Category Archives: Nathan “PRCog” Burgess

Balloon Family Attorney: Dizzy or Well-spun?

HandcuffsRecent news stories, most notably those in The New York Times and on NBC’s Today Show, have taken particular note of the comments of David Lane, the attorney representing Richard Heene (Balloon Dad) regarding the upcoming, perhaps inevitable, arrest of Mr. Heene and potentially his wife (who is being represented by a different attorney).

Mr. Lane’s comments are best summarized by one of his talking points (because that’s what it is, let’s not kid ourselves) in his interview with the Today Show — “Do not do the perp walk for media consumption and arrest these people in full view of their children. That’s child abuse.” Continue reading

PR Win! Save by CoffeeCup

All opinions (and I mean all) herein are my own and not the official opinion of PRBC or any of the other writers.

stuff
(CC) flickr // andy_carter

There’s a software company I’m a big fan of — CoffeeCup [and no FTC, they aren’t compensating me in any way].  Most of the software they create is for website development – ftp programs, html coding, flash animation, etc.  The software’s always very user-friendly, they provide good support, have an active message board for customers, provide free updates, and give away a decent amount of free software so you can get a flavor of what they produce.

It’s a feel-good company.  The company name “came from the domain name of the coffee house where we got our start. (Yes, we owned a real coffee house first.) Domains cost $100 a year back then, and coffeecup.com was already paid for, so why invent a new name?”  They claim to run on “an unlimited supply of Red Bull, Mexican food, Jelly Bellies, and passion for our users.”   Continue reading

Happy 1 Month-i-launch-day

Yes, I know it’s not a real word, but anniversary can only carry you so far since the ‘ann-‘ root refers to an annual event and it’s only been a month, but we’re pretty happy with ourselves around here at PRBC HQ (it’s a place on the internet at the intersection of Gmail, GChat, Google Docs, Skype, WordPress, SMS msgs and iPhones (it’s somewhere near the Hudson River just below 14th Street — ok, not really) a very funny place with soft walls). Continue reading

Boomerang Research or Can They Really Be This Lazy?

(85/365) ?
(CC) photo credit: sparkle_lavalamp // flickr

Recently a question popped up among one of our “journalists-seeking-experts”  services asking a ridiculously simple question.  I’m not going into specifics, like which service it came from, who asked it, or what it was — this hack hasn’t earned a call out, I believe them to be a victim rather than an instigator.

Continue reading

“Yeah…I do that”

[Editor’s Note: My colleague, Kate Ottavio, apparently doesn’t do these things. . . I do. You can find her post on the topic here.]I Had This Top!

Spin — Heck yes, but spin it as ‘framing.’

Flack — It’s why I’m here. The conjugation of the verb form is easy – I flack, you flack, he flacks…the noun form — I am a flack.

Bribe — Well, not really — I have been known to offer things for free (food, samples, “review” copies . . .).

Pester — Seriously? It’s half my job.

Hover — Like I’ve got a jet-pack.

Continue reading

This Week’s Top 5 Posts

Welcome to the conclusion of Week 1 of PRBreakfastClub.com.  It’s been a great week for us here and on #prbc.  We hope you’ve enjoyed our content, banter, and anything else you may have found of value (music, pictures, literature, fashion tips…whatever it may be).

In case you’re concerned you missed a crucial post this week, I present to you, in alphabetical order (because I like to keep a bit of mystery in all our lives) this week’s Top 5 posts.

Continue reading

Ethics…you mean there are ethics?

ms. Campbell, who was kind enough to grace me with her xomapny at dinner last week along w/ ms. Vallejo and ms sena, recently brought us this blog post addressing ethics in our chosen profession — the great world of public relations in it’s various forms.
as in many other fields there are some bright lines that we dare nit cross. then there are those ethically grey areas. yes(!) — there can be ethically grey areas, not evwrythjng is black or white. these usually pop up when our own ethical rules for various areas of our life come into conflict and we must step up and make that decision of what/which is most important to us.
first let’s understand that ethics is diferejt than morality and differnt than legality. that could be (and is likely) the topic of thousands of blog posts (an dissertations). but for the purpose of separating the issues consider a physician in a state that does not permit assisted suicide.  certainly the doxtor’s priority is healing the sick, but in circumstances where that is a lost cause where does the physician’s duty lie — to his science to continue treating the untreatable or to end the suffering of his patient in any way he can.
certainly our own issues are rarely this dire but on a near daily basis we can potentilly confronted with issues where our various duties lie in conflict.
I do work with accounkng firms. not infrequently they’re called upon to present expert pinion on relevant topics.

This one’s in response (expansion) to a post from the lovely Ms. Campbell (@prsoapbox), who was kind enough to grace me with her company at dinner last week along with Ms. Vallejo and Ms. Sena. She recently brought us this blog post addressing the ethics in our chosen profession—the great world of public relations in its various forms.

As in many other fields, there are some bright lines that we dare not cross. Then there are those ethically grey areas.  Yes (!)—there can be ethically grey areas, not everything is easily placed on a black or white square. These usually pop up when our own ethical rules for various areas of our life (personal and professional) come into conflict and we must step up and make the decision of what/which is most important to us.

Continue reading