Here’s a great video to show your grandmother the next time she asks “What does a PR company do, anyway?”

Last night, Cleveland-based crisis management/media training firm Hennes-Paynter posted this short YouTube video featuring each of the three young women who spent more than a decade in captivity after being abducted by a neighbor in their Ohio suburb. Their dramatic rescue moved millions of Americans, and this clip marks the beginning of the next chapter in their very public saga.

Why did Hennes-Paynter decide to release the video at this point in time?

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As we mentioned in this piece about Fourth of July ads, this is a special time of year for brands and the public. As Americans, we’re proud of where we come from and what we stand for, and those powerful emotions can make us susceptible to patriotic messaging.

However, instead of the dramatic montages of cute children waving American flags on Main Street or brilliant fireworks exploding over the Statue of Liberty, Ball Park Franks chose to pursue another direction by bringing the funny. Because, let’s face it, what’s funnier than how seriously we can be about ourselves?

Humor is a powerful tool for any public relations effort. Yet, marketing strategies must do more than be funny. There are plenty of commercials that make us laugh but fail to inspire us to any level of action or to make a purchase. The public needs context. The public needs to feel as if it is part of the fun, and Ball Park Franks has managed to capture that sentiment in its latest ad.

So check out the video above which hilariously characterizes Ball Park Hot Dogs as “grilled on the flames of liberty and named after our national pastime.” Just like the Fourth of July, it’s all about appreciating our freedom by enjoying it.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Be safe and have fun today!

We can all agree on one thing: today’s Supreme Court decision invalidating the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act was, is, and will continue to be a big deal. It’s not that the justices’ conclusions were a big surprise as most observers did not expect them to uphold existing gay marriage bans on the state or federal level. But it still inspired strong emotions for many Americans.

Of course, politicians of all stripes were quick to offer their takes on the issue.

RT if you agree: http://t.co/ISp1tO2Eqe pic.twitter.com/pKanRtHJK1

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) June 26, 2013

My thoughts on the SCOTUS ruling that determined that same sex marriage is okay: “Jesus wept.”

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 26, 2013

In other words, the debate will go on. Now for the question of the day: how can brands turn this major cultural and political event into a great PR opportunity?

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It’s important to remember that we’re in the public relations business because at some point in our lives we thought “Hey, this is fun.”

Of course in an industry hit hard by tough—but hopefully improving!—economic times, and with the inevitable spate of bad news and public relations foibles that make us smack our heads, we should never lose sight that what we do is compelling and enjoyable.

With that in mind, how can you not laugh at the huge controversy surrounding Cap’n Crunch and his suspicious military credentials. What started out as an entertaining conversation about the number of stripes on the Cap’n's uniform—it only boast three stripes, not four, making the Cap’n an actual commander (a rank lower)—evolved into a hilarious PR dialogue involving the cereal’s representatives, the U.S. Navy and the public. Read more

When not exaggerating its own membership, claiming responsibility for the cancellation of The New Normal (it was a bad show, guys), or failing to recognize Twitter‘s 140-character limit, the non-profit outrage organization One Million Moms searches pop culture high and low for the latest and greatest threats to its members’ conservative Christian sensibilities.

In the past, these easily offended mother hens wagged their fingers at everyone from the Boy Scouts to The Cleveland Show and Dancing with the Stars. While we share the group’s distaste for any show featuring Tucker Carlson AND Kate Gosselin, we have to laugh about their latest pet cause—condemning this “disgusting” ad for Kraft salad dressing. Shame on those heathens, et cetera et cetera.

One question: do they not realize that they just gave this brand free publicity?

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UPDATE 4:10PM: We have been notified by McDonald’s that there are some inaccuracies in this article regarding the offers extended to Mr. Ramsay from McDonald’s as a brand and individual franchises. We apologize for the mistake and will make updates soon with new information.

UPDATE 8:47PM: In reference to inaccuracies in this post and more specifically the “Not Lovin’ It: Charles Ramsay Declines Lifetime of Meals from McDonald’s, And Everyone Wins” headline, McDonald’s provided the following details:

“In light of numerous inquiries, we can confirm that the local owner-operators of the McDonald’s restaurants in Mr. Ramsey’s neighborhood have connected with him and offered complimentary McDonald’s food for the next year. In addition, we have made a $10,000 donation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the names of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight, the kidnapping survivors in Ohio, and Mr. Ramsey.”

Original post:

The skinny: McDonald’s offered national hero Charles Ramsay free food for life. Mr. Ramsay declined, bringing to a close an odd but compelling public relations predicament for the fast food chain and the individual man.

As PR people, we think this is the best possible outcome. This conclusion allows both parties to move on with their dignity intact. Here is why:

Charles Ramsay, who was catapulted to fame after helping rescue three women and a young girl in Cleveland, is a good guy. Part of being a good guy is not exploiting a sensitive situation like that terrible kidnapping for personal gain. Yes, we all agree that Mr. Ramsay deserves something, but free Big Macs just feels wrong. McDonald’s, after being thrust into this situation by Mr. Ramsay’s now renowned comments, suddenly found itself in the middle of a PR conundrum—should it reward the hero or not?

