Last month, Environics Communications’ Health Sciences Practice and Business Wire co-hosted a media panel discussion with leading health care reporters at top-tier print and broadcast media outlets. More than 50 PR professionals gathered at the National Association for Broadcasters in Washington, D.C., for our first-ever “Coffee and Conversation: An up close and personal discussion with [...]

The debate over whether we’re about to run smack into a second internet bubble is getting lots of attention in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country.  Signs that Bubble 2.0 is here are everywhere:  the huge valuations for social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zynga and Groupon; the explosive growth in [...]

Our recent support for clients facing issues or potential crises has included a new dimension of communications best practices – the real-time monitoring of conversations in social media channels. Without this proper social media monitoring, it would be flying blind to attempt true crisis management.
Early in my career, I had the good fortune to work [...]

Surely living healthily must be among the top New Year’s resolutions every January 1st, and it seems Canada’s national broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is taking that to heart with its massive, cross-platform initiative called Live Right Now. Live Right Now leverages all of the CBC’s formidable news assets including TV, radio and online. There [...]

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 [...]

David Letterman’s stunning admission on national television that he has had sex with women who work for him, despite having a long-term girlfriend he recently married and with whom he has a child, has the news media and blogosphere a-buzz.
In a 10-minute monologue from behind his familiar desk on The Late Show, the famous host [...]

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 [...]

I think that it’s time we considered ending our relationship. If we’re honest with ourselves, I think you’ll see that things aren’t as exciting as they used to be. To be blunt, our day-to-day interaction has become somewhat stale. In the beginning the time we spent together was exciting. You always had something new to [...]

Comments have been flying around online about the most recent Twitter upset: David George-Cosh (National Post reporter) vs. April Dunford (PR consultant). If you’ve not yet heard what all the little birdies are talking about, here’s the shortened play-by-play (or tweet-by-tweet):
- April: When the media calls you, you jump, OK!?” Why, when you called me [...]