This post doesn’t really have to do with PR…but it DOES have to do with animals. Specifically, it discusses a breed of cat called a Maine Coon. I just think that this breed of cat is really cool because they’re HUGE, as you can see in the photos.  It is one of the oldest natural breads from North America - believed to be from the state of Maine - and everything about it has adapted to a harsh climate ( e.g. the glossy coat being heavy and water-resistant). It is America’s natural long hair breed, and it’s known for its intelligence and playfulness; however, maine coons are not usually cuddly. It will follow you around - hang out with you - but usually won’t lay on your lap.

I first heard about this breed of cat last summer when I was interning at KMTR. Renee McCoullough was showing everyone at the station a picture of the Internet that someone e-mailed her of one of these cats. Immediately I was fascinated with this feline. Can you imagine having a cat that big?! Needless-to-say, I immediately told all of my friends and family about this breed.

In June, one of my best friends is going down to Texas to house-sit for a family friend. When she was telling me about this adventure she’s about to embark on, she told me that one of the animals that she’ll be taking care of is a maine coon! She remembered me showing her this breed of cat. I’m so jealous that she not only gets to see one in person, she gets to hang out with it for two weeks! She better bring back pictures.

Mark my words, world, “I WILL have a maine coon, someday.”

I imagine Heaven as a giant grassy knoll with tons of people playing with puppies. Today, as I took my daily mosey over to Esslinger to partake in one hour of attempting to speak spanish, I believe I found Heaven. Instead of seeing shirtless guys playing frisbee on the grass in front of the Knight Library I saw students playing with Puppies! The Oregon Voice presented Rent-a-Pooch. It went from 11:00a.m. to 3:30p.m. and took place in front of the Knight Library. The animals came from Greenhill Humane Society.

I can’t stop thinking about how genious this PR tactic is. I know so many college students, myself included, who a yearning to go get a puppy, but I know that I don’t have the responsability to actually own one. I also know that Greenhill is always looking for volunteers to play with the animals they keep. So what better way to combine the two groups - college students and Greenhill - than this event?! It’s a win-win situation; us college students get to fulfill our need for puppy-time, while Greenhill gets to freely advertise themselves and get their animals into a new situation with new people to play with.

I guess the bottome line is: I love puppies.

The final chapter in Chip and Dan Heath’s book “Made to Stick” that I will be blogging about is the chapter about making ideas credible. In my opinion, credibility is key to making an idea stick becuase even if the idea has every other part - simple, concrete, emotion, stories - if no one believes it, then it’s pointelss.

There are a ton of great examples in the book such as Pam Laffin being a spokeswoman for not smoking because she had a tubein her throat from lung cancer and Dennis as a spokesman fro the Doe Fund because he was a homeless man.

 There are also ideas on how to make, and what makes an idea credible. The obvious things that make an idea credible are because of family, personal experience, faith and authorities. Some ways to make an idea credible include adding detail, contextualizing them in terms that are more human (e.g. statistics) and using a specific type of example (i.e. the Sinatra Test).

One campaign that lacks credebility is the “Above the Influence” campaign. Everyone knows that drugs and alcohol are “bad” for you. So who are these people making it sound like a sip of wine could lead to death? When I clicked on the “about” section it started off by saying, “who’s behind this website.” Well, yea, who are these people throwing out facts and statistics and morbid ideas? We’ll never know. The webstite says that it is created for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media, but it doesn’t say who is creating it for them. For all we know, it’s just some random, uneducated, angry moms. Details? Not a chance. This website doesn’t give anyone any more information than they already have, unless maybe if you’re a second grader. I’m not too sure about if they’ve passed the Sinatra Test, but faililng two out of three test isn’t enough to make it a good campaign.

“Language is abstract, but life is not abstract.” This sentence from “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath sums up the idea behind their chapter about making an idea concrite, in order to make it stick. Immediately when I began reading this chapter I saw the overlapping ideas of an idea being simple and an idea being concrete, just like a proverb. Asoeps stories are like elongated proverbs. They are short stories that depict a core idea. The idea is simple and concrete. Really, it all comes down to science. As pointed out in the velcro theory of memory part of the chapter, we remember things differently. Also, in the concrete is memorable part of the chapter, it states that we remember things better if we have a visual. They are more concretely in our brains if we can visualize them.

After reading this chapter, it seems to me that the best way to make an idea concrete is to give it a visual. For example, saying “cool and refreshing H2O” is an abstraction of the visual of a condesation covered Dasani water bottle in a bucket of ice.

