22 November 2011

Should evolution be taught in schools?

The answer is yes, and the reasons are these:



This video is the result of an ongoing discussion among a small handful of scientists and science communicators - Matt Shipman, Jamie Vernon, Andrea Kuszewski, Kevin Zelnio, an amazing video editor who wishes to remain nameless - and me.

The discussion started shortly after a video of the the Miss USA 2011 Pageant interview competition appeared on YouTube.  The contestants were asked that simple question - should evolution be taught in schools - and most of the answers were very disappointing for advocates of science. The discussion continued as evolution again became a salient topic in the presidential campaign. Everyone in our group had their own perspective and reasons for doing this, but here's what I saw as the question kept coming up:

  • conservative politicians saying "no" (without facts to back it up)
  • pageant contestants saying either "no" or "teach evolution and creationism and let kids decide"
  • prominent supporters of teaching evolution calling these other people idiots or otherwise mocking them 

The only thing I didn't see: prominent people explaining why evolution actually should be taught in schools.

That's not to say people aren't trying - there are organizations which have been at the forefront of this discussion for some time now, such as the National Center for Science Education, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Teachers Association, and so many others.  They do great work.

But here were prominent role models - and as Matt wrote, mostly female role models - talking about teaching evolution. It just seemed like a good time to add more voices of smart female role models with more to say than "you suck."  So we reached out to a bunch of female scientists, asked them to record a video about teaching evolution, and a lot of them responded.  Our editor put it all together and the montage above is what we got.

Our informal group is under no illusions that this will fix everything.  It took several months just to pull this video together, with zero budget. If anything this gives me a greater appreciation for groups like NCSE, AAAS, and NSTA.  But if enough people do enough things to make science more relevant and accessible to everyone - projects like SciStarter or ScienceDebate or even the #scimom discussion - we will continue to make progress, and society will continue to, erm... evolve.

And that's where you come in.  It's also important for YOUR voice to be heard.  Leave a comment - or even better, a video response at the YouTube page - answering the same question - why should evolution be taught in schools?  All it takes is a laptop, a webcam, and a YouTube account.  Be a constructive and positive voice.  Your feedback is encouraged and appreciated.

By the way, I submitted the above video as a "response" the the original Miss USA 2011 video.  The owner of that channel needs to give permission to have it posted there as a response.  We'll see what happens.

21 November 2011

When Irish Eyes are Hiring

Four years ago I wrote a column in Business Lexington that compared the Kentucky Thoroughbred to the Celtic Tiger.   The Irish Economy has obviously had some challenges along with the rest of the world since then, but they can point to some recent successes.  More importantly, they have a real plan that focuses a lot on foreign direct investment, strong workforce training, and affordable higher education.

I recently had a chance to talk with Shane Nolan, VP of Content, Consumer and Cleantech of IDA Ireland.  He walked me through some of the things Ireland is doing to attract US business - it's not all about taxes.  It was nice to learn about what Ireland has done since I last took a look.

It's worth a listen - less than 20 minutes of your time.

Clearly a threat to national security


Unbelievable.

11 November 2011

Accountability and crisis PR at Penn State, final entry

I've said a lot about this but I'll just sum it up this way:

Penn State's PR strategy so far appears to be a balance of avoiding those "spectacle" moments when obviously disgraced employees are in the public eye, while accommodating the local football-obsessed culture as much as possible. In my opinion, the strategy should be focused on asserting a set of core principles and consistently reinforcing those assertions through its decisions and actions.

Reputations are re-built based on actions more than statements. The university leadership's actions have been inconsistent so far.

To me it's quite simple - you either have a zero-tolerance policy for raping children or you don't. If you think someone you work with might be raping children (or if you see that taking place), you should do as much as humanly possible to find out and stop it immediately.  The University has terminated the employment of some people who obviously aren't child rapists, but don't appear to share this zero-tolerance policy. But the University hasn't terminated all of them.  One current employee has said under oath that he witnessed such an unspeakable act, then only informed his head coach the next day.  It's unfathomable to me, based on everything that has been reported so far, that other members of the coaching staff knew nothing about what was happening there.

When it comes to the University's reputation, everything else is just noise.

10 November 2011

Accountability and crisis PR at Penn State, continued...

The leadership at Penn State (or more accurately, what's left of it) tried to stop the proverbial bleeding last night.  They held a 10pm press conference announcing the immediate departure of the university's president and its legendary head football coach.  However, from this vantage point, the press conference is little more than a marginally effective tourniquet.  It's going to get much, much worse for Penn State before it gets better.

