You’ve heard the phrase, “read the room.” Huawei can’t read the room. In spite of an in-house communications team that includes talented pros from the West, they continue to make amateur mistakes. The latest comes in the form of an open letter to the U.S. media published last week in The Wall Street Journal. If …more
The battle between New England and Los Angeles in the 2019 Super Bowl didn’t exactly turn out to be a humdinger (old-school adjective fits the style of play). I found the ads to be a letdown as well. Maybe it was an unrealistic expectation, but I was hoping to watch 60 seconds of storytelling that …more
The Saudi Arabian government. Let’s give the Crown Prince a round of applause for the entry, “The gang that can’t talk straight.” Before going further, the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was an act against humanity. I am by no means making light of it. As I followed the …more
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I intended to slide into the holiday on a happy note. But I can’t leave alone the White House statement on Saudi Arabia and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It turns out that Trump didn’t care whether Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was behind the murder or not. He …more
The San Francisco Giants paid tribute to the Beatles a few weeks ago. It reminded me that deciphering the inner meaning of Beatles lyrics was a public sport during the band’s heyday. Those over 50 will remember playing the White Album backward and supposedly hearing “Paul is dead.” Rather than play all the albums backward, …more
Journalists, particularly those at Tier-1 media properties, are the best non-fiction storytellers on the planet. They toil in a Darwinian world in which clicks correlate to economic health. If they don’t produce content that triggers clicks, they’re going to eventually hear words to the effect, “You’re not a fit here.” With this in mind, it’s …more
As a form of self-torture, I cruised through the 800+ posts I’ve written since the blog went live July 10, 2008. Dipping into my Yiddish vocabulary, “Oy vey.” I’ve reflected on the blog’s 10-year anniversary and stuck a microphone in front of 10 suspecting individuals for their takes on the state of storytelling. Now, I’m …more
Communication professionals can learn a ton about storytelling from our advertising brothers. When you’re shelling out $4 million and change to create a single ad, it has a way of tuning one’s senses, a dynamic that typically doesn’t exist when PR crafts a pitch or writes a news release. With this in mind, I wanted …more
Talk about a mismatch in supply and demand. Thousands of companies strive for feature stories in business publications like Businessweek, Fortune and The Economist. Supply can probably accommodate 1 percent of demand (at the most). So how do you help your company or client be that one in a hundred? Create a pitch that aligns …more
