Mike Maney

Author: Mike

  • Why Going on Tony Kornheiser’s Show is Wrong for Lance Armstrong

    Earlier today, a good friend of mine posted something to her Facebook page. Here’s what it said:

    Tony Kornheiser ESPN Facebook Update

    If you listen to the clip, ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser — no stranger to outlandish, suspension-related commentary — basically tells his readers it is okay to run down bicyclists on the road. My beef isn’t with Kornheiser’s actual comment (although he’s wildly misguided on the rules of the road and legal culpability). My argument is with his employer, ESPN, which has yet to terminate its relationship with Korhneisher.

    In the vernacular of the Twitterverse and, I suspect, many a PR executive within ESPN and elsewhere, what we have here is a shitstorm for the ESPN brand. ESPN, by not outright firing Kornheiser on the spot, has tacitly implied that it respects ratings over human life. Good brand message and association.

    ESPN had the opportunity to do the right thing, but instead chose to take the time-honored route of standing by its man and having him issue a public apology. That’s all fine and good (albeit quickly becoming quite transparent) if Kornheiser pulled a Tiger Woods and the issue was personal (or if it was, oh, say a derogatory comment about a colleague). But Kornheiser’s commentary wasn’t innocuous. It was a trifecta of hate that has become all too common in today’s media: deliberate, made to incite and dangerous.

    It is that trifecta that should have had ESPN’s lawyers scrambling immediately for the termination papers. Instead, ESPN’s PR team saw this as a ratings opportunity:

    ESPN's Twitter response to Kornheiser commentary

    And then there’s Lance.

    Yes, that Lance. The one with a closet full of yellow shirts. The one who speaks for bikers everywhere. The one we mere mortals in clipless pedals look to for inspiration. In a misguided attempt to address the firestorm, Lance agreed to an interview with Kornheiser — on Kornheiser’s show — tomorrow:

    Lance Armstrong's Twitter response to Kornheiser comments

    I’m not sure what was going through Lance’s or his publicist’s mind. I’m smart enough to realize that even the best make bad choices sometimes, but this one was a PR no-brainer. Lance *should not* have agreed to this interview. He didn’t need to. Lance’s platform as a global celebrity raises him well above that afforded by Kornheiser. Here’s what Lance should have (and could have) done:

    • Issue a statement (on Twitter, of course): “On behalf of recreational cyclists everywhere, we do not accept Kornheiser’s apology. This issue is too important.”
    • Offer to lead a public, televised Critical Mass ride in Washington, DC — the city Kornheiser broadcasts from. And invite members of both parties and other celebrities to ride along. Kornheiser would not be invited to ride along.
    • Instead of acknowledging Kornheiser with an interview, use your much, much larger platform to take the issue well beyond the reach of Kornheiser and to the upper reaches of Oprah, Ellen or The Today Show. Kornheiser’s Q score is non-existant compared to the credibility you bring to this topic.

    This is a personal issue for me, not because I am a cyclist who wants to feel safe on the road; not because I am a 20-year PR veteran who hates watching bad PR moves; but because my friend — the one who posted the original Facebook update — lost her leg after being hit by a car while riding. So ESPN, Lance, please rethink how you really want to and should handle Kornheiser’s irresponsible and deliberate actions.

  • Bullsh*t

    If you look closely, you can see me — El Gordo — on the seesaw in the middle of this bullring in Cabo San Lucas. You can also see El Toro getting ready to charge me (which he did several times over the 10+ minutes I was in the ring).

  • MIDD KIDD

    A fun video produced by my good friend’s son, Shane Mandes. Give it a listen/watch. (BTW, someone should hire this kid…great skills.)

  • Lights! Camera! Action!

    A short video tour of our team’s booth at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. Yours truly shows up to add some witty commentary at the :54 mark.

  • A Personalized Google TV Station

    Smokey and the Bandit

    A status update that included a link to a clip of the movie “Smokey and the Bandit” by my friend and Phi Tau fraternity brother, Sam Ceresi, sparked an idea this morning: create a television channel that does a 24×7 loop of the following movies:

    Maybe a play for Netflix or Comcast or DirecTV? I don’t know the technical limitations, but it seems to me they already have quite an inventory of spectacularly useless channels already in their lineup. What’s one or a couple million more?  Would it be possible to give everyone their own personal channel — like Google does with email. Hmmm, doesn’t Google already own YouTube? If they could figure out a way to compensate the studios — and either create their own or buy their way into an existing network — this could be an interesting play for them.

    Think it would could fly? Would there be enough demand? What would you pay? And, most important, what five movies would you loop on your personal Google TV channel?

  • Career Update: When Passion and Profession Collide

    Alcatel-Lucent Logo

    It’s interesting what you can see when you look back on what as been close to a 20-year career in public relations. I recently took that trip down memory lane. Here’s some of what I learned:

    • I’ve worked for some very cool, very prestigious companies and clients.
    • I’ve learned from and worked alongside some of the best pros in this business.
    • While I’ve done creative, impactful work on everything from Remington razors to underground storage tank removal, my passion and some of my absolute best work can be found in technology; I like to translate tough, geeky, change-the-world science into language and stories normal people can understand and relate to.
    • I’m a startup guy in a corporate suit.

