During Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on October 27, stand-up comedian Tony Hinchcliff unleashed a wave of insults and vulgar statements about Jews, Palestinians, Latinos and African Americans. Even though Mr. Trump and other Republicans said they...
As I write this essay on October 23, unlike the pundits on cable TV, or the print pundits known as columnists, I don’t know who will be elected president. But at this juncture I know two things: It doesn’t look good for Ms Harris. Her once former lead over the former...
There are many valuable PR lessons that are not taught in communications classes that can be learned by keeping up with the news—and the current presidential election provides quite a few. A non-partisan review shows that vice president Kamala Harris provides lessons...
Former President Donald Trump has been using an old PR strategy in his bid for reelection. His tactics are to blame Kamala Harris and anyone else except himself for every problem in our country. Blaming someone else is a tactic that some entities in crisis situations...
Arguably, the two most important lessons that PR practitioners should have learned (so far) from the 2024 political scene concern the use of cell phones and emails. Emails containing derogatory remarks about Mr. Trump that JD Vance sent before he became a supporter of...
Many PR crisis specialists believe that not replying to a negative news article is tantamount to an admission of guilt and that it must be answered. I’ve never agreed with that. I’ve always believed that it depends on the circumstances. If the article is about a major...
I’ve long said that the IOC’s claim that the Olympics brings people together doesn’t hold water. On September 11, my contention was confirmed when French officials said, “French authorities foiled three plots to attack the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris and...
I’m a big believer that many important PR lessons can be learned by following the news. Thus, I watched the Harris-Trump debate with two things in mind: 1) to see if any PR lessons from it could be applied to non-political accounts, and 2) if intensive media training,...
Former president Donald Trump's sentencing day has been delayed from September 18 until after the election. But PR practitioners don't have to wait for him to be sentenced to learn PR lessons from the situation. What’s relevant on September 18 is also relevant on the...
There are some important lessons that PR practitioners who had clients in the recently concluded Paris Olympics should remember: Reporters are bombarded with pitches from PR people to write about their client’s promotions, the overwhelming majority of which have no...
For a few weeks every two years the Olympic Games dominates the sports scene in the U.S. – but not completely. During those few weeks of a 52 week year Olympic athletes are covered by NBCU, the network that has televised the past several Olympics in the U.S. and is...
It’s been a dozen years since the London Olympics, but PR practitioners with clients sponsoring the Paris games will face many of the same problems that their brethren in 2012 had to handle. They should by now have a rapid reply program in place to answer some of the...