McCormick’s PR Blog

Up until college, I had always attended a private school and always had to wear uniforms. All of my teachers said that uniforms were meant to reduce distractions and to make the students look presentable to new parents and students looking to attend school there.

Well in a technology-based school where we took laptops to every class, clothing was the least of our distractions. With instant messenger, facebook and the millions of websites on the World Wide Web, the teachers should have known that saying clothing would distract us was not a valid reason.

As for making the school and its students look uniform, uniforms did their job. But during the adolescent years, when children are trying to figure out who they are and express themselves, why would you want to take that away from them?

Another reason we had to wear uniforms was because some students would otherwise dress provocatively. Well, somehow these students still managed to make the uniforms provocative, with the short plaid skirts and tight polos.

Eventually, the trend of uniforms spread from private schools to public schools as well. The main reason was because every school faculty wanted to improve the school’s image. But exactly how does wearing a plaid skirt and polo with knee-high socks improve a school’s image?

If everyone looks uniform, does that mean that the school is any stronger academically? Does wearing uniforms make one school better than a school who does not wear uniforms?

I particularly did not mind wearing them because it meant that I didn’t have to wake up early and spend time choosing what I would wear to school, but at the same time it would have been nice to have used the way I dressed to express myself, rather than being uniform with everyone else.

Uniforms or not, I do not think it improves nor hurts a school’s image. I think it just sends off the message that this particular school would prefer that everyone abide by the rules and be one, rather than individuals.

With the spring recycling campaign, school researchers discovering new ways to store and recycle nuclear waste and the recent plans to add bicycle paths everywhere, Auburn University is fulfilling its social responsiblity as an eco-friendly campus.

Since gas prices are rapidly rising and students are constantly on the go commuting from their apartments to class, there needs to be another way that students can get from their homes to class without relying on the sometimes unreliable transit. 

Auburn has decided to create new bicycle paths on Wire Road and Donahue Drive that lead into campus paths.  They even plan to have a bicycle repair shop in the new student center in case you get a flat tire on your way to class. 

With the new paths, Auburn hopes to create a safer environment for pedestrians and bicyclists.  This way students walking to class with their ipods and headphones in their ears, don’t have to fear for their lives that the mad dash of cars trying to find a last minute parking spot will run them over.

But most importantly, the new bike paths will hopefully inspire more students to buy a bike and help with pollution created by automobiles.  When students buy bikes, they influence other students, because they see those students getting to class quicker, saving money on gas and staying in shape at the same time. 

Auburn is changing the world one bicyclist at a time. 

In emergency pr, it is extremely important that you address the targeted public with the correct information quickly.  When the recent salmonellosis outbreak from tomatoes occurred, the FDA had to step in a take quick action in regards to the American public.

But how would the FDA reach such a large public in a short time?  On June 7, the FDA chose to use their website as one resource where they could reach a mass audience.  They released a press release and had a direct link on the front page of their website. 

 The press release warned people what exact products and sources had been contaminated, and directions on how to find out if your tomatoes are from a contaminated source. 

They also published a list of states, territories and countries that were not associated with the outbreak, as well as, what symptoms occur with salmonellosis and what to do. 

They linked their website and press release to other websites, including the Centers for Disease Control, to allow more people to access their website. 

Local and National media were contacted to spread the word quickly.  Between the news and website, a lot of the United States was covered.  But there is still a large amount of people who do not have contact through those mediums, and those who would not think to visit the FDA website.

So how do you reach these people?  Well, informing companies, including restaurants and grocery stores, to take these products off the shelves was a start.  Then these restaurants and grocery stores could inform their customers, who could inform their friends.  

A lot of information depended on word of mouth.  But overall, the FDA reacted effectively and quickly, considering only 23 people in America were hospitalized.  It certainly could have been a lot worse.   

Pork, which was marketed by the pork industry and National Pork Board as “the other white meat,” is now adding a new twist to the campaign.  It is now “the other white meat,” and ”Don’t be blah.” 

This campaign strives to target a new demographic, women in their mid twenties and thirties.  Which are the ages when many women are starting their households and trying to please husbands and children with new delicious meals for dinner.  

The campaign’s purpose was to show that there are many different ways you can fix pork.  Many different dishes that can arise from one particular meat, and still please a family.

Unfortunately the campaign hasn’t been as successful as the original.  One part being because the target demographic, is the same demographic that is highest for vegetarians.    

This certainly is not the only cause this particular demographic is not responding as well as anticipated, but it is one area we must certainly look at.  Especially when we evaluate the campaign at the end. 

