Inside the world of Rob Mclean, Author

Thought I'd take a moment on this Sunday afternoon to do a quick revisit of the variables I track regarding the recession we are in and whether such variables are getting better, worse, or unchanged. You can see my past posts on this topic here: Top 10 Reasons This Recession Will Never End Update 1 Update 2 Update 3 Now for Update 4: 1.  Crashes hurt for a long time - worse -   All you have to do is take a look at a six month chart of the DOW to see that the pain continues and is actually get worse. Every time the market finds an excuse to push back upwards, it inevitably comes to its senses and crashes back down, reflecting that the situation is not fixed and that no fix is really in sight. While corporate profits are stable in the US, employers have been laying people off, clearly demonstrating they do not see a recovery at hand. Nokia Siemens to lay off 17,000 worldwide Wall Street Layoffs Top 200,000   Ford Plans 4,000 Temporary Layoffs on Weak Dem...

If you're still wondering what is actually going on in America I strongly suggest you read a blog post over at The Burning Platform entitled - Comfortably Numb . This might be the best summary of what is going on with the economy and society that I've seen to date. It also explains how both OWS and the Tea Party are essentially protesting the same thing, but they are attacking different heads of the same beast. I've held for a while that as things get worse, both OWS and the Tea Party will come to realize this, and despite their polar opposite views of small gov versus big gov, will actually intersect in a common purpose, that being addressing the corruption that those in positions of power are free to engage in. While OWS is an amorphous organization, they would do well to create insightful articles such as the one at The Burner Platform (which as far as I can tell is not an off-shoot of OWS or the Tea Party, just a blogger with insightful commentary). It's th...

In a previous post I had a video that showed students at UC Davis being pepper sprayed by campus security. In the video below you can see UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walking to her car and the students protesting in silence over the actions taken (not sure, but I believe they are calling for her resignation). It's a very creepy video. The video actually reminds me of something out of the movie Village of the Damned , with Christopher Reeve. Generally speaking silence is not the best form of getting your point across, but in this case I don't think the students could have chosen a better PR tactic for being heard. Nothing says 'shame on you' more than silence. Maybe it's just me, but when you know that all those students are angry as hell and yet they are all able to contain themselves and remain silent, there's something very ominous about that. It communicates that if they can be disciplined in a situation such as this, then you don't want t...

Occupy Wall Street continues on. The politicians must be getting worried at this point, two months in and people are not letting up. I'm sure no one expected the 'ADD-Twitter-Post-MTV' generation to have this kind of staying power. OWS has gone from being branded a 'bunch of communists' and being told to 'get a job' to now being seen as a bunch of people 'determined to change the system' - ironically, this is why people voted for Obama (he was suppose to be changing the system). OWS is quickly becoming a vehicle for those disappointed that Obama did not bring hope or change to the country (at least I think it is). Anyway, some interesting videos associated with OWS that caught my attention this week: Pepper spray makes a return. Student protesters get doused by the cops. 84 year old protester gets pepper sprayed by the police. (Really? spraying old ladies might go down as one of the dumbest PR moves of the police yet.) Ok, now this is...

Two interesting political videos caught my attention this week and they show how negative events get far more attention in the media than positive ones. The first was Herman Cain, who when asked about Libya had a Rick Perry moment. The YouTube video is nearing the million hit mark and the video was on just about every news cast out there. It's scary (to me) to think that Cain could be the President of the United States. On the flip side, this off-camera moment with Ron Paul, which is only hitting the 4,000 hit mark (and not surprisingly got zero media coverage), shows that politicians aren't all sociopathic narcissists. To me, the Paul video is more important in terms of assessing a presidential candidate than the Cain video. Of course it's important whether Cain knows what he's talking about, but the Paul video is an example of how character is something you either have or you don't. If you want a just system / society, then you better elect someone who liv...

