In California, Congressional candidate Gil Cedillo has taken photos posted on one of his opponent’s Facebook page and used them to craft a fairly vicious campaign mailer targeting young political newcomer Emanuel Pleitez.  Cedillo and Pleitez are among 12 candidates vying to replace newly appointed Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in California’s 32nd Congressional District- which covers East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. The special election will be held May 19. 

The mailer is obviously intended to portray Pleitez as immature and reckless. This campaign tactic will of course be used more and more in the future – photos capturing your opponent in a bad light have always been too easy to ignore for most campaigns – so candidates dont make it easy for your rivals – be aware and do not upload photos anywhere that can be used against you in any way.  Also check your Facebook settings to control what photos can be added to your site by “friends”. Check out the entire story below from Calitics.com about the mailer, the campaign, and what all this may mean for tomorrow’s election. Links to the actual mailer can be found halfway through the text.

http://www.calitics.com/diary/8783/cedillo-goes-strong-negativeon-emanuel-pleitez

The National Pork Producers Council responded on Sunday to the rapid outbreak of swine flu in humans.  Take a look at the story from the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124078095392057087.html and visit the Council’s website at http://www.nppc.org/News/PressRelease.aspx?DocumentID=24676 to read the organization’s formal response. During an April 26th White House briefing, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano said people cannot get swine flu from eating pork. 

We will see how this one plays out for an industry that is already reeling from lower demand coupled with higher feed prices. Now producers have to deal with the misconception that pork products are associated with swine flu. Analysts say that the industry’s recovery will not be sustained if consumers start to change their spending habits and buy non-pork products – the threat of weaker demand would send hog prices tumbling.

Spain’s crown prince Don Felipe and his wife Letizia traveled to New York in March to launch the country’s “Made in/Made by Spain” marketing campaign. The promotional plan seeks to raise the profile of Spain in the American marketplace and highlight specific homegrown Spanish companies and their expertise in both renewable energy and transportation infrastructure projects – both well funded initiatives in President Obama’s stimulus plan (Spain calls it el Plan Obama). Spain’s industry minister predicts that the country is poised to get  $71 billion worth of contracts from the stimulus package. 

It is probably not a bad idea for countries seeking to get their share of stimulus pie to keep a close eye on Spain’s campaign. If Spain is successful in receiving stimulus dollars at a higher than expected pace, this should certainly prompt other countries to follow suit and craft their own unique plan.

Story from Economist.com

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13447445

The Hill newspaper carried a great piece on best practices for folks who have the opportunity (voluntary or required) to testify before a congressional hearing.  Lobbyists who work on Capitol Hill in Washington offer their tips to those who find themselves appearing before federal lawmakers. 

A couple of interesting takeaways from the article. First, witnesses should understand that the meeting itself is not a really a formal legal proceeding but better described as a “political proceeding” or a “made-for-TV drama.” The second, witnesses need to be aware of perception and should not wear ties that cost more than the committee chairman’s suit.

Access the story below:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dont-wear-a-tie-more-costly-than-panel-chairmans-suit-2009-03-24.html

So far 18 universities have pulled back from licensing deals with Russell Athletic over the company’s labor practices.  Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Michigan and Penn State are among schools that have ended licensing agreements with Russell over what they believe are unfair business practices related to a Honduras factory that had previously produced fleece products.  The factory has been shut down – for economic reasons says Russell, and not because of pro-union activity on behalf of the workers.

The link to the news story below explains how we got to this point. This controversy is quickly becoming an expensive PR black hole for Russell Athletic. 

From the Azcentral & AP

http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2009/03/19/20090319biz-RussellAthletic0319.html

Be sure and take a look at Russell’s CSR website, http://www.russellsocialresponsibility.com/ for their spin on the issue.

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 A Nice Case Study on How to  Separate Your Friendly, Responsible, Local Bank from Wall Street’s Mess

Louisiana and Texas based MidSouth Bank hosted a series of well crafted “Town Hall” meetings throughout Louisiana in early February. MidSouth Bank President and CEO Rusty Cloutier – “We are confident participants leave the meetings understanding that it is unfortunate and unfair that community banks have been lumped in with the big Wall Street banks that created this crisis and caused it to trickle over into our business, Cloutier said. We may be a small player, but we are passionate about protecting the reputation that we, and so many community banks like us, have worked decades to build “.

