Good PR
The media have hammered New York Sen. Hillary Clinton because of the release last week of her new autobiography "Living History". Conventional wisdom has it that Clinton is
shooting herself in the foot politically by reviving all the scandals that engulfed the Clinton White House, culminating with President Clinton's 1998 impeachment by the House of
Representatives. Sen. Clinton has been criticized as money-hungry (the $8 million payout for the autobiography) and/or politically tone deaf (giving all that fresh ammo to the GOP
and Clinton- haters.) But we see things differently. Like all U.S. Senators, Clinton probably thinks she would make a pretty good president. The difference between her and most of
her 49 colleagues is that she's got a legitimate shot at the Oval Office, as some current national polls suggest when Clinton is stacked up against the 2004 White House Democratic
wannabes. If she is angling to run for President in 2008, better to air out all the dirty laundry now for the media to inhale -- rather than later. Clinton is making a shrewd bet
that for all the hyperventilating the book is now causing it'll most likely be a dim memory by the time she devises a national campaign. That's good PR.
Bad PR
Two wrongs don't make a right, and Wal-Mart's decision earlier this month to partly obscure the covers of four women's magazines sold in its checkout counters is no exception.
In May Wal-Mart said it was pulling three men's titles - FHM, Maxim and Stuff -- from its stores because of customer complaints. Jay Allen, a Wal-Mart spokesman, told The New
York Times June 7 that similar complaints had caused the decision to cover the covers of the women's magazines: Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Redbook, all published by Hearst
Magazines, and Glamour, published by Condé Nast. The publishing companies aren't commenting. Wal-Mart seems to be selectively listening to its customers, a slippery slope in terms
of how you want to communicate to literally millions of customers. Offensive material is often in the eye of the beholder. What's more, the banned men's magazines have been sent
gratis to members of the armed services serving in the Persian Gulf and Marie Claire has been sent to female soldiers in the Gulf. They can get uncensored magazines in the Gulf,
but censored magazines in the States? Doesn't sound too patriotic to us.