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~The PRpulp Team

When consumers know that a certain graphic treatment represents something, don’t reinvent the wheel.

That’s what we think Coke is up to in its new packaging for Coke Plus, a vitamin enriched soda.

Check it out:

Here’s Centrum:

Via NYT.

There’s more than one way we could call out Disney and it’s über-controlling qualities.

When it comes to PR though, they might want to consider either preparing spokespeople a bit better or loosening the Mickey hat a notch so that spokespeople don’t fear PR wrath should they slip-up during an interview.

Some reporters choose to start an article by setting the scene. This is often referred to as an environmental lede. It’s pretty effective to set tone and mood for an article, but when it starts to creep in elsewhere in an article, but not in the beginning, it’s a red flag that something odd happened during the interview.

Check this out from a feature in Sunday’s New York Times:

He seemed almost dumbstruck by the question. He sat mute for a moment then turned to two attentive publicists sitting close by, searching their faces for an answer.

“I don’t know what to say,” he uttered, sounding mildly annoyed. “I don’t think like that. I trust in my instincts. I’m a product of what this company has created. I do what I do because of Walt Disney. Goofy. Mickey Mouse. I never forgot how their films entertained me. I also love my toys. My Hot Wheels, my G.I. Joes.”

And then it happened again…

Mr. Sanders resisted the suggestions, Mr. Lasseter said. So in January he was replaced by another director.

Asked about the episode, Mr. Lasseter abruptly interrupted an interview to confer with publicists, asking “What can I say here?”

After a brief discussion Mr. Lasseter explained that Pixar often added or replaced a director if a film needed help. “Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn’t take it to the place it had to be,” he said carefully.

Are you kidding? Is this like a life line on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”

If you’re asked a question from an NYT reporter, you answer it. You don’t get the chance to confer and respond. That is unless you’re Disney.

When media training spokespeople we’ve always briefed them on the top messaging points, explained the reporter’s background and biased interests (as best we could), drew the boundaries of what can be said and what can’t (and then what to say if the reporter does ask about one of these areas) and then sent them on their way through the interview gauntlet. Stop or stutter on anything we taught, and well, it’s a gauntlet right?

Notice how the PR people were referred to as “publicists” and not public relations professionals. What transpired during that interview probably shouldn’t have – at least it shouldn’t have ever made it into the story.

Head on over to USAtoday.com to get a completely redesigned home page fraught with the latest social elements that (might) make reading the newspaper online just a little bit more interactive.

We’re not going to tell you what they did, you can check it out on your own.

We liked the welcome note that explained the new approach and community features. That way, when grandma and grandpa click on over they’ll understand that it’s still the same old content – it’s just all rejiggered on ya.

To summarize, it’s USA Today meets digg meets facebookish youtube thingy, well, awkward design.

We never really go for USA Today anyway. The colors are just a little too bright on our delicate eyes in the morning.

It’s a defining moment for someone when s/he reads a news article, stops to think, and realizes that some piece of important information is missing. The author either missed an important detail or otherwise decided to omit it from the piece.

Over time and with greater attention to the media, picking up on this starts to become a sort of PR sixth sense. Tune in to FOX News and you can’t go five minutes without starting to get the itch.

In more respectable outlets and across different types of paid and unpaid media, however, it’s a bit harder to notice. Throw in a mixture of distractions like photos or slick graphic design to woo your eyes over and it’s even harder to notice what’s not there.

That’s what happened this weekend when we glazed over XM’s full page ad in the NYT.

The piece was an open letter in the front section touting some XM customer promises. They included:

• You’ll continue to get great programming – and the choice to get it from Sirius too.
• Existing programming won’t be interrupted.
• You can expect to receive the same service you’ve been getting.

While media idols like Mel Karmazin battle it out with the FCC to try and convince the committee that the satellite brothers complete with terrestrial radio, customers are more concerned about whether or not their subscription fees are going to go up. Not whether or not we’re going to loose Oprah & Friends in the deal.

Unfortunately the advertorial team at XM didn’t think it was worth mentioning or committing to in this bit of information in the piece. That’s okay, later in the Times was an editorial piece that touched on just that.

As far as price is concerned, Mr. Karmazin made it plain to the House committee that he would be willing to agree to a price cap for the combined service to seal the deal. The pitch is that raising prices isn’t really feasible anyway because most of what satellite radio is competing with out there is free — particularly on the radio.

ONCE more, this seems slightly at odds with statements that Mr. Karmazin made only a few months ago, Jonathan A. Jacoby, a Banc of America Securities analyst, wrote last week in a report. At an investor conference in December, Mr. Jacoby said, Mr. Karmazin talked up the potential for raising prices beyond the $12.95 a month most people pay now.

A click over to Sirius shows that they’re more interested in helping customers understand that their current radio will not become obsolete when and if the merger goes through.

While this is more-or-less an advertorial and Web communications example, the same holds true for pure editorials produced as a result of media relations.

Keep an eye out for what’s not there – it’s often the most important part of the story.

We have to side with the boys over at 37signals on some issues related to Weather.com.

Today they just might have totally redeemed themselves.

Since many of you have commented on how you like the tools that we highlight here on the pulp, here’s another one for you:

Weather.com unveiled a new – surprise surprise – Flash-based interactive map that adds several new dimensions to pretending you’re a weatherman/woman. You can change the transperency level, toggle clouds on and off, zoom in-and-out, and more.

Check it out on the home page of your local forecast. That is, of course, you can get there in less than 3 clicks.

Obsessing over minute-to-minute changes on the stock market? If you are, get some help.

