Lead Balloon - Marketing, Public Relations and Strategic Communications Stories

Alex Jones, founder of the extremist conspiracy-theory-peddling digital brand Infowars, has proved again and again that there is no lie he will not embrace and no moral line he will not cross.

For his own, personal benefit, he has victimized the grieving parents of children who were killed in school shootings. He has deliberately stoked fear among his followers in order to sell them snake oil. He has promoted insane conspiracy theories about everything from 9-11 to the moon landing. 

And this month, karma FINALLY came around for him in the most epic way possible.

The families of some Sandy Hook school shooting victims—the very people Jones hurt the most—are teaming up with the Onion, America's leading satiric comedy publication, to purchase Jones's Infowars brand at his bankruptcy auction.

So in this episode, we're talking to Leila Brillson, CMO of The Onion, to learn all the delicious details.

In this interview dated November 19, 2024, we'll explore what led to the bidding process, the line between corporate strategy and comedy, and the Onion's blooming partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety. And we'll critique this ongoing corporate acquisition not just as a business strategy, but as a cunning publicity stunt and a brilliantly-conceived work of art.

There's a video version of this episode available at https://youtu.be/0JvJuszeNtU

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The videos and stories we’ve seen and heard from Hurricanes Helene and Milton over the last month have been truly horrific.

They're an important reminder that the rescue and recovery crews who rush into these disaster zones are invaluable...

...as is the work of public affairs crews and reporters who document the aftermath of these storms.

They’re giving the outside world a window in to the carnage, making clear the need for aid, and bearing witness to what we’ve lost.

So in this episode, we're going to explore the sacrifices they make in the line-of-duty, and the psychological—and sometimes physical—toll it takes.

We'll meet Molly McPherson and Mike Moore, two former public affairs professionals for the Federal Emergency Management Agency who were assigned to the Hurricane Ike disaster zone in 2008.

It’s an assignment that would change their lives forever—and nearly cut Molly’s short. 

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The image of 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis riding in a tank has become synonymous with abject public relations failure.

For marketers and PR practitioners, it serves as an enduring reminder of the power that our mistakes have to burn down powerful people and institutions in one moment of lapsed judgment.

And in the spirit of the upcoming election, in this episode we'll explore what led up to the catastrophe, and its lasting impact on the world of public relations and marketing, with one Democrat and one Republican, both of whom worked in the White House.

Josh King was a junior staffer on the campaign trail for Team Dukakis '88. He went on to serve as White House events director under Democratic President Bill Clinton.

And Kevin Sullivan was the White House spokesman under the 43rd president, Republican George W. Bush.

Together, they'll shed light on the political legend of Dukakis in a tank, offer up a glimpse behind the scenes of the Clinton and Bush administrations, and remind us of a few other times when the republic teetered on the brink of PR calamity. 

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Sociolinguist Dr. Valerie Fridland says we need to relax about the changing nature of language.

In her book, "Like, Literally Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English," she notes that language has always evolved. Every generation adds its own spin, and the English language is almost unrecognizable from what was spoken centuries ago.

And for the most part, we agree.

But Dusty thinks there's a *figurative* line in the sand that should never be crossed: the corruption of the word "literally" in modern English.

We talked to Dr. Fridland for episode 43 of this podcast, where she gave us a brief history of how slang evolves, and why it’s a bad idea for brands to try and co-opt it.

And she was so informative and wonderful and fun to talk to.

But, in this clip that we didn’t have a place for in the episode, Dusty still had to press her about her stance on the word “literally.” 

Is Dusty just being a stick-in-the-mud? Or do we need to hold the line on "literally?"

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When you're working with high-profile people in fields like PR, marketing and branding, things are always changing.

History gets uncovered. New information comes to light that changes everything. And sometimes an opportunity comes along to learn just a little bit more about a topic of interest.

So in this episode, we're revisiting three separate tales from Lead Balloon’s four-year run to dig deeper, uncovering some new "holy crap" moments that we never saw coming.

From episode one, we find out how the manager for world-famous-Internet-meme-Grumpy-Cat feels about being cast as the villain on our podcast.

From episode 13, how the Harmon Brothers agency, creators of the viral video ads for the Squatty Potty, have become involved with the rightwing-conspiracy-fueled media landscape of the "Sound of Freedom" film, distributed by Angel Studios, that made headlines in 2023. We also learn that they're working on an eyebrow-raising marketing/entertainment crossover called Homestead, based on the Black Autumn book series. And, we dig in to their other past projects, including Covenant Eyes and VidAngel.

And from episode 40, Dwight Chapin—who served in the Nixon administration and did prison time as part of the Watergate scandal—talks about how he punked Nelson Rockefeller at a political press conference, and shares his sincere regrets about his time in politics. 

Plus, we're joined by our old friends, marketer and strategist Kyle Brown and Andrew Julian, senior sports editor for the Messenger, to talk about what's next for Lead Balloon as a podcast.

Cheers to 50 episodes, everyone.

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At the end of his first week working in public relations, Lead Balloon host Dusty Weis did something so dumb, he could have been fired on the spot.

During a meeting with one of his new bosses, prominent Milwaukee politician Jim Bohl, Dusty made a bad assumption and recklessly insulted Jim to his face.

Dusty wasn't fired, and the pair went on to work well together at City Hall for five years.

But they never again spoke about what was said on that fateful day in 2012.

