Mutually Inclusive PR

Saskatchewan Bloggers Featured

A feature article about Saskatchewan bloggers gave a peek at some of the province's blogs Monday morning.

Being one of the only Regina bloggers interviewed, I was fodder for a photo and a couple of quotes.  That's me poking up at the top of the front page of the Regina Leader-Post.  I was going for the serious, professional look, but photographer Don Healy wanted the grinning enthusiast look, so I obliged.

I commented about the interactivity of blogs, and that editorial rules for bloggers vary much more than they do for journalists.

A companion article focused on political blogs and how the parties approach social media.

In addition to the usual suspects Kate McMillan, Lance Levsen, John Murney and Saskboy, the L-P talked to Prince Albert pastor Randall Friesen and political strategists Mike Stefaniuk and Reg Downs.

For a look at most of the active blogs in the province, visit the Saskatchewan Blogs Aggregator.

Did I get a spike in traffic from the Leader-Post story?  A bit, but not as much as from a link this week on Laura's Playground Transgender and Transsexual News site.  Goes to show that a mention in electronic format that has a link built in leads to more visits than a mention in a print publication that doesn't include a URL.

And congrats to Saskboy for his Off the Grid being voted best science/tech blogger from the Canadian Blog Awards.  He also came third in the best progressive blog category.  Kate McMillan's Small Dead Animals and Schmutzie's Milkmoney or Not Here I Come were in the top three for best conservative blog and best Canadian blog, respectively.

Tags:  saskatchewan, socialmedia, promotion, blogs, saskblogs, regina

I Hate Web-based Blogging Tools (and they hate me)

After spending 30 minutes pulling together a blog post, my hand slips and hits a key combination.  My web-based publishing software doesn't ask me if I'm insane for not saving my work.  It doesn't ask if I want to reconsider.  It dutifully creates a new page, thus wiping out everything I've written.  Time to start over...

Transgender Kids - No Easy Decisions

This piece in the New York Times caught my eye.  It's about kids who identify strongly with the other gender.  Some parents are letting their kids cross-dress, but it's not an easy decision.

In the past, that sort of behaviour was treated as a psychological problem.  Now therapists aren't so sure.  They wonder if the depression and suicides seen in adults who see themselves as transgender could be avoided. 

Given the amount of verbal and physical abuse a transgender pre-teen or teen would get in your average North American community, I'm not sure anyone's going to be able to avoid psychological distress.

About 15-20% of boys who grow up identifying themselves as girls will want to change their sex when they reach adulthood, says a Toronto psychologist.

Transamerica

Speaking of trannies transsexuals, I watched Transamerica recently.  The beauty of the film isn't that Felicity Huffman plays a transgender man.  It's that she plays a messed-up person who happens to be transgender. 

You can catch a good interview with writer-director Duncan Tucker on the Creative Screenwriting Magazine podcasts (February 2006).

The best part of the interview is Tucker talking about meeting Huffman's husband William H. Macy, who asks if there's "anything I can do to help."  It took Tucker several hours to realize that it wasn't one of those empty offers.  Macy became executive producer, and helped get the indie film in wide distribution.

Upate: Check out the comments.  Some good additions to the discussion, including a correction that Huffman plays a transgender woman, not a man.

Tags: transgender, film, psychology, gender, transamerica

Giving Thanks

Why are the forces of political correctness in this world so often strident and humourless bores who act like they never get laid?

I would argue many politically correct folks are witty and quite willing to acknowledge other points of view.  But the ones who lecture the rest of us on what we should be doing, how we should be speaking, and - most importantly - what we shouldn't be doing and saying, tend to be strident, humourless bores.

When the Barenaked Ladies make a point about world peace or environmentalism, we don't boo them off the stage.  They do it with humour, self awareness and respect for your right to disagree.

 

John Wagner, one of my favourite bloggers, likes to act as a bit of a contrarian.  He calls out the political correctness bullies who use outrage and spin to try to force their views on the rest of society.

