Who say Singapore got no Pirates!
By now most of Singaporeans would have heard of Chow Yuen Fatt’s "Welcome To Singapore" introduction in the latest Pirates of the Carribean trilogy.
You would either start singing "We are Singapore, Singaporeans" or say "Singapore got pirates meh?" when you see the scene.
In real life, Today reported that 10 Singaporeans met up with real pirates while fishing 800m away off Pedra Branca.
From Today Online:
A SINGAPORE fishing boat was attacked by pirates some 800 metres off Pedra Branca on Sunday.
According to the Chinese newspaper Lianhe Wanbao, the ship’s 43-year-old captain, who wished to be known only as Mr Tan, said that he and nine other Singaporeans were fishing in the South China Sea around 1.30am when a white motorboat with five men onboard approached them.
"Before we could react, three of the men jumped on board," he said.
Welcome to Singapore?
Over in Egypt, they had "Snakes on the plane". Almost.
From Newsday.com:
Customs officers at Cairo’s airport on Thursday detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.
The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, told them his carryon bag contained live snakes after he was asked to open it.
Tulba opened his bag to show the snakes to the police and asked the officers, who held a safe distance, not to come close. Among the various snakes, hidden in small cloth sacks, were two poisonous cobras, authorities said.
If HP is turning I.T. by its head…
… then grumpy is the new happy?
A HP spokesperson at a HP media event last week turning :( into the new :).
Anonymous sources have highlighted that the spokesperson is Michelle Dorn, director for Business Information at HP Software for APJ.
Also, there are emails asking themediaslut why HP is turning I.T. by its head. It is actually their new marketing tagline and themediaslut is trying to get a copy of their ad scanned to explain the headline.
A picture is worth a thousand words…
Go and create your own Digg site
Wordpress.com and blogspot.com gave many the abilities to create their own website in a jiffy.
Do you have to create your own Digg site (aka a site for your to rank links)?
coRank.com now enables you to create your own Digg site as easy as how Wordpress.com lets u create a blog.
Check out themediaslut’s link of death at http://themediaslut.corank.com/
Madonna in a Japanese horror movie?
themediaslut got it wrong. Madonna is in a Japanese advertisement pimping a property development in Japan.
But Madonna is touching herself and there is a black frightening tree in the background.
That’s perfectly scary.
Anonymous source confess of leak, Reuters journo spared jail sentence
Its official. Singapore laws do not protect the journalists’ anonymous source.
So if a journalist comes up to you and say that you will be quoted as an anonymous source, the journalist would still have to reveal who you if ordered by the Singapore Courts.
A Reuters journalist recently faced the possibility of spending two weeks in a Singapore to jail for not disclosing her source who gave her information about a out-of-court settlement between two broking frims.
Reuters brought the case to the Singapore Court of Appeals against the decision to force the journalist to reveal her source. In light of good media relations, the source gave the Reuters journalist the permission to reveal his/her identity, thus spared the Reuters journalist from going to jail.
However, the agent responsible for the leaked was not identified.
Singapore’s main dailies, The Straits Times and The Business Times, also reported on the same story from the source and revealed the identity of the source, the Public Relations agency who handled one of the broking firms.
From Today Online :
….Subsequently, both companies served court papers on the reporters to reveal their sources.
The court orders placed the reporters in a difficult situation as journalists in Singapore don’t have the legal privilege of protecting their sources, unlike their counterparts in countries such as Australia and United Kingdom.
After initially resisting, ST and BT reporters disclosed their respective sources to the High Court. Both pointed to Huntington,which is Prebon’s public relations firm.
Ms Shanley, however, held on. At a court hearing on May 17, High Court Justice Andrew Ang agreed with Prebon’s lawyers and ordered Ms Shanley to reveal her source.
Confused Journalist meets Angry Agent of Public Relations
themediaslut’s "Your worst PR client story" has two entry over the weekend.
One from a confused journalist amazed by the actions of clients, the other is one angry agent of public relations.
From Whisperer the Journalist:
- First was when I had a TV crew and a number of filming requirements at Singapore Expo for pure editorial coverage (not paid). PR insisted I decamp to Raffles at my expense to interview his client. On way, find PR phone is shut off and no sign at Raffles. 45mins after scheduled appointment, PR turns phone on and tells me that client decided to go to Expo. Pretended Raffles arrangement never happened. Film crews aren’t cheap! Said client is multi billion dollar company.
