Karen Hughes can sell. In fact, she can even polish a turd, and that's not something many people in this business have the stomach for. According to The New York Times, Hughes is now with Burson-Marsteller and ready to pitch in. Here's a small slice of her email introduction to the Burson crew: I’ve always considered myself an advocate for the people I’ve advised, and I’m looking forward to advocating on behalf of …
InBev Dances Circles Around A-B
According to Ad Age, Belgium-based, Brazilian-run InBev not only has largely succeeded in controlling the media's narrative of its $46 billion takeover bid for Anheuser-Busch, it's also managed to emerge looking more sympathetic in the process. Public-relations experts, analysts and journalists covering the saga attribute InBev's public-relations coup to an open and aggressive approach that has involved a barrage of …
Craft Site Uses Rhythm Method
We get press releases everyday telling me about people I don't know moving into jobs you could care less about. Such is the nature of running a site like this. Here's a decided twist on things from Etsy: [via Scott Goodson] …
Dear AdPulp Readers Who Work In PR,
Just how typical are guys like Mark Penn in your industry? 'Cause the controversy du jour today is this story in the LA Times about Penn's role in the Clinton campaign: As the campaign faces a make-or-break moment, some high-level officials are trying to play down their role in the campaign. Penn said in an e-mail over the weekend that he had "no direct authority in the campaign," describing himself as merely "an …
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Publicists Run Wild In LAh
According to The New York Times, winning an Oscar isn't just about the quality of a film. It's about the studio's ability to successfully market the film. Even here in Hollywood, recent growth in the public relations machinery is cause for remark. Executives have publicists. Stars have publicists. The tiniest movies will arrive in April at the Tribeca Film Festival with publicity teams, often three or four of them. …
Gawker Has No Use for PR
Former PRWeek writer, Hamilton Nolan, now at Gawker, isn't big on PR. Here he is speaking directly to Richard Edelman, the man Ad Age named its 2007 PR Exec of the year: Like I said, you're a nice guy. But much of your work— Wal-Mart being the best example— is just objectionable on philosophical grounds, like a lot of things in the PR industry. If every multinational PR firm crumbled to pieces tomorrow, the world …
Chris Anderson Unloads
New York Times Magazine writer, Rob Walker, points to a post by Wired editor, Chris Anderson, that unloads on people for him sending unwanted solicitations via email. I've had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn't spam, it's PR people. Lazy flacks send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested …
PR Gets Some Publicity
Ken Wheaton of Ad Age looks at The New York Observer's piece on Admen losing their mojo. The article suggests that public realtions, of all things, has usurped advertising as the industry of choice for those seeking a route to glamour. The supposition is supported by the role Heidi Montag, one of the stars of MTV’s reality show The Hills, plays on TV. Montag, according to the piece, is inspiring a whole generation of …