OK, I’ll grant you that there are a lot of people “Monday morning quarterbacking” the Imus thing (your humble author included). But I saw this post regarding how the public relations (or crisis communication, if you prefer) was handled by Imus and company during this whole debacle (which wouldn’t have even been necessary if he hadn’t made his stupid comment, blah, blah, dead horse).

I agree with a lot of it and some it just made me laugh. Maybe the author always writes well or is often off the mark, I don’t know. I do know I liked what he said in this article.

I hope you enjoy it too.

Tags: advertising, radio, tv // Comments Off on public relations checklist: what not to do

Yeah, the new Buffalo Sabres mullet logo sucks. I miss my original blue and gold logo but I have to shut up about it and just wear my New Era hat with the old logo because:

a. The Sabres earned the most NHL points this season
b. The Sabres are #1 in merchandise sales in the entire NHL
c. Baby, it’s playoff time!

Go Sabres!

P.S. I hereby publicly promise that when the Sabres win the Stanley Cup, I will wear a New Era cap with the mullet as “penance for my blasphemy” against the mullet!

Tags: advertising, commentary, commercials, marketing, silliness // 1 Comment »

OK, Imus has been fired.

I don’t care about that so much because I really didn’t listen to him. The stuff I heard on his show I didn’t care for so I turned the channel. That’s what grown-ups do.

What Don Imus said about the women’s basketball team was stupid and offensive…to everybody. Depending on your social or political persuasion, you could argue that most of his show was usually either or both. He’s been doing some sort of inane or “shock” radio for 30 years; what’s the surprise about? People have been free to tune in or tune out Imus’ on-air belligerence for a long time

Controversy is pretty much the only ratings card morning radio has to play any more: A. all news or sports B. all music or C. comedy/stunting/controversial. So on average about 3.5 million people thought Imus’ controversial act (and some political chat) was worth listening to in the morning. Who’s blaming the listeners?

Imus’ employers didn’t care what he said or did as long as sponsors were happy. His sponsors didn’t care what Imus’ said or did as long as the audience and ratings were there. The audience either endorsed or was apathetic to Imus’ shtick (maybe they waded through the obnoxious stuff to get to the heady political interviews).

Then a political group gets wind of an Imus comment (that was stupid and offensive), a dust storm builds up into a tornado and repeated, likely heartfelt Imus apologies become mere interruptions in a diatribe which seem to be about social justice (a good thing) but more often are really about political and/or celebrity gain (a bad thing).

Sponsors and broadcasting companies who have long endorsed Imus’ shtick suddenly distance themselves as if ignorant to his previous work on their air. Who are they accountable to? Don’t say the government because in matters of broadcasting and any word that rhymes with “decency” our government is useless.

I don’t know if Imus is a good person or not but I do know he said a dumb thing, had his apologies summarily ignored and is now out of a job (two words: satellite radio). He gets most of the blame on this to be sure but not so much that dismissal was the only option. Shall we also fire the listeners, sponsors and networks? It seems they should shoulder much of the blame here too.

But we’ve become so comfortable with our scapegoat culture (protest here, finger point there) that once we’ve set our collective laser beams on a target (big or small) we fire at will. Then after the explosion, we move on with no perceptible improvement in OUR behavior.

Do we as a society even know how to accept an apology any more? Are we getting to a place in time where even saying “I’m sorry” is pointless?

Over at CBS News.com, Dick Meyer presented some other points (some similar to mine) on how our culture thrives on building up then tearing down celebrities. I don’t think we’d have to look to far to see how we do this in our own personal and professional lives as well.

Man, I hope we stop doing this soon.

Tags: advertising, commentary, commercials, media, radio, tv // 5 Comments »

Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

As it’s kind of a quiet Saturday afternoon with folks sleeping or running errands from the house, I took the opportunity to visit Voice 123 and submit some auditions.  As I’ve mentioned before here, my bookings, auditions from agents and production schedule offer me less and less time to fiddle with the cattle call that Voice 123 has really become. But I still have months left on my paid subscription so I figured I better get to it. 

