What I mean by this is the games are all about competition — good competition, fostering positive relationships between countries and promoting goodwill for the world over. Well, in my opinion, McDonald’s corporation fell short from the mark on a number of fronts.

In particular, this ad, sent the wrong message. Again, we’re talking about being good sports and promoting sports as a great way to spend time and as a character builder. For me, sports kept me out of trouble, kept me healthy and created lifelong friendships.

Clearly this ad is not about that at all. The ad shows a group of young kids lose a soccer game, the victors openly mocking them, parents and coaches are all in the fray when all of a sudden, the losing team gets McDonald’s Happy Meals and all of a sudden the trophy gets dropped and the winning team is down and out.

Really??!! Is that the message we want to send to our kids? My son is competitive enough, this certainly isn’t what I want my kids to do and would rather not be on a team with the same mentality.

Here’s the ad, what’re your thoughts?

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.

The next big break for media clippings will be when WSJ.com does away with it’s paid content.

Now, like I said, here is a man that all along has not been praised for his compassion, much less his PR skills, but the skeptic in me has to wonder, here’s a guy who is not from Utah but who keeps invoking and using the name and phrases associated with turning the situation over to the “Lord’s” hands. Is he really that PR clueless? I don’t know, maybe he’s trying to appeal to the hearts and minds of the state and locals knowing that a good majority of Utahns are Christians.

My Two Cents: Whether intentional o unintentional, knowing your publics is always a good thing. Mr. Murray has a lot of questions to answer and it’s hard to say whether the last few weeks have served as a case-in-point that he needs serious PR help, so my question remains, is he PR savvy or PR stupid? What do you think?

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.

With anything we write one of the goals is to get people’s attention, headlines are intended to do this in a newspaper. By avoiding what we call editorializing, that’s sharing one’s opinion beyond being objective and credible, writers and editors find catchy ways to get readers’ attention to read stories, even if it’s only the first few sentences of the story, or the lead. Scan the newspaper and see what, by headline alone, catches your attention. By the same token, when writing headlines for your blog posts try to make them catch, you have to think that with the millions of pieces of information available on the Web, if you get your content in front of a potential reader the title or headline is where conversion takes place. Granted, this takes some practice but will ultimately be one major way to get a good strong following from more distant readers (people who may not know you and simply come across or stumble onto your blog).

I was looking at Engadget the other day and this headline just jumped off the page at me,

What a headline, he got the gist of the story across, threw his twist on the story to get my attention and it worked. Compare this with “My thoughts for today” and unless I know you I probably won’t click on your blog to read about your thoughts.

My Two Cents: Although I think that user-generated content is what makes the Web great, I also think we can do a better job overall. Not only will writing more thought-provoking, catchier headlines cast a better light on us the writers, but it could also potentially drive traffic to our site.

Also of note in the report, 40 percent of African Americans have a high-speed Internet connection in the home. According to the Pew Institute, this figure has nearly tripled from the same survey taken in early 2005 (when it was a 14 percent adoption rate).

To read more about broadband Internet adoption from the Pew Institute, click here.

My Two Cents: I guess the Internet is more than just a passing fad. What’s more, it’s getting faster and faster.

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.