YouTube is trying to manage the tide of the troubling Tide Pod Challenge, deleting posts of users eating the colorful detergent packets, in the latest black eye for the platform. While the trend has prompted Tide’s parent company, Procter & Gamble, to mount a public service campaign, it also underscores YouTube’s challenges in governing its content and addressing advertiser concerns.
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How to Build a Dashboard to Reflect Business Goals
January 18th, 2018 by Peter Osborne, Friction-Free CommunicationsBuilding a dashboard seems easy enough. Make sure it presents relevant metrics and tracks your path toward success. A former communications executive at a major U.S. bank, Peter Osborne explains how it’s a bit more complicated. He also provides step-by-step instructions so you can create a dashboard that links communications metrics to relevant business goals.

4 (More) Tips to Help You Ace Your PR Writing Test
January 18th, 2018 by Steve GoldsteinIf you’re in the market for a new job in communications, assume that anybody you might be meeting for an interview once made the mistake of hiring somebody without having given that person a writing test (it’s a mistake you make just once). Expect to be asked to take a writing test, and take these four tips to heart.

Ann Curry Finally Gets the Last Word—and the Word is ‘Culture’
January 17th, 2018 by Seth ArensteinIt seemed that the Matt Lauer scandal was behind us now that the former star was gone and his replacement, Hoda Kotb, was installed in his anchor chair. In addition, Katie Couric said the ousted Lauer was “not the Matt we knew.” But this morning former Today Show anchor Ann Curry said the Lauer incident was not a surprise to her and that there was a culture of verbal abuse at NBC. Has the network really moved on from this scandal?

4 Ways CVS Hit the (Beauty) Mark With Photo Manipulation Ban
January 16th, 2018 by Sophie MaerowitzIn an effort to combat harmful advertising in the beauty industry, CVS has made a commitment to keep it real. The retail chain has unveiled its Beauty Mark campaign, promising that it will no longer “digitally alter or change a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color or enhance or alter lines, wrinkles or other individual characteristics” in the imagery it creates for its stores and marketing.

4 Event PR Takeaways From CES 2018
January 16th, 2018 by Cathy Applefeld OlsonThe Consumer Electronics Show is already a loaded PR coin. On one side there’s the opportunity to amplify messaging to hundreds of thousands of attendees and an exponential audience tuning in to media coverage. On the other is the challenge of rising above the throng, which this year includes a 146-inch TV and laundry-folding bots. Stir in some torrential rainstorms, power outages and grumpy attendees, and we’ve got a good list of challenges and takeaways from this year’s spectacle.

The Week in PR
January 16th, 2018 by Seth ArensteinOur weekly roundup of news, trends and personnel moves in the world of communications, marketing and PR. This week we have stories about President Trump’s awards for the awful media, and journalism’s response, France’s attempt to legislate away fake news, Facebook’s algorithm changes and Univision’s Jennifer Ball has a new job.

PRNews/LexisNexis Survey: Few Brands Have Formal Structures for Social Listening
January 16th, 2018 by Jerry AsciertoIs anyone listening? When it comes to social listening, the answer is yes. The trouble is that nearly 40% of brands lack a formal plan for social listening, according to new survey from PRNews and LexisNexis. Even more concerning is that these brands have failed to implement procedures for what happens when social listening picks up a potential issue.

CES 2018: High-Tech Cars, Connectivity and Virtual Assistants Abound
January 12th, 2018 by David Wolpert, Bell HelicopterIt’s easy to get distracted by the flash if not the substance of the yearly consumer electronics show known as CES. This year’s edition was every bit as gaudy as those of past years, even without the lights on. The question, however, is what all the gadgets and promises of revolutionary capabilities mean for communicators? David Wolpert, social media manager at Bell Helicopter, offers some thoughts.

Facebook to Downplay Branded Content in News Feeds, Zuckerberg Says
January 12th, 2018 by Samantha WoodIf you thought Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year’s resolution to “fix” Facebook was just like your resolution to stop eating candy (as in, never going to happen), think again. Late Thursday, Zuckerberg announced major changes coming to the platform—namely, a de-emphasis of branded content in news feeds—and those changes will likely have a serious impact on your brand’s approach to the platform.