This week, he's asking whether the grumbling about the origins of American Thanksgiving justify a reshaping of the holiday to reflect the exploitation of aboriginal people.  His point is that the symbolism of the pilgrims depending on the generosity of the local Indian tribe for survival has long since given way to a holiday that's all about getting together with family.

Of the politicization of Thanksgiving, he asks:

"So aside from political gain or media visibility, what's the point of turning something like Thanksgiving into a finger-pointing exercise?

"Is the third-grade teacher in the AP story above -- who walks into his classroom and steals things from his students to educate them about the European settlers -- really doing any good? Or is he simply creating another cariacture?"

I left a long, boring comment on his blog.  The short version is that I think it's quite possible to have a discussion about aboriginal rights, European colonialism and past injustices without giving up our right to celebrate the good things in life.

Europeans did some pretty horrific things on this soil in the name of God, progress and civilization.  I don't think it's too much for us to look back on the atrocities of the past and acknowledge them.  Even today, being born in a First Nations reserve in Canada automatically knocks years off your life expectancy.  I'm happy to talk about that with my kids on a day like Thanksgiving or Canada Day.  It doesn't make me any less thankful, or any less proud to be Canadian.

Image courtesy of RedKid.net

Common Sense PR Blog Part of b5 Media

A while back I announced that I'd be making some blog changes.  The day has arrived.

Drop by Common Sense PR and let me know what you think.

At the time I decided to launch a new blog, Jeremy Wright announced that blogging network b5 Media was looking for writers for a planned business channel.  I sent b5's Douglas Hanna a proposal.  The next thing I knew I was writing posts for the blog-to-be.

I'll be writing primarily for business managers and communicators.  I've found that quite often managers don't know how to get the most out of public relations, and communicators don't know how to get buy-in to communications plans.

Yes, there will be ads.  Yes, they will sometimes get in the way of the paragraph you are trying to read and they may do annoying things to attract your attention.  I'll try to keep the writing and visuals exciting enough to get you past the distractions.  Thanks to ad revenue, I may be able to get to some more conferences and events in the future.

For people who subscribe to feeds, the blog will have a full text feed available, so you don't have to leave the comfort of your feed reader.

Please drop by, subscribe, and let me know what you like and don't like.  Check out some of the other business blogs on b5.  I'm pretty excited about the possibilities for creating an information nexus for the business reader.

Thanks to my editor Douglas, the designer Scott, CEO Jeremy, and all the bloggers at b5 who have made me welcome.  It's been hard keeping this under wraps until launch day (everyone I told about this -- don't tell Jeremy I was a bad boy).

Update:  I realized I didn't mention anything about Mutually Inclusive PR.  This blog will continue, with a bit less emphasis on public relations/communications. I'll be migrating the content to a new server soon at www.ericeggertson.com, but will keep posts active on this Typad server for a while, to keep the links from breaking.

Tags:  b5media, blogs, eggertson

Josh Gets the Money Shot for Signage Fetishists

Confesion: I have a thing for signage.  I rave about good signage, and contantly harp about the perils of bad signage.

When I see a new stop sign - without warning signs about the change - all I see is a lawsuit.  When I can barely navigate a parking garage because the signs are hard to read, hard to understand and poorly placed, I vow not to return to that mall (well, for a few months, anyway).

When I speed up after the super speed bumps, only to find out someone mistakenly placed the 50 km/h sign before the last speed bump, instead of after it, I start to fantacize about painful procedures mistakenly performed on city engineers.  (Try going over one of those extra large speed bumps at 50 K when your spouse is recovering from whiplash.  Now go look up pain and suffering in the dictionary.)

So, I'm a signage fetishist.  I'm not ashamed.

I was particularly pleased to come across Josh Hallett's photos from an Ikea.  The signage - like the rest of the store and product design - is simple, elegant and extremely functional.

