As the world’s most valuable automotive manufacturer, electric car giant Tesla is the largest company in the world that operates without any kind of public relations personnel. That means no media relations arm. No crisis comms plan. No PIO.  In fact, the entire PR team was purged just a couple years ago in 2020, and CEO Elon Musk has defended the move, saying the company doesn't believe in "manipulating public opinion." Not only does this reflect a very unsophisticated understanding of what...

The strategy at the heart of the Snapple brand's precipitous rise... and its cataclysmic fall... is simple: Embrace your roots. Celebrate authenticity. It's a lesson that's been served up again and again in the brands and marketing ecosystem. But it never seems to sink in. So in this episode, we'll pop the top on a Snapple double feature. First, Jane Cavalier tells us about pitching Snapple's iconic slogan, "Made From the Best Stuff on Earth," and watching it flop with the company's original...

Well folks, Lead Balloon has been nominated for The Webby Awards, "the Internet's highest honor." And we need your help to bring home the hardware. Click here to Vote for Lead Balloon as Best Creativity and Marketing Podcast. And if you want to learn more or tell your friends about the show, Check Out This News Release. As always, thanks for listening. It means everything. -dw- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On January 3, Pabst Blue Ribbon lit the internet on fire with one obscene tweet: “Not drinking this January? Try eating ass.” The uproar was swift and loud. And PBR deleted the tweets and apologized publicly, even as some writers blamed a “rogue employee” for the tweets. That was NOT the case. The offending Tweeter was actually an established social media manager by the name of Corey Smale, a creative enigma whose free-wheeling, hands-on approach had really resonated with the brand’s fans. So...

For Ukrainian ad agencies and freelance creatives, "business-as-usual" stopped on the day that Russian forces launched their unprovoked war three weeks ago. Now, they need your help to pierce the veil of Russian propaganda and fight for their homeland in their own way--by waging a global information war to win the hearts and minds of the world. In this episode, we talk to three Kyiv-based creatives who are organizing this loose coalition of Ukraine's creative community: Viktor...

Wendy’s, the burger chain, is infamous for its punchy, no-holds-barred Twitter account.  And social media manager Amy Brown was the creative instigator of that success. Many internet historians even point to her epic 2017 tweet-roast as the viral moment that launched an entire genre of Snarky Brand Twitter. It certainly made her a hero to social media managers the world over. So why, within just a couple of months, did Amy Brown feel like she needed to leave that high-profile dream job at...

Tony Piloseno really likes paint. And as a junior studying marketing at Ohio University, he channeled his passion for a part-time job at a Sherwin-Williams paint store into a wildly successful TikTok channel. His weirdly entertaining videos of mixing paint colors amassed hundreds of thousands of social media followers and tens of millions of views. Inspired by his meteoric success, Tony pitched the concept of a branded TikTok channel to Sherwin-Williams marketing brass, hoping the company...

This month on the show, we talked to Alex Lasry, the Senior Vice President of the Milwaukee Bucks, about the team’s dramatic stand for social justice last year during the NBA Playoffs. It’s a really important story and a great case study for how organizations can and should navigate some of these situations we face as a nation. But Alex has a lot of other irons in the fire, too. And so in this bonus episode, Dusty can't help fanboying a little bit over the really incredible Bucks team. Alex...

With a shot at an NBA title on the line, an entire basketball team refuses to take the court. They won’t even come out of the locker room. It’s a sports marketing nightmare. And just last year, it came true for the management of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. Alex Lasry is the Senior Vice President of the Bucks. And even though he was shocked just like the rest of us when the 2020 walk-out happened, he supported the team’s decision whole-heartedly. Because there was an entire summer of...

Reputation management and social media consultant Molly McPherson showed us in Ep. 25 of Lead Balloon how she herself was "Indestructible" following an on-assignment near-death experience. But these days, her consulting practice, her book, her podcast and her online courses all center on helping brands achieve an indestructible reputation. And, at this moment in time, there's no bigger buzz word in that field than "Cancel Culture." So, in this B-side clip from our Lead Balloon interview,...

Established by President Jimmy Carter in the late 70’s, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has responded to every major American disaster over the last 40 years. But for all its many successes, FEMA is also an agency that has struggled with its image in the public eye. Its high-profile failures have dominated the conversation in the media and among the public. So when Molly McPherson went to work for FEMA in 2007 as a public affairs specialist, she pitched a bold new approach the put the...

There's nothing easy about striking out on your own as an independent marketing consultant. Work can be scarce and hard to come by, and when an opportunity does come along, there can be a lot of pressure to accept it no matter what. John Jantsch knows from experience. Before he was the founder, host and author of Duct Tape Marketing the agency, podcast and book, he was a go-getter looking to make his way as a consultant in Kansas City. But an association with one early client--a client that...

