The back story is that for “business reasons” the company decided to discontinue their “ultra” product, known for its high-flow absorbency. Over the past year, users of o.b. ultra were finding it harder and harder to locate their favorite tampon, until it was
eventually gone from shelves all together. Enraged and upset, o.b. ultra fans created an “I want my o.b. ultras” facebook page, (which I believe you have to be a true fan to like), and created a website to collect signatures. Now that’s a dedicated customer base.

Realizing that they had made a mistake, the folks at Johnson & Johnson (makers of o.b. tampons), announced that they would be bringing the product back next year. But just to show that they were truly sorry for their misguided ways, they also created an apology video, which can be personalized, and is overly dramatic and hilarious.

Kudus to the o.b. tampon folks for admitting they made a mistake and then doing something to let their customers know that they count.

Click here to watch your own personalized apology video.

Lately however, there has been a growing contingent who is getting a little sick of the pink ribbon. And I have to admit, I’m one of them. This month we are inundated with the color – from NFL players wearing pink gloves and shoes, to celebrities wearing pink on the red carpet to the fountain in LOVE Park spouting pink water – our landscape is saturated with pink. Of course I support breast cancer research and awareness, but I also feel that we are all very aware of it. What I’m not aware of is whether the fight against breast cancer is progressing.

Apparently, I’m not the first to feel this way. Groups such as Breast Cancer Action in San Francisco and the National  Breast Cancer Coalition in Washington, DC have created campaigns demanding more action. The head of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Fran Visco, in a recent e-mail to her membership, called for a “solution,” such as the development of a breast cancer vaccine, rather than just more hope. “We have to stop celebrating breast cancer awareness months and begin pushing for the end,” she wrote.

Amen to that.

Another element of the awareness campaign that barely makes sense to me is the Facebook meme that happens this time of year. Last year it was women telling everyone where they like it. “I like it on the floor,” “I like it on the couch,” “I like it in the closet …,” with the “it” being their purse. The previous year women were declaring their bra colors to show solidarity for the cause.

What does this have to do with breast cancer awareness exactly? Nothing.

I’m not ready to proclaim a boycott to everything pink, because these campaigns do raise billions of dollars each year for the cause. What I would like to see is more messaging about what is being done. What progress have we made? How are the millions wearing pink this month really making a difference, if at all? Over 40,000 women will die from breast cancer this year in the US. Let’s start drawing attention to prevention and progress in the fight… now that we’re all aware.

“I don’t see much sense in that,” said Rabbit. “No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.” -Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh

So often, once a communications campaign is created, we, as PR practitioners, switch to autopilot. Instead, we need to constantly observe, measure and adjust campaigns to ensure that they’re as effective as possible.

“Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it.” - Winnie the Pooh, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book

The objectives of a communications campaign must reflect and support those of the company. If you don’t know what the goals and objectives are for the company, how can you possibly create a successful campaign?

“Don’t underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” - Piglet, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book

Sometimes the best response is no response. It’s not always necessary to release a statement or divulge details. Sometimes it’s much more beneficial to sit back and listen to what others have to say.

“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.” - Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh

Avoid jargon. If you can say it with fewer or shorter words, do.

“I used to believe in forever, but forever’s too good to be true.” - Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh’s Most Grand Adventure

All client relationships come to an end. It’s nothing personal (usually), it’s just a fact of business. It is the naive who believe that it will last forever.

I’ll end with a personal favorite:

“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest, waiting for others to come to you; you have to go to them sometimes.” – Piglet, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book

New business is out there, but it’s not necessarily going to come and find you. Get out and make it happen!

In case you have been living under a rock:

Google Alerts: Email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Facebook: A social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.

Twitter: A real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.

HARO: A social media service that brings reporters and bloggers, news sources and small businesses together to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services.

Others I like (in alphabetical order because I can’t pick favorites):

Addict-o-matic: A search tool that uncovers the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images.

Alexa: A Toolbar and web site provides information about websites including Top Sites, Internet Traffic Stats and Metrics, Related Links, Online Reviews Contact Information and more.

AllTop: A search tool that collects all the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic and groups these collections — “aggregations” — into individual web pages. It is a good place to start a research project.

BackTweets: A simple tool that shows your tweets linking back, shortened too, to a particular URL.

Bit.ly – A URL cruncher with metrics enabling measurement of number of clicks, countries clicked from, conversations around URL, etc.

BlogPulse: An automated trend discovery system for blogs. BlogPulse applies machine-learning and natural-language processing techniques to discover trends in the highly dynamic world of blogs.

BoardTracker: An innovative forum search engine, message tracking and instant alerts system designed to provide relevant information quickly and efficiently while ensuring you never miss an important forum thread no matter where or when posted.

Compete – Compares and reports competitor site traffic but estimates only of monthly visitor data. Best used on large high-traffic web sites but produces nice looking graphs.

Social Mention: A social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. You can set up alerts too.

Wordle: is a ‘toy’ for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. Plus, word clouds are pretty as you can see for yourself with the cloud of this post.

There are plenty more like Delicious, Pitch Rate, HowSociable?, TweetDeck, etc. These are just a few of my go-to free tools but they might not be the sharpest in the shed, so please comment with your favorites and why!

Barack Obama - “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states.”

Joe Biden – “This is a Big F-ing Deal.”

George W. Bush (oh, where to begin…) – “They misunderestimated me.”

Dan Quayle – “I’ve made a misstatement and I stand by all my misstatements.”

Ronald Reagan – “Facts are stupid things.”

Richard Daley – “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”

Stephen Colbert (okay, so he’s not a politician, but this one was too good not to include) – “Truthiness.”

