We have a feeling the team responsible for promoting the upcoming Disney flick Oz the Great and Powerful cringed when watching this BBC interview with star Mila Kunis, in which she and a very nervous correspondent discuss Jägerbombs, Baywatch, UK football and the art of pouring a pint with no foam.

At the same time, we have little doubt that this was indeed the most interesting interview Kunis gave on her press junket–and it even makes us slightly more interested in her movie. Shouldn’t we all encourage clients to be a little more personable when speaking to the press?

On second thought, we probably shouldn’t…

Imagine this nightmare scenario: A well-known TV/radio host and media personality–let’s say Johnny Carson–dies peacefully after spending decades in the public eye as a respected entertainer, philanthropist and occasional newsmaker.

As the public mourns, a series of women currently in their 30′s and 40′s reveal inappropriate relations with the entertainer that occurred when they were still in their formative years, living at boarding houses and rehabilitation centers for troubled children. As the weeks go on, the number of accusers grows from a few to a dozen, then to several hundred. The worst part? Many of these women reported the abuse as it happened, but no one listened to them because the man in question was a celebrity beloved by an entire nation.

This is the story that’s captivated Great Britain for the past month–and it’s not going away anytime soon. The man was Jimmy Saville, and according to his many, many accusers, he molested teenage girls throughout his nearly 50-year career as a BBC TV/radio host and king of celebrity fundraisers. Yet many in the media seemed to accept him as an eccentric character with an unhealthy attraction to adolescent women. Friends and associates would often say, “Oh, that’s just Jimmy.”

Yuck. And it gets worse.

Read more

Media training is a high stakes field with visible results: Flawless public appearances are impressive while faulty performances can be devastating. We recently checked in via email with three media training specialists at PR agencies for their perspectives on the latest techniques, challenges and trends. Here’s the lowdown.

Training strategy is “about media mastery,” according to Leslie Linton, SVP media strategies at MWW in New York. “It’s about taking control of an interview, reacting quickly and effectively in a breaking news or crisis situation.”

Traditional and unconventional methods are used. “Clients increasingly recognize the importance of video training,” reported Ryan Richert, SVP media services at Edelman in Chicago. “You never know when a veteran print journalist will pull out an iPhone to record video of an interview. The New York Times’ new CEO comes from the BBC and embraces video storytelling.” Richert foresees journalists across major outlets using more video.

Linton strongly agreed with Richert on the value of video. She also utilizes “positive and negative sound bite examples and concentrates on bridging techniques to help clients out of troubling questions.”

“Our training program uses unexpected techniques,” said Stephen Brown, managing director at Cohn & Wolfe in Atlanta. “These range from ‘surprise calls’ from real or mock reporters during a session to surrounding interviews with props or lifelike set pieces.” He described another technique where a trainer writes a wire story in real-time during practice interviews, then shares the story so clients understand their statements’ immediate impact.

Media training adapts to rapid news cycles and social media networks. “Sound bites are shorter, simpler, and crisper,” Richert explained. “Watch the evening network news and you don’t see any more 15 second sound bites; most are about half that length. In the age of 140-character comments, executives can’t afford to be wordy, so I focus on helping our clients tighten up their talking points and cut to the chase.”

Read more

Calypso Communications, an integrated, full-service public relations, marketing, and creative design firm in Northern New England, recently promoted Creative Director Mike Teixeira to Vice President and Creative Director. Teixeira has been with Calypso for the past four years, during which time he has led the agency’s creative team and served as account lead on numerous client campaigns, resolving clients’ advertising, branding, and multimedia needs. Teixeira creates original graphics, effective layouts for web and print, and dynamic video, combining traditional as well as emerging media. With this promotion, Teixeira formalizes the growing role he has taken in setting the creative direction for the agency. (Release)

According to Ad Age, as part of Group M Global‘s leadership changes geared toward digital evolution, Group M North America CEO Rob Norman will take on the newly created role of chief digital officer for Group M Global. The changes will go into effect later this year. Prior to becoming Group M North America CEO in January 2010, Norman ran Group M Interaction, the department that oversees the operations, data processes, talent and tools essential to the media agencies’ digital tasks. (Ad Age)