First, it's clear that several very important details haven't been made public yet.  That's the only explanation for the Board of Trustees' decision to keep an assistant coach who witnessed an alleged rape of a minor and did nothing more than tell the head coach the next day.  One of the reasons the head coach was dismissed was to avoid the spectacle of him on the field on Saturday - yet by retaining the implicated assistant coach, the enduring image of this game won't be a tackle or a touchdown, but a picture of the assistant coach on the sidelines.

By retaining the rest of the staff - especially the witness - the Board looks like they're taking actions based on PR rather than principle. Some of the more responsible members of the media are asking the "what did they know and when did they know it" questions of a lot of people - it's just a matter of time before they start asking those questions of the rest of the coaching staff.  The new interim head coach has been on the Penn State football staff for 33 years - is it even remotely possible that he knew nothing of this?  Six members of the coaching staff have been there 15 years or more - no doubt working closely with the alleged rapist for years.  Were they all completely in the dark, even though two members of the staff have already admitted knowing?  If the true criteria for dismissal is knowledge of the problem and inadequate response, why are these men still working? Absolutely none of this information is a surprise. And based on this, I'm quite confident the Board is seriously considering forfeiting the rest of the season. Yes, it's unfair to the athletes - but honestly, what other choice does the board have if it claims to hold this principle?

Further, one core component of crisis communications is understanding the dynamics of speaking to different audiences. It's clear that there are two audiences in this case - Happy Valley and everyone else. Last night's press conference was obviously aimed at a national audience, but the first to respond was a local one.   Before the vice chair of the Board of Trustees could even take breath after his statement, two members of the local media shouted a question in unison - "Who is coaching on Saturday?" For the rest of us, that question couldn't be further from our minds.  But by failing to understand both audiences, and more specifically failing to understand what the entirely predictable reaction by locals would mean to the alleged victims - they actually added insult to injury.  They should have kept the alleged victims in the loop.  It's just the latest example of how the alleged victims are still not the top priority.

This is the downside of (pardon the pun) lionizing a person and a program as an infallible "institution" for so long.  In the Middle East, college kids are protesting (and risking their lives) because they want democracy and human rights.  In Happy Valley, college kids are rioting because they think the old man should get a pass for shielding an alleged serial rapist. And then they're mugging for the cameras.  (The Internet is forever, idiots.

Sadly, the Board can't do much more right now to address its reputation - because, as I said yesterday, the lack of courage demonstrated over the years has tied their hands today.  

And now what was eight alleged victims swells to seventeen and counting

08 November 2011

Accountability and crisis PR at Penn State

You learn a lot about a person, and an organization, when times are tough.  We are certainly learning a lot about the leadership and the culture at Penn State this week.

You may already know about the epic scandal that has engulfed the university and more specifically the football program.  A one-time top assistant coach is arrested for sexual assaults or advances on several young boys over several years on Penn State's campus - some while he was on the job, some after he retired but still had full access to the football program.  Two top university administrators are arrested for perjury and failing to notify authorities of the alleged crimes. Transcripts from a three-year grand jury investigation become public, and the details are horrifying. A graduate assistant saw a particularly disturbing event involving the assistant coach and a young boy in the shower - he didn't intervene, but chose to inform the legendary head coach about the incident the next day.  That head coach called the athletic director on a Sunday, and then did little if anything else.   Apparently, no one checked on the victim, or even tried to find out who he was.

I won't get into how this makes me feel as the father of a young boy - it would degrade into a lot of profanity really, really fast.  But as a PR guy I can give some observations on how they're handling it now - not well.

If this saga isn't surreal enough, we see only a small trickle of fairly predictable, vanilla, approved-by-legal-counsel statements, complete with "thoughts and prayers going out to the victims" that they never chose to contact.  That is, until the head coach's regularly-scheduled Tuesday press conference intended to promote next week's game.  Reporters received these instructions the night before:
Media planning to attend Tuesday's Penn State Football weekly teleconference are advised that that primary focus of the teleconference is to answer questions related to Penn State's Senior Day game with Nebraska this Saturday. Head coach Joe Paterno and any Penn State Football student-athletes in attendance will be answering questions about the Nebraska game, Penn State's season thus far and other topics related to the current college football season.
And when it became apparent that this profoundly tone-deaf statement wasn't going to prevent several questions about the obvious issue, media received this announcement:
Due to the on-going legal circumstances surrounding the recent allegations and charges, we have determined that today's press conference cannot be held and will not be rescheduled.
From a crisis PR standpoint, canceling may actually be the right move, at least for now.  You can't put a spokesperson out there who isn't prepared to deal with tough questions or defend the indefensible. But it does show how feeble the program's position is.  These charges were NOT a surprise to those involved, and the leadership could have had something prepared for this.  In short, their lack of courage as the crisis unfolded - you know, to "protect the reputation of the program" - has limited their options today and has harmed their reputation even more.