Either way, McDonald’s response was going to be newsworthy as the public was intrigued by both a dramatic situation and tricky public relations dilemma. By offering some type of reward, McDonald’s could be perceived as an opportunistic brand exploiting an emotional event. By not offering a reward it could be perceived as being tone deaf and a callous corporate entity void of soul.

At the end of the day, both McDonald’s and Mr. Ramsay did what was right. McDonald’s acknowledged Mr. Ramsay’s selfless actions with the free food gesture, and Mr. Ramsay declined the offer as he should have. In public relations, that’s breaking even, which is the best case scenario in this situation. The public has a short-term memory, and it wouldn’t be long before McDonald’s customers were taking photos of Mr. Ramsay every time he ordered fries and posting them all over social media.

And no one deserves that type of hell, especially good guys.

We all remember just a few short months ago when Maker’s Mark announced plans to water down its product to accommodate demand. It was an unmitigated public relations disaster. Diluting the bourbon was tantamount to halting production altogether. The brand had given up on its values, heritage and customers. R.I.P. Maker’s Mark, right?

Not quite. The result was a public relations bonanza. Upon hearing the breaking news in February, fans of Maker’s Mark began hording the product, rocketing sales up by 44 percent. By the time the dust had settled Marker’s Mark had very publicly reversed its decision and enjoyed the benefits of widespread, free publicity. We have to say, nice work Marker’s Mark PR team.

Whether the decision to water down Marker’s Mark was a sincere proclamation or very clever publicity stunt, well, we’ll have to leave that to industry conspiracy theorists—this all HAD to be planned, right? Conspiracy! Conspiracy! Conspiracy!

It is simply inconceivable that a brand so PR savvy, so knowledgeable of its products and customers, so in line with its own promise of quality, would consider watering down its bourbon. That would be like Taco Bell selling tacos in Doritos shells… oh, wait a minute. That would be like Budweiser putting water in its… no wait. That would be like Porsche building its exhaust system using Honda parts (no offense, Honda, I lost control of this analogy a few sentences ago and needed a way out).

Though Maker’s Mark no longer has any intention to water down its product, it should breathe a sigh of relief as this hubbub is now part of the brand’s storied history. As the saying goes, it’s better to be lucky than good. If this was an honest mistake, then Maker’s Mark was very lucky. If this was all a PR strategy, then Maker’s Mark was very good. No, they were great.

We talked last week about a company’s major PR failure in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. Now, we’d like to share an epic PR win inspired by the same tragedy.

Shortly after the attack that killed three and wounded over 180 at last Monday’s Boston Marathon, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Governor Deval Patrick contacted Jim Gallagher, executive VP of John Hancock (which has title-sponsored the race for years) in an effort to brainstorm ways to provide assistance to the victims.

At 10 a.m. the next morning, Mr. Gallagher got on a conference call with Mike Sheehan and Karen Kaplan, CEO and president of Boston ad agency Hill Holiday. Within hours of that call, the agency created One Fund Boston, a foundation designed to help victims.

During the 10 a.m conference call in which Mr. Gallagher promised John Hancock would donate $1 million to get the ball rolling, the Mayor’s office requested it be able to announce the creation of the fund at a 5 p.m. press conference. That left Holiday Hill seven hours to create a charity from scratch.

Communicating mostly via text message, the agency got to work. Read more

If you ever find yourself responsible for promoting a client whose hook is just too dumb to pitch, we’d like you to know that it can’t true. Don’t believe us? Consider the recent media coverage of SexCereal and Bacon Condoms, two products clearly designed to inspire headlines (and little else).

Neither of these products were April Fools’ jokes, but they both managed to win mentions in mainstream media outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Fox News, Good Morning America, LIVE with Kelly and Michael and even WebMD. How? They had hooks so dumb that folks just had to click. And we all know that producers are just dying to fill airtime with news about stunt products like a condom that helps “make your meat look like meat” and provides “the utmost safety for when you’re makin’ Bacon” or the “world’s first and only gender-based whole food cereal”, which promises to promote “good nerve function, healthy hormone levels, and an unobstructed blood flow to the pelvic area.”

PR wins all around. And yes, there’s a stupid video after the jump: Read more

A Target shopper recently noticed that the color of a grey plus-size dress was listed on the store’s website as “Manatee Grey” (and the image of a manatee may not be the most flattering one to conjure up when trying to sell clothing). To be fair, manatees are, in fact, grey — so while this incident certainly doesn’t demonstrate marketing genius, it’s not necessarily a major issue. The thing is, said shopper also noticed that same dress in regular sizes was listed as “Dark Heather Grey.” Aaaaand now we’ve got a problem.

Would-be Target customer Susan Clemens voiced her disgust on Twitter:

What the. Plus sized women get “Manatee Grey” while standard sizes are “Dark Heather Grey.” @target #notbuyingit twitter.com/suZen/status/3…

— Susan Clemens (@suZen) April 3, 2013

To Target’s credit, the retailer’s response was swift and appropriate:

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