These fragments I have shored against my ruins

Initially, I was going to blog about how crazy and hectic my days are as the count-down to graduation looms, and I find myself struggling against the tide.

But then I saw this piece of claptrap - I mean, honestly, what kind of lame PR outfit is looking after Vector Arena these days?

I mean, writing a profile of the chief executive to sneak in some figures about how well the venue did last year, and preview some of the upcoming gigs this year is not my idea of savvy marketing.

My favourite line is the intro: "Passing Auckland’s Vector Arena daily as it was being built in 2006; Guy Ngata would think 'that’s going to be great, I’d love to be part of that'." Barf.

I sincerely hope Star PR isn't still looking after this account - when they started up a few years back, they seemed to know what they were doing.

Compare that to Network PR's latest job to make hay for bankers in the middle of a financial collapse and you can see quite easily who's doing the better job.

(Incidentally, it's nice to see Network have figured out that they really shouldn't be advertising their wares when they're on the job - well done.)

End rant (and destructive procrastination),
PB.

Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste

It was only a matter of time.

And in this case, time is the essential item.

I can already hear my socialist friends chanting "slash and burn, slash and burn", because the man with the manifesto to slash red tape in the health bureaucracy has now begun his role as Minister of State Services.

Sitting at my school PC (that's what baby reporters do), I noted a scoop e-mail alert titled "Government Shared Network to be discontinued" pop through at 5.13pm.

The fact that the State Services Minister Tony Ryall is cutting the GSN ("a secure network linking government agencies with high-speed Internet and telecommunications services) is not, in and of itself, overly surprising.

Nor is the fact that the "[p]articipating government agencies will be moved to a new provider in the private sector."

The thing's losing money, and has done since its inception in 2007 (don't ask me why it was supposed to make money), so it was obviously going to be a candidate for slashing under our auspicious minister.

But 5.13pm for the press release?!? After the layout of most morning papers have been drawn up and TV's putting on the finishing touches to its 6pm bulletin?!? Hoping against hope that it gets lost in the avalanche of press releases accompanying the return of the politicians?!?

Puh-leeze - that's just plain stupid.

It looks suspicious and it draws attention to the move when it could have been sneaked through earlier in the day while all the media focus was on the RMA changes.

This is a senior minister with experienced PR professionals in his office, and it's not something that they saw at 3.30pm this afternoon, decided upon at 4.45pm, and wrote up a press release at 5.12pm.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Will the media fall for it and ignore a potential follow-up for something that looks, sounds, and smells like scuttling public sector jobs? Probably.

But it shouldn't - and touch wood, someone will pick it up and ask Mr Ryall what else is on the agenda for the slash and burn treatment.

This baby journalist would, but afterschool care's closing up, and I've got a ton of stuff to do.

Maybe I'll leave it to the professionals.... maybe...

PB.

Eureka!

I've finally figured it out!

The link between John Key and Barack Obama that is.

Everyone scoffed when our PM-to-be likened himself to President-elect Obama in an interview with the Financial Times back in September, but with a little bit of help, I've found out what the link actually is.

Mark Leibovich wrote an excellent piece in the New York Times about the Obama campaign's communications strategy and wider team, and, funnily enough, Brand Key followed this to a tee.

Like Obama's campaign, Key's was "was unusually small and close-knit," which enabled it to "maintain tight control of its information."

Both campaigns (tried) to speak "with a single voice and a precise message and only when they wanted to. They did it with a smile, not complaining — at least not publicly — about how the press was the enemy."

And who used this style of campaigning so effectively in the past you may ask?

Well, none other than...

Ain't it grand...

PB.

(Hat tip to PR Watch for helping me put 8 and 39 together...)

When first we practise to deceive

I shouldn't really pass judgement on the purveyors of public relations as I spent a considerable amount of time trying to enter their hallowed ranks (only to be rebuffed at every turn), but perhaps one of our larger spinsters should wipe their fingerprints from certain releases they issue.

Network PR, a trans-Tasman comms company, is no novice. They know what they're doing, and they tend to do it very well.

Which makes me wonder why they didn't wipe their name from a press release for Tritec Manfacturing which announced the sacking of 25 workers two weeks out from Christmas.

Sure, they slipped in "Attempts have been made to minimise the impact by reducing costs", but I note Tritec didn't deem it necessary to let their public relations consultants go.

I wonder how many staff members could have kept their job if the manufacturer had penned its own press releases?

As it stands, we don't even know how much redundancy the workers will get - it looks like negotiations with the union have stalled and the workers will only get four weeks.

And to think I wouldn't have batted an eyelid at another round of lay-offs if I hadn't seen Network PR's handiwork.

Gee, I wonder what Network's rate card is looking like right now...

PB.

Blood, most certainly, is thicker than water

I like to think that I can be a productive kind of guy, but honestly, I don't know how some people are able to maintain a viable social life, keep on top of work, and keep a blog that's interesting and relevant. Mine most certainly hasn't been for quite some time.

Check out what I've been up to at NewsWire and Scoop - I've got a reason for being a tardy blogger... honestly. (Actually I don't - I'm just lazy - which you would be aware of had you delved back many many months.)

Since this is an effort to ease myself into the fine art of blogging, I wanted go to my favourite lobby group... Family First.

Today they put out this press release on the BSA ruling upholding a complaint about a gay sex scene on Shorters.

I'm going to leave the actual issue to far better minds than mine in explaining the problems with both of these pieces of literature.

I have but one problem facing me that one could possibly construe as a Monday night rant.

Go up to the Family First press release, scroll down to the fifth paragraph and read this stupid, stupid line:

"Television viewing is an integral part of family life"

There is something tragically wrong when an organisation that proclaims itself as putting the family before anything else, makes a statement like this.

It's reminiscent of Newmarket Business Association GM Cameron Brewer's wonderful phrase: "shopping these days is a favourite family leisure activity."

Bob McCroskie and Mr Brewer are not unintelligent people - why they believe such drivel will be bought by a media savvy public I do not know. Perhaps that's why they're earning the dark dollars of public relations, and I'm pursuing the relative hardship of journalism...

Anyways, when a lobbyist can convince me that watching television or exchanging currency for goods or services (most likely goods) makes an integral family leisure activity, please inform my nearest and dearest that they may need to have me committed.

If you can drag them away from the telly or the mall that is...

PB.

The art of communication

Went to the Rita Angus exhibition yesterday (still waiting for Te Papa's excellent blog to post on it), and I was going to post on it before I noticed the Greenslade thing, but the writing for the exhibition was fairly vapid.

When I pretend to knowledgeable about art and stand in front of a pretty picture for five minutes thinking to myself I know very little about how impressionists impacted on later modernist artists, I like to get a little education from the curator who has spent a lot of time preparing said exhibition and knows exactly what I don't.

I don't particularly like reading about how the soft rolling hills and sharp mountains of the background are indicative of the spiritual, naturalist, and pacifist beliefs of the artist. Over. And over. And over again. Maybe a comment on how the nature pieces have moved toward the older impressionist movement? Or something about how the artist has played with the audience's perception of depth and why? Or perhaps her relevance in the wider world of art?

I guess that would be thinking too highly of those people who go out of their way to learn a little about the artist and their art. My bad.