IMC Hawks Blog

Category: Entertainment

  • Corporate Communication in AMC’s Mad Men

    Going back to defining Corporate Communication, a corporate narrative is essential to any company. No series understands this idea better than the AMC series, Mad Men. The show has gained great success winning numerous Emmys for its depiction of advertising in the 1960s. An episode we thought that showed the best example of creating a corporate narrative was, “The Wheel.” In this episode, the main character, Don Draper is pitching an advertising idea for Kodak’s slide projector product.  In pitching this idea he makes the point of nostalgia being sensitive but potent. In doing so, nostalgia becomes the key part of the product’s narrative. Nostalgia appeals to consumers’ emotions while also enticing them to buy the product. Draper furthers the product’s narrative by changing the name from “The Wheel” to “The Carousel” because a Carousel, like nostalgia, takes you back in time. By creating this narrative, Draper has taken a piece of rather unexciting technology and transformed it into a sentimental family necessity.

    To check out this episode click here.

    -Gracie, Meghan, Wade and Emily

  • Corporate Communication Gone Wrong: The Office

    This week in class we will be discussing Corporate Communication in television and movies.  NBC’s show The Office, starring Steve Carell, is a prime example of Corporate Communication gone wrong.  Each episode humorously depicts stereotypes of life in the office while giving countless examples of incorrectly used communication tactics.

    A specific example of this is during the Product Recall episode, when an obscene watermark is printed on papers for a local high school.  One important aspect of Corporate Communication is a company’s ability to manage relationships with stakeholders.  They do this through building and maintaining strong, differentiated corporate reputations.  These reputations are created and established when organizations are able to communicate a consistent vision and image to their stakeholders.  In the Product Recall episode, the employees of Dunder Mifflin exemplified very poor crisis management skills.  For example, certain employees are coached on how to answer phone calls from upset customers and instead of effectively addressing the problem, they were told that if they “got bored they should try using fake names and accents”, making a joke of the entire situation.

    Another example was when in preparation for the arrival of the press the employees found it most important to hand select the most attractive people to put in the front, focusing all their attention on physical appearance rather than position or knowledge of the subject.  In addition to these two examples, in this episode The Office also completely showed disregard to the importance of stakeholders and their effect on the company.  Specifically, the client who was given the paper with the obscene watermark, one of the Dunder Mifflin’s most important customers, met with Regional Manager, Michael Scott, to discuss the situation.  Instead of showing sincere remorse for the outcome of the paper, Michael verbalized that “she was pretty unimportant”, more than likely losing her future business with no cares.

    While this is only one example of ways The Office teaches us how NOT to implement Corporate Communication, every episode holds many examples.  Effectively dealing with crisis in an appropriate way and communicating a consistent and clear image and reputation to publics is vital to the success of any company.  If every corporation had a Regional Manager like Michael Scott Corporate Communication would have an entirely different definition.

    -Arielle, Haley, Lora, Danielle

  • Why Blogs?

    Upon visiting TED, I browsed through a few videos before selecting one to watch and comment on. Mena Trott on Blogs was my final choice. How appropriate! Trott and her husband founded Six Apart in a spare bedroom of their house in 2002. Six Apart has been at the heart of social media and blogging since 2001! The company has many great blogging services including TypePad, Movable Type and Vox which help people connect with others and share their stories. Throughout her lecture Trott talks about how blogging gives regular everyday people the power to share their life’s journey online.

    Although Trott mentions how blogging is changing the way we read news and receive media, CNN and other big networks have their own blogs used to update readers the moment breaking news happens, it is the personal stories that capture her heart. She talks about a blog titled Interplast, in which doctors travel to developing nations and preform plastic surgery on those who can’t afford it. The doctors document their travel and tell their story through this site. Another example she gives is of a man who had a son named Oden born at 25 weeks. The father took pictures of Oden and wrote updates daily. By day 96 when Oden was able to go home readers were cheering.. Trott makes it a point to say that these might not be stories that would be covered in a magazine or a newspaper, but they do pull at your heart. This made me think of our class blog and how although we discussed world issues we still made it feel personal with our senior send off, ILM week, and com studies week.

    Trott also shows how blogs can be used for records. She discusses how she can only trace her family tree back a few generations and then it stops. Trott proposes that we can use blogs as a way to record our lives. Should her grandchildren or great grandchildren ever want to know what life was like for Mena Trott, they can look no further then her blog. Like Mena we have set up a blog for records. Every IMC-Hawk from here on out can look back at what we have accomplished this semester, Hopefully it will continue to keep building and there will be a long history of posts.

    Through the blogging assignment in this class we as IMC-Hawks have had our eyes opened to the powerful messages blogs can send, the people they can reach and the footprints they can leave.

    Jess Smith

  • Oh, if we could all be Meryl…

    There are many of us who aspire to be Meryl Streep (aka: Miranda Priestly) in The Devil Wears Prada.  A strong woman, in a power position, submerged in the world of fashion.  However, being the editor-in-chief of a leading fashion magazine is not all that Hollywood makes it out to be (and we should all know this by now).  The September Issue is a documentary film that brings a little piece of reality to what is really like to be the heart and soul of a major publication.

    Although, the publishing world may appear to be falling off of the radar, there is still a lot to be offered career wise by being employed by a major publication.  If you are a journalist, you can write.  If you are a salesperson, you can sell advertising space within the publication or advertise the publication itself.  If you are into graphic design, someone has to create, design and layout the publication.