That is, until the launch of Lead Balloon, when they recorded this important conversation about making mistakes, forgiveness and leadership.

So in this remastered early episode of Lead Balloon, Dusty recounts the hilarious tale of the dumbest thing he ever did, with the help of colleague Ken Leiviska.

Then, he and Jim Bohl revisit the insult to note some important lessons for media professionals transitioning into a career in political PR.

And finally, Dusty checks in with two other City Hall officials, city clerk Jim Owczarski and public information manager Bill Arnold, to see just how close he actually came to getting fired in his first week on the job.

Don't forget, I could really use your feedback about the future of the show.

Please take the survey at podcampmedia.com/survey

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UFOs have traditionally been more of a pop culture phenomenon than an actual science.

But with the recent declassification of Navy gun camera footage that shows unexplained craft seeming to defy the laws of flight and physics, there's a growing movement among the aviation, military and science communities.

They insist it's vital to destigmatize the conversation around Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs, which is the preferred nomenclature for the inexplicable occurrences.

Because the craft seem to do things that are impossible for our current level of aeronautical technology, and have interfered with the operation of other aircraft in-flight.

And if they aren't American, they pose a national security threat regardless of whether they're from China, Russia or... somewhere else.

So in this episode, we talk to former Navy Lt. Ryan Graves, the founder of Americans for Safe Aerospace and a former Navy F-18 pilot who has experienced encounters with UAP. He was also one of three experts called to testify at a Congressional hearing in July.

He'll share the things he saw that convinced him that UAP are a serious issue, what made him decide to come forward as the first military pilot to go public with his concerns, and why so many pilots experience UAP but choose not to report it.

Then, we'll discuss how his organization is leading a campaign to destigmatize the conversation, promote UAP reporting, and bring transparency to the issue.

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Let's be honest: political groups don't have a great success rate when it comes to their strategic communication tactics.

Every election cycle, American voters are bombarded with mailers, emails and text messages that mostly just get trashed or deleted.

And when a Political Action Committee like NextGen America is charged with reaching out to younger voters, they face an even more substantial task in motivating the perennially under-performing youth vote to make their voices heard.

But this year, NextGen America made headlines nationwide when it leveraged a new, unconventional tactic in its get-out-the-vote efforts for a Wisconsin State Supreme Court race.

Using a small team of staff volunteers, the group reached out to young people on the dating app Hinge, urging them to register and pledge their vote on an app that's typically reserved for romance and relationship seekers.

And, with success in that race, the PAC is now looking to scale up its tactic for the nationwide presidential election next year.

So in this episode, we talk to NextGen America's National Press Secretary Kristi Johnston. She not only pioneered the idea, but led from the front by reaching out to voters on Hinge herself, and she'll share what she learned, how her tactic is different from other forms of youth outreach, and why authenticity is key.

Plus, we meet, Noah Turecek, a young man from Wisconsin who matched with Kristi on Hinge, to get his view.

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On January 18, 2018, the entire State of Hawaii received an ear piercing alert on their cell phones.

"BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

Those with a keen memory will recall that the Aloha State was NOT, in fact, wiped off the map by a missile strike.

It was a false alarm.

But what it revealed about the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system should concern every strategic communicator.

Because while the WEA system has the potential to be a powerful lifesaving tool, it is routinely misused by emergency managers and misunderstood by the public.

With little to no federal oversight, the manner in which this system is used is left up to more than 1,600 local jurisdictions.

As a result, users are being bombarded with too many notifications that are not germane to their immediate safety, and that is conditioning us to ignore potentially life-saving alerts in the future.

So in this episode, we parse lessons from Hawaii's WEA SNAFU with Commander Bhavini Murthy, a medical epidemiologist and researcher with the U.S. Public Health Service, and Dr. John Anderton, the Associate Director for Communication at the Centers for Disease Control’s Office of Readiness and Response.

We learn from an expert on WEA messaging what jurisdictions nationwide are doing incorrectly. Dr. Jeanette Sutton is an Associate Professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the State University of New York at Albany.

And, Dusty works to instigate WEA reforms in his own backyard with Milwaukee County Supervisor Shawn Rolland.

By the way, if you've ever wondered what to do in the event of a nuclear missile strike, here are some resources from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/emergencies/index.htm

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The robot revolution has arrived.

And they're coming for your marketing or content creation job.

The advent of generative artificial intelligence chatbots—most notably tools like Chat GPT and Midjourney—is poised to revolutionize creative industries. These tools use deep learning technology to generate new content based on prompts from human users.

But will this be the end of creativity as we know it, or a new implement to help creative people be even more creative?

In this episode, we hear from "Jess," a copywriter who was laid off from her job at a well-known national logistics company and "replaced by Chat GPT."

And then, we talk to Renato Fernandez, the Chief Creative Officer at the LA-based, global creative agency TBWA / Chiat / Day. They’re a three-time honoree as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, have been recognized thrice as Adweek’s Global Agency of the Year, and are seen as a pioneering leader in the incorporation of generative A.I. into the creative workflow.

Together, Jess and Renato will generate a picture of an industry facing an inflection point...

And, indeed, a battle for its very soul.

We mention an interesting study we saw this week about how human-generated SEO content performs better than A.I.-generated content. You can find that here:

https://www.rebootonline.com/blog/ai-vs-humans-content-writing-seo-experiment/

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