I'm Glad I Don't Do PR for Them

[notmyprclient]

UNM organization called out for 'colored people' tweet

The best part of this story is that the Mentoring Institute claims to be cultivating an inclusive community.

Add “colored people” to the “I thought everyone knew not to use that phrase anymore, but apparently I was wrong” list. 

[notmyprclient]

Fee-based Frontier Airlines offers SASSY insults to Kyle Clark, for free

Tuesday, the head of corporate communications for Frontier Airlines, Jim Faulkner, saw a story that aired in Next. And then, he sent

It’s a bad sign when your communications chief BECOMES the story. (Just ask Sean Spicer.) So sending a nasty email to a reporter is a pretty bad idea. Just because media outlets no longer “buy ink by the barrel” doesn’t mean you should get into a petty fight with them!

[notmyprclient]

St. Petersburg mayoral candidate goes on racial diatribe

St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Paul Congemi went on a racial tirade Tuesday when he told a rival's backers to “go back to Africa.”

Florida Republican. Who would have guessed?

Saying “Go back to Africa” is generally not a good PR move, for those of you who were wondering. Although I suppose it does appeal to certain folks...

[notmyprclient]

An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret life of a USC med school dean

Photos and video show then-head of Keck School of Medicine partying with criminals and drug-users.

It’s nice to have a non-Trump-related PR fail. The University of Southern California’s medical school is in the middle of a shit storm right now, and their first reaction was basically to clam up. Not good!

And as a reminder... The person who tipped off the LA Times about this did it after trying to get a remedy from the medical school and Pasadena Police Department. It’s an excellent reminder that if you do the right thing (for USC: fire the dean who is getting high with hookers, for Pasadena PD: have your officer on the scene file a full, accurate report at the time of contact), the negative story won’t be splashed in the paper OR if it is, you can at least say you took swift, appropriate action.

[notmyprclient]

Disabled Health Care Protesters Dragged From Senate Hallway

Capitol Police removed protesters, many of whom are disabled and use wheelchairs, from outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office after text of the GOP Senate health care bill was released Thursday....

The image of law enforcement dragging people with disabilities out of their wheelchairs is so searing. It’s a brilliant PR ploy from the resisters, even if it is transparent to those of us who think of such things.

[notmyprclient]

'Make America White Again': Tenn. congressional candidate's billboard ignites uproar

POLK COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVC) - The billboard of a Tennessee restaurant owner running for Congress reading Make America White Again has drawn criticism from Polk County residents.Rick Tyler told WTVC he owns Whitewater Grill in Ocoee, but in the coming months

If you’re a believer in the “any publicity is good publicity” school of thought (and in the racist/Islamophobic school of thought, too), I could see how you’d do this.  The billboard has definitely gotten people talking about this fella’s candidacy... 

[notmyprclient]

A girl with short hair was kicked out of a soccer tournament because she ‘looks like a boy’

Abby Wambach, another soccer standout with short hair, tweeted to 8-year-old Mili Hernandez: "don't EVER let anyone tell you that you aren't perfect just as you are."

There’s a lot happening in the world and in society right now, in terms of gender identity and changing attitudes, which makes stuff like this stand out even more. An 8-year-old girl and her entire soccer team weren’t allowed to play in a soccer tournament because she “looks like a boy.” Her father showing documentation of her gender wasn’t enough for the tournament organizers. Would they have been satisfied if they took her somewhere and peeked inside her undies? Is that what we’ve come to? Bad PR for the tournament organizers. 

[notmyprclient]

Mom furious after teacher names daughter 'most likely to become a terrorist'

Most likely to be a terrorist, those are the words one 7th grader at Lance Corporal Anthony Aguirre Junior High brought home from her teacher.

Would you believe this is in Texas? #sarcasm

[notmyprclient]

South Dakota high school won't let student with brain cancer walk at graduation

A South Dakota high school won't let a student who has brain cancer graduate because she's short by six credits.

It’s that time of year... Time when educational institutions get a ton of bad press about who they won’t let participate in graduation activities. For one Christian school, it’s been a pregnant teenager. For this South Dakota school, it’s a kid with brain cancer. You’d think they’d learn, but no.

[notmyprclient]

Country Radio Station Pulls PSA Giving Tips On How To Hide Child Porn. Really.

An oldies country music radio station serving a rural Arizona area that aired a public service announcement for two years telling people how to hide potential evidence in child pornography cases has stopped doing so after advertisers received threats, the station's owner said Wednesday.

You can’t make this stuff up, folks. Turns out running PSAs with tips on how to avoid getting arrested for child pornography is bad for business. Who knew?

[notmyprclient]

We Haven't Heard the Last of This Quote

At a town hall on Friday morning, Rep Raul Labrador (R-ID) told those challenging his support for Trumpcare (the AHCA):...

“Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.”

Um... Nope. That’s actually 100% wrong. Lots of people die precisely because they don’t have access to healthcare.

This is the kind of quote that is going to be used again and again the next time this guy runs for office. And he did it to himself. Bad move.

[notmyprclient]

At FDA, TVs now turned to Fox News and can't be switched

CBS News confirms FDA researchers directed to display Fox News on "all monitors," rather than CNN

I honestly struggled with whether to include this or not. Does this count as a PR fail? For some segments of the population, this directive is probably welcome and not concerning at all. In that case, this might be a PR victory. Certainly FOX News, if they cover it, will portray it that way.

For other segments of the population, it might bring up questions like, is this akin to the government endorsing a corporation? Does it stifle First Amendment rights in some way? In that case, this might be a PR fail, but it’s so minor in the scheme of all the others, that it doesn’t seem like such a big deal.

I ultimately decided to include it because it’s a fail in the sense that the American people and basic institutions of democracy are being failed.

[notmyprclient]

Teen with cerebral palsy denied prom tickets

She has her dress, her date, and an extensive hair and makeup plan. It’s all in anticipation of her high school prom, but a Middle Tennessee teen was denied tickets.

You know what makes for terrible PR? Denying children with disabilities access to beloved school traditions. In this case, it’s a Tennessee student who can’t go to prom; a few days ago, it was a California student who couldn’t go to Disneyland with her class.

[notmyprclient]

Simon The Bunny, Set To Become World's Biggest Rabbit, Dies On United Airlines Flight

This is not United Airlines's year. Period.

When they’re not kicking people off their planes for various reasons, they’re killing rabbits. Oh, United.

[notmyprclient]

Fla. senator under fire for using racial slur while talking to black colleagues

Republican Sen. Frank Artiles used racial slurs and insults in a private after-hours conversation with African-American colleagues

After offerings, “I’m from Hialeah” as an excuse, this fella later tried to explain by saying he said “ni--a,” not “ni--er.” You know, basically that he’s down with brown folks. Here’s a tip (for people of all colors): avoid the n-word at all times. 

[notmyprclient]

Sessions 'amazed' judge 'on an island in the Pacific' halted Trump travel order

I try really hard not to pile on. Like, this blog doesn’t need to become a running list of Republican gaffes (though there’s plenty of content), and I share stuff Dems do, too, when they make PR fails. But Sessions -- either confused that Hawaii is a state or believing it’s “less than” because the state isn’t part of the continental US -- is just asking for it on this one. 

[notmyprclient]

CNN's Jeffrey Lord: "Think Of President Trump As The Martin Luther King Of Health Care"

From the April 13 edition of CNN's New Day:

Have we learned nothing from this week’s Sean Spicer goof? Don’t make comparisons where Hitler ends up being the good guy... and don’t compare Donald Trump to Martin Luther King, Jr. (Unless you’re talking about them being womanizers, and even then, that’s a terrible idea.)