The Governor of New York Disappears - ”Kristen” Goes Down, Resurfaces - The stunning fall and demise of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer occured in its entirety last week. You could not escape Spitzer and every unfolding minute revelation of his prostitution addiction in print, on TV, radio, or in casual conversation and now poof! he is gone from politics and the news. Tomorrow, David Paterson is sworn in as the new Gov and the transition is complete.

Continue Reading »

So “Kristen” is Monica Lewinsky who was Donna Rice, who is every middle age man’s young girl fantasy. Kristen is 22 (that’s a young girl to me), or 26 years younger than Eliot the horny Gov. Another perverse way of looking at it, she is five years older than Eliot’s oldest daughter. Tell me what the therapist bills are going to be in the Spitzer family for this generation and the next. 

Continue Reading »

Goodwill may sound fuzzy wuzzy but it is a critical component of any long-term public relations program, political careeer, or any public or private endeavor. New York Governor Eliot Spitzer may have survived his prostitution sex scandal but the reality is that he had very little goodwill, even among Democrats. Spitzer built his career as a prosecutor and politician willing to steamroll any perceived opponent or wrongdoer. He was the self-righteous ethical authority determined to force his will and his values on everybody else. The only person who could live up to those impossibly high standards, apparently, was Spitzer - until he fell. That’s because those standards are impossible.

Continue Reading »

While we wait for Governor Spitzer to cut his deal with the Feds before announcing his resignation, the State and the Lt. Governor are kept in the dark (there is a pun there, yes, since our new Governor is legally blind). The three Spitzer daughters, age 13, 15, 17, are the most tragic victims of this bizarre, albeit riveting, circus. They are the peak age when a very public betrayal such as this is most damaging and humilating. Do we see Eliot, docile and contrite, weeping about his failings on Oprah? Will his wife leave him?

One of the suprises in this politico sex scandal is the mash up between high-class prostitution and public relations. If we sometimes feel like prostitutes and pimps for our clients we have seen it illustrated in a new light thanks to the philandering Gov.  See Anais below, one of the “5 diamond” girls from the Emperors Club VIP, Eliot’s source for his girls.

Continue Reading »

Temeka Rachelle Lewis arranged for ”Kristen,” to meet Eliot Ness aka the Governor of New York. Kristen, the Governor is reminded, is “American, petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, and 105 pounds.” After the assignation at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C., according to government records, Lewis asked “Kristen” how she thought the appointment went, and “Kristen” said that she thought it went very well. Lewis asked “Kristen” how much she collected, and “Kristen” said $4,300. “Kristen” said that she liked him, and that she did not think he was difficult. “Kristen” stated: “I don’t think he’s difficult. I mean it’s just kind of like … whatever … I’m here for a purpose.”

The day after, February 14, 2008, the Governor of New York presumably presented his wife with a Valentine’s Day gift that cost considerably less than his gift to Kristen. But then Kristen, who had risen in the ranks of the Emperors Club VIP escort service, was well schooled in the art of public relations. See excerpt below from the Emperors Club web site, since taken offline:

 Our goal is to make life more peaceful, balanced, beautiful and meaningful. We honor commitment to our clients as we covet long-term relationships of trust and mutual benefit. Experience for yourself a service of obvious distinction… from the Emperors Club VIP web site, the Brooklyn-based PR firm/call-girl ring favored by (ex?) New York Governor Eliot Spitzer

The turning point for Hillary was Saturday Night Live a couple of weeks ago. The skit lampooning the media’s gentle handling of Obama, and the all-too-real spoof of Hillary’s latent bitchiness as qualifications to be commander in chief really turned this Dem election into a good old fashioned street brawl. It was time to get tough because Hillary was about to face the sorry end of her own mantra: Go big or go home. She would be sent packing back to New York, defeated by a sloganeering poseur, unless she came up big in Texas and Ohio. Now we have a whole new game. Now the fight really gets interesting. 

A fighter fights. That is simplistic but true. The greater the battle the more is demanded of you. Bottomline - Hillary has more cajones than Obama and she has a deeper belief system that has been tested through many trials. Character is an issue here - the ability to absorb criticism and maintain your equilibrium, especially when Rove & Co. are lobbing grenades and John McCrain, the wily political in-fighter is in your face.

So it’s on to Pennsylvania, the next battle ground, with Hillary sounding re-energized, and Obama on the defensive and beginning to show “sharper contrasts” between himself and Hillary. Her campaign strategy now is to draw it out and to let the public witness how the more closely scrutinized Obama behaves.

The idea of a joint ticket is being floated.  Obama would make an excellent vice president. He could test out his coalition building skills and gain the experience he needs to become president one day. He would be learning from a pro.

At the juncture it’s all about PR - the messaging, posturing, attacking, parrying, strategizing, the images, ads, the insinuations. This is major hardball politics. I love it. Rough campaigning ahead. 

Maneuvering in major political campaigns is all about public relations. This campaign for President has yielded some fascinating PR strategies that have worked at times and more often backfired.

Rudy Giuliani’s strategy to fashion a stump speech that characterized the people of New York as slovenly, out-of-control, criminal liberals bore him the intense animosity of the New York media and the people of this city. Bad move.

Barack Obama has run a brilliant campaign that is patterned after John Kennedy’s run for the White House. Obama, like Kennedy, does not have a slew of concrete accomplishments to promote. He does have a message of hope, change and reconciliation, and a Kennedy-like way of delivering it.

Hillary has her daughter Chelsea.  Those of us who watched the sometimes gawky over-protected little girl in the White House blossom into this shy but poised beautiful young woman feel an instant connection to the candidate that goes beyond her husband.

