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Gibbs reportedly to be Obama White House press secretary

Posted November 6, 2008

That most prominent of communications jobs in America, White House press secretary, will go to Robert Gibbs, Politico . Gibbs is a 37-year-old Alabaman who served as senior communications strategist for the Obama campaign. The press conference will be held tomorrow.

The selection hasn’t been made official yet, but expect many more reports of key appointments within the next few days and weeks, including the naming of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, also a scoop by super-duper Politico, which says Obama’s first

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Politics

Tags:Emanuel, Gibbs, Obama

Voluntary registry unlikely to shed much light

Posted September 24, 2008

PR executives speaking on background in EU Observer note the problematic nature of the new voluntary registry launched this summer by the European Commission to gather information on clients represented by PR and lobbying firms in Brussels. Given the increasingly international work of PR, the registry will be of interest to many folks in DC.

Just think of the recent Russia-Georgia outreach not just in the US but in the UK and elsewhere around the world. A firm based in the US, given the global nature of media, could well be doing outreach overseas on behalf of all sorts of foreign entities, with media articles making their way back to US readers via the omnipresent Internet, for example.

“Voluntary” means many firms are naturally likely to limit the information they provide on their Brussels work, for competitive or other reasons. For the foreseeable future, the public’s understanding what work PR firms are doing on behalf of foreign governments will remain very patchy.

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Filed under: Lobbying, Public Affairs

Tags:Brussels, FARA, Lobbying

McCain-Palin’s rather non-maverick comms team

Posted September 22, 2008

The McCain-Palin campaign may tout its candidates as mavericks and outsiders, but its top communications advisors are anything but, an article today in The Washington Post notes. Led by Steve Schmidt, the communications team now fielded by the McCain campaign consists mostly of former Bush-Cheney advisors.

Among them: Former Bush administration global communications director Tucker Eskew took a leave of absense from his Alexandria firm ViaNovo, as previously reported by PRWeek, to advise Palin, for whom he has now reportedly become chief of staff. Other former Bush aides include senior advisor Nicole Wallace, who had a run-in with St. Louis media this summer, and speechwriter Matthew Scully.

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Politics

Tags:election, Eskew, McCain, Palin, Scully, Wallace

The financial situation in DC

Posted September 17, 2008

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson held a press conference today in the continuing effort to shore up public confidence in the US markets, making clear no bailout of Lehman was considered, but being not so clear about whether more federal bailout money may be thrown at the various financial firms currently in touble.

Congress, meanwhile, must show it is doing something — anything — so, it thought, “Why not start by holding some hearings?” First to be called on the carpet may be the Lehman Brothers CEO, who has been invited to testify at a hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee scheduled for September 25.

Watch to see who else may be added to the guest list, which likely won’t produce much in the way of practical solutions but should at least provide some good video footage for the the business cable channels.

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Filed under: Crisis Communications, Financial/IR, Public Affairs

Tags:bailout, Congress, Lehman, Paulsen

Financial fallout for lobbyists?

Posted September 16, 2008

Surely the financial crises brewing in New York City will have some sort of effect on lobbying and public affairs in DC, but it’s hard to predict exactly how. Lobbyists in DC are concerned, The Hill reports.

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Filed under: Financial/IR, Lobbying, Public Affairs

Tags:lobbyists

Gibraltar hosts party for Lake

Posted September 15, 2008

Gibraltar Associates last Tuesday held a one-year anniversary party for the DC-based public affairs firm in which it also celebrated the recent hiring of Jim Lake as president. Lake resigned as head of public affairs at Burson-Marsteller to join Gibraltar. Quite a few Burson folks were in the crowd to show support for Lake.

Lake told the assembled crowd that the opportunity to work with Gibraltar, which already has a staff of 12, was too good to pass up. Small firms always argue that size means less in an Internet-connected world, but the move by Lake shows that even executives from the big agencies can find small agencies appealing for various reasons.

Incidentally, Jim’s Texas-based twin, Mike Lake – he and Jim look, act, and talk remarkably alike — was also in attendance. In a conversation at the party, he offered high praise for the enthusiasm and team spirit of new Burson vice chairman Karen Hughes, who also is based out of Texas.

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Filed under: Public Affairs

Tags:Burson, Gibraltar, James Lake, Jim Lake

Posted August 13, 2008

Exxon Mobil media adviser Alan Jeffries told PRWeek that the company asked Twitter to give it control over accounts associated with its brand, after a person calling herself “Janet” created an account in the oil company’s name and gained hundreds of followers. Janet is not an Exxon employee, the company says.

The “brandjacking” incident has generated a fair amount of attention in the media, at least online, since it was first reported by the Houston Chronicle a few weeks ago. (Jeffries said the company’s digital team discovered the tweeting itself, rather than hearing about it from the media, contrary to some reports.)

Jeffries declined to say one way or the other whether Exxon would begin sending out its own tweets. He did note that the incident has “reinforced” the company’s belief that it needs to look at all types of forums for communications.

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Filed under: Corporate Reputation, Media, New Media, Web sites

Tags:Edelman, Exxon, Janet, Jeffries

DreamWorks backtracks on “Tropic Thunder” promotion

Posted August 12, 2008

DreamWorks has dropped some of its promotional efforts tied to the release of Tropic Thunder after advocacy groups protested the film’s references to the mentally disabled, the Associated Press . This includes a Web site promoting a fictional film within the film featuring Ben Stiller’s character, a faux ‘80s-era actor portraying a “retard,” as he calls it.

DreamWorks and Stiller argue the insensitive language is meant to mock Hollywood portrayals of the mentally disabled, not the mentally disabled themselves, and that no cuts will be made to the film as requested. Representatives of Special Olympics and other groups say it goes too far and are calling for a nationwide boycott.

The flap comes as something of a surprise as in the lead up to the release of the film much of the discussion about it had centered on anticipated controversy over Robert Downey Jr.’s character, an especially self-important actor who does his role in blackface.

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Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, Diversity, Multicultural

Tags:blackface, Downey, Special Olympics, Tropic Thunder

Senior women: 2008’s ‘soccer moms,’ Penn says

Posted July 29, 2008

“Active grannies” could be the key voter demographic in this year’s presidential election, writes Burson-Marsteller CEO (and former Clinton advisor) Mark Penn in the Politico.

Social security and healthcare are two important issues for this group, who wield particular influence in battle states such as Ohio and Florida. And those issues have not been much discussed of late on the campaign trail.

“And they are not going to vote for an older candidate just because of his age — if anything, they may vote for a candidate who reminds them of their children rather than themselves,” Penn writes.

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Healthcare, Politics

Tags:election, grannies, Penn, soccer moms

Candid camera catches McCain communications advisors

Posted July 18, 2008

Should PR folks be entitled to preview TV camera angles prior to interviews? The communications folks with the McCain campaign evidently think so, judging by video taken by the Fox affiliate in St Louis of bickering between local TV reporters and producer McCain national press secretary Brooke Buchanan and senior advisor Nicole Wallace.

Don’t miss seeing this video. As the Huffington Post notes, it’s a compelling look at the PR operations that go on behind the scenes.

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Tags:Buchanan, McCain, St. Louis, Wallace

Gibbs reportedly to be Obama White House press secretary

Voluntary registry unlikely to shed much light

McCain-Palin’s rather non-maverick comms team

The financial situation in DC

Financial fallout for lobbyists?

Gibraltar hosts party for Lake

DreamWorks backtracks on “Tropic Thunder” promotion

Senior women: 2008’s ‘soccer moms,’ Penn says

Candid camera catches McCain communications advisors

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