11/29

I just learned that the term "Black Friday" refers to the day after Thanksgiving when retailers expect bottom lines to go from the red of losses to the black of profit.  I don't know where I've been all my life because I would have remembered the term if I had heard it before.

There are two reasons why I would recall it -- the irony and the misdirection of the entire season.  Some, like myself, are uncomfortable with the notion that Christmas is nothing more than commercial opportunity.  We are urged to buy, buy, buy because we want to be happy, happy, happy.  Or make someone else happy or get into the "spirit" of the holidays. 

Of course, it is a phony message.  There are millions who celebrate Christmas without the means to buy piles of gifts.  They are a majority because they are the poor throughout the world.  It must seem amazing to them to learn about the frenzy that consumes American culture from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  I'm sure there is a bit of envy too.  But, nevertheless, a rational observer would ask why and not come to a good answer for it. 

We have as a society chosen to buy the concept of Christmas as business.  It is certainly simpler than dealing with the first meanings of Christmas -- especially in a multicultural society. 

But something has been lost in the translation.

11/28

A young man stopped by yesterday looking for work.  He has an excellent resume.  Two years ago, he could have flung it out the window and received five job offers.  Today, he is hunting around Manhattan for employment. 

There are some things to be grateful about  The PR agency business has returned to a semblance of "normal."  The hypergrowth everyone preened about is gone and won't return soon.  The business has shrunk to pre-bubble levels and many who were ill-fitted for it are gone.  It is looking more like business I joined 20+ years ago.  And, that's good.  There was too much bending of ethics and rules and much too much release-pumping. 

PR had turned into a monster of greed.  I am thankful this has largely passed although some of the actors who created the problem are still in charge.  I would be more thankful if they left. 

Like most service industries, PR does not grow well when it grows rapidly.  It takes time to train practitioners and wild hiring patterns only guarantee that client service and counsel will decline -- as it did.

The large communications combines are hungering for growth and pressing on their PR agencies to provide it.  They won't get it.  I would be truly thankful if they spun them off as separate businesses -- but that is not likely to happen.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving.

11/27

A reporter called me from a Wall Street newsletter and started asking me about a client.  I told him I was not a spokesperson for the client, and I knew nothing about the story that he was asking about.  I told him that more than once to make it clear.  Nevertheless, I volunteered on background, and not to be quoted, to fill him in on the public history of this firm and its desire for independence.  Again, all this was on background. 

So what does the jerk do, he quotes me as a spokesperson for the firm -- and the firm is wondering who gave me the authority to speak.  Fortunately, the owner of our agency went to bat for me and explained the situation to the client.  I hope the client forgives and forgets. 

I won't forgive and forget.,  That publication is on my black list and that reporter might as well not call me again. 

It has been my practice to try and help reporters on the assumption that they can get their reporting done more quickly if they know the background on a topic.  It has never been my intention to be quoted about anything.  That's what my client is there for. 

I have rarely been burned by a reporter.  This guy -- and he was a guy -- was about the third who has done it to me in a 25+ year career.  The first time it happened, I walked under a cloud for months.  The reporter who did it was offended by a CEO of a company I represented so he took it out on me by name.   ( He also took it out on another PR practitioner at the same  time, but that didn't help my feelings much.)  The second time it happened, I deserved it.  I didn't go off the record with the reporter who was explaining to me that my client had been bamboozled by a self-promoter who had similarly hoodwinked other companies.  My expressions of  surprise were dutifully noted in the resulting article.  This time there was no excuse for what the reporter did.

I'd like to kick him.
 

11/26

On the other hand, what Time Inc. is considering is sweeping the Internet.  Jack O'Dwyer has just announced he will charge for entry into his PR web site beginning on Monday, Dec. 2.  Byte Magazine, the grandfather of all PC publications, now a web publication, has just announced that it must charge for the magazine or close its doors after more than 20 years.

All this is symptomatic of a dearth of advertising, but it is also a change in attitude about the value of content.   With hard times, publishers are asking just how much their content is worth.  Some will be surprised pleasantly.  Some will be disappointed.  I suspect O'Dwyer, who has one of the more popular PR sites, estimates that even with fallout from charging he will be better off.

What this means to PR practitioners is that online is becoming more expensive.  Get used to it.  We will be paying more taxes soon to make up for the excesses of a bubble economy.  Those of us in the Northeast will be paying more for transportation as well. 

The good old days of three years ago were something, weren't they?  Too bad they weren't real.

11/25

As you would expect, while working for five hours, I had time to reflect on what I was doing.  It made no sense.  Man has lived in North America for about 12,000 years.  It has been only in the last 150 years that we have communally decided that we need to rake the leaves from the Maple, Oak and other hardwoods off our properties and dispose of them.  Why the heck don't we just leave them?

It's a matter of perception, I guess.  We want to believe we have civilized nature, so we have built an economy around leaf removal -- blowers, rakes, carts, bags, gardeners, trucks, mulchers, tractors, etc.  Just think.  If we stopped raking leaves, we would depress the lawn and garden industry in the Fall.

I grew up in California and I didn't rake leaves there.  I didn't know what it was to have a tree that shed in the Fall.  So, it was and still is an oddity to me that we spend so much time raking from late October into the deep freeze of December. 

I know when I read about it growing up, it seemed nostalgic and fun to do.  It isn't.  My young daughter likes to frolic in the pile with her dog who digs in and disappears.  The two of them are about the only ones in our family who find leaf removal interesting.

If you live on a part of the earth where there are no leaves to rake, consider yourself lucky.  Go head, laugh at us.  Somebody ought to.