The mantra of the current high-intensity, high-tech age seems to be “edgy.” Those with an edgy self-image demand that their lyrics be defiant; their TV dramas, tense; and their recreation, risky. Needless to say, these folks are easily bored. Standard writing techniques will repel them faster than a Perry Como infomercial. So how can we… [Read more…]
December 28, 2011
In some eras, we have careened into the New Year, confidence bolstered by an economic boom, social progress and peaceful relationships. In other times, we have barely managed to creep over the calendar change, bashed by the collapse of everything we had trusted—our sports heroes, our banks, our cars, our homes. As 2012 approaches, most… [Read more…]
December 14, 2011
Word usage and grammar are moving targets—apparently, that can’t be helped. Yes, we have books (and editors) who insist on punctuating this way or capitalizing that way. But then we have the AP Stylebook every year modifying its long-held stance on such constructions as Web site vs. website or e-mail vs. email (I must have… [Read more…]
November 28, 2011
One reason that Airfoil Public Relations has earned a reputation at the top of America’s best technology PR firms is its predilection for expressing a point of view about issues that matter most in our digital society. But its latest POV is certainly Airfoil’s boldest, with its prediction that that “social” will go away in 2012.… [Read more…]
November 1, 2011
For most of the past century, technology focused on making presentations ever larger. TV screens evolved from being measured in inches to being measured in feet. Stage shows transformed from intimate communication across the footlights to massive Las Vegas-style arena extravaganzas. And even audio presentation graduated from monaural to stereo to quadraphonic to 3D to Dolby… [Read more…]
October 20, 2011
The deaths this year of two infamous characters—Osama bin Laden and Moammar Gadhafi—creates an increasingly severe predicament for novelists. Since the Cold War Era, and even before, mystery and adventure writers have focused plot lines around the hero’s attempts to conquer the sly and outrageous villains conspiring to detonate an atomic bomb/hydrogen bomb/dirty bomb/anthrax bomb (pick… [Read more…]
October 12, 2011
In recent weeks we’ve witnessed the backlash—perhaps more appropriately stated, the whiplash—from the Tea Party Movement, this time in the form of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. While positioned at the very tips of opposite poles in their political philosophies, the often ultra-conservative Tea Partiers and frequently radical Occupiers rant from the same frustration: things… [Read more…]
September 27, 2011
The U.S. Postal Service this week perhaps unwittingly gave birth to a brand-new category of public relations. We might call it “postal relations” or “stamp leadership,” but whatever term emerges, I can hear the gears cranking away in the minds of PR account executives all over the country. This new branch of our profession stems… [Read more…]
September 20, 2011
Despite blaming the economy for slowdowns, it’s clear that these days we’re all busy—all the time. We don’t have many minutes left for meetings, even less for full-scale presentations. As a result, our ability to introduce our services and products to others relies more than ever on the elevator speech (a phrase that seems oddly… [Read more…]
January 5, 2012
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