Maybe the National Pork Board should alter its target audience and see if a change in reponse is made, before coming to a conclusion.

After seeing many of the new advertisements for pork run in health magazines and other women’s magazines, and knowing that I am in that target demographic and would not respond because I do not eat red meat or pork for health reasons, I can’t help but think they might possibly have the wrong target audience, by targeting the health crowd.

Friday morning, a 26-year-old man was shot at the Comfort Inn on South College Street.  While I may not have wanted to be woken up at 1 in the morning by my AU Alert, it makes me wonder, what exactly makes something AU Alert worthy.

Well, I thought the incident had to be located on campus, but I was alerted about a stabbing that occurred at the Edge Apartments located off campus by Loco’s.  Also, I guess it includes weather since I have been alerted about tornadoes near campus, even over spring break when I was in Texas. 

Well if it includes severe weather and off-campus activities, then why was I not notified about the man shot this past weekend?  Are they cutting back on alerting in the summer, or becoming more selective? 

I guess either way, everyone is going to have a different opinion about what is important and what is not.  But what I would like to know is how they determine what to alert the students about. 

The people behind AU Alert also have the challenge of finding the right amount of times to alert.  If you alert too often, then AU Alert becomes disregarded and may lose some credibility.  But if you do not use it enough, then it defeats the purpose of having it in the first place. 

AU Alert is important because it has a direct tie to the university.  If AU Alert does not do its job properly, then the university’s safety image could be in jeopardy.

Recently, the Auburn baseball coach resigned after four years of coaching at Auburn. All four of those years Auburn did not qualify for the SEC Tournament. 

It was not that Tom Slater wasn’t  good, because he did an excellent job recruiting for the program.  He simply did not utilize the talent on the team well.  He would leave pitchers in way past their time, and therefore runs were given up.  Some of the players were not even given a chance to show what they had.  

Those four years Auburn was in a slump, and now it is time to change that and to make a fresh new start for the Auburn baseball program.  Auburn hired John Pawlowski, who previously coached for the College of Charleston, to get the program back on track.

A lot of the players commented to me during previous interviews, that they were excited about the new coach because it meant a fresh new start and equal opportunity for all the players. 

Is it possible that a new outlook from a new coach could bring the team a new beginning, or better yet, get Auburn to the SEC Tournament?  Hopefully so, and hopefully this new change will redefine Auburn baseball and develop a better image for the Auburn baseball program.

Being a sports reporter for my campus news, I have had the privilege of working with media relations.  According to the NCAA rules, you must go through media relations in order to interview any of the NCAA athletes. 

Since these are college athletes, rather than professional who have an agent, they have a designated media relations professional that deals with a single team  and all of its members. 

They set guidelines and make suggestions for what the players should and should not say in interviews.  They also help with the players’ on-camera skills, and help to portray the athletes in the best light. 

If a reporter starts to discuss a topic that is not appropriate, then the athlete or media relations professional will usually say that the particular topic is not to be discussed at this time period.

It is usually a long process, because a reporter must first contact media relations, and then media relations must contact the athletes to set up an interview time that works around the athlete’s schedule.  This process can take anywhere from a day to a week.

The media relations professional is a huge part of the team.  They travel with the team, attend practices and games and help with media events.  It is very important for the media relations professional to become close with the team and develop a relationship of trust.  If this relationship is created then the athletes will listen to and trust the media relations professional, therefore portraying the wanted image.               

One of the reasons I got into public relations in the first place was because the classes I had to take for this particular major placed an emphasis on writing. Before I got into the major, I had never put the two together. But as I took more classes, I realized that a large part of public relations is writing.

Writing press releases to inform the public, fact sheets, call to action pieces, emergency releases for crisis situations and press kits are a routine part of everyday for public relations practitioners. Not only must you be able to write these, but you must be able to write them well and persuasively.

If you can not write a persuasive press release, then the piece will not catch a magazine or newspaper writer’s attention and your client will not be featured. This will result in lost publicity. You must be able to attract the attention of your reader and keep them interested throughout the piece, as well as inform them about your client or event.

When students graduate, the majority start with agencies or at other entry-level positions. Most agencies have their interns or entry-level positions write press releases, so that they will become better at writing them. Good writing must also be proofread several times. A bad press release with errors could tarnish a company or agency’s reputation and destroy connections.

Public relations is not only communicating with clients verbally, but also in the written form. Without good writing skills, you can forget about working in the public relations field.

Welcome to PRblogs.org. I am so excited to start blogging on this! I welcome your comments on any of my blogs. It is very helpful to receive feedback and to understand different points of view. I hope you enjoy reading my blogs as much as I did writing them!