In this episode of PRobecast, Renatta Siewert and Caitlin Smith join me in discussing Milwaukee Health Department’s new co-sleeping ad campaign, O.co reverting back to Overstock.com and Justin Bieber’s paternity suit being dropped.

Milwaukee’s Co-Sleeping Ad Controversy – The city of Milwaukee’s Health Department is under scrutiny after its recent ad campaign warning parents about the dangers of co-sleeping. Their advertisement shows a baby sleeping next to a knife – not the normal picture you get in your head when thinking about an infant dozing off. The Commissioner of Health says that while the image is shocking, what is more shocking is the fact that 30 developed and underdeveloped countries have better infant death rates than the city. However, some parents are outraged and think that co-parenting is a good bonding ritual between mothers and their child. Is Milwaukee in a PR-mess that it can handle? How should the city move forward?

Overstock Backs Off O.co Name Change – About six months ago, Overstock.com started branding it O.co – in online ad, tv ads and during sporting events. They’re reverting their branding and bringing back their Overstock.com messaging because a “good portion” of those watching to o.co ads, started going to o.com. Obviously, that is a problem. Some experts are saying that by going back to Overstock.com branding, for the time being, is going to cost a lot of brand confusion with their customers. What do you think?

Justin Bieber’s Baby Drama– Looks like Justin Bieber might not have as much baby mamma drama going on as he has had in recent weeks. Mariah Yeater, the 20-yr old that accused Biebs of fathering her 4 month year old child, has quietly dropped her lawsuit. According to Yeater’s lawyer, his client was receiving death threats and decided to pursue privately. How do you think Bieber’s PR camp handled the allegations? Is this girl just looking for 15 minutes of fame?

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

This week’s winner was Overstock. Too often brands have messaging that doesn’t work, and instead of addressing the problem – the messaging is never altered. While Overstock is still keeping O.co, they are addressing the problem by bringing back the more well-known Overstock.com URL. It’s a win-win for them. People know it and now consumers can get to their site.

Who do you think should have won?

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The horror of the emerging Sandusky/Paterno/Penn State scandal holds many lessons for PR people and marketers (don’t do PR for fill-in-the-blank.) One which may not seem important now, but which should not be ignored, is the risk of blurring the lines between personal and institutional brands.

Joe Paterno clearly viewed himself as a super-set of the Penn State brand, larger than life and the institution he served, unassailable. In his arrogant, tone-deaf retirement announcement he admonished the University’s Trustees: “At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.”

The University, which for decades had encouraged the development of Paterno’s brand as a proxy for the institution’s, finally took action. But it was too little, too late – for those boys, for the administration, for the students and alums, perhaps for Penn State.

Of course Penn State isn’t the only organization to ignore the risk of letting its brand ambassador’s power eclipse its core brand. Many consumer brands have been bitten by endorsements – think of Nike and Tiger Woods, Michael Vick and Nike, Michael Jordan and Coca-Cola, and Britney Spears and Pepsi.

While many of the examples above deal with consumer brands, tech companies are not immune. Many hire community managers or social media experts to mediate interactions between users and the company. Community managers are powerful people. They may serve as brand ambassadors, but they also have an investment in maintaining their personal brands. Check the Twitter feeds of community managers and nine times out of 10 you’ll see the individual’s name, not the company they work for. It’s a risk, and an opportunity lost, for the organization, and a diminution of its brand.

Brands are a huge responsibility. They are the lens through which prospects, customers and employees see an organization. They need to be built carefully and maintained scrupulously. To surrender an organization’s brand to a brand ambassador or other proxy is to be blind to risk, and to surrender responsibility.

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You can’t learn how to swim by just reading a book on Michael Phelps. If you want to be drown-proof, then you’re going to have to jump in to the deep end, kick your feet, and learn what not to do; it’s literally a sink or swim situation and you’ll find out quickly what it’s like to either, well…sink or swim.

Home schooling is a classic double edged sword. On one end it’s a great opportunity for a child to experience a non-conventional style of learning in regards to locality and educational instruction. On the other hand, there are disadvantages of not having common social interactions between children of the same age. That doesn’t mean all students under the home schooling platform are socially inept; a common misconception about home scholars. Yet, I am a firm believer in the importance of social exchange. Firstly, because being able to communicate face-to-face puts an interaction at a more intimate level, allowing two or more individuals to share some sort of connection. Secondly, being able to communicate goes beyond the interaction itself; it is a trick of the trade that allows us to judge personality and emotion and to gain knowledge by feeding off of other people’s intelligence and culture. I mean, maybe I’m just bias about the importance of being an active communicator; after all, I do intern at a public relations firm.

Bias or not, learning on your own beyond the driveway of your parents place, creates independence. It’s called trial and error with the hopes of a little less error. I am not saying my parents aren’t smart, what I am implying is that they only know so much. Even with books gathered by the library or having access to the large and apparently omniscient World Wide Web, experience will trump the text read off of a hardcover book or computer screen.

From an academic standpoint, formal, in-school, learning isn’t any better than learning from home. Every child, I would hope, is expected to achieve a certain level of curriculum before moving on further in their educational careers. The valued aspect of conventional, in-school, learning is the experience a child receives as an independent learner and as a group learner, in an out of the classroom. In the classroom, a child is able to connect with other students not only to work together, but to also share general knowledge. A different kind of social experience extends to the playground where children learn capabilities of themselves in an interactive environment; negatively or positively. As these children become young adults, they are expected to work alongside other professionals; learning from them, sharing their own knowledge, and being able to expand their business network through social responsibilities. Public relation is a prime example of having to achieve and uphold these professional duties. In any firm, PR professionals are constantly working together and independently to reach a common goal. They are expected to be able to send formal emails, use social media, speak professionally on a phone, and most importantly, be able to interact with past, existing or potential clients, without sounding like a drone.

Adaptation; no one would be alive without this concept. But to adapt you must first find something to adjust to. I don’t have gills, but I can hold my breath. No fins either; but I’ve got feet and hands that work just fine. If fear of drowning is what keeps me dry, I guess I have no option but to stay afloat.

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