Well does negative campaigning work or not? That was the question the blog was asked about a number of statements made recently about negative campaigning and the lessons from the last US Presidential campaign.

Essentially the blog said that campaign showed that negative campaigning didn’t work in that the billions of dollars spent by various right wing groups and individuals, mainly on advertising, didn’t unseat Obama. On the other hand there is a fair amount of academic research which suggests negative campaigning does work although the research gets simplified by the time political players and the media get involved. read more

One thing that the change of Labor leadership will do is to bring out a swarm of PR, advertising and marketing types to counsel Labor and the Coalition on precisely what they should do to win.

Some of these types will be hunted down by journalists trying to get:  a comment on what works; any suitable grab before deadline; or, a continuation of the Bush-Dukakis media coverage which degenerated into coverage of the campaign mechanics rather than anything else. And some of coverage will be because the PR, advertising and marketing people will be promoting their services and expertise in the belief that media publicity generates business. read more

Most young authors would be ecstatic at a review by the distinguished historian and war hero, Michael Howard, which claimed your book was the best about war since John Keegan’s Face of Battle. As Professor Sir Michael Howard MC also reviewed Keegan’s book back in 1976 the commendation was based on a very considered opinion. read more

The International History of Public Relations Conference 2013 keynote speech will be streamed live on Monday June 24 from 0910 BST at http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/live/. You can tweet comments to #ihprc.

The Telstra Directories international time app that’s 6.10pm Australian eastern time but it might be worth checking the blog’s calculations. The keynote speech will be by Professor Tom Watson and will open another conference which looks really exciting. read more

“The communication curricula of Australian universities were singled out as an area of growing concern by several executives we spoke to. These practitioners believe undergraduates are generally ill-equipped to become advisers to senior management,” the 2013 Trends and Issues report from personnel consultants Salt & Shein has said. read more

The blog was lucky enough to meet David Maister while David was still writing his first books about managing and promoting service businesses.

Maister was then at Harvard Business School and had come to Montreal to run a two day workshop for the WORLDCOM Group of which the blog’s firm was then a member. This by the way was not the telco WORLDCOM group but was a network of independent PR companies around the world. read more

Something the industry has needed for many years – a longitudinal study of public relations practice around the world – is going to be launched later this year.

The study will be a joint venture by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) and the Strategic Communication and Public Relations Centre at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. read more

It’s easy to be ambivalent about presentation training because of its tendency to homogenise outputs.  At its best it helps people package their thoughts in effective ways and make speeches more comprehensible and enjoyable for audiences. At its worst it makes speakers sound like rejects from some Dale Carnegie school. read more

The blog is appearing on a panel at the mUmBRELLA360 (http://mumbrella360.com.au/)  conference next week June 5 and 6.

We are part of a panel called First Against the Wall: surviving the media revolution. Other participants are Kate Mills, Fairfax; Sam Walch, AFL Media; Richard Carr JWT; and, moderator Vanessa Liell of n2n communications.  After a teleconference last week which involved a preliminary chat about what we might talk about it was interesting to see the extent of disagreement and agreement on various issues. The blog was also flattered by mumbrella’s plug for the blog but a bit dismayed by their knowledge of PR history. (http://mumbrella360.com.au/panel-to-discuss-how-to-survive-the-media-revolution-3453). read more

Passion, sincerity and authenticity make for a good speech as the blog mentioned (22/5/13) in the context of the recent Anzac Day speech by Dr Brendan Nelson, Australian War Memorial Director, which rather failed to display any of those qualities.

There are also a number of technical rhetorical devices, known from ancient times, which also help although over-use of the formulas can make speeches seem too formal and contrived. The history of these techniques, and speech-writing generally, is discussed in more detail on this site in the review (under Articles and Reviews) of Don Watson’s book Recollections of a Bleeding Heart. read more