Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Pet Grief - Since We Americans Are Not Good At Expressing Sympathy ...

This has been repurposed from my column on Medium.

More than a third of U.S. households are pet parents. Given the relatively short lifespans of dogs and cats, pet grief will visit too many homes.

The good news is that the intense suffering of pet grief has come out of the closet.

Humane societies, vet practices, and mystics provide therapy.

Greeting card companies have created a special niche of messaging for that.

HuffPost and other media outlets publish articles on how pet parents can cope.

The tough nut to crack remains this: Most of us are still screwing up when we struggle, on a personal level, to offer our sympathy.

Not that we excel at that ritual when the death involves a human. The reality in the U.S. is that we tend to be inept when those we care about experience a death in their family. Death is not embedded into the American world view.

As a communications strategist, content-creator and coach, I have assisted adults and children determined to, as the saying goes, do no harm.

Here are the fundamentals:

LET THE BEREAVED GUIDE YOU. Recently, a long-time friend-Kass-lost her dog. When we asked how she “was doing,” she was totally candid and detailed in describing where she was in the grief process. We got it that our “job description” was to listen and bear witness to her experience.

FORGET THE FACTS. The over-educated segments in America tend to throw tidbits from research to address the emotions. Obviously, that’s apples and oranges. Informing Kass that her small dog outlived the average lifespan for such a breed is crass.

AIM FOR SWEET SPOT. Comfort comes in so many different ways. For some it might be treated to a meal out. For others, it’s having a buddy bring over a six-pack and hang out.

HOLD THE SHARING. Your own experience with pet grief is an unwanted item of sharing for anyone overwhelmed with emotion. Anyway, most sharing is over-sharing.

REFRAIN FROM PROVIDING LONG-TERM “SOLUTIONS.” In most human tragedies, those suffering are not looking to map out the rest of their lives. They are trying to make it to the next hour. So, no, don’t recommend you two go to the shelter and adopt or put the house up for sale since the large yard is no longer needed.

CHECK IN. Grief comes in waves. This morning the person may seem fine. This evening, no one knows. Text, call, email, or figure out excuse to swing by in person.

Learning to be helpful, not a pest, to those who lost an animal companion is highly transferrable. That knowledge base and skill can be leveraged in all other types of loss.

Those include homes in floods, jobs, fame, and youth. Loss is loss. There is pain. Only the most emotionally challenged spin any of that into platitudes about adversity as opportunity.

Jane Genova encourages you to take advantage of a complimentary, no-pressure consultation about your communications needs (janegenova374@gmail.com).

BigPR in U.S. - Will Mueller Investigation Throw Shade, What PR Firms Must Do

It isn't just the Mad Men industry-advertising-which is under attack.

As many know, WPP's financials are down. Clients and prospects complain about everything from disappointing outcomes to an overly complex user experience. 

Increasingly, the branding of public relations firms is also in play.

Growth is slowing.

Well-known names in BigPR-such as Levick-are in the news. And with possible shade thrown over them. 

For example, as Kevin McCauley reports in Odwyerpr.com, special counsel Robert Mueller has sent a subpoena to Jason Maloni. He had been spokesperson for Paul Manafort. The latter had been Donald Trump's campaign manager.

Currently Maloni runs JadeRoqPR. Previously he had worked for a decade at BigPR firm Levick. There Maloni had been a vice president. He also headed litigation.

Like many leaders in BigPR, Levick head Richard Levick is active on social networks such as LinkedIn Update. He et al. have to introduce a new kind of messaging.

Some of us watchers of BigPR have a hunch that its mission is under attack. Thought leadership such as Levick can blow up that threat.

Like lawyers, public relations representatives embrace their clients' right to tell their story. In the best light possible. Then, they leverage their tools to achieve that mission. Those range from their relationships with media to creativity. Of course, as with lawyers, they have to stay within the boundaries of ethics and the law.

Now, BigPR has to tell its own story. 

It can start with its current role in positioning and packaging the plight of the victims of Harvey-including pets. That is  not only bringing in funds. It also is educating government, business, and the general public about best practices during incidents of extreme weather. Those could become routine. 

