Is it really all about how you look? If two people were to interview for the same position, would the more attractive person really get the job simply based on their looks? I think the answer to these questions is yes, unfortunately. We are a visually driven society. We are attracted to bright and inviting packaging for our products and people are no different. Now, when I mention physical appearance and attractiveness I don’t mean how pretty or ugly someone is, I mean their presentation of themselves. People directly associate someone’s self presentation with how well they take care of themselves, how they take care of their working environment, and how approach clients and business situations. If someone is dressed sloppy and unkempt, people will assume that that is how they will handle business transactions…sloppy and unkempt. Where I work, these people are viewed as someone that does not care about their personal appearance, therefore they are not going to spend very much money on improving it.  We are instructed to give more attention to customers that are more put together and appear to be more willing to spend money on items that will help them maintain the image that they have made for themselves.  Basically, appearance is very important whether we like it or not. So, if you are smart, you will make sure that you give your personal appearance as much thought as you give your interview questions, otherwise the interview might be a waste of time.

It has recently been brought to my attention that our business world is still living in the 1950s.  It is very disappointing to me that after many many years of accomplishments that should earn us our place, women are still being discriminated against in the workplace.  This is a problem that takes place everyday but seems to have become somewhat of a norm because it is so constant. For this reason, this problem usually receives very little attention. That has changed over the past few weeks because of a certain “strumpy” blog that has been started.  The author of this particular blog is a character claiming to be a woman of questionable reputation that works as a public relations consultant. In this blog is makes accusations of women in PR such as we sleep with clients and executives to move up in our business and that we will do anything and everything for a pitch.  Well, after some research it has been found that this author is actually a male hiding behind this persona in order to share his opinions of women. It is sad to me that this type of situation is still taking place. I thought our country had come a lot further than this. In one area, women are making history in the news with Katie Couric becoming the first female anchor for the CBS Evening News. And even there Couric is fighting the accusations that she will not be a credible addition to the crew.  It seems that the battle of discrimination is an endless one.  What is most disappointing about the release of this new blog is the reaction it has had from our fellow male practitioners. Instead of being just as appalled and disgusted by these comments predominant men in PR have been eating it up. To read the comments that are made to this blog could be compared to reading a chatroom full of 13-year-old boys. This blog’s purpose seems to be to spark more interest in the female anatomy than it does intriguing conversations about public relations and the world around us. I must say that with all due respect, my opinions of these leaders in our field have changed considerably due to this incident. I was very disappointed to see the reaction that such an infraction on women’s rights received by the very people that I had once considered myself lucky to be in contact with. However, in the midst of my anger and disappointment, I have found some amusement in this whole ordeal. The author of this blog obviously thinks very little of women PR practitioners. Judging by the blog, he views us as being futile and unable to bring anything useful to the field of public relations other than sex. It is funny to me that he makes such comments, but is obviously very threatened by women. If he were not concerned with women moving up in this business and taking the executive positions that are usually held by men then he would not be wasting his time with writing a blog that tears women down. There is no reason to tear something down that hasn’t been built up, right?

There is a new and wonderful resource for upcoming pr practitioners out there in the blogosphere. It is student created site, forward-moving.com. This website is a collection of blogs from student contributors that contain valuable information for other students that are in public relations. Some of these topics include information on how to make a cover letter and resume, information on how you can get PR experience, and the site even includes information on trends and other aspects of PR that you may not learn in the classroom. There are even blogs that have interviews with professionals and suggest reading materials that may interest PR students.  The blogs are written with a very casual, yet still educated tone.  They are written by students who are asking themselves the same questions their readers, therefore they know exactly what topics to blog about and how to approach them.  This is a very good site for Public Relations students seeking advice on their chosen concentration as well as for students who are unsure about whether they would like to go into public relations or not.  It is a great source of information presented in a way that is appealing to its audience. This site is also looking for experienced pr professionals to invest their knowledge into the site as well. If you fall into this category you can go to the site and check out the investor relations link for more information about how and why you should help out! This is a great site and I highly encourage PR practitioners young and old go check it out!

So it is spring break and tomorrow morning I will head out to New Orleans for the week to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and FEMA with a group of students. Now, even though we are going to volunteer, we have had to pay a decent amount of money to afford to go. This got me thinking, wouldn’t it be a great idea for a company to position itself as the official sponsor of students that are participating in this “alternative spring break?”  This would not only help out the students that want to offer their services to the people in need but it would also identify the company as a compassionate and caring organization.  After the events that we have been faced with over the past few years, this would be an excellent reputation for a company to have. Helping out with cause such as aiding victims of Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi would connect the company with its publics on a very personal level.  In the U.S., people are sticking together in the popular trend of “help one another” during our time of war and many natural disasters.  People would appreciate and respect a company that joined in on this trend as well.  It would follow the same concept as large corporations such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola sponsoring the Olympic Games.  These companies are shown in a good light because they are supporting something that encourages world peace (pardon the typical Miss. Universe pageant term). Now, most people aren’t going to oppose world peace, at least not admittedly, therefore they are not going to oppose a company that supports the idea of world peace. In the same way, most people are not going to oppose helping people that are in need, therefore they will not oppose a company that will help students help those people in need. This was just an idea that I had.