REICH COMMUNICATIONS

What We Do: Traffic Safety

Here's the latest issue of "Road Buzz," the newsletter I write for The National Road Safety Foundation.

 

It highlights many of the projects I work on for the Foundation, including a new partnership we developed with the NY State PTA for a poster contest for grade-school kids to focus on pedestrian safety.  Our winner, Hannah Jung, will be introduced tomorrow night at the school board meeting in Jericho, Long Island, where I'll present a $1,500 check in her name to her school's PTA.

We also just launched the eighth annual Drive2Life PSA Contest, which invites teens nationwide to submit their ideas for a 30-second TV spot about the dangers of drowsy driving, which is a factor in 328,000 crashes every year that kill more than 5,000 people.  We run this contest in partnership with Scholastic.

For more, check out the Foundation's site at www.nrsf.org 

Maybe it's time for the real news media to focus on real news

 

We have a president who continues to be out of control when it comes to the media.

What politician wouldn’t hope for the media to report only good news about what he’s doing?  But any politician who has an adult’s understanding of how the media work in a democracy and why they seek to find what’s behind a politician’s words and actions knows – and must accept – the fact that what the media say may not always be what you’d like them to say.

But the current president continues to slam the media and use the phrase “enemy of the people” to try to convince people not to believe what they report.  In his view, the only media outlet worth listening to is what’s become the White House organ -- FOX News, which to any viewer with their eyes and minds open can plainly see is just a shill for the president.  It's what, in a dictatorship, would be State News.

The dust-up in yesterday’s White House news conference is yet another example of a president off the rails and trying to use the bully pulpit of his office to control or censor the free press.  Name-calling some reporters, including calling a black reporter a racist, and then trying to shut up CNN’s Jim Acosta by having an aide physically try to pull the microphone out of his hands is simply going too far.  The subsequent banning of Acosta from the White House because he accosted the White House aide is bogus.  If you look at the video, the aide is clearly seen trying to grab the mic out of Acosta’s hand and, without touching her, he pulled the mic out of her reach.  If anything, she physically attacked him.

Here’s what I’d love to see.  The major media should agree, as a group, to not cover presidential news conferences. Have one pool reporter there to represent them all, just in case some real news comes out.  And if there is no real news to report that day, then there’s no coverage of the president that day.  No reporting about whatever crazy things he says on Twitter, no coverage of whatever name-calling he sink to.  We’ve seen too many times how his words are meaningless, contradictory or outright lies, so why cover it?

Instead, a presidential news blackout, for at least a day.

Leave coverage of the childish name-calling and unwanted presidential opinions on irrelevant things ranging from a TV show's ratings to whether or not he likes a particular singer or sports team or celebrity who may have been critical of him to FOX and the gossip media.  Let the real news media get back to covering real news, which often legitimately does not and should not include the president’s take on things.  We’ve seen too many times how his words are meaningless, contradictory or outright lies.

It’s time to focus back on the real news of the day.

What We Do: Vision Zero Cites Conference

 

Some 350 leading traffic safety experts, advocates, elected officials and members of the public from across the nation and around the world are meeting at Columbia University’s Lerner Hall today, Nov. 7, to share best practices for preventing traffic deaths and injuries.  It's the fourth Vision Zero Cities conference, presented by Transportation Alternatives. 

 

I'm proud to say I've been invited to be part of a panel, talking about ways to get young people involved in traffic safety messaging.  I'll be talking about our work for The National Road Safety Foundation, which sponsors several contests that encourage young people to create messages about teen driving issues like distracted driving, impaired driving, speeding and drowsy driving.  We'll explain how we've developed partnerships with youth advocacy groups, schools and media to get kids involved in the important work of saving lives on our roads.

 

Vision Zero is a multi-national traffic safety project that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries.  It started in Sweden 20 years ago and is now in dozens of American cities including New York.

'Nuf said....

"Failing" NY Times hardly failing

 

The New York Times is not failing, but in fact is doing quite well in terms of both readership and finances.

The paper the president calls an” enemy of the people” is succeeding and prosperous because it is serving the people with factual reporting and correcting the constant stream of lies coming from the White House.

