PR in the news

My PR in the news assignment/presentation is coming up on tuesday. At first, when we got the assignment three weeks ago, I thought I might have a hard time coming up with a story.

Boy was I wrong. I have so many to choose from I don't know where to begin. At first I thought about doing my presentation on the mess of the NHL and the lockout. Key players would be the owners, the players and of course the fans. There would be enough material as the media is having a heyday with this. Second lockout in seven years is baaaad for the game.

Then, lo and behold Mitt Romney makes a huge gaff. Everyone knows the term 47% by now. It's funny, you just have to wait a couple of days in the world of politics, and some politician will put their foot in their mouth. I give props to Romney for not apologizing for what he said, if he truely believes it...but wow...what a mess for the republican party.

Then in the world of entertainment, there is the PR disaster Amanda Bynes. In six months, she's been charged or arrested numerous times for drunk driving, driving on a suspended license, hit and runs, the list goes on. This girl needs a personal driver..STAT. Just today I read that her whole PR team has quit. They're quoted as saying, you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. Yikes. We'll see what happens in her future.

Also in the world of entertainment this week, Paris Hilton is recorded saying not so nice stuff about gays. Retraction, apology, retraction. Just a day in the life of PR people. Where there are humans, mistakes will always be made.

Last but not least, in the world of sports is the cuban baseball player Yunel Escobar who wrote a gay slur on the black stuff players put under their eyes. I think I'll be doing this story for my assignment. Key players in this debate? Obviously Escobar, but also the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club, along with management and owners.

Quite possibly my blog will turn into a weekly discussion of PR in the news. There will always be politicians, entertainers, athletes and Joe Shmoes who say and do silly things. I wonder who will be in the headlines next week? Stay tuned...

Shazam=wow

As a musician, and lover of all things music, I have to say one of my favourite apps out there is Shazam.

I've had the Shazam app for a while now. It's fantastic. With the press of a button, you can find out the title and artist of a song that's playing. Listening to a song in your car on the radio, and you don't know what it is? Just press a button and Shazam. Sitting in a restaurant and you suddenly are overcome with emotion because you just LOVE the song they're playing? Shazam. Your neighbour is playing music and you don't know what it is? Shazam.

True story: A long time ago, in a land filled with people who played CDs, a friend of mine made me a mix CD. It was filled with wonderful dance songs from Europe which he didn't know the titles of. After playing the CD over and over again, it got a little scratch on it, and my favourite song off the CD started to skip. I was heartbroken. I thought I would never be able to hear that song played to it's full glory again, because I didn't know who they were. Fast forward 8 years later, in the land of apps, and a huge realization hits me. If I play that CD, and use Shazam...I can find out who it is! So I ran to get my CD, played the song, skips and all, and pressed Shazam. Those few seconds while I waited for the app to work were intense. And then.....voila!! After 8 years, I finally found out the artist who played my favourite song!

I'm just amazed at Technology. In 20 years we've gone from tapes, to CDs, to thousands of songs being stored in a phone. With one touch of a button we can find out the artist, press another button and buy the song, and one more button we play the song. So thrilling!

The only downfall? So easy to spend lots of money buying all those tunes.