Hear that sound? It’s a million Phillies fans quietly whimpering from the news that the Mets have signed two-time Cy Young winner and All-Star Johan Santana, ending MLB’s biggest off-season drama since A-Rod negotiated his own salary. Or wait, maybe it was the Bonds retirement debate?  Or could it have been the Joe Torre – George Steinbrenner feud? Or maybe – just maybe – it’s that pesky steroid thing.

Off-season buzz might be louder than ever, and even though the MLB’s coming off of one of the most watched regular seasons in recent history, 2007 highlights and player trades shouldn’t be the focus of the league’s PR push this winter.

It’s been almost two months since Senator George Mitchell dropped a bomb in baseball’s lap, but the league has done little to undo do the damage the Mitchell report has done so far. (The Roger Clemens’ PR disaster  alone will have fans debating “was he or wasn’t he?” for the at least the next decade…)

As commissioner, Bud Selig should be the face and voice of America’s pastime, yet he’s done nothing more this off-season than give a few vague quotes or release a statement here and there. Even upon release of the Report, Selig was weak and noncommittal in his news conference, stating, “If we were naïve or missed some signals,” Selig said to a handful of writers, “I accept that responsibility.” I guess a 20-month investigation and a 409-page report naming 89 major league players might have turned up a few of those “signals.”

(He’s not on steroids – he’s just big boned…)

Regardless, Selig’s had plenty of opportunities to prove to the public that the league stands behind the integrity of the game. And even though he hasn’t taken them, there’s no time like the present. Having recently been awarded a three-year contract extension, Selig needs to use the next 61 days for a pre-season warm-up centered on strong leadership initiatives that reassure fans he’s the right guy to get baseball on track.

Now, it’s true that certain legal aspects of the steroid allegations prevent him from offering opinions on guilt or innocence of certain players, but legislation and legalese mean little to doubting fans.

As a wise, old PR guy once told me, “Validate concern. Show action.” That’s what the public wants to see. By admitting there’s a problem and instituting a few ways to correct it, Selig will go a long way to soften the doubt he’s helped prolong and reinstitute faith in the game and its players.

And in the meantime, the rest of us here in Philly will cross our fingers and hope Cole Hamels wins 20 games this year.
 

This is not a political post. Rather, it is a cautionary tale. Okay, that’s a little grandiose, but it is instructive to look at the positioning that two savvy, experienced politicians woke up this morning to find themselves in. And it ain’t a good position.

Not so long ago Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton were the clear front-runners for the party’s nominations in the Presidential race, armed with boatloads of cash, wide party support and great name recognition (only first names needed!).

Now, one is all but toast, and the other is teetering on the brink. Why?  Because the campaign machines built around both have failed to fully understand today’s rocket-fueled media reality.

First: Rudy. Giuliani’s lousy position on this, the morning of the “do-or-die” Florida primary, is his own fault. Or at least the fault of the campaign decision to take, what amounts, to a two month hiatus. And because Rudy wasn’t front and center, leading a conversation about his plan for the country, others – candidates, bloggers, beltway pundits – filled in the enormous gap. They told whatever story they wanted about Giuliani – or worse for him, completely ignored his candidacy – and he never fired back. Giuliani left a giant vacuum that today’s hyper-fast campaign filled up with a lot of dirt for him, leaving him on the margins of the race. Ultimately, his inactivity has out-positioned him.

Hillary’s problem is the reemergence of “Clinton fatigue,” specifically, husband Bill’s overly aggressive behavior on the campaign trail. Long considered to be a saint of the Democratic party, the former Prez has turned into a political version of Britney Spears – a whole lotta drama. In its attempts to slow down Barack Obama’s momentum, the Clintons have turned to their tried and true attack tactics – this time, dangerously playing the race card.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqd2dfjl2pw

The reliance on the elbows-up ploys that have worked in the past has suddenly made Hillary look like she’s playing a new game by the old rules. The Obama campaign has taken rapid advantage, using old lion Ted Kennedy to portray Hillary as an out-of-touch practitioner of old-style smash-mouth politics, while hailing Obama as the future of the country. The Clintons got out-positioned, simply by doing what they’ve always done. For Hillary, the good news is that at least she still has a good shot at her party’s nomination.