Yesterday the Times company reported its quarterly earnings and profits are up by 30 percent – that’s hardly “failing” in anybody’s book.  The subscriber base has risen again, now topping 4 million.  That includes an increase of 203,000 in digital subscriptions.

The “enemy of the people” says 70 percent of the new digital subscriptions were for news, and the rest for special features like cooking and crosswords.

Revenue from print advertising dropped again, but it was a slight decrease – less than one percent – and it was offset by increases in digital ads.  Overall, ad revenues increased by seven percent. 

The company said they're investing some of the profits in the newsroom, which we hope will bring us more hard news and investigative stories.

I’m happy to see The Times company is thriving, especially since its main product – The New York Times – continues to be a vital part of keeping Americans apprised of what’s really happening in D.C. and elsewhere during these tricky times.   

Trick or Treat

 

Americans will spend $9 billion on Halloween this year, says the National Retail Federation.

The group’s annual Halloween spending survey found 70 percent of us will celebrate, whether partying, attending parades or hayrides, trick-or-treating or just staying be at home handing out candies and goodies to goblins who come to the front door.

For kids, the favorite costumes will again be princesses for girls and super-heroes for boys.  Adults who dress up will favor witches, vampires, zombies and, of course, sexy nurses.  Even pets get in the act, with bumble bees, hot dogs and pumpkins expected to be the most popular doggie outfits.

The average store-bought costume runs about $45, the National Retail Federation says.

When I was a trick-or-treater, back in medievel times, most kids made their costumes -- usually helped by their moms.  I remember going as a ghost (in an old bed sheet), a hobo (in dirty tattered clothes and smudged makeup on my face), a witch (with a mop head for hair and a homemade cone hat).  The only store-bought item might have been a mask.

 

                                                             My grandpup Martin in costume

One year I went as a robot.  I had rescued a big cardboard carton, maybe from a refrigerator, and Mom  helped me cut out holes for my arms and head.  Dials and gauges were made from tin foil and my face was covered with silver-colored makeup.  It was pretty impressive.

But as I tried to get through the front door, I got stuck.  Although we had been able to squeeze the carton through when it was empty, once I was in it with my arms sticking out, it was too wide. 

It definitely hampered my candy collecting, but it was a Halloween I still remember.

It should be interesting to see how many, if any, homemade costumes I see in my doorway tonight.

 

A cautionary note: NHTSA says kids are twice as likely to get hit by a car on Halloween, so drive carefully and stay alert.

 

 

Words Do Matter

This post is personal, not political.

I am an American Jew.  Not a Jewish-American, but an American Jew. 

I am a 2^nd-generation American.  This country welcomed my grandparents more than 100 years ago when they came to Ellis Island in New York Harbor, fleeing pogroms and terrorism against Jews in Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe.   

This country enabled my grandparents and my parents to raise their families in peace, with each generation moving up the financial and education ladder.  I was the first in my family to graduate from college.

As a kid, I sometimes felt isolated because of my religion – mostly around Christmastime when so many friends and neighbors put up decorations and trees and we sang Christmas carols in school.   Outside of the house or synagogue, I rarely heard any mention or acknowledgement of Chanukah.

By the time my children were in school, things were very different and people – at least here in the New York area – acknowledged that some of us held beliefs other than Christianity, and the shared values as well as the differences were celebrated.

I’ve been fortunate that, except for some stupid incidents when I was about 10 or 11, I haven’t faced anti-Semitism directly.  And even at 10 when I and some mostly Jewish friends were chased off a neighborhood ballfield by some Catholic school kids who threw rocks at us and called us Christ-killers, I held no grudge, since I had so many Catholic friends and neighbors who I knew would never condone such behavior and who always treated me and my family with affection and respect.

Despite feeling a part of this great nation, I’ve always had a nagging fear – way down deep – that what happened in Germany in the 1930s could happen here.  The Jews in Germany were assimilated, like Jews are here, and they were a vital part of that nation’s cultural and economic life.  Most of them felt what eventually happened there could never happen to them.

