Well, ChatGPT did not get me right with the video -- I'm not a USC Trojan, it's just a job and I root for my teams: Bear Down (especially in basketball) and I've been a Bo Schembechler and George Perles kid watching those greats battle it out during. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

My year in ... Instacart? You'd have thunk that the team might have pulled this when SNL mocked UberEats Wrapped as something that no one needs to see or wants. My items that I love scream "liquid diet prep" but yes, I do like popsicles for hydration too. But just bc we can doesn't mean we should.

This has been an interesting story - not that the story is interesting itself, but that the story went so wide right before Thanksgiving. I don't think it went big because of what was said but the classism storyline that seems to do well right now. www.businessinsider.com/campbell-sou...

New Coke, Classic Coke, Passover Coke, Sugar Coke? With Coke announcing a new sugar-based product (notice that it's a new Coke, not replacing Coke Classic), it'll be interesting to see the pricing and the name. www.axios.com/2025/07/22/t...

A corporate blog is still a good place to counter rumors, as shown by Deno. And while there's the question (valid) about how AI and GEO are treating corporate sites, and how PR is becoming king again as third-party outlets matter more, when I asked ChatGPT about the company, the post came up first.

I mean, this was one way for @Belkin to get back into tech news (I forgot that they were still around, let alone sorta LA tech, until these stories). This is more than a Belkin ruining its brand name with customers story, it's questioning whether or not the public can trust smarthome tech.

There's something about nostalgia, historical rivalries, and weird trophies. And that's all part of what makes the Big 10 the best football conference out there (plus its focus on academia, one of the few if not only conferences that does that). A look at all the trophies that change hands.

With Threads nearing X's daily app usage, and BlueSky keeping up with new bells and whistles, it's hard out here for a social media manager.

Lessons from Jim Shooter, a literal giant in the comic industry (he was 6'7") include that every comic book should be an introduction to the characters so people could just pick up anywhere and become a fan, and that every story is based on a character, an action, a climax and a resolution.

Sometimes, you just need a little Celebration in your life (or Kool and the Gang). www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gwj...

Reading the MAHA/trad wife/whatever you want to call it movement press - this is the second such article I've read about conservative movements and women, and I'm sure there will be more - just reminds me that there's media and spaces for everyone, and my job in PR is to be aware of them all.

This is what happens when people have no knowledge of the past, and think that what's happening now is the end-all, be-all because they just don't know. The TLDR is that first movers in the space (this time, AI instead of dotcom or Web 2.0) will be the winner, so companies need to launch fast.

This was an interesting (and odd, IMO) story from TechCrunch that essentially was a piece on why Bluesky is so important and not what people are characterizing it. (Except, well, it's the public that defines companies and services).

Are the major sports leagues losing their fans due to costs of games ... in-person or on TV/streaming/wherever? This piece in the @NYTimes from @JoonLee thinks so, and I would have to agree that the costs have gone a bit out of control for the average family.

I've always wanted my own theme song. I think part of it is growing up in the era of the best TV theme songs, the 70s. Now, finally in the 20s (the roaring AI 20s, I guess), that dream has come true. Go download the Jeremy Pepper ringtone, and make sure it's what rings when/if I call.

This seemed a fitting article to show up in my feed, after a conversation with a food reporter. We were talking about how food speaks to culture, community and has such a huge impact on our lives. The @NYTimess asked top chefs what food films make them a hungry - a cute way to get them to share.

From a UK study, that more than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation is a pretty scary thing. That the response from TikTok is that it is personal expression and that it is people sharing their stories ignores that audiences are taking it as mental health advice.

Everyone wants to be the "super app" and it really doesn't seem to matter what the industry is. Wonder (food delivery) has bought Tastemade (food videos, including cooking) to build out that app that is takeout, delivery, meal kits, production company, content studio and advertising business.

I love Costco and, like Jimmy Kimmel, remember when they were Price Clubs in Arizona (and my membership goes that far back). And I remember when the magazine started arriving and how yes, we would thumb through it to see what was new at Costco.

Reading all the pre- and post-mortem posts on Skype, I remember my small role (that I never talk about) in the launch. I was hired to track coverage and started seeing the groundswell of love for the product amongst bloggers. Read this from @Om, a great review of what could have been.

It's all about messaging, right? Millennials won't take cruises, but call it a yacht trip and they're overpaying for a brand name slapped on a cruise ship. There's a norovirus joke in here somewhere ... if you pay more for that yacht trip, is it a higher class of norovirus?

Both offline and online couponing are a fascinating business. There would be the news segments showing clubs trading coupons, the experts who would walk out of grocery stores paying nothing, and it was even part of a poker scene in Mr. Mom (go see it again, Teri and Michael are great).

Is this an eating the dog-food move or an avoidance of real engagement and transparency move? It seems to be both at the same time -- showcasing that the companies are going all-in on AI (and likely to cut staff, because earnings and bottom lines) and avoiding to have to answer questions.

Community building is not easy -- in fact, it's probably one of the harder things to do in marketing and communications in an organic way. Kudos to what Sean has built with Comm(s)unity, especially on Slack.

How @ultabeauty built out its internal ambassador program should be the gold standard (IMO). By opening up the program to its in-store employees, having the program run by an influencer/employee and paying for the content on or off the clock are all key.

