We wanted to be sure you saw KNBC-TV’s report on Breathe Free MB, the public education campaign we’ve put together for Manhattan Beach to explain the city’s new Smoke-Free Public Places ordinance.

In this report, you can see some of the signage we’ve developed with our graphics partner, Robin Weisz, to educate the public about the sweeping smoking law that went into effect July 18. The City has delayed enforcement until Aug. 18 to give the public time to become knowledgeable about the new law.

To ensure the public is informed, the City engaged us to create a public education campaign. We created the campaign identity, strategy and various tools for communicating with the public on an ongoing basis because Manhattan Beach attracts so many tourists and visitors from throughout Southern California who would have no reason to pay attention to the City’s smoking ordinance prior to their visit to Manhattan Beach.

So we created a kickoff campaign starting today that will educate residents, local employees and others currently in the City. We also created signage and other communications tools that will continue to be visible in the City to ensure we reach newcomers to the community with the message that smoking is not permitted in public places. The goal of the education campaign is to make the ordinance self-enforcing so that the City’s valuable law enforcement resources can continue to focus on other priorities.

We need your help on Tuesday, July 22, in downtown Manhattan Beach. We are working with the City of Manhattan Beach on “Breathe Free MB,” a public education campaign about the City’s new Smoke-Free Public Places ordinance.

We are seeking volunteers to help distribute materials to Manhattan Beach businesses. If you could spare 90 minutes to support this great cause, please arrive around 10:45 a.m. the plaza by the Farmers Market at the corner of 13^th Street and Morningside Drive (adjacent to Metlox, where the fountain is located.) We will have an 11 a.m. kickoff event featuring Mayor Amy Howorth and organizations that support the ordinance.

We’ll then give you maps for where you need to walk and materials to provide the businesses. Altogether, it should take about 90 minutes. You’ll get some exercise and help out a worthy cause, reducing the risk of second-hand smoke and ocean pollution from cigarette debris carelessly discarded by smokers.

The new smoking ordinance goes into effect on July 18th. The City is delaying enforcement of the ordinance until August 18th to give the public time to become familiar with the new law. Breathe Free MB is the program to educate the public.

 

As we like to say, storytelling moves audiences. They connect emotionally to stories, and they remember stories. Jonah Goldberg, a LA Times op-ed writer and a conservative, in his column today, writes about the importance of storytelling to political ideology. He says conservatives don’t do a great job of storytelling – but liberals can’t sell their stories in the popular media because they’re not stories that are widely shared.

Whether you agree with his point of view, he has a point. Audiences want compelling stories. They want to feel good. They want to feel proud, or they want to feel moved.

As Jonah notes, a movie that jokes about abortion (“Obvious Child”) isn’t going to gain a big audience, while one about an unintended pregnancy that is carried to term will (“Juno,” “Knocked Up” and many television series). This, of course, illustrates Americans’ overall view about abortion. A majority of Americans may be pro-choice, but that doesn’t mean they are pro-abortion. Most view abortion as a choice they’d rather not have to make.

While there are many points with which we disagree, we do agree with Jonah’s assessment regarding the importance of storytelling. As he notes in a 2013 column:

For roughly 99.9% of human history, nearly all of human wisdom was passed on in stories. We are a species that understands things — i.e. morality, politics, even religion — in terms of stories. And yet so much of what passes for conservative rhetoric these days isn’t storytelling but exhortation. Whatever the optimal policy might be, if you can’t talk to people in human terms they can relate to, you can’t sell any policy. The war on poverty, for instance, has been an enormous failure in many policy terms, but it stays alive because of the stories liberals tell.

Many liberals will, of course, disagree with his description of the war on poverty. Putting aside his clearly partisan slant here, the underlying message is the same no matter the ideology: Politicians need to master the art of storytelling to convince their audiences to support them and their points of view.

We’re proud of all our clients, and especially pleased when they get the recognition they deserve. Law360, one of the leading national legal news sites, conducted a survey and found WilmerHale, one of the nation’s pre-eminent law firms, is the “most-favored” IP group by corporate counsel. WilmerHale specializes in intellectual property litigation and represents some of the top firms in the world. Congratulations to all the hard-working attorneys at WilmerHale for this well-deserved recognition.

 

This is the successful real estate investor’s mantra, and it also applies in many successful communications campaigns.

