Bribery, is it ETHICAL?

When is bribery ethical?

Its a question of morals, and given the chance im sure most people would prefer a fair world where people didnt have to pay bribes.

However, I think its a question of consequence, When I was on holiday in Morocco staying in an all inclusive resort, it was expected for you to flash some money at the bar to get the barman to serve you first, and serve you better drinks! If you did not, you would simply be ignored. This was normal, and most people saw it as a but of fun, a game. The barman did not earn alot of money and so relied on these 'tips' to survive. In theory of course, this is a bribe, but no-one batted an eye lid at this game.

Thats because of the scale and effect of this bribe was small and insignificant, but what happens when you are talking about millions of pounds? When the bribe involves effecting the lives of millions of people, or feeding an inhumane and cruel foreign regime?

Is that when it becomes unethical?

What do you think about bribery? Have you ever paid a bribe? Do you think that as long as you dont know, it doesnt matter? Especially if it benefits you?

I welcome your comments!

Bin it-Dont Block it

For part of my third year at university we have been asked to write a post about a CIPR Pride awards winner and the one I chose to do was Thames Water Press Offices 'Bin it-Dont Block it' campaign. They won gold for both best use of media relations and best campaign with a budget of 10k and under.

Let me discribe the campaign to you then I will invite any comments on the issue.

Every year 55,000 blockages are caused by people in the Thames Valley region flushing or washing unsiutable waste down their toilets or sinks, this results in at least 7,000 homes and gardens being flooded, this has huge financial implications for Thames Water (£12m in fact) and is a serious problem for the whole country. The message that people should stop flushing unsuitable things down their toilets is a tired, old and boring one and the big task for Thames Water press office was to convey the message in a creative and innovative way, with a very limited budget.

The campaigns objectives were as follows:

• To devise a fresh new campaign on an age old problem to run over six months
• To develop an online presence (embracing social media)
• To maximise campaign cooverage whilst avoiding repetition
• To use traditional PR tecniques with no marketing budget

Thames Water conducted a survey and found that 41% of their customers flush unsuitable products down toilets and sinks, so the campaign had to change peoples attitudes and encourage them to change their behaviour.

The campaign used a series of 'hits' in which to unroll the campaign, in the first hit they coined the term 'Sewer Abuse' which would go on to be used widely by the media, they sent out a news release and held a photocall in London sewers and manholes which was attended by ITV, The Press Association and BBC1 South. they teamed up with 'Grime fighters' to do a five part series which attracted five million viewers per episode.

The second hit was rathermore organic and used subtle humour the engage the audience; In December 2009 they used a handycam to film the ‘flushers’ singing ‘This Christmas think of Sewermen’ to the tune of ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen’ whilst wearing Christmas hats, this video was posted on YouTube and much to the surprise of Thames Water, was picked up by ITV and re-filmed. The film appeared on BBC Breakfast as well as other prime time shows which demonstrates excellent media relations and in my opinion shows an innovative idea.

This video was backed up by ‘Flushers’ blogs and after sending celebrities down the Sewers to experience what the ‘Flushers’ do, they too wrote blogs about the subject.

Finally, the third hit involved BBC1 London and BBC Newsround filmed the sewers underneath Leicester Square (which are the worst in the country) which was followed by a photocall and news release respectively.

The results were outstanding and whilst gaining an incredible amount of coverage Thames Water still managed to keep the budget down to £280, just £250 for photography and £30 for Christmas hats!

What I would like to know is do you think it deserved to win GOLD for both best use of media relations? Or 10k and under? Or both? I think it deserved both but is it sustainable? Could the same idea be used next year? Do you think they should have measured people’s attitudes and actions AFTER the campaign to see if it was succesful?

I welcome your comments!

Is any publicity good publicity?

In the wake of the most recent student protests in Parliment Square yesterday it seems that students and others who have been protesting are behaving like violent thugs and ruining it for everyone who wants  to protest peacfully. This of course is true, however how much publicity would these protest have had if they were simply a few people picketing peacfully?