Admittedly a non-PR related post... I've never seen the show Glee and would consider it a form of torture if someone ever made me watch it, so I was quite surprised to find out that one of my favourite shows was created by the co-creators of Glee. American Horror Story , which airs on FX, is really good. I can't think of a tv show that actually felt like a really good horror movie, but this one does. I guess maybe some of the older Twilight Zone episodes were creepy enough to qualify, but AHS really hits the nail on the head when it comes to creeping you out. The trailers don't do it justice, but regardless here you go:

Stumbled on this new service called The Interviewr - it's basically an online portal where you can set up interviews and their system will call out to you and the person being interviewed and connect the two of you for your interview. You can attach files and notes to the interview, as well as record the interview. The best part - it's free! The value here in my opinion is the 'reminder' factor. It's not uncommon even with calendar reminders, to miss a conference call because someone's day got overly hectic. However, with The Interviewr, the system calls you, so you can't miss your interview (unless you choose not to answer your phone). There's also a serious cost-savings factor at play here. This provides both parties with a 'no cost' long-distance option. After all, the system is calling you, so you aren't incurring any LD fees (nor is the other person on the call). Not sure what the call quality is like, but provided it's not bad,...

WIND might not have the big bucks that Rogers and Bell do, but with a little kinetic typography they can still produce a slick commercial. I'm switching over to Wind in December and can't wait to once and for all be free of the the Big Two completely (by the way, my Teksavvy extreme cable is awesome, not sure why anyone goes with Rogers). The only negative thing I can say about Wind so far is that when you go in to their stores (or at least the one I was in), which are fairly small outlets usually within local malls, they don't have any chairs for their employees. I've seen this done before in some consumer-traffic businesses, take away the chairs and the employees are forced to stay on their feet and so they don't get lazy and sit down. Back in my younger years when I worked 10 -hours on your feet type of jobs, I can tell you, it's torture if every now and then you can't sit down for a minute or two. The only thing more torturous is 10-hours at ...

The dichotomy between Obama in 2008 and Obama today is perhaps one of the most striking examples of PR brand reversals in history. Obama recently announced that in addition to moving troops in to the Gulf region , he will also be sending troops to Australia . The move in Australia accompanies his statements that the US is a "Pacific nation" which intends to play "a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future." For a president who received the Nobel Peace Prize and campaigned based on hope and change, it's ironic that his strengths now are seen primarily as being a military president who will not shy away from any confrontation. Yes, China is a bad country, but putting troops on their doorstep is not the answer. How would the US react if China put 2,500 troops along the Mexican border? Or how would Canada act if the US put 2,500 troops up in Alaska (for easy access to Russia) - I'm pretty sure Canadians would be enraged. Not to men...

Looks like OC Transpo is all over the news today. Turns out the bus driver that flipped out on a passenger has been fired . Apparently like the passenger in question had autism.  I wrote my initial opinion on this incident in a blog entry - OC Bus Drive loses it... - in which I thought, without knowing the full facts of the situation, that this was a tough situation to judge. My conclusion was that this was more a reflection of how poorly we as a society manage mental illness. While autism is not a mental illness, my conclusion still stands in the sense that as a society we are not equipped or social aware of how to manage behavioral issues that some people may exhibit. The public transportation system has a lot of mentally ill passengers, this is their primary way of getting around, and whether or not the bus driver's behavior was beyond reproach, in my opinion, really comes down to the extent to which drivers are trained to deal with those with mental illness. If they ar...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a graphic novel entitled -  "Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic" - which teaches people about the importance of emergency preparedness.  The graphic novel can be viewed on their Web site in pdf format. Kudos to the CDC for being creative. While cartoons and comics have been used by government agencies in the past, they are generally 'see spot run' vanilla boring.  A zombie theme that captures people's imagination and makes kids think 'What would I do if zombies attacked?" is very clever.  And let's face it, the 'emergency preparedness' steps for zombies will help you in just about any other scenario you might actually face in actual reality.

Maybe one of the best pieces of (mainstream) journalism I've seen in a long time out of the US. I'm so use to the media tip-toeing around issues versus going in head-on with hard hitting investigative journalism. Well, 60 minutes can't be accused of scratching anyone's back on this one. They go at Washington hard and hit Pelosi and Boehner on the practice of politicians trading stocks based on information only they have (you'd think that would be illegal, but apparently it's not. Surprise surprise, what actually is 'illegal' nowadays that some loophole doesn't allow people to engage in?) I love watching these politicians try to explain how one day before a stock pops or drops based on politic events in Washington their decision to buy the stock and dump it for a profit a few days later does not suggest anything inappropriate is going on. I'm telling you, if the media starts to really investigate this stuff and put it on the air regularly...

