SPC 213 (OCA Representative)

For the past few months I have been a weekly visitor of OCA (Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous). As someone with OCD I find it very helpful in aiding my recovery. A few weeks ago I offered to be the group’s chairperson for the month of April. As the chairperson it is my responsibility to run the weekely meetings as well as provide the topic of discussion for each meeting. I am in charge of a few other little things that come with the territory. So for the past couple of weeks I have been finding myself anxious to spread the word of our meetings for they have greatly helped my with my disorder. I starting thinking about how I could make a Facebook page about OCA or pass out and hang up flyers around campus. As of recent I have decided to make more long terms about promoting the recovery of OCD and have decided to major in SPeech Comm. as well as minor in Psycology in hopes to become a more professional spokesman for OCD recovery. I have already caught myself using some hgelpful things that I have learned in Intro To P.R this semester so I figured what better why to end my blogging for the class?

SPC 213 (Skateboard Advertising)

At one point in my life skateboarding was a very strong passion of mine. I would say from about the time I was 9 to around the age of 14 skateboarding was the only thing on my mind. I remember thinking back, so convinced that I would be on a board my entire life. It wasn’t until the age of 15 did this passion take a back seat on my list priorities. For whatever reason skateboarding just steadily become less and less important to me and it stayed low on my list until about September or October of last year. I found myself very excitied to get back top skating. Since I had not skateboarded in years one look at my old deck was proof enough that it was time for a new one. I went to the local Belleville skate shop and spoke with the owner about getting all new everything. I picked out the trucks, hardware, wheels and bearing at the shop but we had to order the deck online. The deck was schedualed to arrive in a few weeks. Once the board arrived we began assemblying the board. When it came time to put grip tap on the board I asked Nate, the owner, what different styles of griptape he carried. He said he gives out black tape with the skate shops logo cut out into the tape for free and that solid black was five dollars. So, even though all I really wanted was solid black I, obviously, just took the tape with the Hillbilly Bombshell logo cut grip tape. Now that I have had the board for a few months I have noticed more and more people ask me what the “HB” on my griptape stands for, this causes me to bring up the shop in conversations more often than I normally would without the logo as an eye catcher. It is clear to me now that this is a very suttle form of promotion. By giving customers the tape for free the shop may not be making as much money on grip tape sales alone but by advertising on every board bought from the shop this brings in more customers, i.e more money. After realizing that I took a look at my deck itself and realizied that the artwork on the bottom was also nothing more than an advertisment for Enjoi, which is the particular board company I ride. It just goes to show that somthing as seemingly pure and non-exploitative as skateboarding still carries with it some of “the man’s” chartacteristics and business ethics.

SPC 213 (Local Music Rally)

A friend and former room mate of mine, Glenn Cole, has recently made his way into our local newpaper. Glenn and I both work at Fun Spot Skating Center, a roller skating rink located in Belleville IL. Glenn also works as a concert promoter at a St. Louis Music Venue called Fubar. As a promoter it is Glenns responsibility to inform the public of the upcomming shows as well as manage the money collected and presented to the bands playing his shows. Glenn has used this knowledge and experience to set up a show at Fun Spot. The original idea was to simply host a non-skating show and the rink. This is something that has never been done before. Glenn later was inspired to use his connections at Fun Spot to take things one step further. Over the years the Belleville local music scene has steadily become segregated. Meaning, the different genre’s of music have grown to dislike each other. For example, if a band of a different genre was to play at a venue which typically hosts, let say “punk”, shows then the “locals” to the venue would become furious. It is problems like these that have, in myopinion, encouraged Belleville’s local music scene to its current unstable state. Glenn has decided to host a rally in hopes to bring all local music suppoters together to unite for a greater good. This greater good is to revive our scene through a new found respect and understanding of the differnt genre’s of music played in town. The rally is also to create a “buzz” about the upcomming, non-skating show and in my personal opinion top get Glenn’s name in the paper. From a PR stance, Glenn has used promoting outlets such as the local newspaper and social networks like Facebook to contact the citizens of Belleville to stand with him in hopes of bettering our local music scene. With the outstanding and seemingly limitless possiblities of technology today it is promoting strategys like these social networks that spread the word like wildfire in our little town, not to mention the country.

SPC 213 [Local Music Album Reviews]

One of the greatest forms of promotion for bands, local bands in particular, is what is know as a “Album Review”. An Album Review is, as you might have guessed, a review of the bands current album interpreted by local music websites, magazines, television shows  as well as social blog credics. A review is way of promoting your bands album to an audience of potential listeners. I myself was in a local band at one time and we sought out to find anyone and everyone with some kind of credibility to review our bands music. In my opinion, there is no better way to grab a potential listeners attention than to present them with a crediable review of the music you should or should not listen to. Which brings me to my next point, just as album reviews can be a great way to get people to check out your music; they can also have a negative affect. For example when a credict gives a bad review of a new movie and posts it in the newspaper. Reviewers, like all of us, have freedom of speech and the ability to express negative opinions in regards to the album. This public relation technique is one that allows the media to do what it does best, tell the public what they are suppose to like as well as dislike.

SPC 213 [Dr. Drew blog]

Dr. Drew Pinsky is a an American radio and television personality, board-certified interist and addiction medicine specialist. Back in 1984 he started a radio talk show called Love Line. The premise of the show is to talk with, mainly but not strictly, young adults about sexuality, relationship, drug and love addiction. Each night a guest star is also on the show and listeners can call in in regards to possible questions and or comments with the guest star about their life. The show has become an outstanding success, but Love Line has not been Dr. Drew’s only successful creation. Pinsky has produced and stared in several television shows including VH1′s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, its spinoffs, Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew and Sober House, as well as show aired on MTV titled Sex… With Mom and Dad. Dr. Drew has spent the last 20 years of his professional career informing the youth of our nation just about anything they would like to know and can scientifically or logically explained. I love what he has done with his seemingly endless amount of knowledge. I know that I can say that I have certainly learned many many things from Dr. Drew. I belive it to be his ability to relate to the people of our generation that which makes him such a hit. His straight to the point approach combined with a geninue desire to help people made Drew the unbelieveable success that he is today.