The spotlight trained on the arrow on the floor is a particularly nice touch.  Thanks for sharing, Josh. His Flickr photos. Check his blog, too.

Tangential linking:  For a different take on design, check out Ross Howard's post about ambient signifiers, and how the use of sound on the Tokyo rail system suggests ways to subtly help website visitors find their way (and no, Ross isn't suggesting musical websites).

Tags:  signage, kea, retail, signs, joshhallett, functionality

Interactive Sites Can Work, if the Concept Is Right

Here's a Flash site that makes the most of low-res graphics and the public's expectation that milk will be marketed in a wholesome way.

Instead of testimonials about health and bone density levels, mechantchoco.com (warning: site launches with sound) uses a horror film motif to reveal the sad fate of kidnapped chocolate bunnies, ducks and bears that are ground up and turned into chocolate milk.

The choppy, cheap horror-film look of the graphics works well.  Selecting different options, you can see how the chocolate critters were bashed, ground and micro-waved into pieces before being transformed into chocolate milk.

The campaign earned BBDO Montreal a Cassie grand prix.  For six weeks in 2005 Quebec was peppered  with posters for various "missing" chocolate animals, prompting teens to visit the site.  Sales went up 17%, says the Globe and Mail.

Tags:  ads, flash, promotion, dairy, youth,marketing

MedicAlert to Partner with Schools on Free Kids' Bracelets

It's one of those "Why haven't we done this before?" decisions. Canadian MedicAlert Foundation is launching a program toay to provide free warning bracelets or necklaces to kids from four to 14 years old with medical conditions that could be life threatening.

From a public service point of view, this is a no-brainer.  Kids shouldn't be penalized if their parents don't think they can afford the fees, or don't feel motivated to sign up their kids.  This program will go through the schools to reach kids and their parents.

From a marketing point of view, it's a good idea too.  As more schools get involved in the program, more kids will get used to having a MedicAlert tag. And kids grow up into paying participants in the program, which includes a national database and 24-hour toll-free number.

Not that MedicAlert is a for-profit company.  But if their goal is to prevent deaths among Canadians with life threatening allergies or medical conditions, this is a smart way to get corporate backing for a major push to reach the estimated 200,000 Canadian kids who are at risk.

The No Child Without program starts in 60 schools, and will expand to up to 10,000 elementary and junior high schools across the country.

See also: How to donate; Globe and Mail story.

Flickr's Open Approach Continues to Pay Off

Every time I try out another third-party tool to view my Flickr photos, the creative options out there reinforces the cool factor in the Flickr brand.

But it's not just my photos I can play around with. All public photos on Flickr are available for anyone to view and sort.

Kevin Dugan pointed me to a site that lets you browse visually by tag, but there are dozens of other ways to play.  Check out some more toys.

People Still Use Payphones? Yeah, for Ads

The breathless news release from OutdoorPartner Media describes a nameless client that is spending $1 million on an outdoor campaign using "payphone kiosks," which I assume is a synonm for phone booths.

That's not news.  Nor is the fact that "OutdoorPartner is particularly well-positioned to capitalize on the migration of media dollars to out-of-home media properties due to a combination of the Company's: vast network of advertising displays; micro-targeting capabilities; and ability to deliver branded, multimedia content to consumers using Prime Point's Bluetooth product."

Here's the real news item:  There are hundreds of thousands of phone booths still in use in North America!  I don't know if anyone make phone calls in them, but they're certainly useful as "alternative out-of-home media solutions for advertisers."

Disclosure:  God, now I have to write disclaimers about advertisers.  The timing of this piece is awkward, since it's based on a news release handled by CNW Group, who just started advertising on this blog yesterday. But I don't believe in penalizing advertisers any more than I believe in fawning all over them, so instead of spiking this item, I'll just note the potential conflict of interest and run it anyway.  I've been subscribed to CNW's news release distribution service on and off for three years.