It has been awhile since I sent in some auditions.  I threw out the ones I didn’t think I’d be the right voice for and the ever present low ball audition (especially those folks requesting custom auditions for message on hold…who are they kidding?)  I was reading one audition that had a low price for the amount of work required and the usage of the voice and was about to delete it when I read down a little further and notice an addition to the usually inane Voice 123 disclaimer on price which read: 

“Voice123 Team Note: We recognize that this project may be below Voice123 pricing recommendations. We have become more flexible with budgets as it was brought to our attention that we could be violating United States federal anti-trust laws by limiting the participation of voice seekers in our marketplace when they don’t met our budget recommendations. It seems that, legally speaking, it is up to the providers (the talents and voice producers) and not the marketplace (Voice123) to determine to exclude the voice seekers they don’t want to work with.

Right after the release of the new Voice123, we will be working on several improvements that will help talents and voice producers filter the types of projects they want and better match projects with talent and voice producers depending on the budget and experience of the talent. On (sic) the meantime we are trying to be flexible to keep everybody happy.”

 “It seems that, legally speaking,…” Wow, what impressive attorney filed that hard hitting legal brief? 

As you might guess, I find this disclaimer highly suspect.  But I am also not an attorney. I am however a big David Letterman fan (not the stalking kind, I just like the show) and I thought of a Dave quote when he interviewed Bill O’Reilly from Fox News as I read the Voice 123 disclaimer. To paraphrase, it went along the lines of “I’m probably not as smart as you are but my gut tells me 60% of what comes out of your mouth is crap.” 

If Voice 123 is going to be “filtering” projects and pricing in their “next” version (which it seems they’ve been working on since 1950 and which might be ready by 2010) why can’t they filter now? Likely, they can.  In my opinion, the real answer is Voice 123 will take any voice job that comes through, slap it up on the board and let all the $50 announcers quote that price on a $2000 job just so Voice 123 can jack up the number of leads they provide VO subscribers and thereby justify the company’s existence.  

As always….I could be wrong.

Tags: advertising, character voices, commentary, commercials, internet, marketing, message on-hold, narrations, podcasting, radio, rants, technology, voice 123, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover, voiceover advice // 6 Comments »

BUFFALO, New York, April 2, 2007 – – Blogging since 2005, audio’connell Voice-Over Talent has uploaded a newly designed blog (www.audioconnell.com/blog) for visitors to the company’s web site, www.audioconnell.com. The blog is authored by company President and professional voice over talent Peter K. O’Connell.

“The upgrades were necessitated by the growth in blogging technology and by our web site statistics for audioconnell.com which revealed our blog (entitled Voiceover Blog On!) is among the most popular sections on the site and one of the most popular voice over blogs on the internet,” O’Connell said. The blog, which welcomes comments from visitors, offers insights on the voice over industry, advertising, marketing, radio, television and other “observations” by Mr. O’Connell, a professional voice talent for 25 years.

audio’connell Voice-Over Talent is a worldwide voice over talent service featuring professional male and female voice talents specializing in commercials, corporate narrations, voice imaging, podcasts and messaging on-hold (MOH) created for advertising agencies, media and broadcast production companies as well as both large and small businesses around the world.

The company also operates Voice Over Workshop to provide professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent around the world.
– 30-

NOTES TO EDITORS

Company Media Releases ON LINE:
http://www.audioconnell.com/media

Company Name Pronunciation:
au·dio·o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Company Name Spelling:
Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voice Over Talent

Company Web:
http://www.audioconnell.com

Company Blog:
http://www.voxmarketising.com

O’Connell Voice-Over Resume:
See resume here

Twitter

YouTube

LinkedIn

Google+

Tags: media releases // Comments Off on MEDIA RELEASE – Voxmarketising, Popular Voiceover Blog, Completes Extreme Makeover

Everybody needs a hobby or something to unwind from work’s daily grind.  Yes, voice over can be a grind sometimes.  It IS a job, even though it’s among the most fun jobs around. 

So one of the things I do to unwind is play golf. I don’t play well or often enough, but I enjoy “playing at golf”. 

In the northeast, our golf season is somewhat short. So the annual Masters Tournament is kind of like a Punxsutawney Phil for golfers and he always sees his shadow during Masters Week.  The Masters means the golf season is a bit closer. 

Knowing how crazy golfers get at this time of year, I thought this article from ESPN was especially funny. Most golfers know not to take themselves too seriously.

Tags: commentary, silliness, tv, voiceover // Comments Off on unwinding with a little golf talk during masters week