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2012 PRSA-Madison Alchemy Awards

Posted on 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 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.)

When heads roll …

Posted on by Brian Lee

Someone tweeting for @KitchenAidUSA posted “Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics” during the debate. It was immediately taken down and replaced with this apology: “Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand’s opinion. #nbcpolitics”

This is not an excuse, but it’s likely this was an accident. Someone tweeted using the company account instead of their personal account. However, the repercussions are mounting. Within an hour, both Adweek and Mashable had stories on this.

The best thing for KitchenAid to do is explain what happened, then fire the person (or have the agency fire the person) who tweeted it. Someone needs to be held accountable. If no one is punished for this, then KitchenAid deserves to keep getting its ass kicked in the social media world.

No punishment is like KitchenAid saying this incident was acceptable, and that it doesn’t mind insensitive jokes (no matter which side of the aisle you’re on, the tweet was still out of place).

Update:

New tweets from @KitchenAidUSA:

“Hello, everyone. My name is Cynthia Soledad, and I am the head of the KitchenAid brand.”

“I would like to personally apologize to President @BarackObama, his family and everyone on Twitter for the offensive tweet sent earlier.”

“It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our Twitter team who, needless to say, won’t be tweeting for us anymore.”

“That said, I take full responsibility for my team. Thank you for hearing me out.”