EXTRA – EXTRA Wonder Drug Discovered!

Here's a quiz for you. What is good for your heart, delays dementia, prevents arthritis, helps prevent the common cold and the flu, lowers the risk of diabetes and throat cancer, and helps you loose weight and sleep.

Announcing the wonder drug - WINE!

The May 31 issue of Wine Spectator features an article on the scientifically backed health benefits of drinking wine. The article even states, “Some studies have indicated that not only can pregnant women safely drink a glass or two of wine per week, but that their children may perform better three years after birth when compared to children of women who did drink at all.”

So we have chocolate and wine on the “Good for You” list.
Now all I need is for a study to tell us that eating a nice Ribeye steak a day in healthy.

Then life for be nearly perfect.

Ken

Obama Administration Reaches out to Ethnic Media

One of the key tenets of public relations is to reach the right audience with your message. The best way to reach your audience is to frame your message and communicate it appropriately. For example, when we reach out to ethnic media we make sure we have spokespersons available who speak that particular language.

I'm happy to see the Obama administration has got this figured out. Last week Dan Restrepo, the White House's senior adviser on Latin America, addressed the Hispanic-media in Spanish during a press briefing on America's changing Cuba policy. According to the Huffington Post, it's believed Restrepo is the first person to speak Spanish during a White House briefing.

While I don't think it's necessary to have a Spanish interpreter for all official functions, I think it's a smart move on the administration's part, or any organization for that matter, to take a simple and highly effective step to communicate with its audience more effectively.

~ Nicole

It's Time to Take a Step Toward Solving the Obesity Crisis

We’re facing an out-of-control-obesity epidemic and all anyone can do is point fingers and blame the individual for eating too much or not exercising enough. While people do need to take some level of responsibility it’s impossible to change your behavior if you’re surrounded by fast food restaurants, limited amounts of healthy food and live in unsafe neighborhoods that make walking and biking a high-risk activity. The obesity epidemic is such a huge problem that policymakers, public health advocates and individuals alike are often paralyzed about where to start. According to, “Ounces of Prevention – The Public Policy Case for Taxes on Sugared Beverages,” in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, a tax on sugared beverages is as good a place as any.

The authors, Dr. Brownell and Dr. Frieden, state that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, sports drinks and energy drinks is associated with increased body weight and poor nutrition and leads to an increased risk of obesity and diabetes. (My favorite part of the article? “Studies that do not support a relationship between consumption of sugared beverages and health outcomes tend to be conducted by authors supported by the beverage industry.”) They suggest levying a tax of these types of drinks will help stem the gluttonous consumption. Dr. Brownell’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity estimated that “for every 10 percent increase in price, consumption decreases by 7.8 percent.” This and similar studies suggest that if people have to pay more for their sugary drinks, they’ll switch to more healthful beverages, reducing their caloric intake and weight gain.

Some people will argue that it’s not fair to single out sugared beverages as the root cause of the obesity epidemic. I agree that it’s not the only reason people are busting out of their belts, but it sure has contributed to the problem and it’s an easy place to turning things around. New York and Maine have proposed a “soda tax” and California should too.

What do you think?

~ Nicole

Photo credit: The Art of Manliness

Let's All Change Our Names to Betty Brown

I just read an article about a North Texas legislator who suggested Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Betty Brown said.

Brown adds: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Apparently, Ms. Betty Brown thinks it's too difficult to say Asian names, especially those of Chinese, Korean and Japanese background and her hands are tied to create a system that's not going to screw up her voting identification program. We all run into situations where names are difficult to pronounce but the thought of blatantly disrespecting other cultures, to ask that they disown the name they were given at birth takes us backwards as Americans. As an Asian American, it saddens me that ignorance like this continue to exist. Ms. Brown desperately needs media training in multicultural communications.

Link to the article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6365320.html


~Muriel

Obama - Not A Tweeter? Tell Me It’s Not True!!

In the NY Times article “When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking” by Noam Cohen, he reveals that, “Candidate Barack Obama, as well as President Obama, has a social-networking team to keep his Twitter feed tweeting.”

The fact that he’s not really tweeting doesn’t shock me, it’s that he has an entire team behind each tweet. Hey folks – it’s only 140 characters!!

I can just see the morning meetings where the team gets together for an hour-long discussion to decide what that morning's presidential tweet will be.

The article also reveals that many other famous Tweeple are not doing their own tweets. I wasn’t surprised that the likes of Britney Spears, 50 Cents (aka Curtis Jackson III) and others don’t really tweet. I’d be surprised if any of them can spell in the first place.

So what is to be done about this? I know – everyone should set up (or hire) ghost tweet receivers/responders. It could spawn an entire new industry. People - who are not who they say they are, tweeting to people - who aren’t really who they say they are.

Believe me – if someone can figure out how they can do that and make money at it – it will be here before you know it.

Ken

Increasing Taxes on Wine Not A Healthy Solution

First off, keep in mind that wine is already heavily taxed, yet California lawmakers Assemblyman Jim Beall Jr., D-San Jose, and Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, both want to increase those taxes even more. Increasing the already high “sin” taxes on wine is just not a very healthy idea. And here's why.

On Beall ‘s Web site he states, "The alcohol industry creates devastating problems -- traffic accidents, alcoholism -- and walks away with money stuffed in its pockets while the public -- including non-drinkers -- are left to pay billions for the mess." BUT WAIT ONE MINUTE ASSEMBLYMAN, study after study has shown that wine in moderation is healthy. Literally hundreds of studies have shown that drinking wine lowers heart disease, strokes and some forms of cancer. Studies have even shown that the children of women who drank small amounts of wine while pregnant grew up to have higher IQs. Alcoholics are not about to spend $10 or more to satisfy their addiction when they can get more bang for their buck with hard liquor, so why pick on wine?

DeSaulnier, says he wants to collect the money for an Alcohol Abuse Treatment Program Fund. But the state already has a program and there are many other free programs available. The problem isn’t the need for more programs, the problem is getting people to admit they have a problem and seek help.

If either of those lawmakers were truly concerned with Californian’s and their health they would lower the current taxes on wine, or better yet start a program that encourages more people who currently are not wine drinkers to enjoy a glass or two with dinner each night. Just imagine the savings in health care costs the people of California could reap if 90 percent of the people, instead of the current 10 percent, were enjoying the health benefits imparted by drinking a glass of wine every day. Now that's an idea someone should explore further.

Ken

Twitter Reaches New Heights

Twitter has certainly taken off in the past few weeks and everyone in our office wants to keep up with how this communications tool is changing the way we, as communicators, do business. I lot of the discussion has been about how the rise of social media is changing or pushing out traditional media outlets.

I'm always happy to see traditional media outlets embrace new approaches, as the Chicago Tribune did today. Today's masthead features the Twitter handles of the publisher and editors.

Pretty cool! I know a lot of reporters are using Twitter to interact with their community but I think the Chicago Tribune may be the first to make the linkage so blatant. I'm curious if there are other papers out there that are already doing this and, if not, who's next?

~ Nicole