Public relations, before, during, and after litigation makes the issues transparent, easy-to-understand, and a learning exercise for everyone, inside and outside the loop.

My bet is that kind of outreach has enabled a growing number of those in America to opt for pro se litigation. That is, to represent themselves in court, as least as far as they can go. Then, they can choose the services of lawyers' newly emerged a-la-cart menus.

Another key narrative is for BigPR to explain its necessary function in providing second chances. That is, creating and strengthening the platforms for comebacks of products, services, companies, and professionals. Unlike in much of the commercial life in the UK, in America mistakes aren't necessarily The End. 

The trick is for BigPR to go on the offensive. A defensive stance will bring smirks from upstarts which are contending traditional public relations is so, like, yesterday.

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Travis Kalanick Brand Catches Lucky Break, At Least Temporarily

The issue has been: Will Benchmark Capital's lawsuit filed personally against former Uber head Travis Kalanick bring him down the way Fox News' former on-air personality Gretchen Carlson's finished off Roger Ailes? 

The odds are against that, at least for the time being.

The New York Times reports that the judge overseeing the dispute has ruled that the case will be reviewed by an arbitrator instead of moving to trial. However, Judge Samuel Glasscock III of Delaware Chancery Court did not dismiss the complaint. 

The arbitrator will decide if the entire complaint or parts of it should be decided by that process. The major advantage of such a development for Kalanick is that the procedure is conducted behind closed doors. Kalanick's alleged dirty laundry won't be aired in public.

There is the potential for the case to bounce back into court. That would open this up to having the details of Travis' business life disclosed in public. 

That kind of full disclosure could irreversibly damage Kalanick's brand. Carlson's lawsuit resulted in 21st Century Fox parachuting in a law firm to investigate. The law firm used the tools of discovery leveraged in traditional litigation.

The internal investigation uncovered years of alleged sexual harassment by Ailes. It became irrelevant that the media tycoon had build the Fox News cable right-wing empire. Soon after he was forced out of Fox News, he died after a fall in his house in Florida. 

The Kalanick legacy at Uber could also lose relevance. Historians of the tech world could turn on him. 

Takeaway: Those with the resources to file a lawsuit in America can take just about anyone down. No matter how powerful. That's why lawsuits are so feared. 

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Linguist/Activist Noam Chomsky Goes to U of AZ, Leaves MIT

The University of Arizona knows how to get its name in the news. 

That institution of higher education, based in Tucson, Arizona, was the first to allow applicants to its law school to take GRE, instead of the LSAT.

Now, it is announcing that iconic linguist-turned-activist Noam Chomsky is joining the university. He will be leaving MIT where he has had emeritus status. In 2002, he had officially retired from MIT.

Recently, Chomsky had delivered speeches in Tucson about subjects such as privacy.

Those of us in communications remember Chomsky as a breakthrough thinker. He took on issues such as if the syntax of language was wired in the brain. 

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During Harvey, All Heart for Man's Best Friend - But Many Still Need New Homes

Loyalty and unconditional love are rewarded. Even in the life-and-death situations created by Harvey.

Members of the media keep posting about how residents in the flooded areas are risking their lives and taking on extra burdens to rescue pets. There are those who refuse to leave without their dogs or cats. 

But, still, some dogs and cats wound up without anyone to continue to care for them.

My sources in Baltimore, Maryland, tell me that shipments of those homeless animals are already arriving in the local shelters. Friends are urging friends to adopt. 

Four years ago, my new best friend came to me in Connecticut via an animal rescue operation from Florida. That region had been through another one of those nasty acts of god.

LOV was traumatized. It took a long time for him to open himself to trust again. Fortunately for me, that breakthrough happened before my own little crisis. LOV never left my side. 

Bring into your lives a homeless animal from the horrors of Texas. 

 

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Former Levick Senior VP Jason Maloni Receives Subpoena from Robert Mueller

"Special counsel Robert Mueller issued a subpoena ... to Jason Maloni, spokesperson for former Trump campaign manager Manafort." - Kevin McCauley, Odwyerpr.com, August 30, 2017.

