Ever heard of CCFI? Neither have I...

For the nearly 40 years that CCFI, the Center for Children and Families,Inc., has been around, it has never had a public relations practitioner. For a non-profit organization that helps children in abusive or troubled families, not having someone to write news releases or send out advertisements , well, no one in the community gets a fair chance to hear about it and the great services it offers.

CCFI started in 1969 as a place where “juveniles” who didn’t have a safe place to stay could find refuge from troubling situations. Now I say juveniles in quotation marks because it’s not the juvenile delinquents we automatically think of when we see the word. In this instance, juvenile just means someone under the age of 18.

The Center for Children and Families hasn’t always been the name of the organization. In 1972, CCFI was known as JSI, Juvenile Services Inc. It later became known as CCFI in 1999 when the definition of Juvenile took a turn from minor to delinquent.
CCFI currently has 5 different programs offered for clients: Divorce Visitation Arbitration, Neighborhood Centers, Teenage Parenting, Parents Assistance and Extended Families.

As you might have thought, the Divorce Visitation Arbitration program provides assistance to families where the parents are separated or going through a divorce. It’s something that is offered not only to reduce stress in the children’s lives, but also to help the parents.



The Neighborhood Centers program gives chances for small communities to come together and build strong relationships.

Teenage Parenting, a growing, national problem, offers supports to teens that are pregnant or who have already have had the child.

Parents Assistance is specifically focused on helping and educating parents who are going through troubles times at home.

And finally, the Extended Families Program provides children under the age of 18, who have parents that are dealing with unfortunate circumstances, a place to stay for a short time.

Even though CCFI is funded by the United Way, they only give a small portion of funding. CCFI could always use more donations and more volunteers.

As mentioned above, CCFI has had no former publicity, but still they have a full house of clients. Think of all the extra help some publicity will do.

A Bump In the Road

A BUMP IN THE ROAD

Raising awareness without a specific call to action.

Public relations is a field that many people don’t understand. They believe that anyone can do what a public relations professional does without any skill or training. Well, clearly they have not taken a campaigns class or attempted to provide a campaign for a non-profit organization. It’s hard to find the right balance between doing what you think is beneficial from a public relations perspective and doing what the client feels to be beneficial from their standpoint. That’s the position our group is currently in with our client, Center For Children and Families, Inc., (CCFI).

We have a wonderful organization for which we are currently developing a public relations campaign to attract more media coverage for their events. CCFI is a non-profit organization that helps many different individuals throughout the Norman, Okla. community. Last year they helped nearly 10,000 clients and are, to date, at capacity for taking on new ones. Receiving more clients might not be possible at this time for CCFI, because they are helping as many individuals as their resources will allow.

CCFI is a branch of the United Way Foundation. They are currently in a “blackout” period due to United Way policy. This means that they are not allowed to ask for dollar donations of any amount until otherwise specified by United Way. (I believe the blackout period will end sometime in November).

This is where our campaigns group hit a small bump. We have been asked to attract positive attention to CCFI from caring individuals in our community. This is doable. However, what will be their call to action? Once these people have heard of and are familiar with our organization, what will they do with their new knowledge? After speaking with Communications Specialist, Whitney Russell, we decided that it would still be beneficial to raise awareness of CCFI throughout Norman in order to build future groundwork in working with our great community. It may not be easy to raise awareness without asking for a specific call to action from our target audience, but whoever said the real world of public relations was easy?

Blogging Could Change the World

When I think about what is going on with public relations today, blogging is definitely at the top of the list. Blogging is a new medium being used that can be very influential to a company or individual’s credibility and/or public reach.
There are so many different kinds of blogs out there. If you do a simple search using the Google Search Engine, for “blogging” it returns 103,000,000 hits. This shows us that blogging has reached tremendous numbers in popularity. For any given subject you can almost guarantee that there is a blog out there about it.

“I think the best blogs cover the kinds of things that traditional media don't think are important enough to cover, or don't want to tie their names to,” Brian Lam, editor of Gawker blog said.

