Susan Boyle, Surprise, Inspiration

Occasionally I drift from higher education marketing, but this video, which I found by accident (I know, there are no accidents), changed my whole night.  I watched it four times, and it brought tears to my eyes each time.

Why?

It’s a Cinderella story.

It reminds us never to judge the book by the cover.

It reminds us that there is incredible beauty in humans when they are given a chance.

It underscores again that content beats flash.

It totally upends our society’s superficial definition of beauty.

I suspect Susan was allowed to audition as a comic element to be derided.

Man, did she fool everyone.  She conquered.

She showed us that being ourselves is the most magical gift of all.

I’m sharing the full version.  Shut the world out and watch.  You won’t regret it.

I’ve shared my thoughts and feelings with you. Watch it and share your thoughts with me.

Oh, and after you’ve watched it for the emotional content, go back and watch how they assembled and edited this video to create an entire movie in a mere seven minutes!

President Obama, Don’t Fib

Note: I modified this from my personal blog because the President’s gaff was a big PR blunder. All the marketing literature says when you make a mistake – whether you’re a company exec, education or political figure, or even someone at the foot of the totem pole like me – you admit the mistake and go on with things. This little bowing blunder is a reminder that in today’s mightily networked world, you either fess up fast or suffer the consequences.

Dear President Obama,

You said during your campaign that as president you would make mistakes.  You’re not perfect, you said.  You’re human.

That’s all true, of course.  But many, many millions of children and youth in the United States and around the world idolize you.  You are bigger than life.  To millions you are a super hero. You even have your own action figure.

You are a role model.

So don’t fib.

If you bowed to a king, say so.  Tell people it was a sign of respect.  You’ve talked a lot about respecting other countries and other people and most folks welcomed that new philosophy.

If bowing was out of place, then say “I made a mistake.”  You’ve done that before and won overwhelming respect for the admission.

Now, when your people say you weren’t bowing, it opens the door to critics to lash out at you.  It brings others to defend you and what suffers the most is the truth.

When I was a kid, Superman could do no wrong.

Today’s young people are more sophisticated.  They know super heroes are flawed, and their flaws are what keep them human.  But just as  important as their unique powers is that they own up to their mistakes.  If they can’t correct them, they at least admit to them.

If your bow was done out of sincerity and respect, say so.

The bow isn’t important except to mean-minded, frightened people who are terrible role models.

What is important to the next generation is the response following the action when you’re called on it.

Do what’s right in your heart.  Then tell the truth.

Don’t fib and don’t let others fib for you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Marketing in a Post Media World

While I spend my time and research on what’s happening with traditional media and how I can best market our college to our various audiences in the wake of media implosions, here are a few articles that give some insights into the near future of marketing and advertising.

In the April 2 issue of Advertising Age, Steve Rubel interviews Jeff Jarvis on his new book What Would Google Do? While Jarvis mainly talks about the role of ad agencies and PR agencies, the insights for all of us into the direction that marketing and advertising is taking is fascinating.

“Google sells performance instead of scarcity (a lesson the rest of media must learn in this post-scarcity economy),” Jarvis says. ” Because it rewards relevance, it encourages better, more effective advertising.”

While author Bob Garfield’s commentary piece is long, “Chaos Scenario” gives a great overview of the demise of traditional print and broadcast media, as well as the slight decline in value of such online monsters as Yahoo and Facebook.  There are a lot of good –and startling– insights into what’s happening and what’s about to happen.

Meanwhile, if you ever wondered if blogs would really replace newspapers, here may be the answer, or at least the direction.  The Huffington Post says it plans to hire a group of investigative journalists.  Thier first job will be to develop stories about the economy.  It’s not hard to envision thousands of laid off reporters virtually lining up for online journalism jobs that actually pay.  I found this report in Podcasting News.

Finally, Google is using Twitter to sell ads.  After you read that, you can visit writer David Berkowitz’s musings on why  Google should buy Twitter.  Both are in the April 4 issue of Ad Age.

NOTE:  I posted this Sunday, April 5.  On Monday’s  The Times Leader ran a story that CBS affiliate WYOU in Scranton, PA is scrapping its news department, laying of 14 reporters, production and promotion people.