In the latest American Pulse Survey published by BIGresearch, trust is virtually non-existent for politicians and members of the media. What a travesty, here these people should be some of the most credible, and in the end, seven out of ten people over the age of 18 don’t trust either of these two entities.

The other piece of information I found interesting and unfortunate relates to the green movement. No doubt you’ve seen the commercials, company after company and cities and individuals are moving towards a more environmentally-friendly attitude . . . of so I thought. Seventy percent of Americans believe that companies that tout “green” products are doing it simply as a marketing tactic (read the article here, registration required).

How sad, because, although I’m sure a number do it for the image, there are some doing it because they genuinely feel it’s the right thing to do — majority rules.

So how do we regain trust? I guess the pessimist in me says it’s too late. I had a friend that talked about the “penny bucket” as a symbol of trust in a relationship. Every time we do something good, honest or right, we put pennies in the bucket, that way, when we goof up and take pennies out we should always have a reserve to cover the outflow; although we should also watch so that we don’t have a large outflow. Have marketers, the media and politicians gone into the red on their penny buckets?

My Two Cents: We’ve gotten greedy. In our haste to make as much money as possible we’ve sacrificed values — honesty being one of them. I would be interested to know how many companies put up figurative stop signs when an money-making idea comes along that would be unethical or dishonest. Rebuilding the public’s trust is a monumental task that will only occur if everyone is on board; we’re on thin ice as it is. Personally, I think the best I can do is just that, my best.

Seth Godin’s most recent book, The Dip, focuses on being the best and I agree that if you’re gonna do something, and you think it’s worth your time to do it, be the best — you owe it to yourself.

For Mattel, although they may strive to be the best at what they do, it is an important lesson to note that you are only as strong as the weakest member of your team. Sadly for Mattel the Chinese manufacturers are the weakest point of their team and boy what a whammy!

My Two Cents: Surround yourself with people you trust, don’t sacrifice quality and remember that your customers are one of your most important publics.

“It’s like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”

~Steve Jobs

(This was said at the June 2007 D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, CA. Jobs was referring to Apple’s popular iTunes music program being available to Windows OS users.)

One of my clients is a huge eTailer of RC products, a couple months ago I sent out a pitch/follow up email and got a response from Paul Hochman, the Today Show’s gear & gadget editor. Paul was looking for a particular product to feature on an upcoming green gadgets segment with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. Although my client didn’t carry the particular product he was looking for, I was able to locate the PR contact for that product. Needless to say, my efforts yielded a great response from Paul, the product’s company and the segment producer for the Today Show. Now, I haven’t called in that possible relationship, but the opportunity is there.

A fellow, former colleague and a local PR guru, Russ Page, recently blogged about the value of giving the media more than just pitches for your clients or products (read the article here), send them a tip on something that will build your relationship with them and increase their confidence in you as a true professional.

The second example also involves Russ. This same client I mentioned above has had some phenomenal success in the media with their products. In fact, one day Russ was listening to the best nightly news talk program in Salt Lake City, KSL’s Nightside Project, and they mentioned these little RC helicopters. Well, the sharp guy that I am — laugh now — I remembered that and when our client launched it’s own mini RC helicopters, one of my first pitches was to Michael Castner at the Nightside Project. That little interchange led to us being featured as guests on the show tonight, Tuesday, June 12, 2007.

My Two Cents: Although competition is great — it’s what makes the great ones great — don’t discount networking and helping each other out as professionals. In the end we all win and according to Stephen Covey, a win win situation is optimal.

When choosing a spokesperson it is important to remember you want someone who will represent you well. For larger companies, it isn’t a bad idea to have a media policy for employees, after all, the reporter that wants the scoop doesn’t care if it’s coming from the top or the mail room, it is probably more credible coming from the mail room, for that matter.

So with this little post, I don’t intend to make any judgments about Michael Vick, his career or personal life, suffice it to say, the local attorney is looking into charges for alleged dog fighting on his property. My colleague, the Crazy Canuck, sent me this clip of Vick’s fellow footballers, and probably friends, backing and defending Vick to the media. I don’t think he asked them to say anything, much less paid them to say anything. The bottom line is that these guys aren’t doing the NFL, their teams or Michael Vick much good by “candidly” sharing their opinions with the media.

My Two Cents: Obviously this is a bit over the top, however, it well proves the fact that you should carefully choose your spokesperson. This certainly applies when the media tries to contact your friends, or employees, be careful, the media may not verify that these people are authorized to speak in your behalf.

Anyway, Seth makes some great points on achieving the top in anything, whether our professional lives or businesses, or whatever, the Dip is what separates the achievers from the quitters–let me say that quitting isn’t that bad, Seth explains all about that too.

My Two Cents: Seth made a great presentation and my guess is that his book is a deeper journey through his concepts and ideas, it would be beneficial to read the book, plus it’s a small book, in case you were concerned it was too big.

Google offers personalization and various services like Gmail, Google Apps, in the end, they are collecting information about you in return for these services. In this MediaPost article Google’s translation service is another in their line of products that don’t offer any “revenue streams.”

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the fast food restaurants have done some fiddling with the sizes of meals. Carls Jr. got me to buy a larger meal when I really didn’t need it, all because of the words they used to define the sizes.

Let me explain. Some food joints will have actual samples of the drink sizes so you can see what you’re getting, Carls Jr. didn’t have this. They also didn’t list their “regular” size, leaving me to choose between “medium” and “large”(I think it was large). so naturally, without asking what the regular size was and assuming that I didn’t want a “small” size, which typically comes before “medium,” I told the lady I wanted a “medium” -sized meal. What I actually got I would define at least as a “large” meal.

This reminds me of a company that advertised using “fresh steam” to clean their bottles before filling them with a drink. What is “fresh steam”? I couldn’t tell you, steam is usually fresh–granted I’m not a scientist.

My Two Cents: If you’re a marketer, it will benefit you to understand the psychology of words; if you’re a consumer, caveat emptor!

Photo Courtesy of ramecker

My Two Cents: I wrote this on my iBook.

The previous three commercials are funny to me. I think a lot of the humor comes because of what is being portrayed combined with Peyton’s down-to-earth personality. (Here is a clip that shows behind the scenes of the final Peyton Manning commercial, watch it and see how they let Peyton be himself.)

My Two Cents: I think that although we will continue to have professional ad agencies, for one reason or another, we, the users, will become more of a presence in the advertising world. In reality, user-generated videos are just an evolution of letting the audience choose what content is in a commercial.