In case you didn’t know, today is “National Honesty Day.” (It also happens to be “Adopt a Shelter Pet Day,” “Bugs Bunny Day,” “Hairstylist Appreciation Day,” “Oatmeal Cookie Day,” “Raisin Day,” “Sarcoidosis Day,” and “Poem in Your Pocket Day,” and while a number of those are terribly important—I mean, cookies!–we’ll focus on honesty for now.) […]
Read MoreAmerica loves football – everyone knows that. But it’s beginning to look like the sport itself is in crisis and does not reciprocate these feelings. A growing body of evidence is beginning to show that football players are prone to concussions and thus prone to degenerative brain disease later on in life. These diseases (CTE […]
Read MoreWant to hear a great story? Well, I don’t mean to slight you, but I don’t have one. I got you hooked though, right? Everyone loves a good story – so much so that we’ve preserved our entire human history in one form of narrative or another (even the word history has “story” embedded in […]
Read MoreAs you may (or may not) have noticed, A.wordsmith has recently changed it’s descriptive title from “a boutique PR and marketing firm” to “a boutique PR and thought leadership firm.” Likewise, you may be thinking, “What exactly does that mean?” Well, I’m here to tell you. Marketing for the sake of sales By definition, marketing involves […]
Read MoreHealth agencies have been challenged for months with how best to communicate with the public and the media alike about the Ebola outbreak. The news that Thomas Eric Duncan, the Dallas man infected with Ebola, has died is likely to add to Americans’ fears about the disease, and with that fear, we are likely to […]
Read MoreIf I may, with another preparedness post (as you can tell, we’re planners here at A. Wordsmith)… While most Californians have long been familiar with big earthquake risks and emergency preparedness plans, some Oregonians have been slow to acknowledge our state’s potential to experience “the big one.” There has been an increased effort […]
Read MoreBasic steps for your crisis communications plan The recent water contamination in Toledo, Ohio underscores the need for all types of organizations to have a plan for how they will handle communications in a crisis. Most of us won’t be facing a life-or-death situation, as the city of Toledo did, but nevertheless a bit of advance […]
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This week’s Fast Company Leadership quote comes from Joseph McCormack, author of Brief: Making a Bigger Statement by Saying Less. Despite the irony that this man wrote an entire book on brevity, its a message I find valuable today. Today was the day I broke my iPhone and have reverted back to a non-smart phone. I […]
Read MoreWe all know the BIC pen—it’s the classic, no-fuss ballpoint pen most of us have grown up using, on everything from school essays to forms at the doctor’s office. (Did you know it is even part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art?) Well, this tried-and-true brand is branching out, and calling […]
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