I Pity The President - or Truth in Advertising

It's election night, and no matter who wins this election, I pity the fool. Why? Because each has made promises that they simply can't keep. I do promise this. Somewhere in the first months of their presidency will come the message "It's much worse that I had thought. That SOB George W. lied to us, and now I can't do everything I wanted to. Even worse, I'm going to need each of you to work even harder in order for us to get back on track."

Why do I say this? Well, let's just look at the larger picture - of what's going on with this country. And no, this isn't a bash on the country. I love it deeply and feel it is still the greatest country on this planet. However, our January 1st is coming up quickly and we are already waking up with one hell of a hangover.

The fact is simple, for the most part our lifestyle is based on a level of consumption we simply cannot continue to maintain. We have larger refridgerators that most of the world can even dream of. We drive larger vehicles than most of us can afford, and that far exceed our fuel resources. We are demanding greater benefits from employers, but we have fewer jobs available to us. The worst part is, none of this is a result of the credit meltdown. It is due to our maintaining a lifestyle that is far out of touch from the rest of the world - and none of us are changing our way of life to fit the resources at hand.

The sad part is, as a nation, we are rapidly finding our horizon point where we will be forced to fall closer in line with the rest of the world. The next President will be the first one that will not have much of a choice but to wake us up to a rather nasty hangover. And no, I don't think he will have a large enough aspirin to ease the sunrise...

AIG, Sherson Lehmann, Merrill Lynch - PR Spin Can Only Go So Far...

If there has ever been proof that a good publicist can only spin the truth so far, and for so long, this is it. For the past several years, the C-level executives and the boards of financial insitutions like AIG, Merrill Lynch and Lehmann have spun their balance sheets to appear rock solid. Yet, little by little, the tides of time and finance have eroded their image, until finally the entire wall of deception has come crashing down. Yes, in the end performance does count, but did the truth come early enough? Or did the spin-meisters do such a good job that the damage is irreparable.

In actuality AIG, Sherson Lehmann, and Merrill Lynch all dropped the balls on their businesses while taking self-voted bonuses, pay increases and who knows what else. They took on too much risk and made the same assumptions that the rest of the financial world made. It's not just about balance sheets and numbers, it's about a mindset. Namely, that if they just kept their heads down long enough, and gained enough fact-dodging press, the financial storm that was building would blow over and everything would be fine as day.

Hello Katrina?

The sad part is not that for most executives at these institutions, the packages they created enabled them to walk away with a nice bundle and live out their lives in comfort. The sad part is that the issues these financial institutions are having is indicative of a much larger problems. They are run by people that have the same mindset as those running this country. It's a mindset that is short term at best, and at worst borderline criminal, with absolutely no interest for the public trust, just their own greed.

It's no wonder we have lobbyists running Washington, lobbyists who are in bed with the failing companies, and with our elected officials of both parties. Ever wonder why irate Congressmen and Congresswomen railed for years about "why weren't we helping more American's buy their homes?" Well, they got us to buy!

So kiddies, the lesson here is a simple one. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Work hard and do your work well, and good things will happen. Oh no, wait. That was the attitude that made this country great. Hmmmm, now I wonder where the attitude of "work hard, make a good buck at any cost and run like the wind when things go bad" will get us...

The storm, she is a comin....

Palin & Coca Cola

I got into a conversation last night over a few martinis, that is relevant to this. The conversation led us into talking about brands versus ingredients, academic positioning verson real product benefits, and which was more important. So with the political pundits chattering away, and with us PR folk talking about brands, we compared Sarah Palin with another well known American brand - Coca Cola. Watch, they do have some similarities...

In one night, Sarah defined a strong position for herself when she took the podium at the DNC. She did a great job doing os, and a great many people jumped on board. Trusting her ingredients matched her brand. Now, while many may think Sarah Palin's record is a risk, we all know records can be tweaked, shifted, and distorted by the politicos and spin doctors. So while her resume includes a long list of questionable acts that include attempts at ousting an in-law from the police force, book banning, even using lobbyists for fundraising [Time Magazine 9/2/8], her position and brand is extremely strong.

Now, here's the leap that's far easier to make over martinis than on a blog, but resumes are a lot like ingredients. They are the real benefits a politician brings to the table. And like any product, the formula that has made up her past is only half the equation of what makes her a true presence in the market. The image of her being a pit bull berating her opponents carries just as strong a message as what she actually did, or did not do.

So, here is the question. In today's politics, which is more important - brand or ingredients? And before you answer, just remember what happened when Coca Cola introduced New Coke in the 80s. It thought the public's love for its brand was so strong, they could change a tried and true formula however they wished, and the public would still love it.

So, can America overlook the ingredients that make up Sarah Palin's resume in favor of her image? Is her brand and that of the GOP strong enough to overcome the product's formula?
- cannon-brandcommunication.blogspot.com -

CNN - The Un-News

Did I miss something? When did CNN change from reporting the news to thinking they are the news? While watching the Democratic Convention last night, I kept changing channels back and forth between CNN and the McNeil Leherer Report - that's right good old PBS. While PBS showed the entire convention and let us make our own decisions on how well or how badly it went, I noticed CNN avoided showing any of the speeches until Hillary came close to appearing that is.