When Chelsea, in her sweet, soft, authentic voice, speaks about why “my Mom” should be President how do we say no? Chelsea has been an effective campaigner. She is swaying the youth vote in the states where she has been deployed and she is now on the campaign trail full-time. Could she make the difference in this election?  

Mandy Stadtmiller of New York Post is doing a story on drunk emailing just in time for Valentine’s Day. Apparently this is a real problem - at least a study reveals that finding.

Mandy seeks your best, funniest stories about drunk emails (can be one that you sent, one that you received) by noon tomorrow - Valentine’s Day. Mandy would take full name - but can get by with only first name if it’s particularly embarrassing, like the following example:

My boss and I have always had a pretty friendly relationship, but he’s still my boss. You know, like we talked about who I was dating, if I was single, etc. Then one night, at 1:30 a.m., after many many glasses of sangria, I decided it would be a spectacular idea to send him an email announcing, “I’m going to get laid tomorrow night! Many times probably! I CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE SEX!” It was the capital letters that was particularly humiliating. I mean, really, the sexual confession was one thing but the all-caps…that’s just sloppy. - Susannah, 31

NOTE: Doesn’t have to be in NYC! Just has to be a really great story.

Send the email to mstadtmiller@nypost.com.  

How do you get down in the fabric of the local community? How do you influence from the real grassroots, one-to-one? These are questions that rack the brains of marketers these days. The Internet is the great distribution pipe marketers and PR people could only dream about.  But hyper local marketing requires an authentic voice, tangible action that benefits the local community and most dauntingly, it requires time and patience.

An example of hyper local marketing that works. I live in Washington Heights on the upper west side of Manhattan.  On the corner of 157th street and Broadway I pick up a free copy of Manhattan Times from the box by the subway station. Washington Heights is predominately Latino with a heavy Dominican concentration, along with a growing minority of professional whites determined to gentrify every square inch of this island. This is heavy duty Hillary Clinton country and Manhattan Times is unabashed in its support of our Junior Senator.  

So in the Manhattan Times I learn about the Bizz&Buzz campaign . It started in 2007 to promote activities in Washington Heights and Inwood.  Says the Manhattan Times site: The campaign includes special events, a regular email blast of upcoming events, and the paper’s weekly “Shhhh!” column, which reminds readers of the business openings, celebrity spottings, and media attention in Northern Manhattan, the city’s best kept secret.

So I get on the weekly Bizz&Buzz email list, which alerts me to Annette A. Aguilar & the StringBeans performing Latin jazz at the Garden Cafe on 207th street and Braodway on Valentine’s eve. I never heard of the band or the club but I had been sweating to find the right place to take my sweetie on the special day. Bizz&Buzz only has 362 subscribers. If it is confined to two neighborhoods by nature it will not grow too big. But it is the arrow in the bullseyes when it comes to hyper local marketing combining traditional (newspaper) and 2.0 (web and email marketing).

Google goes local.  Type in your city or town name or zip code and you get news results with your local news at the top of the search. Google says that this promotes local news sources but I suspect it also helps them target ads more effectively.  

POLITICS: Obama to the wire

With Obama handily defeating Clinton in three primaries yesterday (Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state), the two Democratic party front runners have nearly identical delegate counts. That means that late-stage primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, May 20, Montana and South Dakota, June 3, take on huge importance. The front-loaded Super Tuesday did not anoint the candidate.

In Obama’s victory speech last night in Virginia (primary this Tuesday) he concentrated on what sort of President he would be and his sharp differences with McCain. Both Obama and Clinton are transitioning into “Presidential” mode. Obama has momentum and money going into the next spate of primaries.  It is still hard to imagine him winning this thing despite his crowd-pleasing oratorical gifts

Author Doris Lessing, who holds the Nobel in literature, believes that Obama “would not last long” if he were President because somebody would surely assassinate him. See USA Today story. This is a story line not often mentioned these days but is certainly valid. Colin Powell refused to run for President because he believed he would be aggressively targeted for assassination.

WIRED BITCH RANT: Bruce Sterling Has Bad Hair Day & Bitch Slaps Flacks

What can you say to this blog post headline:

I’m Suffering An Evil Tidal Wave of Blogsurfing Public Relations Spam

WIRED reporter Bruce Sterling joins the Chris Anderson Support Group to Bitch Slap Flacks  with his post against publicists.  Sterling re-prints a media pitch with his own snide comments. Actually, the pitch is well-done and sounds relevant to me and it is Sterling who sounds like a whiner. It is definitely NOT spam. Comments are turned off for this post in case anybody has an opinion that may be contrary. Picking on publicists, especially when they pitch journalists with legitimate story ideas, is bush league, nasty and speaks more about the complainer. Did Sterling ever snatch a good idea for a story from a PR pitch, or find a source to flesh out a story?

MUTUAL SUPPORT: Dolly’s ‘Shock and Awe” 

Dolly Parton says her storied boobs, affectionately nicknamed “shock” and “awe,” belong to all of mankind. “They do seem like public property in a way. They served me well — I don’t know if I’m supporting them or they’re supporting me,” the country legend, 62, tells next month’s Ladies’ Home Journal. “I’ve always had nice ones but of course I’ve had ‘em jacked up a bit. And they’re part of the persona — it always takes a little pressure off me.”  

VIDEO: PRBlogNews VIDEO Hall of Fame

See that VIDEO tab up top. That’s where you can waste valuable time watching edgey arty newsy or fun videos instead of billing client time. Check it out.