In IT, a black box is a program that measures output against input in complex systems.
This Black Box is designed to help companies achieve a similar goal in PR. Black Box provides our candid input—based on several lifetimes of experience—for companies that want to measure and improve the performance of PR programs.
The first time I saw a man walking down the street jabbering on a cell phone, I said to myself, “What an idiot.” Now when kids weave all over the road while texting or guys in a restaurant pontificate into their “jawbones,” I think the same. But this isn’t another blog slamming mobile misdeeds.
Remember those old War on Drugs commercials? Where they crack an egg into a sizzling pan and say “This is your brain on drugs?” PR can have that effect, too. Get an ordinarily lucid CEO going on the subject of PR and suddenly he’s strung out. The guy is clearly fried, the brain part anyway.
When Virgin Mobile USA’s announcement on its all-you-can eat mobile data plan leaked prematurely this week via Facebook I read a different story into the news: Could it be that the venerable institution of the press release is breathing its last?
A prominent socialmedialite brags that he kept his blog going while on vacation by writing 14 pieces in advance and setting them up to post daily. His admission to using canned content hints he had nothing to say that couldn’t wait. That being the case, why post so religiously?
A client asked why their press release bill was 3X higher than before. Though the answer was a no-brainer — they issued 1 press release one month and 3 the next — I was reminded that these days everybody is mindful of costs. In the future I’ll ask: “Are you sure you want to do this release?”
Long ago when social media was new a company we know had the opportunity to write a weekly guest blog. They opted to “first wait and see what the competition does.” That attitude puzzled me at first. Now I see that gearing corporate strategy to follow versus lead is the rule.
Steve Jobs lashed out at competitors last week, calling their handsets’ reception just as spotty as the iPhone’s. RIM and Motorola fired back, claiming their units’ antennas work far better than Apple’s. How all this “neener neener” will help iPhone owners deal with dropped calls is anybody’s guess, but it’s good theater in an otherwise dull summer.
June 1982. Israel invades Lebanon. U.S./Arab tensions peak. Protesters storm the American Embassy in Islamabad. Wheels down in Karachi at 3am, it’’s 90 degrees and I’m en route to the ancient Indus Valley city of Harappa. I was raised in the 1960s. “Riots” here seem mild compared to Watts.
Call it a case of “Ailing Giants Force Their Way to the Future.” Microsoft this week embraced cloud computing. Intel reported record sales driven by demand for more powerful hard drives. It’s like Carnegie and Rockefeller planning 22nd century space travel. Does the future want or need them?
In the latest example of how corporate attorneys and the judiciary system have way too much time on their hands, an appeals court today overturned the FCC’s decades-old censorship of “fleeting expletives” on broadcast TV. Your favorite stars now may [bleep] at will on-air, as long as it’s short.
