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Marketing Communications

PR Expert’s Take on the Democratic Debate

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There is nothing like a presidential race to demonstrate the importance of a personal brand and the nuance of communications. As a PR expert in Seattle, it was easy to pick up on things in the Democratic debate last night that would help and/or hurt a candidate.  [ Read More ]

Hello Amsterdam

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I recently returned from a 10-day trip to Amsterdam. What a lovely city!  I mainly went there for work – to check out the design influences, understand their impressive city rebranding campaign, talk to a robotics company and a variety of other business-related pursuits. I saw Banksy and Icy & Sot at Moco, their modern art museum, and Fukase at Foam, their main photography museum. And I saw the big “I Amsterdam” sign (more on that later) in front of the famous Rijksmuseum.  [ Read More ]

Are You Smarter than a Chimpanzee on Basic World Facts?

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I recently finished reading a great book called Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think written by the late Hans Rosling. I knew it would be good when Bill Gates called it one of his favorite books of 2018 and “one of the most important” he has ever read. It is all about our perceptions of the world, how wrong they are and why our instincts are so off. The book is also strangely uplifting.  [ Read More ]

My Take on the Lip-Syncing Police Videos

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The U.S. police videos with the men and women in uniform lip-syncing and dancing to famous songs, including this gem from the Seattle Police Department, are an awesome idea. Not only do they help the internal morale of these police stations, they help humanize the police in their communities. Suddenly, police forces across the nation are going from “one of them” to “one of us.”  [ Read More ]

Fabulous Portugal, Disappointing Airlines

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One of many gorgeous beaches near the southwest corner of Portugal.   So many people have been asking about my recent Portugal trip, I decided to write about the highlights as well as some travel issues I encountered so you might learn from them. Portugal itself was lovely, but the journey was a lesson in resilience. As someone who has been to more than 40 countries and traveled more than 99.9% of the people I meet, I can say with some authority that customer service levels of the airlines and rental car companies (in this case Icelandair, TAP Air Portugal and Hertz) have gone way down.  [ Read More ]

Macron and Trump Go Hand in Hand: the Photos

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This is an interesting photo essay in Quartz on Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump and the various ways they shook hands and otherwise patted each other during Macron's recent visit. The body language of each, literally, trying to get the "upper hand" and be the "leader" is fascinating. I wonder if they get taught that in "Presidential Training."  No disrespect intended, it is simply a great example of nuance in communication.  [ Read More ]

How We Got on Saturday Night Live

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Saturday Night Live  is an awesome show.  Its wonderful edgy humor brings much-needed levity to the current state of our world.  The show reaches 11 million broadcast viewers weekly as well as millions of people who watch segments via their YouTube channel. So imagine my delight when I was sitting at the Washington’s National Park Fund (WNPF) Annual Auction on Saturday night (4/7/18) and the executive director, Laurie Ward, steps on stage and says “Where is Gaby Adam?” to the 500 people sitting there.  She had just received word that the announcement I led that week, about a $1 million dollar private donation to WNPF, had just been mentioned on Saturday Night Live!  [ Read More ]