- Second was when I attended a multivendor conference and had a scheduling clash with a main speaker. So I sat next to guy on bus and interviewed him there and then. Clearly a on-the-record chat and it was made clear I could not participate in the formal interview. Speaker was then later taken aback when his quotes appeared in print and demanded PR call me - several times - to retract it. Trouble was the PR’s attempts to converse with me were unintelligible and apparently never thought to put the request in email. Never interview people on a bus!
- Third was when a now bankrupt satellite company flew me to Japan and insisted at great length that I catch the train to the hotel from Tokyo airport using some kind of voucher. Trouble is that the plane arrived well after the last train at 1am and as a result was forced to wear the US$100 taxi ride. Then found there was no real hospitality planned so as the “senior” journo took all the press attendees out at my own expense for a very beery night on the town.
- Final one is just amusing: the company that wanted to fly me at great expense to a major global customer conference for THREE DAYS but told me I couldn’t attend the conference. I was offered one one-on-one during a tea break and the chance to be at a dinner in the same room with their execs. I made my excuses and declined their generous offer!
themediaslut isn’t sure if Whisperer’s contribution counts and will decide later. Thanks for the contribution though.
Angry PR Consultant decided to submit his/her worst PR clients story to date.
From Angry PR Consultant:
This particular client wanted to do a launch event and we were engaged to provide PR consultancy. From the very first week of the project, our entire team HATED THEM.
They are the type of client who pays very little and thinks you owe them the world. They call/ sms us almost every night (yes, after 8pm even when it’s nothing urgent) and sms / call us on weekends too for “updates”.
They are the type of client who can’t tell the difference between PR and advertising, insisting that we tell the editors/ writers to mention every sentence and word they want to include in an article and send us nasty notes if they didnt like the article (even though the stories are all positive and good).
They are the type of client who insists on talking only to the directors and ignore the managers/ executives who are managing the account. And from their top management to the lowly, pathetic executives - they are simply RUDE RUDE RUDE.
They are the type of client who has no respect for the PR consultants and will not hesistate to yell at us to fetch this, pick that, move boxes, hang this and that, during an event, as though we were their servants (and no, we were not paid to manage the event as the client think they are too smart and can DO IT THEMSELVES).
They are the type of client who (because of some old media contacts) think that they know the world.
They are also the type of client who can’t speak and write proper English but insist we change sentences in our press materials according to what they want - after which, we are too ashamed to even put our names on the release.
This is the client - WE HATE.
Jobs at the Gates
It is going to be an historical meeting as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates will be meeting in person in a public chat at annual Wall Street Journal-hosted ‘D: All Things Digital’ event on 30 May 2007.
From www.macworld.com.uk :
Apple CEO Steve Jobs will face Microsoft’s Bill Gates in public conversation next week at the annual Wall Street Journal-hosted ‘D: All Things Digital’ event.
This will be the first time the two men have met face-to-face in public for an in-depth discussion concerning the technology industry that both have become legends within.
An insider told themediaslut that the background of the set will be white.
Steve Jobs will appear first and say, "Hi. I am a Mac."
Bill Gates will then appear and screaming, "And I am a PC!"
Image from www.myextralife.com
Your worst PR client story could win you a USD100 Amazon email gift certificate!
You often hear journalists lamenting about lousy PR pitches. PR also sometime strike back, off the record, on journalists who cut and paste press releases and claim their own.
That gave themediaslut an idea. This contest is for all public relations agents out there on the 3 Ws (World Wide Web, duh).
So to all agents of Public Relations in the world, send in your worst PR client story and themediaslut will let readers poll which stories are the worst. The winner gets a USD100 Amazon email gift certificate , courtesy of themediaslut.
So email them to themediaslut(at)gmail(dot)com or you can drop your story at the comment below.
themediaslut will keep your identity totally anonymous and themediaslut understands the dangerous position you will be putting yourself in for sending in the story.
The names of the clients will also be replaced with a more generic term so it will be very hard to link the story with the contributors.
May the best worst PR client story win!
Entry for the contest closes on June 16, 2007, 12:00pm (+8 GMT or Singapore time) and the winning story will be announced on June 20th, 2007.
Paparazzi: IPRS Young PR Professional Night
One of the many keys to being a successful agent of Public Relations is your networking capabilities.
The young and the restless agents of PR chilled out on Tuesday night to meet fellow young agents of PR at the Institute of Public Relatioins Young PR Professional Night at the Barfly in Clark Quay.
PS: Photos not taken by themediaslut and was send in via an anonymous email.
Cheers to more clients!
Checking the who’s who of the young ones..
"I had this client who paid me this much…" "actually, I had this client who was this big"
Looking good for the camera.
Left: To drink or not to drink
Right: Drink, lah!
..or just eat..