Now operating JadeRoq PR, Maloni previously worked for 10 years at Levick Public Affairs. There he had been Vice President and head of Levick's litigation practice.

As part of the subpoena, Maloni was instructed to retrieve records associated with his Manafort work and turn them over to the Mueller group. That has to occur before any appearance before the Grand Jury.

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Brennen Center for Justice, NYC - VP Communications (help wanted)

Here are details and how to apply.

After Extensive Vetting, They Offer Peanuts - Let the Belly Laugh Rip

With great legalese, an email landed in my smartphone in-box.

It stated the terms and conditions for researching and ghostwriting 600-word articles for that midsized California personal injury law firm's website. Long story short, my fee would be $50. Per article. 

That was two weeks after the middle layer at the law firm had vetted me as if I were applying to be its Senior Vice President of Marketing. 

I let out a belly laugh.

Then I keyed in with my chubby little fingers: No.

And, no, there was none of the formulaic "Thank you for your interest."

Any vendor for professional services can also leverage a belly laugh in response to the creepy stuff which has become routine. Perhaps that puzzling behavior had always been embedded in some brandname firms in the professional services niche.

Reflection: There is no sound business reason or part of common sense which mandates taking any potential client too seriously. After all the revised GDP growth for Q2 was in the ballpark of 3%. 

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Megyn Kelly in A.M. - Media Watchers Fear "That Dog Don't Hunt"

In less than a month, former Fox News star-Megyn Kelly-will take over the third hour of the "Today" franchise.

Some seasoned in the way of network media have a hunch: This dog don't hunt.

She didn't do well in the primetime NBC feature slot which was supposed to crush "60 Minutes." In fact, the show was pulled early. Slated for 10 weeks, it lasted only eight. That was despite the powerful lead-in from "NBC News."

Based on that dismal track record, reports Lloyd Grove at the Daily Beast, panic has overtaken NBC. 

What the network has going for it on this one is the lead-in from the earlier two hours of "Today." But, of course, that didn't do the trick in the P.M.

The reality is that Fox News' pull power, which Roger Ailes created, was about:

• Old white men
• Long legs strutted on camera
• Blonde young females on-air
• Right-wing ideology

All that won't attract and keep an audience on network television. From the get-go, back to the golden age of the medium, network television shaped the ethos of Middle Class America. Advertisers got it that they better hawk their products and services on network television. Those viewers who weren't Middle Class yearned to be. That was the secret of branding.

No question, many of us in communications will make it our business to tune in to Kelly's debut on September 25th at 9:00 A.M. We don't anticipate she will be able to connect any better when folks are having their second cup of coffee than when they were cracking open the first beer.

Reflection: Will hiring Kelly go down in media history as Andy Lack's Folly?

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Harvey & Other Tragedies - Not What Happens, What Lingers in Memory

Somehow human beings make it through what is.

That will include the horrors of Harvey.

What will haunt and maybe even destroy them is the memory. 

That's the insight served up in the last sentence of the first paragraph of the first chapter of the 2016 novel "Another Brooklyn." That reads:

"I know now that what is tragic isn't the moment. It is the memory."

In that novel by Jacqueline Woodson, the narrator presents the memories about the experiences for four African-American females coming of age in Brooklyn. That was at a time of white flight. And when the transition from girl playing double dutch on the street to woman could and often did determine the future. 

Those memories are shot through with what were tragedies at the time but life being lived by the four females.

For example, there was Sylvia. Her snooty father intended for her to become a lawyer. Therefore he struggled to isolate her from the other girls in the ghetto. He didn't trust the public school system.

But Sylvia, in her private school uniform, managed to have her belly pushing back against a father's dream. That was the end of that. 

But two out of the four managed to "get out."

August grabbed onto books. Her ticket was education in they Ivy League.

Angie kept the focus on dance. She made it into the big leagues in the performing arts.

"Another Brooklyn" could provide the awareness and courage for the traumatized to begin to sort out a life having been lived. It's a fast read: 175 pages.

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