Lots of good exposure for The New Jersey Home & Garden Show, this weekend in Edison NJ.
NY Live on WNBC-TV featured "Trading Spaces" designer Doug Wilson Wednesday and we also had him live on Cheddar News this morning. "Today in New York" on Channel 4 did a weekend preview and featured the NJ Home & Garden Show as one of its "4 Your Weekend" picks this morning.
All that, plus some great advance newspaper coverage.
Doug Wilson with Sarah Gore and Lauren Scala on "NY Live" on WNBC-TV
Public radio and TV stations, most connected through PBS and NPR, provide an invaluable service to many Americans.
Public TV and radio bring a variety of cultural, educational and thought-provoking programs to us. They bring a wealth of programming to viewers and listeners not only in the cities, but also to people who live in places not served by local TV or radio.
How many of us and our children have been taught the ABC's by Sesame Street? How many of us have been transported to faraway places and distant worlds with shows like NOVA or Travel with Rick Steves, or had our views expanded by guests and segments on "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered" or, yes, Charlie Rose?
But the president would take all that away, as he's tried in the past three Federal budgets he's presented. He's trying again. The budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2021 would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from the current $445 million down to $30 million.
For public stations in major markets, some of the shortfall might be made up by donations from viewers and listeners. But such a drastic cutback would likely be a death knell for stations in smaller markets.
Maybe this is part of the president's plan to kill independent and fact-based news media. Maybe it's also a way to free up some funds for Trump's folly-- the wall on our southern border. It certainly isn't going to fund essential things like Medicaid and Social Security; he's looking to make drastic cuts in those areas as well.
The proposed budget also looks to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The advocacy group Americans for the Arts says the NEA has given grants to local arts organizations in every Congressional district in each of the 50 states and also in U.S. territories.
What sort of society would we be without the arts and education?
I take solace in the fact that Congress, which holds approval over the Federal purse-strings has consistently supported PBS, NPR and the NEA, rejecting past budgets from the current administration that have attempted similar cuts to the arts and humanities. But we can't take for granted that common sense and decency will prevail.
It's worth a call or email to your Congressman or Congresswoman.
We're in our third year of handling publicity for Super Pet Expo, the biggest pet event on the east coast. It's happening this weekend at the New Jersey Convention Center in Edison NJ, where more than 200 exhibitors will showcase pet products and pets themselves, from dog and cats to reptiles, birds and even crabs. The event draws some 20,000 visitors and many bring their pets (as long as they're leashed).
Super Pet Expo also has some great activities for pets themselves, like luring and treiball, which is a canine version of soccer. And some features will include demonstrations by Chrissy Joy, trainer of a national stunt dog champion Good Beasley, who's been in many commercials and films.
We arranged for Chrissy (and Beasley, of course) to appear on the 6 p.m. news last night with Ernie Anastos on FOX5 in New York. Click here to see it
Chrissy Joy, Ernie Anastos, David and, in front, Good Beasley
For The National Road Safety Foundation, we developed a partnership five years ago with the Chicago Auto Show to get young people in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin involved with safe driving messaging.
Our Drive Safe Chicago teen PSA challenge this year has drunk driving as the message.
We've narrowed the entries down to three finalists and our Emmy-winning director worked with the finalists at their school to take their concepts and create finished 30-second TV spots. Now it's up to the public to pick the winner, who gets a $2,000 prize from the NRSF.
Voting is open now on the Chicago Auto Show's Facebook page. You can vote once a day up till the deadline Sunday night. Feb. 16. I'll be in Chicago at the Auto Show on Feb. 17 to reveal the winner.
While there are many great agencies throughout the country, New York remains the heart of the advertising and PR industries. Unlike during the “Mad Men” era, they’re no longer huddled together on Madison Avenue, but they’re still here in New York.
Until Stuart Elliott retired from The New York Times a bit more than five years ago, the newspaper of record always gave significant coverage to the ad and media business and, to a lesser degree, public relations. Stuart’s column was a must-read, as was Randall Rothenberg for a while before him and, for decades, Phil Dougherty.
Until December 2014, The New York Times had a regular column devoted to the business of advertising and media since 1935. Now, there’s an infrequent story about an agency or a campaign.
It seems to me that The Times would want to step up its coverage of the ad business. The ad column drew readers and sold papers…something that’s a challenge these days for newspapers.
Another popular column in The Times was the “Media Equation,” written occasionally by Jim Rutenberg. The column became most popular under curmudgeon David Carr, who covered the media from 2002 until his death in 2015.
The Times announced yesterday they’ve hired Ben Smith, the editor of BuzzFeed, to cover the media.
I’m looking forward to reading him starting early in March.
Now, if The Times could only get back to serious coverage of the ad and PR business again. Long overdue.
On the Amtrak to Washington to present the winner of the National Road Safety Foundation's Drive Safe D.C. Challenge at the Washington Auto Show this afternoon. At the news conference, we will show 15-year old Gabriella David's winning public service announcement about distracted driving, which will air on more than 160 TV stations later this spring.
We also just picked the finalists for the Drive Safe Chicago Challenge, and the winner will be announced at the Chicago Auto Show next month. Here's some great publicity we drummed up in the Chicago Tribune yesterday.
The jazz world sounds a little bluer today, after learning of the passing of tenor sax player Jimmy Heath at 93.
He was one of the Heath Brothers, who played together for many years. Brother Percy, bassist, died several years ago. Brother Albert “Tootie” is still playing drums.
Jimmy played with a who’s who of jazz, including Miles and Dizzy, and he also did lots of arranging.
Here's a sample of Jimmy Heath's sound.
As we remember the legacy and the dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we must, unfortunately, recognize that racism is still alive in many parts of our great nation. Racism seems to have risen from the depths in recent years, bolstered in part by words and actions of our president. This is wrong.
Click here to go to my Facebook page, to hear an interview I did last week for The National Road Safety Foundation, promoting a contest we do for teens, talking about traffic safety. It aired on several radio stations this past Sunday, with thanks for host Renee LaSalle for a great interview.