SPC 213

My topic of choice for this weeks blog is the whole Tiger Woods controversy. As we all know Tiger Woods, legendary golf player has been accused of commiting adultry on several occasions. The scandal continued when Tigers wife elegedly physically assulted him thus surfacing these accusations. As a results Tiger Woods is at risk of losing his sponsers and endorsements, including Nike, EA Sports, GatorAid as well as several others. He was schedualed to be on probation with these companies until a public apology was made. Tiger Woods has now made that apolody and returned to full contract with his endorsments and sponsers. It would appear than Mr. Woods had managed you get his name on the headline of every major newspaper and magazine article not to menton the enormous amount of news coverage involving him and ended up with nothing lost but a failed marriage. Now from a PR stand point one cannot help but wonder was this simply an attempt to gain a new level of fame; an attempt to go from famous to infamous. If there is one thing I’ve learned from Intro to Public Relations it is that there is not such thing as bad publicity. Tiger Wood went from a famous athlete to a name that will forever be attached to one of the biggest scandals in 2009. Good or bad, had he not been caught and accused would Tiger have made his way into the headlines like he did? I suppose we will never know.

SPC 213

Have you ever been watching TV and saw a commercial advertising a food or drink product and said to yourself, “oh that sounds good, I want one of those”? I had always wondered just how affective advertising on TV really is. From my own personal experience I would have to say that more often than not just seeing a commercial for a product does not fully convince me that I want or need the product right that second. However I do feel that advertising on television does a good job at preseting new products and reminding the public of already exsisting product. For example, let’s say that I see a commercial for an autobody repair shop, but I don’t really need any repair done to my car at that particular point in time. Then a week later my check engine light comes on so I know I’m going to have to get it worked on. The problem is I am not particularly happy with my past experience at the auto shop that I frequently use. If the commercial was memberable or “catchy” having seen that commercial the week before just might persuade me to take my car to the new shop. Commercials are a great opportunity for anyone or any product to settle in the back of the mind of the general public and wait for the perfect time to present themselves.

SPC 213

My topic for this blog is going to be a band called Story Of The Year. A friend of mine was telling me a story about the band, regarding the label that they were once on, Maverick Records. Basically to sum up the story, the first record label that they were on was only interested in hearing songs, which intailed the songs lyrics, song structure, overall sound and the release date of the album, that they knew the public would respond well to. In other words, they basically told the band “make us a radio worthy album by this date, no questions, no experimenting, no arguments, just give us what we want or your out”.  Now from a PR stance, I can understand what’s happening here. Record ladels know that the only way that they can make the most money is to give the “radio public” what they want to hear. This is because radio leads to video and video leads to a much wider audience. In turn a wider audience leads once again to more money. So in Public Relations this methods makes perfect sense, but this is also an example of how what is best for business isn’t always the best for people, or in this case musician. Story Of The Year soon after putting out their “radio album” made a name for themselves and then decided to drop their label. Had Maverick not pushed so such quick success, the musician could have established the bands current sound much sooner, thus broadening the bands popularity even bigger, as well as on their own terms.

SPC 213

I saw a commercial for Domino’s Pizza the other day, and thought that it was worth noting. Basically the premis of the commercisl was the president of Domino’s, Patrick Doyle, as well as other Domino’s employee’s, in fact more specifically PR Representatives, speaking in regards to Dominos reputation over the past 10 years. In a manner of speaking he addresses that he and the company is aware of the poor image Domino’s pizza has earned in comparisson to other name brands including Pizza Hut, Papa Johns and Imos. He respectifally quotes afew consumer comment’s ragarding their pizza. Some examples include “Domino’s Pizza sauce tastes like ketchup” and that “Microwave pizza is far superior”. He follow by basically explaining how they have completely re-made their pizza. They acca[ted the fact the people were not happy and that things needed to change. From a PR perspective I feel that this was a bold move. They could have gone on the defense and said “we know our pizza is the best, why doesn’t everyone else”? Instead the realized that since their image as well as their product is appaarently not creditable, and it is time to make it up to the people. I feel that once people see this commercial their business will increase simply out of curiousity of the new pizza but alos because the company has publically announced their faults.

SPC 213

In 1994 a man by the name of Kevin Lyman founded, what has become one of the most internationally popular touring music and extreme sports festivals in existence, the Vans Warped Tour. The tour was initially intended to give skateboard, punk-rock, misfit teens a place to roam free in the summer time. However, what has been accomplished is something of a much greater magnitude. In present day the Vans Warped tour is responsible for housing over 15 non-profit organizations as well as sponsoring 14 world renown companies including Vans Skateboarding, Fearless Records, Trojan Condoms and Alternative Magazine. So how does Public Relations tie into all of this? The Vans Warped Tour uses promotional material at every square inch of it’s festivals. Company booths like Truth and Rock Band are spread out as far as the eye can see as well as small time bands with big time dreams handing out samples of their new CD or current t-shirt design to every living person in the area. And the one goal they all have in common is simple, promotion. A promotion intended to create goodwill for their particular product or company. Weather is be Monster Energy drink stand at ever corner or a Chevy stand giving away a brand new 2010 Malibu, the Vans Warped Tour is a prime site for Public Relations.