Corporate Respnsibility

"Consumers are increasingly aware that the impact of their product purchase goes far beyond the cash register"
- Robert Reich, U.S. Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration

Take a look at the infamous brand American Apparel. Known for its plain tees and "regular people" models, this store has taken a new way of business of doing business. In 2000, company founder and CEO Dov Charney created a business that promoted immigrant rights and labor policies and would be known as a company that was "sweatshop free". A little side note that may be of interest to some: Dov is Montreal born and raised and also went to my high school. I met him twice in Montreal, and he left quite the impression... looks like a man straight out of the 70's, I thought it was a joke.. but sadly no, it wasn't.
American Apparel's main headquarters are in downtown Los Angeles, and the factory that makes the clothes is situated in the same spot. They pay their workers more then $12/hour, and despite this high salary, I am making less at my current job, this has not made a dent in the company's yeary earnings. In fact, just as Dov thought, it would make them ever more popular and successful. American Apparel also offers paid time-off, english lessons, free telephones where workers can take and receive long distancephone calls, and numerous other benefits. The company is also environmentally freindly and offers their workers bicycles to go to and from work.
In 2005, American Apparel hosted their bikini car wash, and the company package 80,000 t-shirts for the relief effort in the after-math of Hurrican Katrina.

Now there's CSR done right.

Women and PR

I've just read an article in PR Week that talks about Ann Summers' chief executive, Jacqueline Gold, the daughter of David Gold, founder of the hugely successful adult shops.
Jacqueline Gold is a tiny, elegant, sophisticated and feminine woman who is now in-charge of running the 150 chain stores, and she is doing very well at it. She is responsible for turning this "once seedy sex shop populated with what she calls 'the raincoat brigade', into an almost all-female institution with stores a familiar sight on Britain's high streets" (View from the Top: Sex and shopping ). She started off working for her father in her early twenties and later took over his business. With the stores obvious controversy, Gold has been hit with some lawsuits and criticism over the years, but this hasn't stopped her from moving forward with her success.
Gold explains that at the start of her career she wanted to be taken seriously, so she dressed in business suits and wore glasses, until one day someone told her she looked like a politician (View from the Top). She explains that that day she realized that she wasn't a man, nor did she want to look like one. She was a girly girl and she was proud of it. So she began to dress like one. A lot of Ann Summers fame comes from Gold's image, and consequently, has helped her PR strategy. Along with becoming a successful business woman, she has become a brand in itself. She has written several books and has made several TV appearances to talk both about her success and her haunting past and sexual abuse. With all that in mind, she still comes out on top today.
What strikes me about this article and more importantly about what Gold says in it, is that you don't have to be aggressive to be successful. Movies like The Devil Wears Prada may give the wrong impression to young women trying to break into the tough business world, because they see this extremely hard woman, and they believe that they must be that in order to survive in this testosterone driven society. Gold is approachable, friendly and somewhat girly in nature, and this is far from the stereotype of an aggressive businesswoman. She is the complete opposite of the Miranda character in the film, but her way of doing business suits her just fine, and she does well. However, when it comes to the subject of inspiring women, Gold is all steel (View from the Top). Gold explains that women need to push themselves more, and that women in general are quite hard on themselves and lack confidence in many situations. "Sometimes men are more intimidated by women than we are by them" (View from the Top), she explains. "We forget as women how powerful we are - we need to be reminded of that occasionally".
Gold says that there will always be challenges that face you, but you must not be afraid of them. She believes that its these challenges that have helped her move forward, and she believes that her story can benefit women who are afraid t0 be strong.

I think a balance of both women mentioned, Miranda and Jacqueline, will make the perfect business woman. Being tough is important, but having a soft side can make a person more approachable. Soft doesn't mean weak though, there is a difference and that should not be confused.


























Miranda Presly Jacqueline Gold


Which do you think fits the image of successful business woman?

"View from the Top: Sex and Shopping". PR Week 9 January 2009

Ethics in PR

At the beginning of class, Michaela put up a question about ethics. The question asked whether you would stop a train from killing a lot of people by detouring its tracks to kill just one person. I was reminded of a question I have heard many times which asks, if you were standing over Hitler's cradle, would you kill the young innocent baby boy? Tricky question on many levels. When I first heard the question I responded immediately, yes yes yes. No question about it, a very stern yes. The person who asked me this smiled and said, you see its not that simple, and began to explain the complicated ways why. They said: what happens if what Hitler did was written somewhere.. as in it was meant to be, and if you killed him someone else was bound to take his place and do even worse? This stumped me, I hadn't thought about it in this angle. Another was, perhaps it was his upbringing, his nurture, as Freud explained, and you could change his destiny by changing his educational upbringing. The final angle was an obvious one, which i chose to overlook, and this was, Hitler wasn't Hitler yet, just a young baby in a cradle, innocent and helpless. I thought about The Minority Report, the movie with Tom Cruise, where criminals get arrested before their crime is committed. Great idea in theory, horribly unjust in another. Ethics is a very tricky study and people will always disagree with one another on the right ethical choice. Just like this question, where there is no right or wrong, just a simple idea that raises many ethical questions.
I also thought about Erin Brockovich's story and her battle to reveal the truth. Brocovich, with her little training in law, went up against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993, and won. The movie has many scenes in which she and her boss meet with the company's PR team in order to "negotiate" settlements. In each scene the PR people downplay their company's role in the water contamination of the nearby Southern California town of Hinkley. This movie definitely portrays PR as evil.
Have a look


