Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line: FunnyBusiness

Emma Clarke - poster girl for how good getting fired can be for your career

  Before this week, few people knew the name Emma Clarke. Today, she's a household name  simply because The London Tube fired her. The reasons for that firing vary  but the point is, the London Tube has done more for helping Ms.Clarke's career than anything they have done in the eight years of the client-vendor relationship.

Now that the London Tube is looking like the buffoons in this escapade, what should they do next. That's what I talk about in today's post at Blogher.

In one of the episodes of Mad Men--the AMC summer series about advertising in the 1960's-- the agency learns they have lost the Dr. Scholl's account. As soon as the news settles in, everyone removes their Dr. Scholl's insoles and throws them in the trash.

When you are an agency or vendor providing creative services to a business, it is considered good business to use the client's products.

Emma Clarke was fired by London Transit for allegedly throwing their product in the trash while still employed by them.
Emma Clarke provided voice over services to the London Tube. She had the account for eight years and was known as the "mind the gap" lady. She was fired this week for  either allegedly telling a newspaper reporter that she didn't use her client's "product" because she found it dreadful or because she spoofed her transit messages on her blog -- the blog is a marketing tool for Ms.Clarke who uses it to showcase her talents as a voice over talent and writer.

Is Facebook's New Advertising Platform Extreme Targeted Marketing or An Extreme Invasion of Privacy?

In the three weeks since Facebook launched its new advertising platform that shares members purchases and activities in their news feed when they make a purchase or play an online game at one of 44 participating companies, Facebook has been under attack from privacy advocates and none other than  Moveon.org.

That organization has launched a campaign against the advertising platform by creating a page within the community( gotta love the irony)  where participants can express their outrage against Facebook's advertising practices. This is a story with lots of moving parts.

Described as uber creepy by some, its also seen as potentially revolutionizing advertising in a way that few could only imagine just a decade ago. Lisa Scott has a great post on the privacy concerns about  Facebook's strategies.

While bloggers are raising the privacy flag, advertisers are seeing a different picture , For more about the advertiser's perspective, check out my Sunday post on Blogher.

Do You Exchange Holiday Gifts With Co-Workers and Bosses?

Earlier this week I sent out an email to friends and coworkers asking what their holiday tradition at work is. I wanted the information for a post I did at Blogher on the etiquette and trends of office gift giving.

Most were not surprising--some Secret Santas, lots of hand written cards. Then  there was this from my friend Caroline*.

At one time Caroline worked for a small private university that regularly delivered Gift Baskets to its donors as get-well or congratulation gifts.

One year, the university decided to unload the expired food products they keep on hand to stock the baskets at the employee's holiday luncheon by raffling them off to employees.

As Caroline said, " It's bad enough that they pawned off that stuff on employees but we had to pay to get it."

Oh, and as for the  luncheon, it was potluck.

Before you congratulate yourself for being a pragmatist

This from my friend Nancy White's all new blog and website   Congratulations! It looks great.

Is Santa The Victim of Don Imus' Racist "Hos" Statement?

  Australian Santas have just attended some professional training and the big take away. HO HO HO is no longer acceptable language for Santa because it could offend women.

From AdelaideNow

A Santa veteran of 11 years who attended the course told the Sunday Mail  the trainer was very clear in spelling out no to "ho".

Two Santa hopefuls reportedly left the course after the trainer's edict. The term "ho" is also American slang for a prostitute. "We were told it (ho) was a derogatory term for females and can upset people," said the Santa, who did not want to be identified publicly.

"As far as I'm concerned, a hoe is something you dig the ground with. "I don't think you'll hear too many Santas saying `ha, ha, ha'."

Critics have branded the instruction for Santas to use "Ha! ha! ha! Merry Christmas" as nonsense and madness. University of South Australia communications senior lecturer Dr Jackie Cook said any banning of "ho, ho, ho" was "nonsense". "Can we use a garden hoe anymore? Do we have to remove that?" she said.

