**FURRY FRIENDS**

Reading this article made me begin to think about different levels of PR. Being in school, I have been focusing most of my thoughts on “official” PR, like writing news releases and working for a PR firm. This article, however, made me begin to think about the PR that we, as people, do every day to promote ourselves, our interests, our friends and others. This man didn’t write a news release and send it off to the local newspaper about why pitbulls aren’t as bad as their reputation makes them seem. No, he just used a strategic tactic to influence the behavior and beliefs of his neighbors. This man probably didn’t even think of his move as a PR tactic, but his neighbor saw it in this way.

Thinking about this man’s tactic makes me wonder what kind of PR tactics I’ve used in MY life, without realizing that they are PR tactics. Olga once had a revelation that going to the student rec center to work out is like a self-promoting PR tactic because you are, partially, going there to be seen and give yourself a healthy reputation. I agree with Ms.Walsh about this. Does anyone have any other ideas of “unofficial” PR tactics that people do?

Hi, this is my first post! Well, I’m studying PR at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. I LOVE animals, so I’m thinking that I’m going to be talking about PR that deals with animals, but I’m still figuring out this whole blog thing, so work with me on my indecisiveness at this piont, please!!

In another class I’m taking, J453 - Public Relations Planning and Problems, we read chapter 1 as homework last night. In it, the author, Tom Hagley, says that similar to a doctor working with medicine, a PR professional works with influencing behavior. This relates to my topic of animals in PR by considering how PR is used to influence peoples behavior with animal treatment. I plan on looking at examples of this in future posts!

Last term, in my Writing for PR class, we took a look at the PR that happend around the Christmas Day attack. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the situation, on Christmas Day this past year, Tatiana, a tiger from the San Francisco Zoo, escaped it’s cage, killed a 17-year-old boy and injured his two other friends. The news releases about the situation were all over the place! It seemed like the facts were changing every day and with every report on the situation. Eventually, the PR specialist that the zoo brought in started saying that the kids may have been drinking, smoking pot or taunting the tiger, but after that, it was admitted by zoo that the cage barrier wasn’t as high as regulations said it should be. This is exactly how NOT to handle a crisis situation. Not only did they withold information, they tried placing blame instead of accepting it! This goes against everything I’ve learned thus far in the SOJC about crisis management.