The Power of a Brick

By Carole Burns

I work in the Diederich College of Communication so I shouldn’t be surprised when communicating a need actually produces results. Recently,  I read an article in The Wall Street Journal about a man who left his job to spend time building sculptures out of LEGOs. I was very impressed by the article, not because this man, Dirk Denoyelle, received a high honor from LEGO – three years ago they added them to the elite group of LEGO Certified Professionals – one of only ten individuals.

But my admiration went even deeper than that. I have been trying to start a business for my son; a LEGO store that would employ individuals on the Autism Spectrum (ASD) and prepare them for work at companies and businesses throughout the country. This was the first time I had such high-proof that LEGOs go far beyond the childhood years.  There are, in fact, an entire group of Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOL) and they are creating amazing things.

Is Negative PR Bad for Business?

By Sarah Bonewits-Feldner and Tom Isaacson

For practitioners working in corporate communication and public relations, an ongoing concern is the impact of negative publicity on relevant target audiences. The old adage “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” – frequently cited by business journalists and alternately credited to either P. T. Barnum or an ambiguous “they” – deserves a closer look.

Unequal, a sport-equipment manufacturer, recently decided to use the controversial Michael Vick to promote its products. In a story described in the Wall Street Journal, company executives and consultants debated if the move would help the relatively unknown company or if it would be ‘business suicide.’ Apparently, it was the former.

According to the article’s author, Lee Hawkins, after the endorsement deal was announced the high number of hits on Unequal’s website crashed the site and sales initially went up 1,000 percent before settling “at about triple what they were a year ago.”

However, we know a single example rarely settles an argument. For every organization that benefits from negative publicity, counter examples exist as well.