4460 blog 14: social seating

When flying from one destination to another, a seat mate can often make or break a good flying experience. Many people have gone through flights with a screaming baby or someone’s wandering elbow, and it’s a pretty large pet peeve of many people when it comes to flying. A Dutch airline, KLM, is working on changing the flying experience.

According to this article, KLM is working on allowing flyers to select their seat mates based on mutual interests. The project is under wraps, so not many details have emerged, but KLM let it slip that they may be using Facebook and LinkedIn as a way to connect passengers with each other.

This idea has a lot of possibilities worthy of exploring. The potential to make business contacts is huge, and a flight is a pretty good excuse to have an impromptu business meeting. Connections can be made, business cards passed around, and the airline benefits from this sort of reputation. Details are still very much in the works, but KLM has stated that they are not interested in trying to make love connections; they also haven’t stated what the compatibility requirements will be.

However, this “social seating” plan could have its drawbacks. Some people may not wish to speak to others during a flight, or they may be compatible professionally but not personally. There could be an opportunity for confidentiality breaches among companies as professionals try to make deals. There may be inaccurate information between the different social media sites. And if people lie about themselves or puff themselves up on their social media sites, that could spell trouble for the people they are paired with during a flight.

Overall, I think it’s an innovative plan and a good way to create publicity for KLM’s airline. I can’t take a definitive stand since the public knows so little about this plan, but it’s one of those things that seem self-obvious. I’m surprised it’s taken this long to implement something like this.

4470 Blog 5: What I learned.

After taking this ethics course, I feel like I have a better grip on ethical theories. When taking journalism classes, there is always a little chapter on ethics and so I had some background on things like the PRSA Code of Ethics. I think this course taught me how to practically apply ethical theories to realistic situations. The theories suddenly meant more than some words on a page, and I got a better appreciation of that this semester. I didn’t know a whole lot about the ethical theories, and now I understand the different points of view and how one theory may say something is wrong, but another theory may say that it’s completely ethically correct.

It sounds weird, but I also learned how to collaborate with a group. Yeah, obviously I’ve worked with groups before, but this time it was all about cooperation and teamwork to get a good grade. It always takes some getting used to when forming a group and dealing with the different personalities that are coming together, but I think we did a pretty good job of completing our work and not getting on each other’s nerves.

Another important lesson I learned this semester is to trust my instincts and stand up for myself. If I feel something is being asked of me that is unethical, I should trust myself and not do it. Ethics is just as much about personal morals and values as it is about deontology and consequentialism. My personal views on an issue should not get in the way of how I do my job, but it should help me stand for what I feel is right or wrong. Some people have ethical values that they will not surrender under any circumstances; they are prepared to lose their jobs over this one issue.

Overall, this class was illuminating. I understand why they make us take it last, so that we can go out into the world caring about what is right and wrong and wanting to make sound ethical decisions. It seems to me to be pretty easy to stop caring about what is ethically right or wrong as time goes on. It’s very important to consider every action carefully and make a choice based on sound ethics and gut instincts. It seems like a self-evident thing but at the same time there are so many unethical things happening in journalism today. It makes you wonder how many people are actually retaining the information they learn in school.

4460 blog 13: Luden's revitalizes Lozenges

Everyone has had a sore throat at one time or another. Chances are, the sore throat is treated with a lozenge. One of the more well known names in the lozenge market is Luden’s, a company which has been around since 1881. Luden’s is declining in popularity and so they’ve begun a new marketing campaign, designed to appeal based on taste instead of need. Luden’s wants its consumers to choose a Luden’s lozenge because it tastes good and looks good and because it works well. To this end, Luden’s has begun a new marketing strategy.

Luden’s hired street teams to stand outside performance events like the opera and pass out samples of their lozenges to attendees, according to this article. The idea is to prevent anyone from coughing or having to clear their throat during the performance. Street teams will also pass out samples at ski resorts and other locations where sore throats tend to thrive. This campaign is smart because it appeals to a need and that makes it more valuable in the consumer’s eyes.

The Luden’s company is undergoing its own change. It was acquired in late 2010 by Prestige Brands, a company specifically designed to take old brands and rejuvenate them. Prestige has introduced a new orange flavor for the lozenges and launched a new advertising campaign designed to appeal to a consumer’s taste. Prestige also owns Chloraseptic, a more serious throat soother, and plans to revitalize that brand’s image as well. Both Chloraseptic and Luden’s are old brands who enjoyed popularity for many years but are now beginning to decline.

From a PR perspective, this new campaign is smart. Prestige and Luden’s are not trying to market the lozenge as something it isn’t, but are rather capitalizing on another aspect of the lozenge. They want to evoke that sense of nostalgia, remembering when a Luden’s lozenge was used as a kid. They also do taste pretty good. It’s a smart way to revitalize an old brand, and using the street teams is a great idea. The lozenges are passed out just when they might be needed most, and this helps them to stick in the consumer’s mind. I suppose that only results will show if this campaign has any effect, but I think it has a lot of potential to bring Luden’s back in popularity.

4470 blog 4: Privacy in these days of social media

With the advent of social media, the need for privacy on the Internet has had to be redefined. Questions arise as to who owns what and if the Internet is a public domain. Many people take information or data from the Internet and redistribute it without giving credit or citing the original source they got it from. Privacy has changed in regards to social media because of sites like Facebook. People appear on the website and some of them may not even know they are there. It can cause a pretty heated debate as to what aspects of your life you want to appear on the Internet. Many people don’t have total control over every thing about themselves that gets posted online, and this presents an interesting problem.

People have to give up an amount of control over their public image when it comes to the Internet, in my opinion. Steps can be taken to help ensure that nothing about you is posted on a social media site without your approval, but nothing is foolproof. And now that anyone can upload anything anywhere at anytime, people have even less control over what gets posted. When it comes to public relations issues, the need to redefine privacy is extremely important. A public relations practitioner has a lot of duties, and many of those include image control for their client. The lack of privacy on the Internet can work against the actions of a public relations professional and undermine a client’s image despite our best efforts. Public relations professionals have to learn to patrol the Internet, but ethically you can’t tamper with someone’s freedom of speech. It is important to assess the public opinion about your client and see where your work has to begin.

It is important to respect original works on the Internet and give credit where it is due, as the anonymous nature of the Internet can lead to theft and plagiarism. It can also lead to cases of identity theft, because so much of the Internet is out in the open. Social media sites need to crack down on their privacy policies. Facebook is a repeat offender about privacy, and users often have to readjust their privacy settings to ensure that nothing unwanted about them is posted online. Social media sites have put privacy settings into place, but they are not extensive enough. At the same time, it is hard to predict what can be damaging to a person’s reputation and where it might come from. These changing times require new innovations for privacy policies, and this is definitely an issue that public relations and advertising professionals need to speak up about.