Another example of this idea is from the Coca Cola 2007 annual report. In the letter from the chairman and the President. It says, ” the tireless efforts of our people and the great commitment of our bottling partners have rekindled the energy and optimism that have become synonymous with Coca-Cola.” A more visual way of saying this - a more concrete way - would be to say, “the hard work of our low-level employees has given Coca-Cola the ability to have new products and the belief that we will continue to make millions of dollars.”

My friend once said to me, “I want to sit on that plum, squishy seat.” If she had said, “I want to sit on that purple chair” I would have been able to visualize it better. It would not only be a more compact - a more simple - way of saying it, it would be more concrete.

Bottome line: A concrete idea gives a visual.

In my J452 class, we are reading “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. It is about how to make ideas “stick.” The first chapter is about making your idea simple. A good idea is way harder to make stick if it’s complicated. However, it’s not just about saying something in a simple sentence. Heath and Heath point out that there are compact messages that are lies (e.g. the earth is flat), messages that are irrelevant (e.g. corn is yellow) and messages that are ill-advised (e.g. drink vodka every hour). Messages have to have a core, in addition to being compact. Simple = core + compact.

One example in the book included Southwest Airlines being THE low-faire airline. They do not approve any change unless it conforms with the idea of them being THE low-faire airline (e.g. not supplying chicken ceaser salad on the flight because it would raise the fiare).

My favorite example was the idea of decision paralysis. An eample of this is the study conducted where they surveyed college students, giving one oviously more attractive answer, then giving two attractive answers. When there were two attractive answers to choose from, twice as many students - 40 percent - chose the unattractive answer: decision paralysis.

Another example, or really it’s more of an analogy, is that a simple message is like a proverb. In the book it says, “proverbs are the Holy Grail of simplicity.” Proverbs are not advertised or purposfully spread about, they just do spread because they are so catchy and so simple.

When you think about it, every great advertising campain is based on getting across one key simple message. If you (eat, drink, do, use) this you’ll (get, be like) this: If you drink pepsi, you’ll be cool; if you use trojan condoms, you’ll get girls; if you drink budwieser, you’ll be more manly.

The Johnson & Johnson blog is Called “JNJ BTW a three dimensional view of Johnson & Johnson.” In the blogs introduction the editor says that the blogs purpose is to “try to find a voice that often gets lost in formal communication.”

The format of the blog is that of a standard blog, much like mine. It has different blog posts with according titles and pictures. It has a spot that tells the viewer what the blog is about; there is a list of links of things to know; there is a blogroll; there’s a list of links to their recent posts; there’s a list of links to recent comments; there’s a list of links for different categories; finally, there’s a list of links to the blog’s archives. The editor is Marc Monseau. He works in the corporate communications department at J&J headquarters as part of the media relations team. Marc does most of the posting, but there are a few others: Guest, Bill Price, Ray Jordan, Shaun Mickus and Lori. Some of the posts, however, have a line at the top that says it is “by” a different person. So it is assumed that some of the posts are written by other people and posted by these bloggers.

I would rate this blog: good

1-10 scale ( 1 being worst and 10 being best)

Ease of finding: 8 - When I googled Johnson & Johnson Blog it was the first one to pop up. However, I couldn’t find it on the regular Johnson and Johnson website and when I searched for just Johnson & Johnson it wasn’t on the first page of results.

Frequency: 5 - Some days have more than one post, but there is often a break between posts by anywhere between a two days to almost two weeks.

Engaging Writing: 9 - The writing is very casual and conversational. It is also written in an egaging way to keep the viewer interested. A lot of the blogs tell stories to make their point, which is more interesting than just a list of facts. My favorite thing about the writing is that it isn’t formal and “corporate” sounding; it has a very personable tone to it.

Relevant: 9 - Some of the posts just mention J&J but the post isn’t really about the company. However, although the topics sometimes seem random and irrelevant, it is obvious that they are directed toward J&J’s target audience. People who use J&J products would be interested in work and family balance, National Start! Walking Day for the American Heart Society, and the Philly Flower Show, for example.

Focused: 7 - Like I pointed out in the “relevant” criteria, although the topics are useful to J&J’s target audience, there aren’t a ton of topics actually about the company.

Honest: 8 - Most of the posts aren’t about the actual company, but what was written about the company wasn’t self-promoting or “fluffy.”