What a dummy. Jay-Z apparently made Occupy Wall Street shirts and was selling them for $22 a pop. The catch? None of the profit went back in to OWS in anyway. From a brand perspective this was an incredible dumb move (and by brand I'm referring to the fact that Jay-Z is a brand unto himself). Once again we come back to PR 101 basics - know your audience. Making a profit, or at least not profit-sharing, off a customer base that is protesting capitalism and which sees itself as a movement against corporate greed and influence, is pretty dumb. Jay-Z has apparently stopped selling the shirts, but his brand will take a black eye from this little escapade. I'm sure from Jay-Z's perspective he was merely identifying a market demand and supplying that demand - capitalism 101 - in fact, he might have seen his actions as helping the OWS movement. From the OWS'ers perspective, some things should not be about money and profit, and Occupy Wall Street is one of those thin...

Stumbled on these videos of some Irish guy explaining the economic mess the world is in. I don't know if it's his accent or what, but he definitely got me laughing (the second video is better than the first I think). This is what OWS needs, a few charismatic spokespersons that people are eager to listen to. While the decentralized nature of OWS works and you wouldn't want to change that, a few characters around the edges wouldn't hurt the cause. (warning: videos contain cursing) (from 2010) (from 2011)

Way back in July I wrote a blog entry -  The hits keep on coming - RIM has a tough week - in which I made the absurd prediction that:  It's a bit of a crazy prediction, but I won't be surprised if in a year or two from now if RIM stock is trading down around 15 bucks. I think there's more pain to come. Well, in less than six months RIM stock fell from $29 in July (at the time I wrote the blog entry) to $17.30 today. While it's not the $15 dollar target, it's close enough for me to say that I came pretty close to the bullseye. I thought it would take at least 12 months, but it's occurred even faster. (And for PR folks out there, I personally believe that at least 50 per cent of that lost value is tied to PR damage the company has taken as opposed to fundamental issues). I hate seeing RIM fall like this, it's a black eye on all of Canada if you ask me. There is a positive though On the positive side I really believe in the Neitzschean concept that ...

Check out mark 1:40 in the GOP debates last night. Perry can't name the departments that he plans to cut (even though they are in his economic plan). I think that pretty much brings his campaign hopes to a close. You have to feel bad for the guy as he clearly, for whatever the reason, simply had a deer in the headlights moment. I'm sure he knows what the departments are (I would hope so anyway), but the neurons just weren't firing in that moment. I do find it hilarious that he turns to Ron Paul for help - who looks at him with a bit of a 'It's your plan, I don't know what departments you want to cut. I know I'm cutting five of them." Should be an interesting primary in January. My predictions, Romney, Cain, and Paul will still be viable at that point, everyone else will fall away. Cain might also fall away if more details around these sexual harassment issues come to light. Romney versus Paul would be a fascinating finale to the GOP nominat...

I left Rogers probably six months ago for TekSavvy and I get nothing from Bell other than a basic line (and I have plans in the next month or so to dump Bell and go all-cellular through Wind Mobility ). Yet, the big boys (Rogers and Bell) just can't accept that I've moved on. Every month I get mail from Rogers offering me three free months on all services (internet, cable, phone). Bell Canada called me today trying to offer me ways to reduce my 'costs' (I didn't listen to their pitch because it always involves up-selling new services and ultimately increasing your monthly bill). Listen guys, it's over. I don't want anything to do with you for the next 30,40, or 50 years that I have left to live on this planet. Offering three months of free service which ultimately ends up costing twice as much as service I can get elsewhere isn't a bargain. So keep printing up those pricey flyers with the money you are milking from your existing customers, but it...

It's interesting to note the difference between American Banks and Canadian Banks when it comes to PR. On some level, this is kind of like asking which is worse, a hurricane or an earthquake given populous sentiment towards banks has forever been fairly negative.  However, I think the Canadian banks can teach American banks something when it comes to PR. We all know that Canadian banks handled themselves much more responsibly on the financial front during the financial collapse of 2008, but since then they've also done a better job on the PR front. I say this with regards to two events recently by TD bank: 1) TD recently announced that it was increasing fees on checking accounts . However, they appear to be targeting the increases towards services that will least affect their customers. Their official statement is that only one per cent of their customer base will be affected. Compare this to the banks in the US which implemented debit card fees that affected almost ...