The George Washington Bridge between Manhattan and New Jersey is the world’s busiest motor vehicle crossing, carrying more than 103 million vehicles a year over the Hudson River.  And so in 2013, when accusations came out that hand-picked members of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s staff deliberately caused massive traffic backups on and around the bridge, the story made national headlines... and that was before revelations that the shenanigans were likely tied to political...

At Podcamp Media, we are *proudly* based in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Founder Dusty Weis explains why in this column he wrote for our friends at OnMilwaukee.com. (Music by Ghost Beatz) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Henry DeVries had to choose: a big fat raise and a promotion, or maintain his integrity. The year was 1996, and Henry was the Vice President of Public Relations at Foresters Financial. He had just found out about an ongoing affair between two high-ranking executives, and they had made their intentions clear. They wanted him to aid in the cover-up, for which he would be richly rewarded. But sticking to his principles was just the first lesson in what would become a crash course in scandal,...

When Justin Shriber was the Vice President of Marketing for LinkedIn Sales and Marketing Solutions, he was charged with emceeing the social media juggernaut's Sales Leaders Summit mainstage. And with hip-hop legend and business magnate Russell Simmons lined up to serve as headliner, the hall was packed with people eager to hear Simmons's stories from the early days of hip-hop and his entrepreneurial awakening. Instead, what they got was a strange tirade from an uncooperative guest in front of...

Three weeks after accepting a new role as an American Airlines spokeswoman in 1995, Jennifer R. Hudson was paged out of bed in the middle of the night. The worst had happened. Flight 965 had disappeared in the mountains of Colombia, and Jennifer needed to report to the scene of the crash to coordinate the company's public relations response. Unnerved and uncertain, she had to push aside her doubts and power through what would become one of the most harrowing experiences of her...

Home to the Masters Tournament, the Augusta National Golf Club typically serves as a backdrop for sports drama. But in 2002, the club itself became the story, as its men-only membership policy came under the microscope in an unexpected and sensational showdown between women's rights activists and the club's defiant adherence to "tradition." The tale of how the conflict came to a head is an unlikely Public Relations parable in its own right, driven by two iconoclasts of their era: Augusta...

Check out Rocketship.fm! From our friends at the Podglomerate, Rocketship.fm is a podcast for entrepreneurs, product managers and anyone working in tech today. They break down the concepts you need to know, from Product Management to Growth, Sales to Funding. They'll bring you stories that will inspire and insights that will change the way you think about products and business.  In the early 2000's, eBay was in direct competition with Amazon, but they had very different methodologies when...

Before he went on to become Coca-Cola's global vice president of corporate communication, Ben Deutsch was plucked from his dream job in Coke's Sports PR section and dropped into a global media relations director role that he could only assume would be a snooze fest. As it turned out, he'd wind up as the media point person while the iconic brand navigated one of the most tumultuous periods in its 135-year history.  From a near-disaster at the 1998 World Cup to a soda-fueled health scare in...

What constitutes "politics" in America has crept into new, ugly territory. And with the deadly Capitol insurrection on January 6, it finally became impossible for businesses to ignore the danger that rising nationalism poses to democracy. In minutes, that realization changed everything about the way businesses and organizations communicate about politics, and the Lincoln Project is a major force driving that shift. Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson is a political strategist, a former...

With Covid-19 vaccination efforts finally getting underway, communicating properly about this process is critical to saving lives and re-opening the economy. That responsibility extends beyond the traditional bounds of public health communication, according to public health experts, and touches nearly every strategic communicator in the country--and indeed every American citizen. In this episode, we welcome back two past guests to the show. Bill Pierce was formerly a spokesman for the...

In public relations, "going rogue" is a notion that sets teeth on edge for most PR practitioners. But sometimes, when the conventional approach fails, the only way forward is to throw carefully-laid plans out the window and wing it. In 2013, when a government shutdown closed the National Parks to visitors on the eve of her long-planned PR junket, (W)right On Communications founder Julie Wright faced a choice. She could either abandon months of planning and waste an opportunity to showcase...

Lead Balloon Season 2 launches on January 5! But in the meantime, we wanted to share some exciting behind-the-scenes updates about our small--but growing--company. Larry Kilgore III starts today as Podcamp Media's Production Services Manager. And with a pandemic raging and all work being conducted virtually for the foreseeable future, Dusty had to meet him at the Wisconsin-Illinois border to hand off the equipment he needs to work from home. So, in the spirit of Lead Balloon, enjoy this...

1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in a tank is an image that has become synonymous with abject public relations failure. And for marketers and PR practitioners, it serves as an enduring reminder of the power that our mistakes have to burn down powerful people and institutions in one moment of lapsed judgment. Josh King was a junior campaign staffer for the Dukakis campaign, and went on to serve as White House director of production for presidential events under President...