Harleen Kahlon has been named SVP of digital at Oxygen Media. She had been EVP of business development, marketing and content strategy at Bundle Corp. In her new role, Kahlon, who is based in New York, will lead the digital team, developing plans for the release of new and returning series on digital platforms. (Release)

According to AdWeek, Mark Thompson, the outgoing director general of the BBC and chairman of BBC Worldwide, has been named president and CEO of the New York Times Co. The news comes eight months after Janet Robinson resigned as the CEO of the New York Times Co., Thompson first joined the BBC in 1979 as a production trainee and, with the exception  of a brief stint as CEO of Britain’s Channel 4 from 2002 to 2004, has spent the entirety of his career up until this point at BBC. (AdWeek)

Sweetie the panda. Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA

The BBC has released its list of female “Faces of the Year 2011.” For January, we have Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. March has Eman al-Obeidi, who was captured on film in Tripoli making frantic accusations of rape and assault against members of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s militia. But what’s that fuzzy black and white muzzle there for December? Why, that’s Sweetie, a damn panda.

Sweetie is half of a pair of panda bears (the other, a male that did not appear on the Faces of the Year 2011 for men list, is named Sunshine) that will be on loan to a zoo in Scotland for the next decade.

Foreign Policy‘s blog notes the outrage that the selection has caused, fueling a Twitter hashtag #pandagate, prompting members of the media to point out the gender issues this selection raises, and prompted a parody Twitter feed. The controversy also comes shortly after the news organization failed to nominate a woman for Sports Personality of the Year.

“For a number of people, the BBC’s decision to include Sweetie smacks of sexism,” the blog says. To be sure, the BBC isn’t helping its case with tweets like the one after the jump.

Read more

Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, and Michele Bachmann say they will not take part in a Univision debate scheduled for January because of allegations that the Spanish-language media outlet pushed an embarrassing story about a relative to Sen. Mark Rubio (FL-R) after he refused to be interviewed for a Univision program. Univision denies this. [via The Miami Herald blog]

The BBC is to cut 2,000 jobs and will be changing its programming line up in order to trim 20 percent from its budget over the next five years.

Erin Burnett OutFront kicked off this week with good ratings, but gets bad press for the way Burnett covered Occupy Wall Street.

Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who built the Nielsen company beyond TV and radio ratings, died at the age of 92.

Marie Claire has chosen Geraldine Sealy as editor-at-large and Joyce Chang as deputy editor. Sealy, the former deputy editor of Whole Living, and Chang, the former deputy editor of People Style Watch, replace Abigail Pesta and Anne Fulenwider. [via NY Observer]

Craig Dubow, the CEO of Gannett, steps down less than a month after taking medical leave. [via TVSpy]

More media changes after the jump.

Read more

BBC’s director of communications, Ed Williams, will be leaving the news organization to join Edelman as CEO of the firm’s U.K. business. Williams will step down from his post in October; his first day with Edelman will be October 31. He will report to the EMEA CEO, Robert Phillips, and become part of the company’s EMEA leadership team. He joined the BBC in 2008 and has previously worked with Reuters and Brunswick.

Shira Zackai has joined M Booth as broadcast director. She’ll be handling media engagement across the agency’s accounts, reporting to the media director, Martha Cid. She has previously worked with Steinreich Communications, Hill & Knowlton, and with asset management firm Alliance Bernstein.

Read more

Photo: George Pimentel, WireImage.com

Congratulations to the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge! We all enjoyed the grandeur, the history, the fashions, and the kids who made today a day to remember. It will also be remembered as the day the Internet almost got overloaded.

Fox News says it was “the sixth biggest Web event ever.” The Today show’s Digital Life site says it had “1.6 million concurrent video views, making it the biggest event to be watched on the Web,” surpassing even the World Cup.

And The Telegraph reports that 300 tweets per second were posted, and 74 status updates per second were shared on Facebook. The BBC website was actually interrupted by people wanting even more news. The Google News homepage posts the wedding on top with nearly 25,000 news stories available. And there’s sure to be more coverage of the evening reception and any other day-after tidbits to come.

Lazaridis holding a Blackberry Playbook tablet. Photo: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

Faced with a question from BBC reporter Rory Cellan-Jones about Blackberry security issues in India, Research in Motion president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis made like a dropped call and shut down the conversation, pointing to the camera and telling the person behind it to turn it off. You can watch the exec get rankled here.

Read more