The Cluetrain Manifesto
Tenth anniversary edition
By Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger
Published by Basic Books, 2009 (first published 2000)
224 pages
“A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter – and getting [...]

The U.S. Hispanic population now exceeds 50-million, or 16.3 percent, according to the results of the 2010 U.S. Census Report. With Hispanics representing nearly 50 per cent of the country’s growth over the past 10 years, media and marketers alike are looking to capitalize on this dramatic demographic development.
The implications for PR are many. Here are [...]

A lot of PR people I know watch Mad Men. If you don’t, this won’t mean much to you, so check out this instead.
The central premise of Mad Men, as I have come to realize, is a struggle between fiction and fact, between deception and transparency, between acting and reality. Public relations professionals I think [...]

Does it bother you as much as it does me when you hear the news media talk about something as “just a PR tactic” or deride an initiative as “simply a PR stunt“? It irks me that this profession’s well known acronym is often perceived negatively or cynically. Maybe I’m over-sensitive because I work in [...]

They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result. The Vancouver Winter Olympics benefitted from perhaps the best media coverage in history, with major TV networks in the US (NBC) and Canada (CTV) bringing terrific live reporting, often in gloriously creative ways.
The [...]

What you don’t know is more interesting than what you know. It’s a fundamental tenet of the news business. Read any reputable (or disreputable, for that matter) news outlet and at least half of the stories will be about not what happened, but what might happen.
Apple understands this. Like perhaps no other company in history, [...]

There was some hubbub recently over breakfast cereal-makers’ claims that products for kids can boost health. Kellogg decided to discontinue its on-the-box statement that Rice Krispies “Now Helps Support Your Child’s Immunity,” after it added “antioxidants” to the iconic product, which, incidentally, my daughter continues to enjoy many mornings.
Lately I read that Froot Loops is [...]

I’ve been blitzing on season two of the vaunted AMC series, Mad Men, over the last five days and nights so that I can finally remember to watch season three episodes live. It’s a popular show with marketing professionals.
Shakespeare’s legacy is based largely on deception. He used the device in every play: females playing men [...]

One of the by-products of the decline of advertising is the experimentation with so many other ways to reach consumers. It often seems, however, that marketers have put risk ahead of common sense, or even silliness over strategy. The result is a regular flow of campaigns that end up triggering outrage or derision, forcing an [...]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you’ve heard the buzz about Avatar: James Cameron’s multi-million dollar film – his first since 1997’s Titanic – which is being heralded as the most expensive movie ever made. Let’s just hope for his sake he doesn’t end up with a WaterWorld on his hands (will [...]