The agents of PR winning something in a lucky draw for a change
So you think you can dance WOW?
Those playing WOW, have you ever wondered where the characters dance move came from?
Fight competition the SG way - raise prices!
themediaslut may not be the brightest economic student in town, but the shop that gives her the best value for her dollar gets her business.
themediaslut finds it strange that a spokesperson for NETS , a cashless transaction service, used price increase as a weapon to fight competitors. Isn’t that a little queer?
From The New Paper (22 May 2007);
Mr Ivan Ong, vice-president of Nets Payment and Value-added Services, explained the fee increase was needed to help Nets face increasing competition from international card schemes, adding that Nets transactions fees are still the lowest in the market.
A quick backgrounder for themediaslut’s non-Singapore readers, Nets (Network for Electronic Transfer) is a system for Singaporeans to pay for stuff at shops with their bank ATM cards.
Nets is used by many neighbourhood stalls that cannot afford to make use of Visa and Mastercard services.
Nets is planning to raise the fee of using the system from 0.35 and 0.55 per cent of each transaction to 1.5 and 1.8 percent of purchases from July 1, 2007.
This means that the shop owners have to pay more to use the system and they are also not allowed to pass on this fee to their consumers.
Back to the statement.
If Nets is facing increasing competition from international card schemes, why are they increasing the transaction fee instead of reducing it? Is the new theory of Singapore economics?
Also, who and what are these international card schemes that is being offered to the Singapore neighbourhood shops that threaten to compete with Nets?
themediaslut doesn’t think these shop owners are looking at an international bank in the US to install a payment system for them.
Hence, the justification for the transaction fee does not make any sense for themediaslut.
themediaslut is usually pro-consumer, but in this case here, she would try her best not to use Nets system from July 1 onwards.
As they say, cash is king!
Andrew Peters Live and living
Andrew Peters has finally gone live with his own domain at www.aplink.biz .
This is after his misadventure with wordpress.com just a day before his buybuttonz event.
Welcome to the .biz blogosphere, Andrew!
Paparazzi: Launch of Pink5one.com
themediaslut attended the launch of new Chinese RaVeo-Mag, Pink5one.
Vincy (left) and Sharon, hosts of the Princess Hours which looks at giving beauty tips. (Photos by www.demoments.com for themediaslut.)
From the press pack, Pink5one.com want to be the "first in Asia to successfully incorporate Television Televiion, Radio and Print Magazine into a single medium".
In other word, all their content will be available online.
Pink5one.com will include online shows will feature food, entertainment, travel and lifestyle.
Although themediaslut is still lost of what Pink5one.com is after the launch, at least their hosts for the shows are younger, prettier and more energetic than the hosts you get at the MediaCorp channels.
Can’t remenber his name, but his the director-in-charge for pink5one.com. (Photos by www.demoments.com for themediaslut.)
Sugi, left, host of the Upsize (Food) segment with Mr. Baey Yam Keng, MP for Tanjong Pager GRC, guest of honour for the launch. (Photos by www.demoments.com for themediaslut.)
Other hosts of Pink5one.com which themediaslut could not identify. (Photos by www.demoments.com for themediaslut.)
Other hosts of Pink5one.com which themediaslut could not identify. (Photos by www.demoments.com for themediaslut.)
The hosts of Pink5one.com ending the launch with a group singing session. (Photos by www.demoments.com for themediaslut.)
Code Monkey meets WOW!!!
Why themediaslut appeared in The New Rules of PR and Marketing
After the euphoria about being featured in a book, themediaslut asked herself, "So why themediaslut?"
"I found mediaslut via a link at one point and I read it," wrote David Meerman Scott, the author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and online media to reach your buyers directly" in an email reply.
"So your ideas are reflected in my book in a small way.
"You have a great blog and you should keep writing - you will find popularity if you work at it. A great blog attracts readers."
David highlight that he wrote the book because he wanted companies to be aware of the new media that is providing them with much more opportunities but is being preferred over the "old rules"
"I wrote the book because I’m pissed off that so many people and companies waste money on "the old rules", wrote David.
"They pitch the media the same old ways and they spend huge amounts of money on advertising.
"I wanted to show a better way. My book agent and publisher were excited about the book because I ‘proved’ my market by having 250,000 people download my ebook http://www.webinknow.com/2006/01/new_complimenta.html."
David also recommended themediaslut to read his old article at http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=7628&ContextSubtypeID=12 about the difference between blogs and media.
David’s new book coming June 2007 in hardcover from Wiley: "The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and online media to reach your buyers directly" Pre-order today http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470113456/freshspotpubl-20
Is Farrer Court going for cheap?
