Category: Marketing Trends/News

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=501842&page=1

I’m old enough to remember when TV ads were nearly entirely populated with white people. Now, according to this longish Associated Press story, TV is where many Americans actually “meet” people of different colors and ethnicities. Now, according tot he article, it’s Society that lags behind Television.

Well, it may be true in some sectors.

But I grew up in New York City and still visit there frequently. Riding the subway or living in the city’s diverse neighborhoods, the reality of our multicultural country is all around you (unlike Los Angeles, where my perception is that almost the only people who take the subway are people of color–whites must drive, I guess). I think there’s been a huge shift to explore other cultures–maybe not in ways that are all that meaningful, but the isolation breaks down at least a little bit even every time a person from the majority culture eats at an authentic ethnic restaurant–which, in my childhood, usually meant Chinese, and now might be Mexican, Afghani, Indian, Thai, Arabic… That we rub shoulders across cultures at universities, in the workplace, in hospital waiting rooms…and of course, on the Internet.

Yes, there is a class of people who is wealthy and uses their wealth to isolate themselves from the hoi polloi–but that’s nothing new–look at the royal courts of Europe in, say, the 17th century.

Oddly enough, I now live in a village with almost no ethnic or racial diversity: Hockanum Village, a small hamlet of about 200 people, nearly all of them descended from Britishers who settled here between 1743 and 1850. As a Jew, I’m exotic here. And though the village name comes from a Native American tongue, I know of no neighbors who claim that ancestry. It is the most welcoming place I’ve ever lived.

As I write this, it’s somewhere around 4 degrees Fahrenheit. We got another several inches of snow yesterday, more predicted in the future. Usually we have either bitter cold or snow; this month, we’ve had both plus biting winds.

But if I were a print magazine editor, I’d be thinking about summer stories right now. And if I wrote beach-reading books rather than marketing and PR how-tos, I’d be looking for fresh angles to pitch.

But it’s really challenging to think two whole seasons out. In daily journalism, there’s no time disconnect like that. In winter, you pitch winter stories, and in summer, summer stories.

I often wonder what it’s like to be in that headspace–to be doing photo shoots of people in swimsuits, splashing on the beach, when you know that when yo get back to your car, there’ll be an inch of ice to scrape off the windows. Deadlines and lead times are such funny things! for Internet media, or radio, it can be instant; I’ve certainly done my share of live on-air phoners, or seen the impact of an announcement picked up by a well-read Internet discussion group or newsletter.

Of course, the best part is that if you remember to go back into your files, all the pitches you sent out to monthlies half a year in advance can be quickly tweaked to pitch a whole other round of media, with shorter lead times. Never a dull moment!

The other thing it means, though, is sometimes you don’t know ahead of time what the story will be…and that closes you out of some media for the time being. Oh well, come back to them with something else, that you *can* plan in advance.

https://www.danavan.net/weblog/archives/contrasts_press_releases_vs_blogs_blogging.html

I still think there’s a definite place for the press release–but not, fergoodnessake, those horrid no-news corporate blather annuncements. If you find the real news in it, a press release can be just as exciting as a blog.

As an example, I was once hired to write a press release for a new book on electronic privacy. Instead of the boring, expected “Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book,” my headline was “It’s 10 O’Clock–Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?

I had fun with it, and so did the client–and, I imagine, the media that received it.