As a young female in today’s society I am interested in celebrities and all the gossip that comes with being a celebrity. About a year ago my roommate introduced me to a celebrity gossip blog called Perez Hilton: celebrity juice, not from concentrate. I was always buying the celebrity magazines such as People and Us Weekly, my roommate had already seen all the pictures and heard all the stories in these magazines. She had read them on perezhilton.com. I instantly became obsessed with his blog, checking it daily. My roommate and our obsession with celebrity gossip introduced me to the phenomenon that is blogging.

The author of perezhilton.com, Mario Lavandeira, was recently named number 5 in Detail magazine’s list of “50 Most Influential Men Under 45”. The magazine article points out that while perezhilton.com is bringing in 2.6 million viewers a week, Us Weekly only bring in 1.8 million readers. The article also mentions the influential power that Lavandeira has; stating that, “piano-pop singer Eric Hutchinson’s album jumped to No.5 on iTunes after 2 Perez mentions”.

Seeing the success of blogs all over the world including perezhilton.com. I think it would be incredibly beneficial for the U.S. Government to consider starting a blog. The blog would allow members of the House and Senate to voice their opinions on situations in the government. I truly believe that blogging done the right way could really change the way citizens of the United States feel about their government and the officials that run their country.

HOW NOT TO ADRESS A CRISIS IN THE NFL

Case studies are a useful tool in studying how companies react to different situations. They can teach you what companies did right, and sometimes how they really blew it. In a time of crisis, how do companies act? Do they address the issue head on like the famous Tylenol example, or do they place the blame on someone else? There is another way of dealing with a crisis. That is to ignore it completely.

If anyone is a sports fan, they have heard about the recent troubles of the New England Patriots, an NFL team that has dominated the league for the past decade. The Patriots have been accused of cheating by taping other teams, illegally, and spying on opponents play calling. In simple terms, the staff of the team cheated and got caught.

The commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, fined their coach, Bill Belichick, $500,000, the team $250,000, and took away draft picks for the 2008 draft.

So the coach was caught and punished, but how does this relate to the field of public relations. The answer lies in how Belichick handled the things during and after the “crisis”.

Instead of issuing any type of public apology, Belichick completely ignored the situation and had nothing to do with the press or public. He did not comment on the situation before or after this week’s game. Either he did not want to distract his team, or he just does not care and thinks of himself as above public responsibility.

ESPN has developed blogs about the subject and most of the contributors of the blog have used language I will not post, referring to the character of Bill Belichick.

So the sporting world has given us a bad example case study. Crisis situations can be a make or break decision for a company. Responsibility is usually the best way to soften the blow of a crisis. In this case, there was no use of responsibility at all. It almost seemed as though they were above responsibility.

Unfortunately, the current sporting world is under a wave of controversy. Whether if it is the NBA referee cheating scandal, the Michael Vick dog fighting conviction, or major league baseball steroid use, sports will be in the news on the front page instead of the sports section.

It will be interesting to see how these situations progress and how they are handled by the sports PR professionals that are handling them. I’m sure this subject will lead to future do’s and don’ts in PR strategy.

Untimely Defense Tactics

Untimely Defense Tactics

On Saturday, September 22, 2007, the Oklahoma State Cowboys celebrated a much needed win in their Big 12 opener against Texas Tech. As commendable as that victory was, it was overshadowed by Mike Gundy's untimely response to an article written by Jenni Carlson of the Daily Oklahoman. In a heated press conference, Gundy released 3 1/2 minutes of fury on Carlson's controversial article about OSU's quarterback situation. In the article, Carlson states many things about Bobby Reid, the now 2nd-string quarterback for OSU, that focus on his work ethic as a college athlete. She first states that earlier in his career when he faced with competition for his position by Donovan Woods, Reid considered leaving the team instead of competing. She also alludes to him being a baby when it comes to injuries by writing that "Reid has been nicked in games and sat it out instead of gutting it out". Carlson then ties it together by stating that the bottom line for the quarterback switch isn't about Robinson's (Reid's replacement) ability but Reid's attitude and the coach’s willingness to sacrifice talent for a more motivated QB.