Turn to Page 17 of The New Paper for May 15, 2007. The headline screams "Farrer Court asks $1.5m for en bloc".
$1.5m? That’s rather cheap for the hot property market in Singapore.
As you read the article, the $1.5m is supposes to be $1.5b and each of the 618 units is expected to get $2.4m.
The letters "m" and "b" on the keyboard is only separated by the letter "n" but the number of 0s between a million and a billion makes a lot of difference.
$1.5m for en-bloc? Guess it will get a majority no!
themediaslut wants her butcher to dress in yellow too
Found this in a Czech newspaper featuring some new Renault over there..
Sure would make marketing a little more fun…
Nice butcher’s knife you have there! Can we be friends?
US big kite flyers call for SG counterparts to be equally compensated
Last month, themediaslut satired the pay tussle between Singapore International Airlines (SIA) and their pilots with a make-believe news that Singapore kite flyers are also asking for more pay because they are slated to fly bigger kites.
The "news" got the attention of the Flight and Safety Officer for exhibitions of the Mega Flag: The Biggest Kite in the World.
I’ll side with the kite fliers on this one — flying a big kite is not at all like flying a little one, what with having to tie it off to a dumptruck or other piece of heavy equipment, and with the need to supervise a crew of ten to fly the kite (and to keep them all safe!)
In the US. I feel that big kite fliers are adequately compensated, I only hope that this will soon be the case all over the world.
Kite flying: serious business.
themediaslut hopes to see the biggest kite in the world in Singapore one day.
Singapore do need a big kite to fly over her, the sun here can be blistering hot. Some shade would be good.
To read the earlier post and comments, click here.
The (in)famous mediaslut now appearing in a bookshop near you!
AHEM!
themediaslut is now reading material.
David Meerman Scott for the PR blog, Web Ink Now , has just published his book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" and guess who is mentioned in the book?
AHEM! one more time.
themediaslut will get a free copy of the book but wonders if the publisher will send it all the way to Singapore.
Did themediaslut mentioned she’s the only Singapore PR and marketing blog mentioned in the book?
Wait, not just Singapore, ASIA (ego bursting time).
Other mentions in the book include:
Adele Revella Buyer Persona Blog
Joe Wikert Publishing 2020 blog
Steve Johnson
David McInnis
Mark Levy
David Hamm
Mike Levin
Colin Delaney epolitics
Steve Goldstein Alacrablog
Todd Van Hoosear
George L Smyth Eclectic Mix
Mark Effinger
Michelle Manafy EContent magazine
Kevin Rose Diggnation
Grub Street Writers
Dave Armon
Britton Manasco
Jordan Behan
Nettie Hartsock
John Havens
John Blossom ContentBlogger
Larry Schwartz Newstex
Steve Smith
Melanie Surplice
Nate Wilcox
Ian Wilker
Cody Baker
Dianna Huff
Brian Carroll
Ken Doctor
Jonathan Kranz
Barry Graubart
Steve O’Keefe
Ted Demopoulos
Debbie Weil
Paul Gillin
Matt Lohman
Seth Godin
Rob O’ Regan
Steve Rubel Micro Persuasion
Paul Gillin
Joan Stewart The Publicity Hound
Glenn Nicholas Small Business Inspiration
Mac MacIntosh The B2B Sales Lead Expert
Jill Konrath Selling to Big Companies
Guy Kawasaki How to Change the World
Court Bovée and John Thill Business Communication Headline News
Grant D. Griffiths Kansas Family Law Blog
Robin Crumby The Melcrum Blog
Jim Peake My Success Gateway
Eli Singer Refreshing the Daily Grind
Duane Brown Imagination+Innovation
Scott Monty The Social Media Marketing Blog
Ian Lamont
Blog Campaigning
Rich at Copywrite Ink
John Lustina SEO Speedwagon
Adam Tinworth OneMan+HisBlog
Scott Clark Finding the Sweet Spot
Amanda Chapel Strumpette
Jennifer Veitenheimer reinventjen
Morty Schiller Wordrider
Matthias Hoffmann the power of news
Erin Caldwell’s PRblog
Ferrell Kramer Talking Communications
Anita Campbell Selling to Small Businesses
Rugjeff
Karl Ribas’ Search Engine Marketing Blog
Tony D. Baker Advanced Marketing Techniques
Tom Pick The WebMarketCentral Blog
Tina Lang-Stuart
Bryan Eisenberg Jeffrey Eisenberg Robert Gorell and the rest of the team at Grok Dot Com
Michele Miller WonderBranding
Publicity Ship Blog
The Media Slut
Brad Shorr Word Sell
Sasha Where Business Meets the Web