If you’re just looking to quickly check out a stock or index, however, there are some new tools to use that enable you to crunch stock data until your eyes start to sizzle. These new tools are pretty slick and may even take the slightest big of edge off of those losses from Tuesday.

First up is Yahoo! Finance.

Yahoo recently launched a beta version of an interactive Flash-based chart system that allows users to toggle between stocks, indexes, curves, periods of time, and more.

Factiva also recently announced similar capability within its offerings. You have to pay for it though.

When you’re done with that, head on over to LeveragedSellOut.com for another take on Wall Street.

There’s opportunity in the realm between knowledge and perception.

That’s what Richard Houng’s company exploited when it decided to license the Westinghouse logo from CBS to slap on lower-priced flat-panel TVs.

BusinessWeek ran the article last week, which brought to light the thin margins that manufacturers are making these days on LCD TVs.

In there, however, is a great point about the power of branding and exploiting consumers’ perceptions. From the story:

Like just about everyone else checking out the flat-panel TVs at Best Buy in Manhattan, graphic designer Roy Gantt came in coveting a Philips (PHG), Sony (SNE), or Panasonic (MC). But after seeing the price tags, he figured a Westinghouse might be a better buy. At $800, the Westinghouse 32-in. set seems like a steal compared with $950 to $1,400 for better-known brands. Plus, the name sounds comfortingly familiar. “I think they make home appliances—things like that,” says Gantt.

He’s right, but that’s a different Westinghouse. In fact, the name didn’t appear on U.S. TVs for more than three decades. Then in 2003, a startup founded by two Taiwanese-American entrepreneurs licensed the brand and distinctive W logo from CBS Corp. (CBS) subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Corp. Today, Westinghouse Digital ranks No. 5 in liquid-crystal-display TVs in North America, with 7.7% of the market, according to researcher iSuppli Corp.

Now, if this guy stares at this screen long enough and then looks at a white wall, what colors will he see?

We got a kick out of Jon Fine’s recent piece.

In the piece about citizen ads, he lauds several clichés and we thought we’d repost in agreement.

To start, he shortens “‘consumer-generated advertising’ and ‘consumer-generated marketing,’ down to ‘citizen advertising’ and ‘citizen marketing.’”

Then there’s:

• engagement, interacting with the brand
• community
• authentic
• breaking through the clutter

We’ll add Web 2.0, social-based, and viral to the list.

Sometimes it’s hard to hold back on when you’re surrounded by nightschoolin’ MBA candidates who cite Peter Drucker in meetings to not try and squeak in the latest term to explain an idea. After all, you’re trying to stay on the cutting edge, right?

With experience comes wisdom, but in its absence, hold back. Or find and use tools like Jargon Finder to help you keep your feet on the ground.

JetBlue has been flying in some unfamiliar PR territory lately coming off of a series of flight delays and cancellations that angered customers and left employees flat-out stupefied.

The airline has been notorious for its low fares, great service, in-seat entertainment system, and spiffy blue branding. But last week’s nor’ easter strained the airline’s communications and crisis center to the point where it simply couldn’t keep up.

Today’s New York Times cited JetBlue’s CEO as being “humiliated and mortified” – a strong statement of honesty in the wake of the breakdown.

While it’s a bold PR move to have the CEO drop his pants in concession like that, the communications “I’m sorry” shouldn’t end there. Head on over to JetBlue’s site, click on travel alert at the top and you get a bit of a different sense of where the blame lies:

JetBlue continues to experience cancellations and delays as a result of Wednesday’s ice storm in the Northeast. Please check the status of your flight online before proceeding to the airport.

…

Please be advised that we are currently experiencing extremely high call volumes and may be difficult to get through to a Reservation Agent. If you can, we recommend you wait to until a later date to call and rebook.

Weather alert? But the CEO just said:

“I had flight attendants sitting in hotel rooms for three days who couldn’t get a hold of us. I had pilots e-mailing me saying, ‘I’m available, what do I do?’”

H E L L O!?! Is the left hand talking to the right hand? If so, they’re speaking different languages.

From the outside looking in it seems like there are some smart people working the media side, but who’s thinking about the most important public: the customers? Don’t continue to point at the storm as the reason why peoples’ flights are still canceled. No other airlines are that we’re aware of. It’s mostly your own fault. The CEO just said so in one of the world’s most respected newspapers. So fess up, tell your customers the truth, and find a good way to show them you really care that you messed-up their lives this week. Whoever wrote this notice for the site better get on the same page of what’s going on here…quickly. And, it’s going to take more than a free flight to make the customers who got burned feel comfortable flying with the airline again.

Press releases. The team has been busy cranking out copy to fill them in around lists of canceled flights, but no one is willing to put his/her name on the release as a media contact. All that’s listed is “JetBlue Corporate Communications.”

Then there’s CEO Neeleman’s flight log – a blog that would have been a great venue for him to connect with his brand believers. Head on over there and all you see is a post from Feb. 1 proclaiming how much money they made in ‘06. Seems a bit trite given the circumstances, no?

Get this: the hottest job on JetBlue’s career’s section right now is “Customer Service Provisioning Crew.” What’s a provisioning crew? Seth Godin had a great post a little while ago about saying sorry. It might be time to JetBlue to circulate this around the old provision team.

As unfortunate as it is, this is a great wake-up call for JetBlue. All of these little bits of communications evidence add up and point to things not really flying on autopilot. Good companies have smart people in the right roles to help them through little hiccups (we mean crises) like this. We hope JetBlue has some of these in it.

This little shakedown is a reminder for the rest of us to dust off the crisis communications plan or take that off-site you’ve been postponing to dream up all these nasty scenarios of what could go wrong – and then figure out exactly what you’d do when it happens. Why? Because it will.