If you dig a little deeper, precedence has been set. There was a  a time when people regularly described having fun as a "gay old time." Not so much these days.

But here's an idea. Instead of making Santa change his chant which is just so Santa,how about treating "Ho," as in Don Imus Ho ,as an unacceptable term. The problem isn't Santa saying Ho Ho Ho. The problem is that our culture allows women to be called "Hos" and there isn't much of an outcry to say, "That is not acceptable."

You're not going to hear Don Imus saying that term on air again even though it was the description he used in front of HO that sealed his fate.  Would he have lost his job (temporarily) if he had said Big Butted Hos? Would the advertisers and NBC Universal had outrageous indignation at calling women Big Butted Hos. I doubt it.

 

We've successfully deleted many defamatory terms from our everyday language and we should do it with Ho. If it is not acceptable to call a person of African descent  the "N" word, and  the"P" word for folks of Polish Descent is no longer spoken, nor  the "S" word for people of Hispanic descent or the  "K" word   for Jewish people, then certainly we are capable  of self -banning HO as a description for women.

But you have to be offended first.  So far, the jury is out on that one. This week a Republican woman called Hillary Clinton a bitch and the audience laughed. Until we squirm when a United States Senator and a front runner in the polls to become the democratic candidate for President is called a Bitch, it will be a while before we, as a society, get around to stop calling women Hos.

Forget multi-tasking. Are you a Super-tasker?

  It's the modern equivalent of five ball juggling. And, according to

Burst Media  it's a rare bird who doesn't opt to do other things while they are doing things online. The number is about 80% of us admit to multi-tasking and the other 20% just don't have a sense of humor.

Okay, so maybe the fact that we multi-task isn't new news. But, what they  alsofound is  that nearly 25% of us are Super Taskers...juggling not one, not two, not three, but four tasks simultaneously while we're online. The study didn't list the four potential super tasking activities.

Let's see. I think I just may be a super-tasker. I have been known to talk on the phone, return emails, order plane tickets,  bid on an eBay item, and txt my daughter while participating in an online meeting. Hmmmm.

What are your super tasking activities?

According to the survey, here is a list of the most common multi-tasking activities. Burst Media didn't do this just for fun. They are using the findings to advise clients how this fragmented attention span affects how you conduct your online marketing.

If you are a woman and want to be a leader, think Mother Goose

   Both The Wall Street Journal  and The Washington Post have  intriguing articles about women and leadership.  The WSJ explores why executive women--the women who supposedly have the most in common with Hillary Clinton--- seem to be giving her the least support.

Over at The Washington Post, Shankar Vedantam looks at the psychological barriers that prevent employees from embracing female leaders.

Vedantam reports about some experiments conducted by NYU psychologist Madeline Heilman that support what women have known for a long time. What works in leadership for the gander,not so much for the goose.

That is, until that goose starts showing her mommy side. That's today's topic at Blogher.

Women,Women Everywhere. Just Not on Talk Radio

When ABC radio announced it was bringing dethroned radio powerhouse Don Imus back to the airwaves, there were some casualties left in the wake. In New York to make room for Imus ABC radio fired an eight year old program hosted by  Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby. 

Ironically, Sliwa and Kuby had better ratings than Imus in NYC.  But the appeal of Imus  for ABC is the potential  national appeal. The ability to syndicate. ABC is paying the big bucks betting that Imus can bring in the bacon.

Syndicating Imus means that ABC is no longer going to syndicate the Satellite Sisters. Their Monday- Friday  program ended last Friday. They will continue their Saturday show until January 5th.  With one million listeners, Satellite Sisters was the most successful woman issues focused radio program on the air.

But talk radio is not interested in women focused programming . The conventional wisdom in radio land is that men listen to talk. Women listen to music. 

There is just one radio station in the entire country that offers up talk focused on  women;s issues. That's FM107 in Minneapolis with the slogan Living Life Out Loud. 