    When looking for a career (especially one that incorporates IMC) looking for opportunities in the publishing world could really work to your advantage.  Advertising, PR, marketing, journalism, graphic design…they all can be found in-house. The networking opportunities are tremendous.  You are usually grounded in a metropolitan area and the best part is the publishing world is looking for young, fresh faces.  As new media and technology are growing, many who have been in the business for years are having trouble keeping up and making the transition from pen and paper to the dreaded keyboard.

    This is our selling point.

    A few good websites to search for careers in the publishing are MediaBistro and Publishers Marketplace.

    Laura Ann Klinedinst

  • Afghan Star: Idol in the Middle East

    While settling down one night this past week, I decided to do some last minute channel surfing. As I was flipping, I stopped on an HBO channel to see what I thought would be a typical documentary on the happenings in the Middle East. I was right, and wrong. What I thought would be a film on the stories we are constantly bombarded by in today’s new sources turned out to have a true twist with a Neo-western touch.

    As I watched crowds of people file into a small building with lines out of the door I couldn’t help but think it looked slightly familiar to an American show I’d seen before, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. As individuals went into a room with a panel of what appeared to be judges, it hit me. “This looks just like American Idol”, I said to myself. Turns out, I was very close. These people were auditioning for a show called Afghan Star, the Middle Eastern version of the hit American Show.

    I watched on to see people fighting to fill the studio where the show is being filmed and it reminded me so much of the American ways of pop stardom. There is a difference in Afghanistan though. Before Afghan Star, there was years of silence. With the Taliban as the last word, singing was banned throughout the country. Even now that this ban is lifted some of the singers still fear for their lives. In the film’s trailer, one contestant named Setara, received a call from her family because they heard she had been killed.

    In America, these type of show are a marketers dream come true. Give someone a story and a song, with a little promotion and they can just sit back and reap the benefits. In Afghanistan, this version has become just as popular. As western society continues to influence these countries through entertainment and other outlets, another question arrises, is this the freedom they want?

    Colby Lewis

  • The Last Song to be the Last Chance?

    Wilmington is commonly known as “Hollywood East” because it is home to EUE Screen Gems Studios, the largest TV and movie production facility outside of California. Movies filmed here include, A Walk to Remember, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Nights in Rodanthe, just to name a few. The television series shot in Wilmington, Matlock, Dawson’s Creek, and most recently, One Tree Hill have been very successful.
    So when Disney contacted Nicholas Sparks about working their magic on his book, The Last Song, there was no doubt that the film would be shot in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, where the book is plotted. Wilmingtonians were gearing up for the new movie and practicing their Hoedown Throwdown to welcome Miley Cyrus with bells on, when Sparks agreed to have the movie filmed in Tybee, GA. Sparks says it fit the book better because it was less commercial than the Wrightsville Beach he wrote about 20 years ago. Members of the cast agree and enjoyed working in Georgia.
    Home state fans of Sparks remained loyal when the movie premiered in Wilmington last night at 7:30. Dry eyes and the disappointed were few and far between. Hopefully The Last Song was not Wilmington’s last movie moment opportunity, or we may be seeing less dry eyes and fewer celebrity encounters in this town.

  • The Personality of Mayfaire

    Shopping, for some, is a means of buying the necessities for living.  For others shopping is a type of therapy to liberate unwanted stresses filling one’s life.  Both types of shoppers range from the highly uninterested penny pincher to the overindulgent impulse buyer.  Often times the uninterested prefer to shop quickly or online because of the shopping location and/or amount of people congregating under one rooftop.  No matter your preference, even if you dislike the ordinary retail atmosphere, almost anyone would be impressed with the type of leisure shopping available at Mayfaire Town Center simply for the feeling aroused when walking around.

    Located near Wrightsville Beach, NC, on Military Cutoff and Eastwood Roads, Mayfaire Town Center, better known as Mayfaire to locals, is a 400-acre PUD community filled with various retail shops, restaurants, and apartments/condos/hotels/homes packed with entertainment for many in the surrounding neighborhood.  Mayfaire is unlike any other shopping center in the area.  The town center offers a combination of specialty boutiques, recognizable shops, delicious cafes, casual and fine dining, and entertainment venues to meet anyone’s taste while maintaining the coastal atmosphere the Cape Fear residents love.   With its outdoor, old-fashioned downtown feel, shoppers can park close in proximity to their store’s location and walk among the numerous places to shop, dine and relax while enjoying the weather all the while.

    At first glance Mayfaire resembles a petite city within the small-town life of Wilmington.  Driving down the main drag excites new and old customers as they see the variety of shops and eateries sitting underneath inviting condos, all beautifully connected with matching bricks and attractive awnings.   While most indoor malls generate a hurried, confined space for customers to spend their money, Mayfaire is the exact opposite with a chicly laidback, upscale feel.  The personality Mayfaire creates is very inviting and comforting, allowing customers to stroll through stores, grab a bite to eat, and top their day trip off with an afternoon at the movies or listening to an outdoor concert and sipping southern sweet tea.  Customers can easily get lost in the vibe Mayfaire offers and forget they are merely shopping and feel they are experiencing an escape from typical retail to a higher quality of shopping.

    With over fifty assorted shops to choose from, Mayfaire offers just what every shopper wants and needs all in one place.  Mayfaire was specifically built to separate itself from other traditional strip and indoor malls and offer the community a finer place of shopping.  As the Marketing Director Paige McKenzie says, “Whether you spend one hour or one day indulging in the shopping choices at Mayfaire, you’ll see what I mean when we say we’re ‘anything but ordinary.’”

    -Allyson Corbin