Enter: Gundy (This is the condensed version of what some people are referring to as a tirade). His defense of his player involved some screaming in disgust of the article followed by nothing but praise for Reid. Gundy also said that the article is a work of fiction calling the paper and the paper's sports editor, Mike Sherman, garbage. In nothing less than a verbal attack on Carlson, Gundy, speaking directly to Carlson, lectured her on targeting a "kid" when he's down following soon after with the question of "who is the kid now?" He also volunteered himself for criticism saying that the subject of an article like that needs to be him or his coaching staff - not a heart-broken kid. Just before leaving the quickly press conference, Gundy claimed the whole thing made him want to puke.
My thoughts on the whole situation are mixed. The fact that Gundy stood up for his player is respectable in itself, but the fact that such a huge win for the Cowboys was put on the back-burner for an outraged rant is something else. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Cowboy fan, but there are times when things are so obviously backwards that I can't help but comment on them.
5 minutes after a win that could turn their season around, the coach of the team goes a little crazy about an article written by someone who has ever played football on a competitive level. Yes, it needed to be said, but in a different time and place. There should have been two separate press conferences - one dealing with the victory on Saturday and one dealing with the article. I think Gundy should have directed that fire into firing up his team, not overshadowing their victory. But, the same way Jenni Carlson has never played competitive football, I have never been a coach in Mike Gundy's situation, therefore I don't know what I would have done if I had been in his shoes Saturday.
After the tension of the weekend died down, Gundy held another press conference regarding his outburst where he stated he didn't regret what he said but did regret not preparing a formal statement because he had forgotten some points he wanted to make. At the second press conference, there was still little talk about the victory. Defending one player is good; overlooking the rest of the team and their hard-earned win isn't. The situation, although it was surrounded by good intentions, is still not back to good.
Carlson's fellow staff writer for the Oklahoman, Berry Tramel, even let the story rest for a day so he could report on what he refers to as the "wildest game in OSU history" because he thought OSU fans deserved better. In his article, he maintained support for Carlson but wrote that he didn't agree with everything Carlson wrote and also thought Gundy did make good points. His timing and delivery, however, made for a PR blunder, according to Tramel. I agree with him. I think there is a possibility that Gundy might even agree with him. Carlson's article was less than professional sounding. And although most are skeptical of her article, the way the Oklahoman handled the aftermath of Gundy's outburst is to be commended. They took a calm approach in responding to the situation. In an interview with Jenni Carlson and Mike Sherman, the Oklahoman cleared up the reason behind the article and also supported and understood Gundy's motive behind the outburst and even said his feelings were justified.
I don't necessarily take either side. I don't know enough about Gundy to like or dislike him and I don't read the Oklahoman. But from a Public Relations view, no matter who is right or wrong in the situation, I think the whole situation was better handled by the Oklahoman.
Short Story
Inaccuracies

Distrust in Politics? Never...

One of the most pressing problems in public relations right now is the distrust of the public in the political arena. Voters in America and around the world have little to no confidence in their elected leaders. This of course became a problem during the 1960s and 1970s with the escalation of the Vietnam War and the breaking of the Watergate scandal Since that time, politicians have turned ever increasingly to political public relations specialists to craft a strong public image and message. This has not however, helped the public trust politicians any more. In fact, it has had the opposite effect on the public.
During my research on this topic, I found several websites whose sole purpose was tracking political public relations firms and monitoring their “spin” on current events. For example, SpinWatch is a group based out of Britain whose main focus is of course, British political spin. There are also a number of public relations firms who focus completely on political campaigning. Rourk Public Relations which is based out of Virginia is one such firm. On their homepage they claim that “the foundation of a successful political campaign is comprised of experience, solid thinking, clear messages, and flawless strategies”. This idea of the “flawless political strategy” only gives credence to those who claim that politicians are only out to spin the truth the way they want the public to view it.
There is another problem presented when crafting a message and an identity for a political candidate. How do create an image and then have your candidate stick to it. When candidates stray from their crafted image, the public loses even more faith in them. You don’t have to look far to see a perfect example of this. John Edwards, who has tried to portray himself as the common man’s friend, the champion of the poor, became infamous for his $400 haircuts. Current president George Bush is equally guilty of this image crafting. The great “Texas Cowboy” actually grew up in Connecticut and had never been on a ranch until he met his wife, First Lady Laura Bush.
What can be done about this problem? The only thing that will really work is if political PR practitioners stick to the principles that are relentlessly beat into our heads as students by the wonderful faculty of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Our professors are constantly telling us the importance of honesty and that we must at all times be up front with our clients and our publics.