We were in Oklahoma when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in support of Hobby Lobby’s policy denying health insurance coverage for certain types of contraceptives on religious grounds. The response here – in the “buckle of the Bible belt” – is much different than the reaction in California.

The local paper, the Daily Oklahoman, headlined the story as a “win” for Oklahoma City-based retailer. It also editorialized in favor of the ruling and reported on others who were in court seeking the same exemption. People are still shopping in the Hobby Lobby stores and, while there has been some vocal opposition, it seems somewhat muted.

No doubt, some customers will choose to shop elsewhere. But the company’s stores are located in the Midwest and the South, home to millions of conservative Christians and Catholics, who likely will choose Hobby Lobby over Michael’s or other similar retailers because of the company’s stance.

The bottom line: Location can make a difference in your message. One of the first aspects of a good communications plans is defining your audiences, and audiences’ values and priorities can change from one part of the country or the world to the next.

As evidence look to today’s story about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to remain mum on the Hobby Lobby ruling. His presidential aspirations preclude a statement in opposition to the decision because he needs to win votes in the Bible Belt. Speaking up in support of the decision could cost him votes among women and would place him at odds with more moderate Republicans, independents and Democrats in places like California.

As our friend, reporter Mark Barabak, notes in his report, staying mum will be a challenge with reporters and partisans on both sides looking to Christie to take a position on this hot-button issue. But in today’s 24/7 news cycle, hot-button issues can fade, and Christie may get a pass as voters’ focuses turn to other pressing matters.

Footnote: The media always gets a bad rap for its coverage of religion. But this time around, it’s getting some favorable reviews for getting this story right. Bobby Ross Jr., a blogger who writes about the media’s coverage of religion, filed this post saying most of the mainstream media got it right. Of course, the blogosphere is a different story.

The OC Weekly’s analysis of the OC Register’s failure to fulfill its mission to grow its business through the revitalization of print media shows that – much as everyone suspected – the new owners were looking at the changing media landscape through rose-colored glasses, at best, or even blinders. It is a blow-by-blow description of poorly planned initiatives, overly optimistic projections and poor management.

It also shows that even as the publisher, Aaron Kushner, was publicly praising the prospects of print, he was dealing with the realities of today’s lousy newspaper economics touting the values of the property and the promotional opportunities of tying content to advertising in closed-door meetings with investors and advertisers.

Among the insights, writer Gustavo Arellano describes a PowerPoint presentation to investors in which Kushner “mentioned little about journalism. Instead, his spiel focused on real estate: he planned to sell the Register‘s offices and land around it, with a slide showing it would bring in $81 million by the beginning of 2015 to pay down $47.1 million in debt and ‘preferred equity’ to investors.”

We have seen this elsewhere. For instance, the Sacramento Union sold largely because of its downtown Sacramento location. The developer kept it running for a few years per the purchase agreement, but as soon as that obligation ended, he folded the paper and developed the land on which it sat.

Not surprisingly, Kushner also shifted to a pay-for-play model that is increasingly seen in smaller and some larger newspapers – from advertorials to outright pay for an ad get a favorable story approach. As described by the OC Weekly:

“…Kushner upset the newsroom when he announced during a staff meeting that he didn’t believe in the old journalism adage of afflicting the comfortable, part of his philosophy of focusing on positive news and community building. The following month, Kushner debuted weekly sections devoted to covering Chapman University, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton that were funded wholly by the colleges and featured puff pieces penned by Register staff.

“According to one reporter, ‘That’s when a lot of us realized that we had been sold a pile of shit.’”

For journalists, perhaps the most telling details are Kushner’s surprising lack of transparency. Journalists are trained to sift? through double talk and spin. That he thought he could get away with this lack of candor with his staff is indicative of his lack of experience in journalism. Among the gems:

“Everyone says our strategy has failed,” Kushner told his disbelieving writers. “Perhaps they should be saying that our strategy has not succeeded?”

It’s the goal of every successful marketer, and many claim to have made an art of it on YouTube and other video sharing services. Jukin Media, for instance, has based a whole business on figuring out what will go viral and monetizing it. PR professionals are always looking for ways to go viral – including grinding up iPhones in blenders that became such a sensation marketers paid a premium to have their products pulsed and pulverized.