While Wolf Blitzer was trying to stir up coverage for an alleged plot against Barack Obama - something that even the reporter on the ground sounded confused about - former Denver Mayor and Obama Campaign Co-Chair Federico Peña wasa giving one of the more insightful speeches about his energy policy. While CNN ran endless "what if" scenarios, Lilly Ledbetter gave a speech that was one of the most compelling insights into women's rights and inequal pay. While Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, shared his American story to an astounded audience, CNN ran commercials.

Now, I'm not saying the Democrats know how to put on a great show, but shouldn't a new organization report the news? I mean, it was truly astounding to see how CNN failed to cover the speakers and the event, when they touted themselves as the "best coverage available." Instead, they opted to fill the screen with a badly operated red/blue map, and with endless scenarios of how the final election could go. So many in fact, that it became more confusing than insightful.

Which is where CNN's brand is beginning to suffer. It's a great brand if you only watch the placards that swing up between commercial breaks. But when it times to turn all that brand messaging into something real, they are failing miserably - Lou Dobbs excepting.

When will they realize, the more the reporters think that "they are the news," the less they will be viewed as reporters "of the news." There's nothing wrong with taking a network, or a brand, in this direction. But it's not the direction of a great news station. With Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper reporting, CNN might think about joining with E!. It would fit their format better, it would be far more entertaining, and at least their brand would be true to their reporting.

Paris - looking for your next new thing?

Crest Leads The Way In Integrated Brand Marketing

The big news isn’t that Crest is launching a new product. The news is how it is launching its new product.

Crest Weekly Clean Intensive Cleaning Paste – a new paste designed to give you that “just went to the dentist” feeling – will hit the shelves in September, but P&G has already started sending samples to bloggers and select online parental groups. Apparently they have decided to forgo a traditional launch campaign in favor of one that targets the more influential online community. Apparently, Crest sent a survey to more than 600,000 moms in late August through P&G’s Vocalpoint buzz-marketing program.

According to the product’s spokeswoman – Allison Yang – television will be relatively light, consisting of five second tags on ads for other crest products. Instead, their research told them it’s a product “people talk about.” And what better way to get people talking than online – right?

So read between the lines. Crest – one of P&G’s biggest media spenders with almost $237 million in ’07 media spend, is backing away from expensive television in favor of creating a consumer-driven online platform for Weekly Clean. If this doesn’t tell you how important it is to create an integrated communications program online, before using more traditional media – nothing will…..

Green Ideas That Make Business Sense

Every once in a while you come across a company that is shifting their brand in very real ways. It's often the simplest things that make the biggest difference in how a company and a brand is perceived. It's what I call taking the brand off the drawing board and bringing it to life.

For all those people who look at outdoor advertising as a blight on America, I ask you to check out what Fuel Outdoor in Miami has done. It's created a deal with the city of Miami to build 600 solar powered bus shelters. Yes, it gets to sell the advertising space on these locations, but hey, that's 600 bus shelters for people to hide from the sun and rain. Better still, they're solar powered, so the cost of keeping them lit at night is nothing.

So who says creating a green initiative has to cost? Who says it has to be painful for the company? It can be a win for the company [Fuel gets more ad space to sell], a win for the community [Miami gets 600 bus shelters for free], and for the planet [solar, solar, solar which will prevent an estimated 2 tons of carbon emissions from being expelled into the air].

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz explained, “Thanks to a successful public-private partnership, what we have with Fuel Miami is a revolutionary model at work – corporate advertising dollars are being used to clean the environment.”

“As outdoor advertisers, we are sensitive to the quality and appearance of the city’s environment,” Freedman said. “In the case of our Miami bus shelters, we felt it was necessary to ensure that our advertisements could provide benefits to not only our clients, but also the city.”

Not a bad thing for everyone involved....

Cyberattacks - Warfare's New Militia

Well before a shot was ever fired, and as early as July 20, 2008, the republic of Georgia was under attack. It's government’s websites were under a constant barrage of attacks by a network of hackers that some have called the new militia.

"They mobilize themselves without a need for a central location to do so, distribute the targets, discuss the attack approaches, come up with a plan on the coordination, and you have everyone participating," Bulgarian security researcher Dancho Danchev said in an instant messaging interview. Danchev and others have found evidence that points to a self-starting militia composed of volunteer hackers and cyber criminals who control large-scale bots, or collections of previously-compromised computers. While the forces may appear to be uncoordinated to the untrained eye, they are in fact very coordinated, both researchers argued. In a lengthy post on ZDNet, Danchev spelled out the coordinated steps that someone — or some group — took to rally the hacker troops and turn them against specific targets. And yes, there is evidence that the coordination comes from mother Russia.

For everyone in the military or the civilian world, the lesson is that any modern conflict will include some type of a cyberwarfare component. Why? Because it is simply too cheap and inexpensive not to. While countries like the United States spend billions on missle shields and fire rates, we’ve left our back door wide open to attacks that could cripple our efforts on the world stage.

So how does this apply to brands? Well, take note. Some simple hacker can have fun with your message through spam, illicit postings, or with DOS [Denial of Service] games. It may seem funny at first, but when your customers start screaming, you’ll have wished you spent a little bit more time listening to your IT people.