Friday, February 23, 2007

Bubba Banks the Big Bucks

Bill Clinton is rolling in dough. He deserves a "Guy Lifetime Achievement Award" for being able to charm the pants off of anyone from portly interns to investment bankers. Of course, the only one he hasn't been able to get through to is Hillary. From the looks of her site, you would never know that she was once married to the leader of the free world. Her campaign folks have branded her as "Just Hillary, thank you." A bold, yet risky move IMHO. On one hand, it steals the thunder from any "Obama for President" play. However, the great irony of Bubba is that the people closest to him are the ones who want to push him away. I guess in the ego driven world of politics, the shadow is just too big. If Al Gore had leveraged the Clinton charm, then the last 8 years could have been very different.

One final note on Hil. This NY Daily News editorial puts the whole "apologize for Iraq" issue in perspective. "

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Jet Blues

The best thing about commenting on companies' public relations work in response to a crisis is that we have the benefit of hindsight. Having been in PR for more years than I care to remember, I know how easy it is to point a finger and say "you shoulda done this."

By all accounts, however, Jet Blue's handling of the recent of the passenger hostage situation has been a disaster-up until now. Today, you can't turn on the TV without seeing CEO David Neeleman on the air doing what he should have done from the beginning-issuing mea culpas and telling passengers what they are going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. It might be too little, too late, but they seem to be on the right track.

I compare Jet Blue's response with the other Fox-fodder of the past few weeks-namely the tale of diaper wearing murderous astronaut. NASA has a history of atrocious PR. However, I have to give them props for this one. Yeah, it does tarnish the whole "astronaut as superhero" mystique, but by most accounts, it hasn't really done as much damage to the space program that it could have. People seem to understand that this was the work of one whack job. What NASA did right was (fairly) quickly issue a statement of sympathy and followed that up with announced program reviews to better spot the psychos in the astronaut corp. (The one thing that was missing IMHO, was mandatory once a month counseling by non-NASA therapists to prevent this from happening in the first place.)

Monday, February 12, 2007

Top 10 Signs An Astronaut is Trying to Kill You

Courtesy David Letterman. Being an actual owner of a pen that writes upside down, I think #1 is particularly funny.

Top 10 Signs An Astronaut is Trying to Kill You


10. Says, "This is a giant leap for mankind" as she tosses you off a bridge.

9. You turn on CNN and see the Hubble Telescope focusing on your house.

8. She promises to "take you out like Pluto."

7. It sounds crazy, but you could swear Mars is following you.

6. You were on the "Maury" episode: "I Had a Booty Call and Now an Astronaut is Trying to Kill Me."

5. Her previous attempts to kill you have been postponed due to high winds.

4. She poisons your Tang.

3. Says she looks forward to being the first to walk on your lifeless corpse.

2. Been getting threatening e-mails from Connie@InternationalSpaceStation.com.

1. She keeps stabbing you with a pen that writes upside down.