Video

Ok, so it wasn't exactly the biggest news story. The NCAA Champion UCONN Women's Basketball team visited the White House last month to meet with President Obama, as is customary with most championship teams.

However, for this visit, the administration barred reporters from covering the event, and instead issued their own video report, complete with news video elements such as a lower third. ABC's Jake Tapper first brought attention to the video. TVNewser is also reporting the story.

Writes Tapper:

It's perfectly fine, of course, for the White House to put out its own version of events -- but is it right to do so by preventing actual reporters from covering something? (Even something like a pickup basketball game). Do Obama White House officials think their media coverage isn't flattering enough?

If anything, the video resembles a video news release, or VNR, which was once a more common tool used to produce corporate video that looked more like a news story, and hence was more likely to be used by actual news channels in their broadcasts.

A congressional investigation along with FCC actions back in 2006 limited the use of VNRs, and multiple sources have told PRNewser they are rarely used anymore. However, b-roll video, which is raw video clips not packaged up to look like a news story, can still be effective if the video is compelling and used right, sources tell us. Medialink, a publicly traded company and one of the largest producers of corporate video, recently reported a Q1 revenue decline of 34.5%, in addition to publicly stating that it may "cease operations if it doesn't receive third-party investment or attract a buyer."

Back to the White House produce video, we want to get your take in the following poll:

Gary Vaynerchuk, pied piper of wine and of social media gives his take on what's wrong with the PR business in the video above.

With more filters refracting the news than every before, the need for the PR industry to use everything at their disposal to get ahead of the news--data, gut, access to the C-suite, etc--is what Vaynerchuk is really saying, and it's incredibly hard.

"You have to give a shit," to quote his "Making the Brand" talk at Social Media Week. You also have to have good content. "A-Rod, bad content" was another choice quip.

Related:
Gary Vaynerchuk: "PR As We Know It Is Dead"

Vlogging and the New DIY PR

Dear celebrities, Governors, Senators, wannabe Senators, Oscar-wanters, Facebookers, Twitterers and all corresponding PR consultants. Settle down. It's Friday. Pour yourself a cocktail and enjoy this lovely video about kittens. Don't like kittens? Check out this ad porn, courtesy of our big brother, the AgencySpy blog.

Tripping over talking points is like tickling the ivories. Brought to you by pianist Henry Hey.

The market is in bad shape, agencies are worried about client retention, in house marketers are worried about slashed budgets, and PRWeek has a feature video on..."the role of dress code in PR."

We've got nothing but love for Keith O'Brien and team, and they have done their fair share of reporting on market conditions, but this is one video we could do without. What do you think?

This video was shot at Tuesday night's mediabistro panel event, "Personal Branding Redefined." FishbowlNY has their own excellent recap, including a video featuring yours truly. For those not familiar with the panelists, Julia Allison, Gary Vaynerchuk and Loren Feldman have all used their own different methods to develop a personal brand - although that term itself was debated - and a large audience, online.

In an era where traditional media "gatekeepers" have less and less control and influence in how messages reach a mass audience, these panelists are perfect examples on how you can take a passion and use new media tools to interact with people, develop an audience and of course, grow a business. This not to say traditional media doesn't matter. It does. Gary's appearance on the Conan O'Brien show provided a big spark in growth of his audience.

Says Feldman, "the tools are the same for everybody, it's what you do with them," which relates to one of the few points made on the panel that everyone agreed with: This stuff takes work. It's not just uploading some content online and then waiting a week to see what happens. The beast must be fed, constantly. Allison got into specific PR related details during her presentation, saying that she believes simple interactions or pitching the media is nowhere near enough, "you have to add value to their lives."

As Vaynercuk summed it all up in this very sound-bite worthy quote that all PR pros should consider when developing a social media strategy: "Content is king, but marketing is queen and she runs the household."

[Editor's note: Sorry for the grainy video, we originally shot this in HD, then it was too large to upload, so we may have went a little too far on the compression. Hey, we're learning as we go here people!]

The viral video of the week is not a Tina Fey portrayal of Sarah Palin, rather Google's PSA encouraging people to vote. The video is chock full of every star imaginable including Forrest Whitaker, Sarah Silverman, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen DeGeneres, Tobey McGuire, and Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Fox.

Though long-time Ken Sunshine client and cause-meister Leonardo DiCaprio is the anchor, Superbad co-star Jonah Hill steals the spotlight with some good lines:

"I have 19 kids. Never used abortion once...I've never fought a war on drugs. I've never done shit on drugs besides play Halo 2."

The video pushes viewers to www.maps.google.com/vote, an easy-to-use resource to find out the registration deadlines in respective states.

Traffic was pushed all week long by A-list blogs including Lifehacker, Mashable, TechCrunch, and of course, the Official Google Blog.

Normally, my Happy Hour video post consists of something that gently skewers the PR industry. Given the grave financial news this week, it seems more appropriate to take a look back in history to when Edward Bernays, father of PR and nephew of Sigmund Freud created the inextricable link between politics, business and the "self".

So when you go to the polls and choose to vote with the gut, consider that your Freedom Fries may come with a side of delicious Bernays sauce, whether you ordered it or not.

Why, it's RLM PR CEO and Bad Pitch blogger, Richard Laermer. CNN doesn't have an embedded video link, so click here to watch Laermer wax poetic on trends of days past and how to spot new ones. Laermer was on the show to promote his new book, 2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade.

RELATED: PRNewser interview with Richard Laermer.

Perhaps The Onion didn't know about Millenia when they produced this news segment about the Pentagon's Unmanned Spokesdrone.

This robot comes equipped with such features as the Answer Vagueness Adjuster, Talking Point Accuracy Montior, Blogospheric Disruptor, and Note-Gripping Pincers.

No word yet if Dana "Don't I Look Hot" Perino and Tony Fratto are looking for a new career path. Enjoy!