For marketers – and political campaigns – the message seems clear. You don’t have to do anything wrong to find yourself suddenly out-positioned by the competition. Today’s media world moves fast. If you can’t keep up, you will be left behind.

According to the Chinese calendar, 2008 is officially the year of the rat, but in Philadelphia, the bull is the only animal that seems to carry any weight these days.  This morning, TC, a one-ton Brahma bull made a live appearance at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange to “ring” the ceremonial bell that showed the opening of the markets.

With market fears of worldwide recession, parading a bull around the trading floor certainly sends a crystal clear message to the region that all is well on the home front.

While folks will have to wait until the close of the markets today to see whether or not the publicity stunt paid off—apparently the last time an animal opened the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (a brown bear in 1972) interest rates shot up after the animal’s visit—it’s clear that people at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange are willing to go the extra mile to make it a “bull” market.

The Washington Post recently ran an article that looked at the falsehoods of the Iraq War issued by the White House since Day 1.  In short, the Center for Public Integrity poured over interviews, speeches, official records and everything in between to gather nearly 1,000 statements issued from the Executive Branch related to the War that were simply false.  Now liberal leanings aside, one needs to ask, “Is this for real?  Can this really be true?”  The answer is dishearteningly, “Yes.”

What baffles me even more is the fact that this sort of insanity receives zero attention while steroids in baseball gets an entire Congressional interrogation and report in order to root out a handful of cheating ballplayers.  Hell, Bill Clinton was crucified for lying about his own personal life – a far lesser offense than spending over 3,900 American lives on a War built on false pretenses.

Since the President has entered his lame duck stages earlier than anyone before him, it’s easy to see why no one cares about these 935 lies.  Any sort of action (i.e. impeachment) would take us far past January 20, 2009.  It’s just a shame that government can get so sick – regardless of partisanship.  But that’s Washington for you…

Here’s to a fresh start come election day

Anyone catch the hour-long NBC press conference substituting for the Golden Globes this year?  Me neither.  While I admit I may have been more disappointed that I didn’t get to see what the stars were wearing than the fact that I missed the ceremony itself, but I think I was with the rest of the world in wondering when is this writer’s guild strike going to end? But more than that, I started wondering about the future of television shows in general, and what would happen if the networks and the writers never come to an agreement.

Are television series as we know them meeting their final days?  Will we never again see new episodes of The Office, or worse, never again watch a brand new series that has the potential to become the next cult classic?

My fears were quickly calmed when I realized that the future of our viewing enjoyment doesn’t actually rest in the single sphere of a television itself.  Actually, the next Friends or Lost may come in the form of an internet series that you tune into right on your computer rather than your television screen.

Want proof?  Just take the new hit internet series “Quarterlife.”  Brought to you by the acclaimed “My So Called Life” team of Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, Quarterlife is a web series made up of 36 eight-minute webisodes that follows the lives of a group six of friends in their twenties.  Originally intended to be a pilot on ABC, when the network turned down the show, Herskovitz and Zwick decided to try a different route to get their show noticed.  They revamped Quarterlife for the internet and started broadcasting on MySpace last November.  And guess what happened?  The show was an acclaimed hit—in fact it was so well received that NBC (take that, ABC!) has officially picked up the series, and beginning February 18th, NBC will begin airing the eight-minute webisodes as hour-long episodes.

And it certainly does appear that this business model could very well be the model for the future.

As the writer’s strike drags on, major TV networks have attempted to capture online viewers by streaming free full-length episodes on their own websites.  Currently, episodes from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC are showing up on an assortment of sites, including  AOL, Veoh and MeeVee.   And according to the market research firm Horowitz Associates, the number of broadband users who watched full shows online weekly doubled in 2007 from 8% to 16%.  What’s more, traffic on Veoh.com, which recently sealed a deal to add MTV to their line-up, rose 24% during the last three months of 2007.

So Writer’s Guild, watch out.  Where there’s a will there’s a way, and it seems right now the way may very well the computer rather than the small screen.  And when you think about it, watching a series on your computer just plain makes sense in an age where you can watch internet video on your computer, iPod, iPod touch, heck, just about anything.  So while I don’t actually think that series television has reached its end, I wouldn’t count out the idea that the next series I get hooked on requires a mouse rather than a remote.