When one thing is hot in marketing - the return of the printed publication - it only makes sense that there are other content plays that become the new hot thing as well. Fashion brands are jumping to Substack, which makes a ton of sense to me as creating their own fashion magazines with advice.

A very cyclical thing in corporate America: the launch of the corporate magazine. It seems to be an every 10-year thing (and if I go through my X timeline when it was Twitter, I'd be able to find my last tweeted story), but it wouldn't come back if it didn't work.

A viral TikTok video about a girlfriend catching her boyfriend cheating and driving him to the dump since he likes picking up garbage turns out to be a campaign for an app to catch cheaters. I'm waiting for any follow-up story that notes an FTC fine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Brand extensions always are a good and easier bet than launching a whole new product or category. With the food business having its moment of pricing uncertainty, I'm sure we'll see more of it as outlined in the article.

The media landscape continues to lose jobs (and outlets) with In Touch, Life & Style, Closer and First for Women shutting down (print and onine) and laying off all staff. What's weird? The editorialized line in the article: While Hollywood’s talent publicists may not be shedding tears today ...

If it seems like you're being inundated with clothing sales and hype -- and that the Memorial Day weekend sales seemed to last longer -- you're not wrong. With the on-again, off-again tariffs (TACO!), brands are scrambling with back-to-school promotions despite school barely being out of session.

From @PewResearch, Bluesky is taking off (especially on the left of politics journalists) but X is still king of the hill for journalists and news influencers. And if you're in sports, there's no where else you really can be for the audiences.

Since the COVID-19, the university has tested the wastewater to see where there might be surges. When the worst of the pandemic passed, we continued to test for norovirus and other issues that show up.

Is this a NYC thing, or is it a national thing? I do have a thing against leftovers - I believe they only work in three instances: Asian food, Italian food (including pizza there), and fried chicken.

A trip to Washington, DC for consumer tech (and tech) meant visiting three people: Walt Mossberg, Steve Wildstrom and Rob Pegoraro. As a Detroiter, I loved that Walt and Steve had that connection as well and while waiting, we could discuss the city.

A public service announcement: brands don't need to acknowledge every holiday, especially if they don't have a real connection or understand it. An example from last month: @IKEAUSA and Passover. It's okay to pass it over.

Influencer drama is nothing more than the color green - not of money, but jealousy. Have I been hit with it in the past when I was a PR blogger? Of course, it's human nature but now it seems to be much more amplified and turn into mini PR-crises.

When I first got into PR, one of the TV specialists talked to me about the bumper at the end of a news hour. The human interest story that resonates and is emotional, that speaks to all audiences. This clip is from @ABCNews but the story has also run on @CBSNews and @TodayShow (and others).

Nostalgia is such a big thing nowadays, and seems even more so in sports (or maybe that's a hockey thing with love for the Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques never really going away). A good look at sports in Phoenix pre-professional sports planting their flags from @AZCentral.

The graveyard of web apps/plugins, mobile apps, companies is littered with products we used and loved at one point, and stopped using or just got end-of-life as things moved on. Pocket is one of those. Good bye, little buddy.

This isn't a new thing - and it's not just a highlight of children begging for money. There's na whole misery industry that permeates social from Instagram to TikTok to YouTube that the algorithm seems to love.

I give the people that go out to start their own consultancy or agencies a lot of credit; I know that I always had a hard time balancing all the hats (agency executive, new business development, maybe a life-work balance).

As a breakfast cereal lover - hot cereal, it's Cream of Rice and @Quaker Oats, and cold cereal it's @FrootLoops and @RealCapnCrunch - it has been interesting to watch the death or change of the morning routine (I blame the lack of Saturday morning cartoons and advertisements).

This post is dead-on - during the 90s and 2000s, posts about how people got jobs by being out-of-the-box and creative were ubiquitous. They usually went viral through email forwards, but were also showing up on different social networks. And they were so creative and smartly done.

What's interesting here is post-Coke acquisition and death of Honest Tea, the the founder started Just Ice Tea, taking a lot of what he learned the first time around and applying it to the marketing and messaging for the new brand. See the opportunity, have the money from the buy-out and go for it.

It's always been a rule of thumb that your company or organization isn't what you want it to be, but what the customer decides it is. But AI is even accelerating those changes, as @britopian notes. Good tools in the post to make sure you're staying on top of things.

As we're in the midst of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, sharing the important history of @CBC's Peter Puck. Which, of course reminds me so much why Saturday morning cartoons were the best, sugar cereals rock, and why kids today just won't get it how important educational videos can be in the morning.

Evolve or die has been my PR mantra for career. It helps that I'm curious, like to beat up software and read and retain trends and more. But it's also my love for tech. Starting out in BBS to blogging to social media, I've been an early adopter. So the transition to AI isn't a hard one for me.

A great post from @joeciarallo on things he's learned through his career; his new company, Wellhub hosts Fireside Chats where the team connects with leadership to hear the unfiltered stories behind career journeys. And I love that idea. Read the whole post, it's worth your time.

I love photography. It was a key part of my childhood: my Bubbi would always have a camera, and had 30-40 photo albums of us grandchildren growing up. Photos are now just relegated to "content", missing the emotional connection people. Just look at all the posts right now for #graduation.