    Which is why about a month ago I accepted the executive role of Director, Influencer Management at Alcatel-Lucent. It’s an exciting, challenging and wide-ranging role that combines a number of my favorite experiences of the past two decades:

    • A love of emerging technology.  At IBM, I led the global communications strategy for Big Blue’s pervasive computing and wireless initiative. We’re talking sensors and chips in everything from toasters to cars. During my six years at IBM, I also handled PR for one of the smartest technologists I’ve ever had the honor to know, John Patrick. Working closely with John and his Next Generation Internet team, I promoted IBM’s efforts around Internet2 and its early entry into Linux. While on the PR agency side of the business, I lived every computer geek’s dream: working with some really smart guys out of AT&T’s  Bell Labs to launch an embedded operating system called Plan 9 (you may remember the team behind this as the same team behind Unix).
    • A disturbing fascination with infrastructure.  Go figure. I’m passionate about the gear that makes all of the really cool things work. I had a blast learning about and promoting AT&T’s IP backbone before the entire world ran on Internet protocols. I geeked out to things like Metropolitan Area Networks leading the PSINet account in the days when 28.8 kbps was a huge pipe. I’ve been deep in the bowels of PAIX.
    • A need to push beyond the possible. I’ve worked alongside fiery startup CEOs/founders. I helped launch a startup inside one of the world’s largest and most respected technology companies. Both demanded a constant, damn-the-rules, make-it-happen culture.
    • A desire to work with great leaders who inspire great work. I’ve seen my share of good, terrible and great leaders in the years I’ve been in this industry. The great ones are few and far between…leaders like IBM’s VP of media relations, Ed Barbini, and MindTouch’s founder/CEO, Aaron Fulkerson — people you would walk through fire for.

    My new role at Alcatel-Lucent is a mix of each of these and more. I am working with emerging technologies and business models that change how we communicate. I’m working with a clear leader driving the infrastructure that makes communication happen. The work we are doing is being done at the speed and with the style of a startup, yet with the backing and resources of a large, global corporation. We are helping to change a corporate mindset. Lastly, and most importantly, I’m part of a small, tight team being led by someone I’ve not only worked with in the past, but respect immensely.

    I’m excited about the challenges and opportunities ahead…for me, for our team and for the industry we impact.

  • The Mighty Have (Sadly) Fallen

    Years ago, my friends and I would hike the trail to the Lunch Rocks at the foot of the bowl of Mount Washington. One year, my friend Andrew and I strapped our skis to our packs and, after spending the night in a makeshift ski pole-and-tarp tent, skied some of the mountain’s best lines. It was a rite of passage on the home of the world’s highest recorded wind gust and worst weather.

    No more. Well, no more is Mount Washington home to the world’s highest recorded wind gust:

    First the Old Man, now the Big Wind. New Hampshire’s Mount Washington has lost its distinction as the site of the fastest wind gust ever recorded on Earth, officials at the Mount Washington Observatory said Tuesday.

    Here are a few pics from past trips to Mount Washington:

    Mount Washington_MikeMount Washington_Tuckerman's RavineMount Washington_Makeshift tentMount Washington_Lunch Rocks

  • NSF: Interactive Journalism + Computer Science

    I posted earlier about an innovative interactive journalism program called IJIMS. Here’s an update from Kim Pearson:

    Here’s a full-blown article from NSF about our Interactive Journalism Institute for Middle Schoolers, for which I’m co-Principal Investigator. Lots of FB folks to shout out -PI Ursula Wolz, co-PI Monisha Pulimood. Amy Gahran and Mitchel Resnick supported our proposal; Shavar Ross, Tony Robinson and Mike Maney helped too. Peter Daou’s continued interest is also much appreciated!

  • What’s Old is New Again (Or is It?)

    I just read a great post by Ustrategy’s Ravit Lichtenberg on ReadWriteWeb highlighting the 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010. It’s a great read and worthy of being carried under the ReadWriteWeb banner (I have no shame in being an unabashed fanboy of good tech reporting).

    However (isn’t there always a “however”?), here’s where I disagree with Ravit. He posits that “Many ‘Old’ Skills Will Be Needed Again.”

    An economic downturn coupled with the surge of social media eliminated many traditional marketing and PR roles. But this year, we’ll see the return of professionals to the field. Enterprises will turn back to marketers who specialize in understanding customer psychology and who are experienced in addressing these both offline and online. Research and development divisions will turn to customer experience professionals to draw on user needs and ideation as part of their product improvement and innovation process, and sales and support will continue to deliver services online. Expect to see job postings for social media managers, social media psychologists and social media executive administrators to help manage the infinite tasks involved with communities and social media campaigns.”

    The reality is that the good shops, the smart companies, never lost sight of the core functions; they didn’t get blinded by the bright shiny lights. No, they saw the lights and worked them into larger, less tactical strategies.

    As marketers, the new tools we have at our disposal couldn’t be greater. But they mean nothing/nada/zip/zero if they aren’t tied into a larger/boring/old school/smart/proven strategy.

  • Futuregeek

    This is what the lid of a beat up, old ThinkPad x570 should look like. It’s like the mullet of laptops: business on the lid, Webkinz on the inside

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