IMC Hawks Blog

Category: Communication Studies

  • Prop 19 Pot or Not?

    Tuesday was a very important day as American citizens visited their local poles to cast their votes. For Californians, today was especially monumental. Proposition 19, aka The Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, proposed that a law be passed allowing adults in California age 21 or older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. The law would also allow for adults to smoke the drug in non-public places, and to grow the drug in small private plots. The proposition was created as a way to generate sales revenue as well as reduce the crime related to marijuana. Millions of dollars are spent incarcerating, defending, and supervising marijuana defenders. The law would eliminate this, and allow funds to be used in other areas. The taxation of marijuana would also provide money for the struggling economy. Obama’s administration announced that they were opposed to prop 19 because marijuana usage leads to many other serious drug addictions. So what was this outcome of this HIGHly controversial issue?

    56.1% of California voters voted no to proposition 19. Many supporters of prop 19 are not disappointed. This was the first time in history that marijuana was brought up for legalization and many feel that win or lose, the issue was brought to many American’s attention and will continue to be discussed in years to come.

    -Gracie Anderson

  • Nike… Are They Doing It?

    Nike spends more than 20 million dollars promoting Nike’s golf division to Tiger Woods, LeBron James gets paid $13 million dollars just to play basketball wearing Nike’s Basketball shoes, and in 2010 spent over $476 million dollars to endorse various athletes.

    So if Nike has all this money for endorsements why is it that gets the majority of its products are made in third world countries such as Indonesia, China, and Vietnam where the average salary in Vietnam is about $37 a month in US dollars? This was a major scandal during the late 90’s and has since been fixed and they did a good job of cleaning up their image. Recently t there was a commercial that caused a good amount of controversy concerning Nike.

    Tiger Woods is one of most endorsed athletes in the world and when the scandal broke out of him being unfaithful to his wife most of his sponsors dropped him. All except for Nike who made this commercial with his father’s voice stating: “Tiger, I am prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?”

    My question is was this Nike’s attempt to save one of their star athletes, was it just Nike trying to capitalize on Wood’s misfortunate exposure, or was it just made to be talked about and consequently cause more exposure for Nike?

    -Ari Nateman

  • Syringe? Wooden Screw? Pepsi?

    PepsiCo has always been a leader in the beverage industry and in 1993, proved this to be true with how they handled their almost-crisis. Earl and Mary Triplett of Tacoma, Washington made the Seattle news when they reportedly found a syringe in a can of Diet Pepsi. Once news of this disturbing incident hit, reports from all over the United States poured in. Within one week, people from 23 states came forward claiming that objects such as a bullet, broken sewing needle, wooden screw and cracked vial were found in their Diet Pepsi cans.

    With such serious reports, you would think PepsiCo immediately recalled their product. However, PepsiCo didn’t believe in the reports. After all, with manufacturing facilities in many different locations the likelihood of such a crisis on a national level is slim to none. Instead of throwing in the towel and losing millions of dollars, PepsiCo decided to work with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to find the root cause of the crisis. In deciding that PepsiCo wasn’t going to recall, they knew they had to explain to the public that this decision is the right choice. How do you communicate this? By using the first ever video news release (VNR).

     In having 4 VNRs, PepsiCo was able to reach 265 million viewers. These VNRs allowed the public to hear and see the facts; that the whole scare was a cruel scam. With exclusive B-roll of Pepsi’s bottling process and surveillance camera footage from Colorado of a suspect tampering with a Pepsi can, PepsiCo was able to keep their brand name clean. At the end of all this madness, the crisis resulted in 20 arrests, each facing five years imprisonment and $250,000 in fines for their false claims.

    On June 21, “Pepsi is pleased to announce…nothing” became the headline of PepsiCo’s full page advertisement, placed in 12 national newspapers and hundreds of publications. PepsiCo had already planned on a summer promotion and by using their recent crisis; the company took advantage of their media coverage and tweaked their advertisement accordingly.

    What is most important to take away from this crisis was PepsiCo’s ability to invite the media in, letting them know the facts allowed for the truth to come forward and stifled speculation. Media can be a powerful tool, as we have seen through PepsiCo’s crisis scare.

    Meghan French and Gracie Anderson

  • Event Planning- Glamorous or Not?!


    As a new intern at the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation, I didn’t realize how many careers could all be considered “corporate communication” titles. It is a small office, consisting of six women and myself. Their titles are: Annual Gifts Officer, Major Gifts Officer, Administrative Associate, Special Events Officer and Finance and Stewardship Officer. One of the main issues associated with all of these titles is how wordy they are and the fact that all of these women undertake several tasks outside of their job titles.

