The Weather Power of the Media

As I write this, the weather reports say we could get up to 18 inches of snow in the next two days.

Tonight I went to a grocery chain store to pick up a few items. Nothing special, I just needed some cheese and some orange juice. Of course, there are always a few other items that just seem to jump into my cart as I make the rounds, but that's another blog.

To my amazement, the place was crowded, more crowded than it would normally have been on a Saturday morning. This was a Monday evening!

What's more, there were people with carts filled to overflowing. The lines, even at the self-checkout, were up to 10 people long, and there were lines at every checkout. To add to my amazement, there were a number of shelves that were empty where items were completely sold out.

I couldn't remember when I had seen the store this busy, or the stock this depleted.

Then it dawned on me.

These people were getting ready to stay in when the snow fell. I guess the term "cacooning" was never more apt than what I must have been viewing. They were stocking up on staples to not have to go out whenever things began to snow and blow.

The media had been trumpeting all day how we were going to get a blizzard that could be the worst of this year (or as some of them would have us believe, ANY year).

So, while I'm not certain at this time how the weather will turn out, I do know that we are driven by what the media tells us is coming.

Right or wrong, they are certainly a powerful force for disseminating the weather...and having us react to the forecasts.

The HIgh Cost of Counting People

So the census is now heading into its final days.

It's been a good run for most of the mass media outlets. One source I saw said we (taxpayers, that is), paid nearly $140 per person.

I'm not certain that's the correct amount, but I do know that there were a lot of sponsored announcements on radio, TV and in the newspapers. Since they were paid, the media must have made a bundle. Good for them, bad for taxpayers.

Seems to me that the media would have cooperated nicely, as they have in the past, to make certain we were all aware of the fact that there was a census being taken. And they would have done it for free.

It would be interesting to see a comparison of the initial returns for the last census versus the returns for the current census. Bet there wouldn't be much difference...except for the amount of money being spent this time.

Having a media background, I'm delighted with the amount of money being spent in the various media.

Being a taxpayer, I'm saddened.

The Swine Flu Isn't

You name it and you can claim it.

So what has happened to the Swine Flu?

The term has vanished in favor of the more moderate sounding N1H1 Virus. Somehow, that term sounds less threatening than Swine Flu. Then, too, the pork producers were probably unhappy with the idea of Swine Flu and the possible attachment to their product. In any case, the Swine Flu has vanished and the N1H1 is still killing people.

Guess the moral here is that a virus by any other name is still a virus...and a deadly one at that.

Dick

NBA PR...some good, some bad!

If you watched any of the NBA basketball games, you probably saw one or more commercials with NBA players working with young people. They were teaching them basketball, reading to them, or interacting with them in other constructive ways.

This is great public relations in action!

Too much of the time we see headlines about how athletes are misbehaving. These commercials point out that some athletes use their fame to do good things. The adoring looks that youngsters have for those who typically tower some five or six feet above them are worth a month of negative headlines. It's great to see that those who can shoot a ball through a hoop can also take the time to provide role modeling and inspiration to future generations.

Although the idea of showing athletes working with youngsters isn't new, it's still an effective way of pointing out that not all athletes are bad guys.

As I watched the games, I also recognized some potential public relations problems.

Too much of the time the outcome of a game is decided at the foul line. This isn't to say that the officiating is bad; it isn't. It's just that the game has gotten to the point of such physical contact that the space in the area of the basket sometimes resembles a wrestling match more than a basketball game. Flagrant fouls can potentially cause serious injuries.

So what's the answer to this problem?

I don't have the answer. But I do have a couple of tongue-in-cheek proposals that might get some creative thinking going:

How about giving an automatic five or ten points for a flagrant foul? Bet we'd see a lot fewer of them.

Or maybe the foulee should get to take one punch above the waist at the fouler. They could both stand at the foul line and the foulee would take his best shot.

Or perhaps they could go to the center circle and be given two minutes to go at each other cage-fighting style.

Who knows, the additional violence might even add to the number of basketball fans.

"All-new" usually isn't!

There it was again. "The all-new ________!"
This came as I browsed through the newspaper ads for automobiles.
You could fill in almost any brand in the blank above.

So why is it the copywriters need to call something "all new" or "all-new" (some use the hyphen, some don't), when, at best, there may be some parts that are different from those that have gone before?

An "all new" car to me might be one with a wooden box on top of a platform powered by centipedes instead of wheels and an engine. It might be a large rubbber ball powered only by rays from the moon in which the driver sits and steers by shifting weight from one side to the other or forward or backward.

But it is definitely not a car whose interior has been slightly modified from last year's model by increasing the size of the seats or adding an odometer that blinks when you've reached your destination.

I guess it's sheer laziness on the part of copywriters. "All new" comes easily to the tongue and the computer when thinking about something different.

So there may be new parts, modified design and changes in the metal shell, but for the most part, "all new" usually isn't. Especially when it's applied to the automotive world.

An expensive pitch?

In case you missed it, the New York Yankees just signed pitcher CC Sabathia to a $7,000,000 a -year contract for the next seven years. While I haven't done the math, that's got to work out to several thousand dollars per pitch.

So let me get this straight...a guy stands 90 feet away from another guy, hurls a little white sphere to the other guy and gets several thousand dollars each time he does this. And he does this a bunch of times during the Summer of each year for the next seven years.

What a country!

But, hey, I don't want to envy this CC guy, I just want to emulate him.

Don't you wish every PR pitch you made turned out to be worth seven million?

Afraid of fear?

The late Franklin Roosevelt told us something about fear. At a low point for the nation, he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!"

As I view the talking heads, read the scary headlines and listen to the breathless news readers, it looks to me like we're back at that point. Fear is driving the market lower, while the media have a grand time exploiting our minds for their profit.

There are times when doing nothing is the besst course of action. Given the fear that seems to be thrust our way from so many sources, this may be one of those times. I'm willing to take some losses from the market as the market problems are worked through.

The only real fear I have right now is what the people who got us into this mess are doing to get us out. That's the scary part!