A great marketing concept coupled with an even better public service theme. Providing a public forum for elected officials and community groups to participate in the meetings allowed the bank the opportunity to engage recognized local opinion leaders and added credibility to the gatherings. Nice job.

http://www.midsouthbank.com/cfm/prdetails.cfm?PressID=122

The January issue of HarrisInteractive’s newsletter, Newsmaker Insights, provides a glimpse into future trends, challenges, and industry sectors offering the best business opportunities for PR professionals.  Executives from 13 public relations firms took part in the research and provided their take on the industry’s increased burden to provide proof of ROI for corporations choosing to direct limited dollars to PR efforts. Additional pressure points identified by research participants included the need to better define the benefits of social networking, blogging, etc. to corporate bottom lines and the necessity of the profession to attract and keep fresh new talent.

The study also presented four sectors that may provide fertile ground for PR growth in the future: enhancing corporate reputation initiatives related to economic realities, better defining America’s image related to world affairs, healthcare policy changes and their poltical and regulatory impacts, and the need carefully present the benefits of  corporate environmentally friendly actions.

You can review the newsletter here: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/newsmaker/HI_NewsmakerInsights_2009_v04_i01.pdf

From the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/technology/start-ups/22blogpaper.html?_r=1&ref=business\

The Printed Blog, a Chicago start-up, plans to reprint blog posts on regular paper, surrounded by local ads, and distribute the publications free in big cities. The Printed Blog will publish blog posts alongside other Weblike content, like user-submitted photographs and readers’ comments. The paper will be printed on three or four 11-by-17-inch sheets of white paper and laid out like a blog instead of in columns.

So far, 300 bloggers have given The Printed Blog permission to publish their work for a share of the ad revenue, including small-audience bloggers in Chicago and nationally known blogs like Daily Kos. Users will eventually be able to log on to its site, theprintedblog.com, to choose which blogs they want in their edition, and editors will decide which posts make the paper. A city the size of Chicago could have 50 separate editions tailored to individual neighborhoods.

The first issues will appear in Chicago and San Francisco. They will start as weeklies, but Joshua Karp, the founder and publisher, hopes eventually to publish free neighborhood editions of The Printed Blog twice a day in many cities around the country

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Former Wall Street Journal reporter Bill Paul has a very interesting article in the January issue of Stocks, Futures and Options Magazine, http://www.sfomag.com/article.aspx?ID=1286&issueID=c, regarding Washington’s expected plans to cap carbon emissions and require an estimated 1 million or more U.S. businesses to lower their carbon emissions every year by an amount set by the government. Those businesses that fail will be required to offset their emissions by purchasing credits in the open market from companies that succeed in reducing their emission levels below the government-set annual limit, thereby generating tradable credits.  There will be a tremendous amount of money spent by American businesses in the very near future to comply with pending regulations and PR professionals should recognize the opportunity to leverage this commitment and proactively emphasize their clients “greening efforts” to consumers, investors, and potential employees.

Wall Street is also eager to turn the new requirements into an opportunity to generate fees from carbon trading. Paul adds that in Europe, carbon trading is already a $100 billion annual market and when New York, Sydney, and Tokyo are added to the mix during the next couple of years, fees from carbon trading (from both trading credits and developing carbon-reducing projects such as wind farms that generate credits) will create billions in new fees for investment firms.

Paul concludes that investors will now have to strongly consider companies that have implemented effective carbon reduction programs, such as energy efficiency improvements and/or substitution of green power for fossil fuel-sourced power. These companies are an attractive target for investors because of their lower operating costs, earning potential from carbon trading, and environmentally friendly public image.

From Variety – http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117998161.html?categoryid=2112&cs=1

Hollywood’s marketing toolbox is full of new, innovative ways to capture customers and promote movies through the Internet and other electronic means. Powerfully eye-catching websites, tailored MySpace pages, mobile devices, and videogame consoles are all becoming fundamental to industry promotional strategies and an unlimited creative platform to entice the industry’s target audience.