    Our professor often touches on the realities of event planning; I can relate well to this since I work under the Special Events Officer at NHRMC Foundation. The realities of this corporate communication position are long hours, planning with some very opinionated committee members, having to constantly be organized, the ability to multitask and working with a limited budget (especially in a non-profit office). Third party events are also a majority of this position’s responsibility. So far for our Pink Ribbon Event, there have been third-party events consisting of: Monty Miller’s Boot Camp, Rock for the Cure, Pink Martinis at Ruth’s Chris, TrySport’s 5k and Angie’s Amazing race…and these are just for one event! The special events officer is responsible for attending all of these.

    This is just insight on ONE corporate communication career, the list of other titles is almost infinite. While event planning may not be as glamorous as films such as “The Wedding Planner” portray it to be, it is a very rewarding and fabulous career for the right person!

    -Emily Hunter

  • Does the word “corporate” in a job title mislead people?

    How are careers in corporate communication defined exactly? What kind of careers are even designated to the field of corporate communication?

    Jobs and professions in today’s society are categorized much more specifically by their titles than just being a doctor, dentist, blacksmith, plumber, or teacher. For example, careers that fall under the category of corporate communication are: corporate communications director, corporate communications specialist, internal corporate communications specialist, corporate communications/public relations manager, and corporate communications coordinator. What does all this mean? From the job title alone, it is hard to know what exactly the job description is and what it will consist of.

    Careers in corporate communication can be linked to jobs in public relations, advertising, integrated marketing communication and other related fields in communication studies. If you are searching for a job in any of these fields, don’t be afraid by the word “corporate” if it is in the job title. Society has given emotion to the word, corporate. It is made out to be this tough, professional, dictating vocation where everyone walks around in blue and grey suits all day. Yes, in reality there are people that wear blue and grey suits daily, but those are popular business colors. But, in all actuality, the word corporate is defined as “belonging to a corporation or company; pertaining to a united group.” Therefore, when a company assigns a job title with the words “corporate communication” in it, they are most likely informing people that they are looking for someone who can handle the specific communication tasks between many people either within their own corporation or with outside corporations whom they do business with. These companies are looking for people who can perform the needed skills in the public relations and advertising fields for a large company, not a small, local business for instance.

    -Danielle Dorantich

     

  • Mark Cuban: Controversial Corporate Communication

    On January 4, 2000, Mark Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA Dallas Mavericks basketball team for $285 million from H. Ross Perot, Jr. Since then, Cuban has been known for being highly involved in his team; he is often seen yelling and going crazy on the sidelines. Mark Cuban’s crazy antics have been the source of extensive media attention and controversy. The billionaire has been fined at least $1,665,000 to date for his critical statements about the league and especially the referees. However, Cuban reportedly matches his NBA fines with charitable donations of equal value. All of these things have significant impact on the image of the Dallas Mavericks, and of the National Basketball Association.

    In the 20 years before Cuban bought the team, the Mavs had a winning percentage of 40%, and playoff record of 21–32.In the ten years following, the team won 69% of their regular season games and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons. So, it could be said that Mark Cuban, despite all of his crazy antics, has actually improved the image of the Mavericks.

    -Fran Greene, Ari Nateman, Lacey Innman, Megan Regele

  • The only thing better than America’s favorite past time: talking about America’s favorite past time

    Major league baseball has been known throughout history as America’s favorite past time. For years we have loved to watch the game over a hot dog, a cold beer, and pitchy (no pun intended) renditions of “take me out to the ball game.” Perhaps the only thing we love more than our beloved sport, is talking about it. Whether it’s getting pumped up with a pregame show, listening to the break down post game with our favorite news castors, or following the advertisements for our favorite teams play schedules, we love to talk about the game. In other words, we love sports communication!

    A good example of sports communication is seen in the hype leading up to the American League Championship game between the reigning Champion, New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers. (The winner of this game will play the winner of the National League Championship, either the Phillies or the Giants, in the World Series) Advertisements for the game flood sports bars, television ads, newspapers, magazines, and so on. The MLB website pumps up its viewer with its catchy advertising. The official site of the Texas Rangers excites its fans by head lining “Its Time!”  Complete with pictures, stats, and line ups, the website informs its fans who will be playing in the upcoming game and creates a connection with the fans that make them feel like they are a part of the game. The Yankees website displays a similar style head line with “Chase for the 28!” The flooding of advertising helps fans stay connected and feel like they are a part of the game. For this reason Major League Base ball spends millions of dollars every year in advertising to bring the game to life for its fans.

    With the game coming up advertisements will increase and fans will draw on the hype for excitement and anticipation. Advertisements like “Beware of things made in October” will excite fans and communicate the message that MBL is still America’s favorite past time and to take part in the historical game that we love.

     

    Lauren Smith