Public Relations, Advertising & Social Media

Voting early doesn’t hurt democracy

Posted on October 24, 2012June 8, 2018 by Brian Lee

I voted absentee this week, as I’ll be on vacation in Florida on Nov. 6. Coincidentally, Wisconsinites could vote as early as Monday of this week, and media reports showed long lines in Madison.

I was stunned by an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel titled “Early voting is bad for democracy.” The author, Christian Schneider of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, claims voting early is like watch the first three-quarters of a movie or football game.

Does he not live in reality? As an article in the Evansville Courier & Press notes, “most politically engaged Americans chose sides in this year’s presidential election long before they ever heard of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.” This means there’s really nothing the opposing party can say to sway our votes, and this fact alone is a good enough reason to vote early.

Of course there are the undecideds, which according to an AP-GfK poll, make up about 23 percent of registered voters. Let that minority continue to hear both sides until Election Day. For the rest of us, we’re helping our democracy.

2012 PRSA-Madison Alchemy Awards

Posted on October 23, 2012June 8, 2018 by Brian Lee

Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media won a PRSA-Madison Award of Excellence for the second straight year, this time in the category of integrated communications, in last week’s annual Alchemy Awards.

Judging this year’s entries was the Suburban Chicagoland Chapter. Feedback on our entry included “this was a good effort to obtain a great result using earned and social media” and “very strategic and well-placed implementation.”

I’ve previously won in categories such as media relations, new communications vehicles and special events, but this is the first time I’ve entered into integrated communications, so I was really happy to have won.

Think before you tweet

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Emilie Buckman

Ugh, Michael Vick. If I am Michael Vick, you better believe I am going to edit any and all information I send out to avoid even the slightest reference to dogs. So when I hear about a picture he posted on Twitter, in which an astute online follower noticed a box of Milk-bone dog biscuits, I was disappointed. Not because he has a dog – though I truly believe he should never be able own another pet – but rather, I am disappointed in his carelessness in keeping it a secret. Without question Vick’s publicist (and every other person in his life) must have warned him to be cautious about making any allusion to pet ownership.

But the internet does not exist to make it easy for celebrities to hide from their past improprieties. The only people who get to enjoy anonymity online are the lowly internet trolls, who are out to catch mistakes like a Milk-bone box in a photo of a known associate of dog-fighting.

While I am all about “live and let live,” Vick doesn’t have that luxury. I hope Vick is preparing answers for how to handle the inevitable and persistent questions about dogs he is bound to encounter. One can only hope he comes up with better answers than how unfair it is to his kids. Let’s get one thing straight, having a dog is a privilege and not a right. Your kids will be fine. My parents didn’t give us a dog when we were little and we turned out just fine. (Also they didn’t participate in dog-fighting so I think I had more reasons to feel deprived.)