I understand that of course violence is not the answer and will undoubtedly cast a shadow over the message the students are trying to get across about tuition fees but the amount of publicity this has attracted has been increased dramatically due to the sheer volume of people and the bad behavour of some. surely to get the message heard, it needs to be heavily publicised. I know this isnt in the minds of some of the unruly youngsters who turned up yesterday and at the Millbank tower, but surely any publicity is good publicity?

I know that when Nick Clegg pledged to abolish tuition fees in his manifesto, along with other promises to look after the younger generation, it encouraged alot of young people to vote for Lib Dem and now I think they feel short changed, this is yet again a generation that will grow up feeling resentment to their government, because we are paying for the problems the previous generation have caused. Will they listen though? I doubt it.

Do you think any publicity is good publicity? or do you think that a minority are abusing our right to freedom of speech and peacful protest by behaving like thugs? Do you thing the negative publicity is making all young people look bad, and losing the focus of the message?

Facebook New Groups

Check out this simple presentation on how Facebook groups can be a bigger problem than they seem, when a PR proffessional has several stakeholder groups to communicate with, how do they stop them from overlapping on social media sites? I welcome your thoughts on this!

Facebook New Groups

View more presentations from Jean Dobey.

Photo fun

For as long as photography has been around people have used images to promote, provoke, spark interest and generate interest and one of the most popular subjects to photograph is travel.

Even before the phenomenon of online photo sharing, people were using travel photography as an advertising and PR tool. It seems obvious that when promoting a product or place that an image is an effective way of enticing people to part with their money, but how is photography used as an effective PR tool?

For one, photography is used to bring people together, whether that be through a competition, a discussion or a beautiful collection for everyone to enjoy, it creates a ‘community’ and this community will have opinions and perceptions, public relations can be used to not only create these communities but to ‘manage’ them. 

what do you think about photo competitions online? Do you enter these kinds of competitions? Why do you think people are so interested in other peoples travels? let me know!

Blog off....Here Goes!

When presented with the unavoidable task of writing an interesting and reaction provoking Public Relations themed blog, I instantly felt the feeling of fear you often get when your assignments are thrust in your face at the beginning of term. How in the holy name am I going to do this??? 

So the first thing to do? Research...What do people want to read about? How many people actually do this blogging thing? So I go about asking my friends and loved ones. Although I am not getting much help at the moment because as I am trying to write this silly thing and conduct my ‘research’ my boyfriend is doing his best to distract me (he is measuring with a tape measure the amount of ‘butt crack’ he has showing from above his pants, its 60 mm FYI).

Anyway, back to the task at hand, so I forget about what other people want and focus on what I want, I don’t want my blog to be a vain collection of thoughts that no one will be interested in, or a sleep inducing essay style piece on the role of Public relations in today’s society and most importantly, above all, I don’t want it to be boring. Boring and yawn inducing, is unfortunately what many blogs are to myself, they do not interest me, they don’t leave me chomping at the bit to write a juicy contradictive comment in a fit of passion and rage, they don’t provoke me at all, I simply close the page and go back to whatever I was busy doing on facebook. So, as I’m sure all my PR and Communications classmates will agree this is not going to be easy, however, I am going to give it my best shot.

The blog, for me, is a difficult and challenging task to say the least, but it is part of my degree, and for very good reason. Public relations as we know is moving into an age whereby social media is king, the viral campaign is what every client is after, success is when a reaction is provoked, or something is talked about, social media is at the centre of this.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, BeeBo, LinkedIn and Blogging. Blogging, blogging , blogging! Where the everyday Joe can be the journalist. There is a free reign. You can broadcast what you like and with millions of people out there having a voice, an opinion, however small or insignificant, it is undeniably a great tool for communication. 

I want your opinions, I need your opinions! What do you think about blogging? My personal opinion, im still not sold.....

So, I hereby declare my blog open and ready for action....