“Bad Girl”? Great Branding
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I recently received an intriguing email from a former branding executive who now runs a small marketing consulting company. Nancy Shenker, whose new venture is called theONswitch, found a way to build a personal brand by breaking rules, being rebellious and tapping into her self-professed “dark side.” It sounds like a [...]
Why Are Entrepreneurs Nearly Always Sexier Than CEOs?
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] It used to be that receiving a CEO title—and the corner office and tufted-leather sofa that came with it—was the acme of professional success. It was the recognition of a lifetime of hard work, of moving up the ranks, of following the path to its pinnacle. Once you’d arrived there, where [...]
Predictions for Thriving in the Near Future
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the final post in a series of 14 expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Dads: The New Moms
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the sixth in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Drawing Lines
Some of you blog loyalists out there might remember my excitement at the prospect of working with so many talented women this summer, and that has indeed been one of the highlights of this job. In the United States, female leadership averages about 16 percent in every sector across the board. I had just finished [...]
Trendspotting: Marriage Material
Mo’ Money, Mo’ Relationship Problems Why a full bank account may bankrupt a happy marriage, and other threats to the once-sacred institution Attention, single ladies: There appears to be a serious shortage of marriage-worthy men. A number of factors are at play, including women’s growing nonchalance about traditional marriage. Cold hard cash is a likely [...]
Stuff Dads Say
This is the fifth in a series of five. See Euro RSCG Worldwide PR’s latest white paper, “Male in U.S.A.,” for more analysis about the state of men in America today. If you’ve been searching for parenting advice on the Internet lately, you might have noticed the huge number of pontificating papas. With the male [...]
A United Front
This is the fourth in a series of five. See Euro RSCG Worldwide PR’s latest white paper, “Male in U.S.A.,” for more analysis about the state of men in America today. If you are a female who does some traveling, maybe you have noticed a complacency on the part of men when it comes to [...]
Tapping Minitrends
This is the 11th in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. How does a trend get legs? Some trends start small and grow elephantine as if by force of nature, like the rise [...]
Oversimplifying the Pill
In her already renowned Nov. 28 New York feature “Waking Up from the Pill,” writer Vanessa Grigoriadis equates the birth control pill to “magic,” but with a catch—although it promises, she professes, “eternal youth” to women, it also causes them to delay starting a family until they discover that they have indeed waited too long. [...]
Gender Bender
This is the ninth in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. “The dollies got restless.” This line from an article in Newsweek in March 2010 remembering the landmark 1970 class-action suit that 46 [...]
Why Purple Will Be the New Blue
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. Ten years ago, I predicted that blue would be the new green. When I released my annual trends forecast for 2000, I pointed to the power of Millennium Blue. I meant it figuratively—our concern with all things environmental would morph into heightened awareness about the world’s water supply (and, [...]
How Americans See Health Care: A Broken Mirror
This is the third in a series of six. Americans wanted change. With the passage of the health-care reform package, they got it. And with a March 25 Rasmussen poll saying 55 percent of Americans want the bill repealed, they now seem to want to give it back. At a glance, the American people seem [...]
Cheers!
There are many reasons those of us in the communications field like “Mad Men.” There’s the joy of verisimilitude, the pleasure of historical accuracies and the simple excitement of seeing a campaign well done. And then there’s the self-congratulation about how far we’ve come. In 2010, women and men are equals, no one smokes anymore [...]
Rethinking the Presidency
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. President Obama’s latest poll numbers may be decent—a New York Times/CBS News poll found that he has higher approval ratings than the GOP, and that more Americans blame Congress, George W. Bush and Wall Street for our problems than they do him—but we hoped for better than decent from [...]
Rising Interest Rates
Forget about the Hiltons (Paris and Perez, that is). Americans don’t have time anymore. They’re too busy looking closely and critically at public issues that affect them. A new study from Euro RSCG Worldwide reveals that people are losing interest in celebrities and paying more attention to serious matters such as the economy and health [...]
The Latest Rage in Men’s Fashion
Image is everything in fashion, as well as in public relations. Whether it’s how a message is communicated or how a designer’s outfit is worn on the runway, preserving an “image” is what sets brands such as Gucci and Hermès apart from Gap and H&M. It’s our job as PR professionals to make sure it’s [...]
Why 40-Somethings Love Facebook
Back in my teen wonder years of the early 1980s, communication with friends seemed simple. But in hindsight it looks archaic. You dialed a number on a rotary telephone that was attached to the kitchen wall, you sprawled on the dining room floor and had a conversation that your entire family was privy to, and [...]
The Color of Your Bra and Its Impact on Social Media
I’d like to share a sampling of recent Facebook updates: “Black” “Red” “Baby Blue” “Whatever is clean…but mostly black.” “A little personal isn’t it??” “Wishes he had put one on today…the girls could use a little support.” If you’re like me, you asked yourself last week, “Why in the world are all these people posting [...]
Women in Business: A New Model
I’ve been inspired by the new book How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life by McKinsey consultants Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston. The fruit of five years’ proprietary research, the book establishes links between happiness and distinctive performance, positing a new model of Centered Leadership that combines meaning, framing, connecting, engaging [...]
Tagging Cougars
creativecommons.org/Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher TechCrunch50.jpg Aging has never been easy for women. While men grow distinguished, women just grow older. Little wonder they’re trying to delay that—with Juvéderm and Pilates, yes, but also psychologically. Not only is 40 the new 20 (as the T-shirt stretched over Courteney Cox’s 45-year-old chest on New York City [...]