That’s how many of us Jews here in America feel.  We love this country and we cherish the freedoms it affords.  But we can’t ignore history and as much as I couldn’t imagine discrimination or worse for Jews here in America, deep down is the knowledge that to some, we are different and perhaps viewed with suspicion or even hatred.  Usually, I feel secure because civility and the law will protect me and my loved ones from anti-Semitism that might turn violent.

Now here’s the part that may look political, but I’m just speaking honestly…  The rhetoric that we’ve seen from the president over the past 3+ years has alarmed me.  If he talks hatred against Latinos and Blacks, we know what eventually follows… the Jews.  And in his rallies, he has made some statements that could be seen as dog-whistles for anti-Semites. 

The Anti-Defamation League has documented a startling increase in hate crimes against Jews in America over the past 2 years  -- up almost 60 percent in 2017.  Part of it is attributed to the tenor of the president’s talk. Words do matter.

Many people in public life and in government, including many Republicans, have called him out for talk that might encourage prejudice.  The nut-job who shot up a synagogue in Pittsburgh Saturday didn’t take direction from the president, but he may have been emboldened to act by the hateful rhetoric, just as we’ve seen an alarming increase in violence against black people brought on by the rhetoric about “taking our country back.”  Back from who? 

I’m pretty sure we’ll feel comforted by an outpouring of sympathy and support from most Americans over these next few days.  The vast majority of Americans are horrified by prejudice and violence toward minorities.  (And yes, we Jews are a minority.)  But the sympathy and support and brotherhood must also come from our nation’s top leaders, and it must be honest support rather than hollow words mandated by the situation.

I’m an American Jew.  I would hope I and my loved ones will never be made to feel isolated from the mainstream because of our religious beliefs.  I would like to think it could never ever happen here in America.  But that’s something we all have to continuously work toward – all of us, from the top down.

 

Shorter is Better - For TV Ads

Shorter TV ads get more viewer attention than longer ones.  That's what research recently reported by Television News Daily says.

Ten-second ads get about ten percent more attention than 30-second spots, and 20 percent more than 60-second ads.

This doesn't seem like earth-shaking news.  To me, it sort of stands to reason.  A shorter ad is less of an intrusion. 

The challenge, though, for a shorter ad is you have less time to draw and hold the viewer's attention, and less time to get across a convincing marketing message.  Shorter ads might be used in combination with the more traditional 30s or 60s, which have the time to get across the marketing pitch, while the short 10-second spots can serve to keep the brand name out there and possibly remind viewers of the longer ads that have the full marketing info.

We've been seeing short ads -- some even less than 10 seconds -- on the internet for years as pre-roll for online content.  But for those online ads to be seen, marketers need to hook the viewer in the first few seconds so he or she will want to keep watching, rather than click on "Skip Ad."  That's where real creativity comes in... or not.

 

Caroll, Oscar and Big Bird

When I read yesterday that Sesame Street puppeteer Caroll Spinney, who created and played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, is retiring after nearly 50 years on the groundbreaking show, it reminded me of the time I met him (and Oscar the Grouch) ten years ago.

I've been doing publicity for he Christopher Awards for 20 years, and I was at the annual media awards program when Caroll was the presenter for the Childrens Books Awards.  He had previously won a Christopher Award, in 2004. 

Before he presented the awards, he told a story that touched me -- and it obviously touched him because he became choked up as he told it from the podium.

He told of a letter that came to the producers of Sesame Street from the parents of a young boy of about 5 who was dying of cancer.  He had lost the will to fight and was depressed -- never smiling.  The parents asked if it might be possible for the boy to get a phone call from Big Bird.

When the letter was passed along to Spinney, who seems to be a gentle and compassionate soul, he immediately agreed.  He said he called the boy and, in his Big Bird voice, spoke with him for several minutes.

A week later he received another letter from the parents, telling him how thrilled their son had been to get the call.  He showed excitement and smiled for the first time in weeks as he told his parents, who were at his bedside in the hospital, that Big Bird had called him and he was happy that Big Bird was his friend.  A few minutes later, he peacefully slipped away.

Spinney's voice choked with emotion as he told the story. 

