Cultural Studies

Memorial Day is Off Message

By Felicia Knight

We all know what this coming weekend is, right? It’s the unofficial start of summer, of course. (The Knight Canney Group is a Maine public relations firm, so around these parts, we know it as the unofficial start of the summer tourist season.) That’s how the innkeepers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, and gift shop owners know it too. The petroleum industry, the airlines, Amtrak, and Greyhound know it as the start of the summer travel season.

Memorial Day weekend is second only to Thanksgiving weekend as an economic harbinger of seasonal retail madness.

, ,

When a Good War Story Goes Bad

, ,

By Felicia Knight

The recent revelation in the New York Times that author James Bradley is now convinced that his father is not in the iconic Joe Rosenthal photo of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima brings to mind our many comments on the importance of good story telling in public relations. Especially the part about how it should be a true story.

The World War II photo of five marines and a Navy corpsman raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi was an instant balm on America’s wounds of war. And it has been subject to both celebration and scrutiny ever since. Joe Rosenthal was both awarded a Pulitzer Prize and accused of staging the scene. While it was—and is—a symbol of victory and patriotism, the fact is, the photo was used to illustrate a story that was a public relations boon to the U.S. war effort.

His Girl Friday…Rides a Bike

By Felicia Knight

There’s no greater name in the bastion of fictional journalists than the fast-talking, slang slinging Hildy Johnson. Whether you’re a fan of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s original (male) Hildy Johnson in their Broadway hit The Front Page, or of director Howard Hawke’s (female) Hildy Johnson, immortalized by Rosalind Russell in the 1940 film, His Girl Friday, you know that Hildy Johnson will get to the bottom of the story.

Russell’s Hildy ran with the big dogs. She beat the boys at their own game, un-raveled a conspiracy at City Hall, got the scoop, and never once attended a tea party.

,

Can Chris Rock Save the Academy Awards?

,

By Felicia Knight

We’re not the first to note the irony of Sunday’s 88th Academy Awards©, being hosted by comedian Chris Rock.

Dubbed by many as #OscarsSoWhite, this year’s awards have been dwelling in PR hell from the moment the nominees were announced in January.

That hashtag is not new. Nor are the complaints that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is run like an antiquated club of predominantly white members, some of whom haven’t been active in the industry since the debut of VistaVision. The argument is that these older, voting members of the Academy don’t see many of the films they’re voting on and aren’t familiar with a newer crop of talented minority actors and directors.