This video of an OC Transpo bus driver losing it on a passenger has gone viral in Ottawa today. While the driver's reaction was over the top, I don't think it's clear from this video that he was necessarily in the wrong. From the YouTube description, this took place when only two people were in the bus and the passenger in question, who has been identified as being mentally ill (or at least that's what people say), is very likely harassing the bus driver. Which at the very least creates a safety concern for the driver who must pay attention to the road. While the bus driver's threat of violence is over the top, we can't simply assume that such threats were genuine. They very well could have simply been a frustrated attempt to get the passenger to back off and sit down. If the passenger was mentally ill, one has to sympathize with the driver who could very well be wondering to himself whether said mentally ill person might pull out a knife and stab him ...

After claiming for months that he was not campaigning, Obama has just released, you guessed it, a campaign ad for the 2012 election. Given, I'm not a huge fan of Obama at this point, so my view might be overly pessimistic, but I don't think the ad is very good. In fact, I'd argue the rationale behind the ad is almost delusional. For the ad to make sense it assumes that there is still a huge investment of hope in Obama. That people haven't given up on him for the most part. The statistics however argue that they have given up, with his approval rating lower than every other president except Carter and in recent polls of Occupy Wall Street protesters, 60 per cent of them voted for Obama yet 73 per cent of those voters now disapprove of the job Obama is doing. The ad will resonate with hardcore Obama supporters, since they would take anyone over another republican after what Bush put the country through. Yet, that's a very small base of people to create an a...

If you read my blog then obviously you know that I use blogger. They recently introduced a brand new layout design called dynamic templates and I'm pleasantly surprised (especially with the magazine view). It's not just a different template, it's a whole new design system for blogger (at least from what I can tell!) The Good I think the new template(s) is really cool and functionally appealing. I love how it pulls out video or images from your post and places them by the headline. I also like how it condenses the articles so that viewers can see multiple articles when they hit the landing page of your blog (whereas before you'd simply see whatever was the first article). It's also worth noting that every blog post now comes with a retweet and Facebook button (thank you Google for not being proprietary and limiting people's social networking options! Although I still think YouTube would be much better if you could retweet from within the YouTube site). T...

In my previous post I talked about a recent video showing a Texas Judge whipping his daughter with a belt. The judge has come out with an official statement to the press. You can read the full statement here (it's three pages in length). Essentially he argues that his daughter is trying to damage his reputation because he refused to keep paying for her BMW. To quote: If the public must know, just prior to the You Tube upload,  a concerned father shared with his 23 year old daughter that he was unwilling to continue to work hard and be her primary source of financial support,if she was going to simply “drop out”, and strive to achieve no more in life than to work part time at a video game store.  Hillary warned her father if he reduced her  financial  support, and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it.  The post was then uploaded.  William Adams regrets the  in...

A very disturbing video broke about a Texas family court Judge who beat his daughter . The video was released by his daughter (good for her!) The video is very disturbing so you may not want to watch. The judge's response to the video: "In my mind, I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing," Adams said. "And I did lose my temper, but I've since apologised." Call me liberal but this guys a classic asshole and the absolute last profession he should be in is that of a judge. From a PR perspective he's shot himself in the foot. It's one thing if there was no video, but this video is plastered all over YouTube. What he should have done is come right out and said his behavior was flat out wrong and that he regrets it deeply and is deeply sorry that he put his daughter through that. And in addition, he would seek to work with family abuse charities to help further shed light on the issue of  ...

If you haven't seen the latest in Occupy Wall Street stories, check out the various items below. The movement is entering an interesting phase where certain segments are starting to get more aggressive.  One of the strengths of OWS has been that it represents a diverse uprising of disgust aimed at all the powers that be, from political to corporate. Its been a movement which had no singular message and that was basically all-inclusive to anyone that was sick and tired of the status quo.  However, the downside to not having a clear message is that your movement can become fractioned and co-opted by more extremist elements. Which is what we are beginning to see happen.  From a PR perspective, this fracturing will drain public support over time as the 'movement' begins to look more like a 'mob'. If OWS loses public support, then logically the police will gain public support for implementing harsher methods for controlling the 'mob'.  To date the police ha...