I had a chance to chat with him for a while after the ceremony, and he said to this day he is glad that he showed compassion and called that boy.  As we talked about it, his eyes teared and he explained it still moves him, even after many years.

Spinney told me that Big Bird's role originally was simply to teach about letters and numbers.  But he realized the importance of teaching about compassion after he walked past a man on the street who he assumed was a derelict muttering to himself.  Something made him stop, turn around and ask the man if he needed help.  It turned out, the the man couldn't walk well and had been asking strangers to help him across the street.  Spinney walked the man not only across the street, but the three blocks to his apartment building.

The next day, he told the producers of Sesame Street that he wanted Big Bird to teach kids about feelings and compassion.  And after a while, Big Bird became the character who expressed concern about others' feelings.

After we talked for a while, I thanked him for taking the time.   And he said to me, "No. Thank you for coming over to talk with me."

And then Oscar gave me a hug.  How cool!

 

A note about Oscar...  At the after-party, Caroll stood quietly in a corner holding Oscar.   People -- grown-ups -- were lined up for a chance to take a photo with Oscar and as Oscar talked to them, every person spoke directly to Oscar the puppet, even as Caroll was speaking, with his lips clearly moving.  That's the power of master puppetry and of an impactful TV show.

Real Fake News

 

USA Today has been both praised and criticized for running the fact-deprived op ed by the president last week, where he talked about Medicare.

Some criticized the paper running it, since, as The Washington Post's fact-checkers said, virtually every sentence contained inaccuracies, exaggerations or straight-out fallacies.  Others criticized the paper for including links to fact-checking sites.

I understand that reputable papers usually fact-check op ed submissions when statements are presented as facts rather than opinion and if they are off base, the piece would be rejected or returned to the writer for corrections.

The editors at USA Today faced a tricky choice.  They had in their hands a piece by the president of the United States.  But they knew it was full of lies or errors. 

Do they refuse to run it?  Do they give it back and insist the White House correct it?  Or run it, with lies exposed and corrected?

I think the paper did the right thing by running it, with links to other reports that showed the real facts.  It let readers see the president's words while exposing them for the lies that they are.  False statements side-by-side with clear facts.  Let readers make their own judgement as to what's fake news.

Leslie Stahl also came under criticism from the right for her interview with the president, which aired on "60 Minutes" last night. 

 

From what I saw, she was doing her job as an objective journalist, trying to get at the truth.  She asked the president some tough and direct questions and didn't let him squirm out of them by changing the subject or throwing more falsehoods into the mix.  But now there's meme going around on Facebook saying how slanted the interview was.  "FOX & Friends" whined that the president was "peppered endlessly with questions" during the interview, as if Stahl  was doing something bad by asking questions and repeating or following up on them when they weren't directly answered.

When the fake news comes from the president, whether as an op ed or in answer to interview questions on TV, it should be called out for what it is -- lies.

Finally, the media is doing that.  Good for them and good for us.

 

Ads We Like and Those We Hate

 

My wife is participating in a focus group and as a prep question she was asked to list some ads she likes and some she doesn't like. 

We talked about it and we both agreed we love the "Dog Tested" campaign Subaru is running, showing dogs in various situations.  I could watch those ads over and over and, in fact, I've stopped the fast-forward on our DVR so I could watch one of those ads for perhaps the 20th time.

The other question was: what ads do we hate?

Two insurance ads topped out list.  Aflac, for the annoying Aflac duck.  At least they don't use Gilbert Gotfried's grating voice any more, but the voice is still annoying. 

The other ads are the seemingly non-stop pitches from Geico.  Some are funny the first time and maybe even the second time.  But Geico, which is by far TV's biggest advertiser, has them running all the time and everywhere, it seems.  So we hate them because of overexposure.

Now to the key question... Would I buy a Subaru because of the ads, and would I not buy coverage from Geico or Aflac for the same reason?  Hard to say, since many other factors would be in play.  For a car, it would be things like price range, style and comfort, reputation.  For insurance, it would be price and reputation -- reputation not based on the ads but on word-of-mouth regarding how they respond when you have a claim.  But, all other things being equal, I would avoid a company whose ads I hate.  I've done it before with banks.