Ellee Seymour ProActivePR
Chris Kenton The Marketers’ Consortium
Paul Young Product Beautiful
By Ron Miller
Michael Morton
James D. Brausch
Janet Meiners Newspapergrl
Andrew B. Smith The New View From Object Towers
Cristian Mezei SeoPedia
Jim Nail Cymfony’s influence 2.0
Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff The Blog Squad
Forward Blog
Ben Argov
Zane Safrit Duct Tape Marketing—Business Life
Will McInnes Online Marketing Guide
Robbin Steif LunaMetrics
Mike Boss
Marc Gunn Music Promo Blog
Nancy E. Schwartz Getting Attention
Kami Watson Huyse Communications Overtones
Todd Defren PR Squared
Michael Stelzner Writing White Papers
Dee Rambeau Adventures in Business Communications
Glenn Fannick Read Between the Mines
Owen Lystrup Into PR
Morgan McLintic
Mark Batterson Evotional
Jay Coffelt
John Richardson
Robin Good MasterNewMedia
Shel Israel Naked Conversations
Robert J. Ricci Son-of-a-Pitch
Mike Sigers Simplenomics
Dan Greenfield Bernaisesource
Brian Clark copyblogger
Lee Odden TopRank Online Marketing Blog
David Weinberger
Carson McComas
The FutureLab blog
John Bradley Jackson Be First Best or Different
Wired PR Works by Barbara Rozgonyi
Mark Goren Transmission
John Wall Ronin Marketer
MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
John Koetsier bizhack
Steve Kayser Cincom Smalltalk
Dale Wolf The Perfect Customer Experience
Eric Mattson Marketing Monger
Scott Sehlhorst Tyner Blain
Seeds of Growth blog
Hugo E. Martin
David Phillips leverwealth
Terry Affiliate Marketing Blog
Gavin Heaton Servant of Chaos
Mark White Better Business Blogging
Eric Eggertson Common Sense PR
Michelle Golden Golden Practices
Liz Strauss
Tony Valle Small Business Radio
Chris Heuer’s Idea Engine
David Evans The Progress Bar
Todd Andrlik The Power to Connect
The New PR Wiki
NewPR
Pelle Braendgaard Stake Ventures
Lisa Banks Search Engine Optimization Eblog
Chris Brown Branding & Marketing
Graeme Thickins Tech-Surf-Blog
Ardath Albee Marketing Interactions
Lauren Vargas Communicators Anonymous
Lori Smart Lemming
Dane Morgan
Jason Leister Computer Super Guy
Bill Trippe
Jason Eiseman Jason the Content Librarian
Reuben Steiger Millions of Us
Taran Rampersad Know Prose
John Richardson Success Begins Today
Valentin Pertsiya Brand Aid
Bill Belew Rising Sun of Nihon
Joe Beaulaurier An Ongoing Press Release
David Koopmans Business of Marketing and Branding
Chris Anderson The Long Tail
Roger C. Parker Design to Sell
Anybody out there wants to do PR for themediaslut?
No shit!
This blogger for Good Image Tea, from BioLife, raised 10 interesting facts about he learned about constipation.
Here are themediaslut’s favourites.
From the BioLife blog :
…(7) What shocked me is that constipation can be the cause that resulted in stroke or heart attack.
I recalled about people who died in their sleep or died sitting in their sofa, car, etc. Postmortem showed that they died of stroke or heart attack. But to think it can also be due to constipation is surprising.
During my recent trip to China with my factory boss, we met our partners and friends about packaging our Good Image Tea.
They told me that it will be extremely dangerous for those who had constipation and yet do not know that they have high blood pressure or brain tumor. If they decide to force the stools out, the prolonged strain will naturally cause the blood pressure to shoot up which might trigger a stroke or heart attack.
Even if the person does not have a heart attack, straining oneself while holding one’s breath to force out the stools can cause the haemorrhoidal blood pressure to increase. The rough dry faeces might cause abrasions and rupture the surrounding tissues of the anus and thus cause bleeding, painful defecation and stress.
….(9) The large intestine (colon) which is about 1.5 meters long receives the waste from the small intestine at about 10 cm per hour. It compresses the waste and absorbs the water before the solid waste or stools reach the anus. If the stools are stuck at the anus for too long, it will lead to the hardening of the stools starting from the front. Just imagine that if we eat and eat and do not pass out the stools in 15 hours, the whole large intestine will be jammed.
It really gives the saying "you are full of shit" a new and dangerous meaning.