I was also reminded of the movie SuperSize Me, where independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, documents his one-month McDonald diet and this lifestyle's drastic effects on his physical and psychological well-being. The film also explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. At one point in the film Morgan enters one of McD's head offices and he speaks to a PR representative. He tells this man that McDonald's is killing America, and the man continually denies it. Morgan shows him evidence and reads statistics and is eventually escorted out of the office. At the end of the movie the credits reveal that this man eventually quit his job because of Morgan. Apparently his conscious got to him...
Michaela's slides says it well: "PR is about reputation.. it builds and maintains a reputation", but do we as future PR people do the greatest good for the greatest number (Bentham),or do we do as Kant says, "the right thing". Both will inevitably bring up massive ethical arguments.. and so the ethical debate continues...

PR and Politics

I would like to congratulate the team who spoke about Barack Obama and his methods of using new media to gain popularity and enough votes to become the new President of America. The group did a great job and although I did follow his campaign, I did learn some new interesting tactics Obama used throughout the months.
I had no idea he had created ring tones for cell phones! I was absolutely amazed by this. How clever were his people to have thought of this! Not only did he create ring tones, but he was able to reach three different kinds of people, the young, the mature and even the old. Obama understood how important it was to reach a wide range of audiences because they represented all of America. He also was able to reach the older, media savvy crowd with these ring tones, which I know my father loved, (even though he is Canadian). My father has a blackberry and prides himself on showing me how he can look up his email on his phone and check the temperature of different cities across the world. Obviously, this doesn't impress me, because it took him an entire week to figure out the Blackberry by reading the manual, and I just learned it by trial and error in about a half hour. That's besides the point, the point is, he downloaded the ring tones, and I never even heard of them before class! can't believe it. My father who is 59 new of some media gimmick long before I did, how embarrassing, but goes to show the power of Obam's campaign and his intense following.
By looking at Obama's campaign compared to McCain's, in hindsight, it is quite obvious that McCain was doomed for failure. His campaign wasn't anywhere near Obama's in terms of using the tools available today to reach America. Obama did it, and from now on I'm sure, other presidents will use the same kind of tactics or methods to gain the popular vote. Everything is obvious in hindsight, but Obama and his people, tactically tapped into the strongest media tools and used PR to its finest to win presidency.



in this case, the Hare has definitely beat the Tortoise.

Wastebook

I remembered this ridiculous skit that appeared on Mad tv, a show that resembles SNL, but can be at times a little edgier.
It is obvious the show's producers are voting Obama, and this skit makes fun of McCain's lack in technological usability. He doesn't even know how to use a computer, or so the skit eludes to, yet he needs to use Facebook to reach the younger generation of voters in America.
Apparently he is too old for Facebook, since the year of his birth isn't even an option when trying to create a new profile.
The skit basically explains that the older generation just isn't cool if they can't use Facebbok to broaden their social network. However, just a thought, how cool will Facebook be when our parents are using it as well? Both my mother and father have accounts, although my mother doesn't even know how to use it she just created one so she can view my pictures and see how life is treating me while I'm away studying in London. Both their friend requests are still pending, and although I feel terrible for not accepting them, I just can't justify having my parents as friends on Facebook!

I first got Facebook in 2004, back in the day when only University students could access the site. My parents, and my father especially thought it was a ridiculous waste of time, and viewed it as a way for dirty old men to access his daughter's life. I repeatedly explained to him that Facebook was different and only my friends could view my profile, and I was careful at selecting only people I knew. Little did we both know the power this social networking site would have, and how many important and powerful people would eventually use it to their advantage. Years later my father finally got it and told me it was an amazing way to get in touch with people and world leaders, presidents and organizations were using it. All of these things I knew already, but of course this didn't matter anymore.
New media, as my group explained during our presentation in the last class, is important and is changing the way we do business. PR agencies have quickly understood that if they do not implement this into their business model, they can lose many clients who are trying to reach an audience on a wider scale in a quick and inexpensive way.
However, from a social networking point of view, Facebook may create some problems when I'm trying to apply for jobs. I know back in Montreal, there was a company that would create a "fake" profile and add you as a friend to gain access to your profile. From the pictures and information on your wall, they could judge what kind of person you really were, and if they wanted to hire you. I've done my Facebook clean up, and have removed some potential harming pictures from my profile. I've untagged myself, but those pictures are still floating around in cyberspace. The internet has vast capabilities and has the potential to make or break someone. Look at Paris Hilton, her grandfather gave away her share of his fortune to charity because of the embarrassment her sex video caused her family. The internet caused the Heiress her inheritance, and her reputation.