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12.30
The top stories of 2010
It's almost the 11th year of this century.
People are preparing themselves for blackeyed peas recipes to make those buggers taste decent, Auld Lang Syne rehearsals (BTW, it's not Old Lane Sign) and the ever-popular rumbling, stumbling, bumbling "Walk of Shame."
Ah yes, 2010. That's how to send it off.
However, before we do, HCK2 would like to reflect upon the top headlines of the year and consider who could have used a nice dose of marketing communications or had it already:
10. iPad - January was a great month as people with no employment, or just a lot of vacation time, camped outside Apple stores to get this mobile bundle of encased greatness. Of course with a $700 price tag, this flack got some iCramps. In fact, I need some iBuprofen now. (ba-dum-bum-ching!)
9. Eyjafjallajökull - If you are Icelandic, you should know Mother Nature hates Europe. This volcano shut down flights for weeks because of ash and smoke. This little burp of magma caused airlines flying across the pond more than $200 million.
8. Cruising and Spamming - Carnival Cruise Lines experienced a national kerfuffle when 4,500 of its passengers were stranded at sea thanks to a small engine room fire. Their stock was affected. Cruises were cancelled. And the pictures of the "Splendor" getting towed were everywhere. One good thing did happen - SPAM got some sweet and tasty PR out of this incident. Burp.
7. OBAMA-care - When was the last time something so intangible was named after a President? Reaganomics? Nixon recordings? Clinton cigars? An even bigger story is finding someone outside D.C. and the media that knows this Congressional act was called "the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." I smell Jeopardy. (See, and you thought that was going to be a partisan rant, eh?)
6. The Passion of Mel Gibson - His mild-mannered recordings were the stuff of legend. Imagine a sweet, adoring beau leaving arsenic- and kerosene-laced messages on your voice mail like cute Mel did for his woman, Oksana Grigorieva. Eff bombs, questions of her feminine origin and even a mention of the 80s hit from "Talking Heads," Burning Down the House. That Mel. Sweetie. Kisses.
5. Haiti - It amazes me how this country can unite behind one cause so rapidly when it wants to do so. This 7.0 quake was the strongest to hit the region since 1770. More than $500 million of aid was sent to Haiti, and that doesn't include the 1000s of doctors and volunteers who made a home in Port au Prince. Perhaps the byline article here is why does it takes tragedy to unite a world?
4. TSA Gets Touchy-Feely - This is an organization set up to protect us from another 9-11, but because they get too-handsy in doing so, people seem to want to go back to packing blades and flammable shoes on board. And who would have thought any organization on the planet would handle more junk than eBay?
3. Sports stars flame out - This year was a big one for famous athletes to cause a supernova of news. There's Big Ben and his "one-night-stand" escapades, Brett Favre's much delayed retirement and much ballyhooed junk via text, Lebron taking his talent to South Beach and Tiger being in heat for the last part of a decade. Good thing I have a Fathead of Cliff Lee in my room. Oh wait.
2. Chilean Miner Rescue - Count them: 70 days. Imagine being underground with 33 of your closest friends more than 2,000 feet below ground for that long and forced to listen to Elvis tunes. Some consider that the pathway to hell, but once these guys braved the element and peeked through the earth's core, their lives were changed forever. And now more than half of them have hired a publicist. Good times.
1. BP - Need you say anymore? This story involved public outcry, global efforts of aid and a dire need for PR if ever there was one. Forget the athletes, cruise lines, profanity tirades or the TSA. If you need a sterling case study as to why PR is necessary, may I introduce Tony Hayward.
So, there's 2010 in a nutshell.
However, if you don't fancy those, there's always a couple of honorable mentions that had thought bubbles of journalists, flacks and readers full of expletives.
Remember Dick Van Dyke admitting during a surfing excursion that he was saved at sea by a daring band of dolphins? Go Flipper! Atta boy.
What about the fiercely trained Chihuahua that joined Japan's police force? Momo means "Peach", and I suppose she is one drug raid away from being introduced to cobbler. Unless she goes all Cujo on some poor crackhead.
Grrrr.
Lastly, something closer to home as TCU made the annals of 2010 with a butt-branding incident that caused a real pain in... well, you get the idea. Evidently, Amon Carter IV - yes, great-grandson of THAT Amon Carter - likes to party and reportedly asked his frat brothers to brand his behind. Although he suffered second and third degree burns, no charges were filed. And a lot of paramedics got one big laugh.
This year was a great year for news and PR. Why? Name one person or entity on this list that couldn't use nice representation from an agency like us.
Well, except for Dick Van Dyke... dolphins are magical. Like unicorns, only without that mystical whine that makes humans believe they can quote scripture.
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