Interactive: 8 - There are plenty of links for the viewers both within the posts and in a list format on the right side of the page. Viewers can add the blog to their delicious and digg pages. Also, in standard blog fashion, viewers can leave comments about each post.

Responsive: 9 - This was hard to tell because a lot of the comments that were left were linked to websites, not just blogs. However, when I first published this post I gave a low score, but recieved a comment from JNJ’s blog in just a day.

JNJ BTW Blog recieved 63 out of 80 possible points. However, I gave them 10 bonus pionts because I like the fresh, clean layout they use, which matches their product, and the easy navigation of the blog. Both of these add to the overall experience of viewing this blog, for the better.

Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki

WOW. This week I went to the PRSSA Conference in Portland, and then to the first day of the PRSA Communicators Conference the day after, also in Portland. At the PRSSA conference I went on a couple agency tours. The first was to Edelman, and the second was to Maxwell PR. These really helped give me an idea of what kind of place I want to work at after I graduate. I definitely want to work at a bigger agency. I am so obsessed with Edelman! I was so impressed, and left with such excitement about graduating. They have such a young, fresh, peppy atmosphere. I can 100% see myself working there. I’m GOING to get an internship position there right after I graduate and work my way up. I’m SO excited for this next chapter in my life. I just have to get through senior year first! I can’t wait to be living in LA with my sexy job and living a glamorous life, wearing my business casual clothes and taking on the world one press release at a time.

Maxwell PR was nice, too. I was impressed with their clientel, especially Kettle brand chips. They seemed to have a lot of knowledge about what they’re doing, and I love the idea of working together in a more team-work type of atmosphere, but it just didn’t seem to fit me for some reason. The atmosphere seemed to be a little older, and I think I would feel cramped in such a small office.

Another advantage of working at a larger firm is that there are more possibilities in what I can work it. I like the idea of have a specialty. I’m very interested in consumer and entertainment PR, which works perfectly for my desire to live in LA, and I feel like if I was in an environment where I had to take on whatever company or product contacted me, I wouldn’t be able to really put my heart into it.

I guess the bottom line is that I am so excited to graduate and become a PR professional!

As I was searching for a new topic to discuss, I decided to google “PR for animals,” and I found this website, which is dedicated to the same thing as me: public relations for our furry friends - animals. I immediatley had an appreciation for this fellow lover of animals and PR, but started losing it as I read through their webpage. I happend upon one of the “tips” pages and found myself annoyed after reading it because I just wasted a few minutes of my life. I was interested in “How to Navigate Your Local Newspaper,” thinking that it would be helpful for my developing skills, but it was just common sense.

When I started reading the tips section about “How to Handle a PR Crisis,” I was thinking the same thing. Then, suddenly, it hit me: These articles aren’t common sense, they’re just targeted toward a less PR-educated group, like to a non-profit group that has no PR department. My appreciation was restored. This is a great resource, just not particularly for me!

The website originated, and now includes, a blog called PR for Animals. Check it out!

I happend upon a webpage for a woman by the name of Dee Dunheim. She focuses on public relations for animals, mainly by publicizing animal rights. After reading about her work, I instantly made a mental connection to PETA. In reality, PETA is the father (or mother) of animal public relations. They do the most publicity for their cause - animals - and have the most strategic tactics. I guess all animal rights groups are like public relations firms for animals. Other groups are the ASPCA, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Humane Society of the United States. A more extensive list is on wikipedia.

Dunheim has lobbied legislative bodies for the creation and enforcement of protective laws to safeguard animals, served as full-time Public Relations Director for a national animal protection society, created publicity opportunities for pet therapy programs with senior housing facilities, presented publicity workshops and seminars to animal protection societies and humane organizations, appeared as a guest on local television and radio talk shows and more. All of these activities serve as tactics for a general public relations plan of publicizing animal rights.

When comparing to my blog post about the pitbull pr, it’s intersting to see what a wide variety of pr is possible for animals. From unofficial stunts like the pitbull puppies, to organized plans like what PETA does, animals actually get a lot more pr than it seems, which I see as an AMAZING thing.

In J452 we registered for Twitter last week. I’ve been having a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept and I think that I finally figured out why. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I wasn’t involved in any other social networking sites, particularly facebook, then I would probably love Twitter. However, because I already have facebook, all I see is one small part of facebook - the facebook status. So why would I spend my time doing an extra “status update” for a social network site that I don’t even have many friends on? I mean, it’s not that I hate Twitter, I just see it as kind of pointless. Sorry Tiffany!