Posted on

Wrapping Up #COMM2322 with WKRP’s Turkey’s Away

"Les Nessman" with my infant son James and me (1990)

[Updated from a similar post in June 2010.]

As we start wrapping up our spring semester in Public Relations Applications class, it’s time to end the semester in my traditional way: by watching a classic episode of the classic late ’70s / early ’80s TV show “WKRP in Cincinnati” :: “Turkeys Away.”

According to the Internet Movie Database:

“[Station manager] Mr. Carlson is beginning to feel useless at the new formatted rock station so he decides to create a big Thanksgiving Day promotion. His idea? Get a helicopter, with a banner attached to it saying “Happy Thanksgiving From WKRP…” Then, based on a botched promotion from a radio station in Arkansas, live turkeys are dropped from a helicopter. Chaos ensues.”

Take 20 or so minutes to watch the episode below, keeping in mind what you’ve learned in COMM 2322 during the semester.

So what can public relations students learn about how NOT to do a promotion from Mr. Carlson’s fiasco? I’ll get the list started:

  1. Communicate with your entire team before launching a promotional campaign (or a turkey).
  2. Do your research! It’s best to learn ahead of time that turkeys don’t fly.
  3. Get permission before doing a stunt.

What would you add to this list? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

Posted on

Key Learnings in #COMM4333 Writing for PR Spring 2011

Image Credit: "New Zoo Review"

It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over, but it most certainly is — at least if we can trust our calendars.

As a way of reviewing what we covered and learned in COMM 4333 (Writing for PR and Advertising), each student will:

  • Choose a toy animal from a basket in class.
  • Name the animal.
  • Write the letters of the animal’s name down the left margin of a paper.
  • Come up with something we discussed in COMM 4333 that starts with each letter.
  • Reply to this blog post with a comment including the animal’s name & what they learned. Put a star/asterisk in front of the most important thing learned. (NOTE: Copy the comment before you submit it, and save it in a Word doc.)
  • Send a tweet with the most important thing learned and the class hashtag (#COMM4333)

After each student is done with this, we’ll go around the room and each student will share his/her starred item — the key learning.

Any why is  “New Zoo Revue” in the title of this post? It was among my favorite childhood TV shows. (It’s a little painful watching the production values in the show now, but I loved it as a child.)

Posted on

Key Learnings in SPC 4350 AKA New Zoo Revue

Image Credit: "New Zoo Review"

It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over, but it most certainly is — at least if we can trust our calendars.

As a way of reviewing what we covered and learned in SPC 4350 (Social Media for PR and Advertising), each student will:

  • Choose a toy animal from a basket in class.
  • Name the animal.
  • Write the letters of the animal’s name down the left margin of a paper.
  • Come up with something we discussed in SPC 4350 that starts with each letter.
  • Reply to this blog post with a comment including the animal’s name & what they learned. Put a star/asterisk in front of the most important thing learned.

After each student is done with this, we’ll go around the room and each student will share his/her starred item — the key learning.

Any why is  “New Zoo Revue” in the title of this post? It was among my favorite childhood TV shows. (It’s a little painful watching the production values in the show now, but I loved it as a child.)

Posted on

How to Embed from SlideShare into Your WordPress Blog

If you want to share a presentation you’ve created and uploaded to SlideShare (or one that you found on SlideShare), it’s surprisingly simple to embed the presentation into your WordPress blog. Here are the four steps:

  1. On the presentation’s page in SlideShare, click on the WordPress logo, which is to the left of the presentation.
  2. Copy the code for WordPress.com hosted blogs. It will look something like this: 
  3. Paste the SlideShare code into your blog post; use the Visual Editor, not the HTML Editor.
  4. Save your blog post draft, then preview it. The presentation should appear like the one created by my COMM 4333 class below. If it looks like you expected to, publish your post.
That’s all there is to it. Simple, right?