Former Big Pharma PR Exec Apologizes
Posted on 03. Sep, 2009 by Cameron Reilly in capitalism, Public Relations
Wendell Potter sez: “…the higher up the corporate ladder I climbed, the more I could see how insurance companies confuse their customers and dump the sick – all so they can satisfy those Wall Street masters.”
via Wendell Potter: Rally Against Wall Street’s Health Care Takeover | Center for Media and Democracy.
G’Day World #356 – Phil Gomes, SVP, Edelman
Posted on 23. Dec, 2008 by Cameron in Podcast, Public Relations
Forgive me folks. It’s been a month since my last G’Day World. What can I tell ya? I’ve been focusing on making enough cash to keep this thing running. I’ve done a few Napoleon and Biography shows as well, because they were seriously running behind. And, as you know, we’ve had a few technical dramas. However, I’m back! And it’s a good one.
Phil Gomes is VP with Edelman Digital, senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research, and a cachaca connoisseur. He was in Australia last week and I caught up with him over the phone.
I asked him what Edelman’s clients are doing with blogs, podcasts, twitter and what his views are on ethics in PR. And, of course, we talked about cachaca. 
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If you want an independent media, you can support TPN by throwing me some cash to cover the bills or, if you’re tight on the cash front, by blogging or Twittering about the show or joining the G’Day World Facebook group. There is a list of things you can do to support the show here.
The G’Day World theme music:
Conquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)
The 2008 Falsies Awards: In Memory of the First Casualty | Center for Media and Democracy
Posted on 12. Dec, 2008 by Cameron Reilly in General, Public Relations
CMD have released their 2008 Falsies list. As always, it’s interesting reading.
Learn about:
- PR industry tricks such as ” third party technique” and how the Pentagon has been using it to dupe American citizens;
- Which PR firms are taking dirty coal money to try to dupe people into thinking ‘clean coal’ is anything more than a line of spin;
- Which PR firm took China’s money to try to make them look better during the Olympics – and failed miserably;
The 2008 Falsies Awards: In Memory of the First Casualty | Center for Media and Democracy
Why Twitter Is Important To Me
Posted on 06. Apr, 2008 by Cameron Reilly in Public Relations, social networking, twitter
And on Sunday, he rested…….
Holy god damn, what a week. Finally, this morning, TPN is back up (obviously, because I can write this and you can read it). I have to thank Phil Morle from Pollenizer for hooking me up with Jagadeesh from x-minds in India. Jag and his team got TPN back up in amazing time. I wish I’d known about Jagadeesh’s team 10 days ago when I started having problems. I could have saved myself (and TPN’s hosts) a week of grief. Well, they are on my radar now.
And, because I know that THE QUESTIONS THAT I ASK MYSELF DETERMINE MY PERSPECTIVE, I’m thinking up some good questions.
- What could I have done better to avoid this situation?
- How can I make sure we don’t go through that again?
- What made the difference?
The answer to the last one is – Twitter. Phil got involved, and introduced me to Jagadeesh, when I started screaming for help on Twitter. If I didn’t have ~900 people following me on Twitter, I wouldn’t have got that offer of support when I did. Twitter is important, something Misha Cornes obviously misses. If you have a low signal-to-noise ration on your Twitter, then start following better people. She should read my Fast Thinking article.
Before I go – Lee Hopkins wrote a good post about how Aussie PR folks STILL don’t get digital media, based in-part on a chat he and Trevor Cook and I had during lunch at ad:tech in Sydney a few weeks ago.
Over a table discussion after the Digital PR session I took part in, Cameron turned to Trevor Cook (knowing that I am not a PR person and have always taken great pains to point this out) and asked,
“It’s 2008, for f#$ks sake! How come PR companies here STILL don’t get it!?!?â€
A very good question.
As he pointed out, we’ve had blogs as a part of our media landscape for at least 5 years, mainstream media are falling over themselves trying to ‘out 2.0′ each other, we’ve had podcasts for a few years, we’ve had YouTube for what seems like forever…
So how come Australian PR companies still play ‘hide head in sand and pretend it will all go away’ games?
It isn’t just PR – it’s Australian corporates in general. By the way, if you want to check out the work I’ve been doing for Telstra recently, visit their new Enterprise site. It contains podcast interviews I’ve done for them with some of their top executives, chatting about what they do in Telstra and what it’s like to work for for The Big T in 2008. The interviews aren’t scripted and don’t get subjected to much editing by Telstra PR. It’s just a real conversation between me, a member of the public, and a Telstra exec. It’s the closest thing so far I’ve seen in Australia where I large corporation is using Web2.0 to be more conversational.