Most people associate publicity stunts with incidents like Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, Speidi‘s (Heidi + Spencer = ridiculous nickname) countless exploits or other celebrity-centric controversies, but hardly anyone thinks of the icon that started it all. Edward Bernays is reputed, and self-proclaimed, as the ”father of public relations,“ but he is also the first publicity stuntman as well. In 1929, the New York City Easter Parade included a group of young women marching to liberate all women with their cigarettes held high billed as ”torches of freedom.“ The event caused a stir, as it was taboo for women to smoke in public at the time. These marchers were symbols of women’s rights and equality as stories appeared in newspapers across the nation.

Little did the public know, it was a well-crafted publicity stunt. Bernays hired the women, mostly young models, to light up Lucky Strike cigarettes at his command in front of the awaiting press. Bernays capitalized on the lingering spark of women’s suffrage to ignite a movement. His client, the American Tobacco Company’s Lucky Strike, had a new crop of impassioned consumers.

To learn more about Bernays and public relations’ beginnings, I recommend watching the BBC’s documentary, ‘Century of the Self.’

Public relations, marketing and advertising have certainly changed since Bernays’ heyday and the changes seem to only accelerate with time and technology. Unconventional stunts or marketing aim to break through the estimated daily 600 – 625 promotional messages Americans experience. They have to be creative, interactive and unexpected to have us talking, thinking and wanting more.

Below are a few infamous stunts that I particularly enjoy and I think, in keeping with their purpose, you will too.

A Publicity Wiener –

In 1936, Oscar Mayer drove into the history books and America’s heart with the debut of its legendary Wienermobile, which still travels around the country and rides out its almost-guaranteed media coverage.

Famous but a Fugitive –

Sprung from one United Press article on the FBI’ most wanted and the positive publicity that resulted, the bureau established its Most Wanted List in 1950 in conjunction with the nation’s news media. It has aided the apprehensions of 152 fugitives as a result of citizen recognition.

You Have to Hand it to Them –

More than seven million people joined hands for 15 minutes for Hands Across America raising $20 million to fight hunger and homelessness on May 25, 1986.

A few stunts closer to home…

¡Yo quiero Taco Liberty Bell! –

As a prank on April Fool’s Day in 1996, a full-page ad appeared in six major American newspapers announcing that Taco Bell had purchased Philadelphia’s historical Liberty Bell to help reduce the country’s debt and it would be renamed the Taco Liberty Bell. By noon, the company owned up to the hoax.

Pin Down a Hit –

In 2008 a Guinness World Record-breaking piñata, which was six-stories tall, filled with 8,000 pounds of candy and located in South Philly, generated a lot of media stories and excitement.  The creator, Carnival Cruise Lines, held an event that was full of giveaways, music and food.

Killer Publicity but no Love –

Showtime’s ‘Dexter’ put on a show in 2007 when the fountain in Love Park was turned a deep red. Many Philadelphians saw red after spotting the gruesome promotion.

Here are some great sites where you can check out more celebrated stunts and marketing…

PR Week’s ’10 PR Stunts that Would Make PT Barnum Proud’

WebUrbanist.com’s ‘15 Dramatic Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns’

Taylor Herring’s ‘Top 50 Publicity Stunts‘

CreativeGuerrillaMarketing.com’s ‘The Best 80 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas I’ve Ever Seen’

My Favorite: Nikon's billboard in subway station

Please share your favorite publicity or marketing stunts below in the comments!

I thought the most interesting seminar was presented on crisis PR from Jerri Williams, chief press officer at SEPTA. Yes, her title makes even me say, “yikes, that is one heck of a job.” I was interested not only because I am one of those thousands of people cursing SEPTA in the morning, and most evenings, but also because any Philadelphian knows SEPTA has had a tough year by even the toughest standards.  Ms. Williams was insightful, eloquent, honest and refreshingly witty about SEPTA’s past year and her process of dealing with crises. The best part was her delightful redundant questions testing our knowledge about what qualifies as a ‘crisis.’

“What is a crisis? How about when the Transport Workers Union goes on strike at 3am on a Tuesday morning leaving the 3.8 million people relying on SEPTA’s buses, trolleys subways and some rail lines stranded? Or what about if three days later a train on a popular regional rail line, which was not affected by the strike, catches fire and 400 people have to evacuate on the tracks? Or maybe it was the following day when a SEPTA employee was struck and killed by a train?…”

It certainly made her point, as well as put my daily to-do lists and the students’ term papers to shame. Ms. Williams made two other noteworthy points: 1) it is not always SEPTA’s responsibility, but it is always SEPTA’s problem and 2) no matter how much of her job is fending defending SEPTA’s reputation, it is always important to establish a positive reputation as well. It may not be SEPTA’s responsibility to police and respond to attacks within the underground passages, which are technically city property, but the news and public see it as so. It affects their commuters thus it is their duty to respond. As much as is Ms. Williams chief responsibility to mitigate crisis, another important role is to establish and encourage positive perceptions of SEPTA, like her initiative “Did You Find Love on SEPTA?” contest, which featured 14 couples who found love aboard SEPTA.

SEPTA’s crises have undoubtedly taken a toll on its public perception. However with Ms. Williams at the wheel, I trust its team is doing their best and with a touch of tasteful humor as well. I will try to remember that at the bus stop tomorrow morning.

The tournament raised more than $200,000 this year with over 400 guests attending. Media highlights from the event included all major local broadcast affiliates including CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and Comcast Sportsnet; The MLB Network on Sirius/XM; Philadelphia Magazine; and the Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News. Check out two of the Maven ladies in Philadelphia Chit Chat and Philadelphia Magazine. The media coverage in the Metro is featured below along with some photos from the event.

Media coverage secured in the Philadelphia Metro

Megan, Rebecca, Jessica & Sarah working hard at the event

Jimmy takes questions from the media

Guests are welcomed to the event sponsored by Maven