Yes,s there are some successful women talk show hosts and a handful of semi successful women who host political slanted programming but talk radio as an industry is not female friendly.

Last Thursday, the day before their weekly program was going off the air, I talked with Liz Dolan, one of the Satellite Sisters. You can read her thoughts and plans at my post on Blogher.

Marketing on a shoe string budget? Social Media stretches those dollars

I didn't know Benjamin Franklin had psoriasis.I do now thanks to one of the video entries in the Psoriasis  Cure Now Video Contest. Unless you are one of the seven million folks who suffer from psoriasis, chances are you haven't heard of the  Maryland -based patient advocacy group Psoriasis Cure Now!

But Psoriasis Cure Now has been getting lots of attention lately because of a gamble made by its founder --Michael Paranzino.

Paranzino decided to take the bulk of his annual marketing budget --money he might have used to place an ad in the Congressional Roll Call -and  instead used it to sponsor a video competition to create a PSA on psoriasis. He bought some Google Ads to promote it, listed the contest on some Video Contest Sites and he was off and running.

Corporate America has been on the video contest bandwagon for a while now. Everyone from Coke to UPS to the DIY Network is sponsoring video contests --some with huge prize winnings.

With a grand prize of $7500, Paranzino was not sure videographers would take the time to create a one minute spot.

But $7500 is still real money for most of us and over 60 videographers submitted entries. Paranzino was hoping for 20.

In creating his video contest, Paranzino was really looking for a  tool to take to Congress to lobby for more research funds.  What he has gotten in addition is publicity -- lots of it from bloggers who see this move as a trend in non-profit marketing. From The Agitator

 

Did PCN get their money's worth? Absolutely!

Some of the videos might air as PSAs on television. Others will be screened for Congressional staff. Others will be used on their website and for online viral communications.

Says Mike Paranzino of Psoriasis Cure Now:

"Our finalists include videos made by a chiropractor from Nebraska and a civilian contractor to the Army Corps of Engineers ... That they can do this in their spare time with retail equipment is astounding! It won't put the pros out of business but it will change the economics for all but the biggest players."

To that we'd add ... think of how energized other supporters of Psoriasis Cure Now will be to see the passion, creativity and commitmentof their compatriots.

This initiative is a winner in all respects. All the more impressive because we're not dealing with a "hot headline" issue here.

Roger & Tom

Originally Paranzino requested proposals from professional videographers to create the PSA.

But Paranzino couldn't afford those budgets -- that's when he got the idea of the video contest.Paranzino plans to use  the video as a marketing tool to educate legislators and the general public on the disease. The winner was just  announced  yesterday ---  Brendan Hayward received $7500 for his one minute PSA on psoriasis.

Paranzino's  end game is to get Congress to increase funding for psoriasis research. With Hayward's video and the videos of the other finalists, Paranzino plans to go to Capital Hill and ask for one minute to share the psoraisis story.He will use these one minute PSAs to do just that.

While Brendan Hayward won the Grand Prize there are nine finalists. You can view their videos here.

This is my personal  favorite.

Whether this campaign is  ultimately successful in increasing research dollars to find a cure for psoraisis  depends on how the  supporters of Psoriasis Cure Now use the video clips. Every member of this advocacy group can now send a link to the video to their representative in Congress and the Senate. They can try to have these PSAs run on local cable channels. And, they can blog about it.

What Employee Benefit do Women Use More Than Men?

f you are living in the United States the right answer would be sick days. If you are in Europe, Asia, South America or Australia, I have no idea. I do know that in Europe however, the answer is definitely not sick days. Seems that in Europe...except for Sweden...men overwhelming use sick days more often than women.

The one common denominator in both situations is that the experts have no idea why the statistics are playing out the way they do.  Ode To The  Sick Day is what I explore on my  post at Blogher today.

 

So do you use most of your sick days? Do you use them for things other than being sick?

And From Toothpastefordinner.com