What clients often don’t understand is that it’s often the unusual that makes a video, story or concept go viral. That was the case with this story about adulterated cocaine that we first distributed to the media in 2011. Dealers were adding levamisole, a veterinary medication for deworming livestock, to cocaine to dilute, or “cut,” it so that they could make more money selling the illicit drug. Law enforcement estimated up to 70% of the cocaine in the U.S. had levamisole in it.

Noah Craft, MD, PhD, a researcher at LA BioMed and chief medical officer at Logical Images, reported on six cases of patients with rotting flesh on their ears, nose, cheeks and other parts of their body. Normally, six cases wouldn’t be enough to generate much news. But this was “flesh-eating cocaine,” a concept that was irresistible to both media and consumers.

The story spread through the media and, within weeks, Los Angeles County health officials held a press conference to warn cocaine users of the health risks. That story continues to make news more than three years later. You can see the latest installment here.

The good news about the viral nature of this relatively small report is that cocaine users around the world have had the opportunity to learn of the new risks associated with their habit. We do a lot of work with healthcare providers and researchers, and this is one of the most satisfying aspects of the job – knowing that sharing important discoveries and information can improve people’s lives and health.

Our friend, the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi, is one of the nation’s best media reporters. Today, he has a great story about the Post’s rival, the New York Times, hiring an intern who had been an Obama speech writer. Paul covers it in a very even-handed fashion.

There was a time when such political affiliations would have ruled out a job in journalism, much less one covering politics. As Paul points out, those times have changed with the likes of Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos.

But the GOP criticism of this intern’s story – whether it’s deserved or not – has more traction because of the intern’s past Democratic ties. As journalists always love to quote pundits saying, it’s the appearance of impropriety that causes a loss of credibility for the Times.

We should also say: We’re surprised to see an intern covering a major political story for the NY Times. Less than a decade ago, the intern would have been grabbing quotes for the veteran political reporter who would be writing the story.

Our friend, Bill Boyarsky, has an interesting look at how neighborhood groups are wringing concessions from developers by getting contributions to their associations in exchange for the neighbors supporting the developers’ projects. Building almost anything in California is difficult, and it’s no surprise the developers would view these contributions as the “cost of doing business,” which is, of course, passed along to consumers. Moreover, Bill asks about the lack of transparency in these agreements.

Spin control — an attempt to give a bias to news coverage, especially of a political candidate or event. -Dictionary.com

Too often, we hear clients suggest that we should “spin” something. We, instead, discuss how to explain something because spin has lost its spin. Today’s consumers are much too savvy to be spun, and today’s communication network offers up too much commentary to get away with spinning.

As evidence of this, see today’s Michael Hiltzik column in the LA Times about the spin on why the Board of Directors at American Apparel didn’t move more quickly to oust the Los Angeles company’s founder, chairman and CEO, Dov Charney. Hiltzik wrote:

“For years leading up to its unceremonious firing of Charney this week, the company’s board looked the other way and made transparent excuses for his unprofessional and allegedly unlawful personal conduct. After this week’s sacking, the board’s newly-appointed co-chairman, Allan Mayer, defended its years of inaction by telling Times reporters: “A board can’t make decisions on the basis of rumors and stories in newspapers.” 

“Mayer is a PR man by trade (co-author, with Michael Sitrick, of “Spin: How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage”), so a proper default assumption is that he’s hiding something in those words.

“But they’re preposterous on their face. Charney has been repeatedly accused of sexual improprieties by so many former employees and others in court papers and official proceedings that the board had ample cause to take them seriously long before now.”

Columnists and commentators abound in today’s media and on the blogosphere. Each has a very strong BS meter that untrue or even half-true spin can set off. Moreover, rivals, competitors or a company’s own employees are quick to point out when statements seek to mislead or lie.

So what to do in a case like this? The best approach is a good defense: Avoid the problem in the first place. Good PR people – or any advisers – look around the corner and tell you what’s likely to happen if you continue to support a company president who engages in inappropriate and/or illegal behavior. That way you avoid the crisis in the first place.

Once the crisis hits, the best approach varies, depending on the circumstances and what the lawyers say about the pending liabilities. But all agree that the best approach is to quickly and surgically solve the problem to minimize the fallout. Clearly, spin that sets off BS meters and spurs further commentary and stories about the crisis prevents the quick and surgical resolution.