In professional tournament play, Tiger Woods is well-known for insisting on silence during his pre-shot routine and swing. He dresses down disturbers of the peace by yelling “not in my swing!” or by dispatching his caddie, Steve Edwards, to enforce a somnolent decibel level on the course.

Perhaps it’s to be expected, then, that Woods hoped the consideration routinely given to Tiger the golfer would likewise be extended to Tiger the husband, father and tax payer.  But one of the world’s richest and most-marketable athletes hoping for personal privacy is a bit like a weekend duffer hoping for a hole in one: Odds are, it’s not going to happen.

Continue reading " Off-Course, Request for “Quiet Please!” Hurts Tiger Woods "

This week, the Federal Trade Commission recognized social media and the new ways consumers get information. The result was a quick initiation into the regulatory fold.

After 30 static years, the FTC revised its guidelines for endorsements and testimonials to keep communicators on the right side of unfair competition and false advertising laws (see sections 45 and 53). The new guidelines are advisory, but they will change the way public relations, advertising and marketing professionals need to approach certain strategies, tactics and heretofore best practices.

Essentially, the FTC applied longstanding principles to new media realities. This conceptual leap has, not surprisingly, left bubbling uncertainties in its wake. Further muddying the waters are hosts of snap analyses in the press and online that have left professionals misinformed, confused and quite concerned. Bottom line, no blogger will be dragged off in chains nor any time soon be hit with stiff civil penalties, except in very extraordinary cases. 

Continue reading " The New FTC Guidelines: Cutting through the Clutter "

Several unfortunate events of late have thrust the issue of ethics to the forefront of discussion and debate in the public relations industry:

• A high-tech public relations firm allegedly directed its interns to write favorable reviews of computer games sold by its clients.
• A D.C. lobbying firm is said to have sent letters to political constituents on a third-party’s letterhead, giving the impression that the letters originated with that organization.
• A public relations firm allegedly established a program through which clients could engage a stable of “tweeters” to propagate favorable messages about its clients and their products.
• In the current debate on health care reform, special interest groups are accused of setting up and/or funding organizations to promote their positions, without disclosing who is actually behind the groups.
• A major aerospace concern is investigating reports that one of its employees attended an industry gathering posing as a journalist and blogger and participated in press conferences staged by two of its competitors.

Continue reading " Public Relations Ethics and the Role of PRSA "

The other day, the head of a well-respected New York firm delivered a blistering critique of the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) credential on his blog. Somewhat curiously, a similar outburst appeared on his partner’s blog a day later.

PRSA admittedly has had its challenges in trying to establish the value of the APR mark in the minds of agency hiring managers, which is something we’re working to change. But, we’re always surprised when we run into someone who is against the ideas of self improvement, learning and recognition for those efforts — ideals which are fundamental to us as Americans.

Continue reading " APR Critics: Down with Education! "

The blogosphere has largely operated as journalism’s Wild West, a virtual boomtown in which individuals have laid claim to online publishing “territories” as readily as forty-niners staked claims to California’s gold-rich rivers and streams. All the while, regulators have been pondering fundamental questions of jurisdiction, motivation and standards. That is, until now

In its recent review of rules governing advertising endorsements and testimonials, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cast a critical eye on the rapidly growing instance of bloggers reviewing products and services provided to them at no cost by public relations professionals and other product marketers. The practice, known as “blogola,” sparked the proposal of new FTC guidelines that would require bloggers to disclose any exchange of value that results in editorial coverage, so that readers can assess for themselves the information’s bias, accuracy and usefulness.

Continue reading " Disclosing a Penny for a Blogger’s Thoughts "