Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
The American Gaming Association (AGA), a lobbying group for U.S. gambling casinos, is working on a PR campaign to improve its image. According to AGA chief executive Frank Fahrenkopf, the group wants to persuade state officials that current casino taxes are too high in the states where its members operate.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"In today’s economy, you can have incredible marketing for your company for free rather than spending an enormous marketing budget," writes Steven Warren for IT Managment. "How is this possible? Corporate blogging." Warren encourages corporate bloggers to "be honest and forthright. Don’t just blog about your products with a PR spin. ... Use the blog to capture your audience with your personality and your passion for what you do. ... A passionate blog will reach more people than any high-dollar ad campaign." It's not just corporations that are blogging, but trade associations too.
Non-violence training workshops I attended in the 1980s often featured, as a tension-breaker or wind-down game, a little exercise known as the whoosh.
For the uninitiated, a whoosh consists of one person standing in the centre of a circle of people holding hands. Starting from a low crouch, the circle slowly moves in with the pronunciation of whooooooosh building to a crescendo as the group converges, culminating with an enthusiastic jump. The person in the centre is then considered to have been whooshed.
If such exercises are still in non-violence training workshop manuals, maybe it's time a warning label was added: Never whoosh a spook!
Why? This week the Australian government deported Houston-based peace and environmental activist Scott Parkin, after revoking his six-month visitor visa. No reason was given; for all we know, Scott whooshed some hapless, wet-behind-the-ears Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) spook sent to spy on one of the non-violence training sessions he was attending.
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