What a shame the leadership of this fine institution lacks the courage of, say, young boys from disadvantaged families who were allegedly sexually abused by a popular authority figure  - but spoke up anyway, knowing how their stories would be received in that community.

Because, as one of the victims put it, "I just don't want this to happen to anyone else."

So here's a bit of free PR advice to the good folks in Happy Valley - if you're not in the mood to talk anyway, just keep your mouths shut.  I don't want to hear any talk of rallying around your coach like he's some kind of victim here. I don't want to hear any cliches about "overcoming adversity" or "circling the wagons" or "us against the world" or whatever.  Tell your coach and everyone else involved that it's time for a fresh start. Right now. Write some checks with a lot of zeroes to the victims' families.  Encourage other victims to come forward and get them help.  Remember - this is not about Penn State Football's future, or the coach's future, or even the university's future - this is about a group of young kids who were horribly victimized and then had the courage to report the truth.  THEY and their families are the heroes.

You'll never be able to make this right.  But you can make it better - start by holding people truly accountable, asking for forgiveness, and working to make sure this never happens again.

04 November 2011

The fastest field ever?

"Every single one of the men in this lineup has run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds." The race is 2 years old but I still remember it.

Female Role Models V

send in the college girls!
Sometimes I get emails:
Hi, I thought you might appreciate this befitting Wódka Vodka ad campaign: "escort quality, hooker pricing". In short, it's high quality like an escort, low cost like a prostitute... but drunk college girls are free!
Yep, this is from the nice people at Stuntman PR, who obviously bought one of those "blogger lists" that has me down as a marketing/PR/advertising blogger, and they just sent this out. Who has time to read blogs to check for relevance? Who even has time to insert names into emails?   THERE'S FREE PUBLICITY TO BE HAD! (OK, not exactly free - they offered to send me some of their cheap vodka.)  This is my third form-letter email from them  - one was about some random b-list celebrity endorsement, another had a new slogan or something.  I ignored them like I do most of the irrelevant pitches I get.  But hey, third time's the charm.

I'm no prude.  I'm in the PR game too, and I understand the need to be funny and edgy, especially in social media.  But this isn't edgy, it's just gross. And they should have looked at the blogs they wanted to pitch ahead of time.

Do me a favor - go to Google.com and type in "female role models."  You should find my blog, currently number 3 in the search results, just ahead of Huffington Post. That's because whenever I see something that demeans women, I try to share positive examples and perspectives of women that we can celebrate.  Here are installments one, two, three, and four. My criteria, once again:
Someone an online mom can show her daughter [or son, a great point my wife made] and say, "See her? See what she's doing? See how she's living in the same world you are, with the same challenges you have, and see how she succeeds? THAT is how you do this. THAT is what I stand for. I want you to be like HER."
So here's the latest list:

Jenny Lawson.  You know it was just a matter of time before The Bloggess showed up on this list.  She's developed a huge following through her sheer wit and emotional writing, and she's embraced a cause that seems relevant - ridiculing PR flacks who send stupid pitches.  For those of us who reach out to bloggers for a living, and try to do it the right way, she's actually doing us a favor.

Kristen Chase. Kristen is proof that you can be edgy and sexy without crossing that line into gross and sexist.  She's as hard-working an entrepreneur as you'll find - Cool Mom Picks may be her signature venture, but she works on homeschooling stuff and her new "4 kids or more" site as well.

Krystal D'Costa. Krystal is an anthropologist who works in digital media in NYC and writes a blog for Scientific American.  She has a panel coming up at ScienceOnline in January that focuses on "Broadening the Participation of Underrepresented Populations in Online Science Communication and Communities." How cool is that?

Rachael Herrscher. "Robo-entrepreneur."  That's how I describe Rachel, founder of Today's Mama.  Years ago she built a business that put coupon inserts into newspapers, and when newspapers went online, so did she.  She's also the creative force behind the Evolution of Women in Social Media conference.  (maybe Stuntman should think about going next year.)

So thanks Stuntman.  Keep the vodka, or better yet send it to Jenny.  Maybe I took the bait and gave you the free PR you wanted.  But your ad campaign still sucks.