First, a reminder that I avoid political gaffes when it comes to my lists of the biggest PR mistakes. If I didn’t, there wouldn’t have been room for anything else over the past 10 years (this week alone would have been Joe Biden, Greg Abbott, Tina Peters, Andrew Cuomo, John Cox, the State of Alabama, Dan Patrick, Gavin Newsom, Lauren Boebert, Gettr, Michelle Fiscus and a dozen others). Not to mention everyone views whether political issues qualify as PR gaffes through their own partisan lens. Now, on to the this week’s list:

• A 9Wants to Know investigation found that Colorado’s Exposure App that is designed to alert residents when someone in close proximity to them tests positive for COVID-19 only worked 8% of the time. While the app was free from the Association of Public Health Laboratories, the state spent $875,000 to market and maintain the service.
• Hassan Moustafa, the president of the International Handball Federation, said new rules were “very likely” after the federation was heavily criticized for requiring female players to wear bikinis in official play. Adding attention to the issue, the singer Pink offered to pay a 1,500 euro fine the federation levied against Norway’s women’s beach handball team for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms in a recent tournament.
• Snopes, the gold standard of separating fact from fiction in our Internetified world, “has retracted 60 articles after a BuzzFeed News investigation found that the site’s co-founder plagiarized from news outlets as part of a strategy intended to scoop up web traffic.”
• Detroit Tigers TV analyst Jack Morris has been suspended indefinitely after he used a mocking and racist Asian accent on air to talk about L.A. Angels star pitcher/designated hitter Shohei Ohtani.
• An apology for disparaging statements about women, Jewish people and Haiti by newly announced Jeopardy host Mike Richards shows why you shouldn’t let the person in charge of vetting candidates pick himself.
• Data breaches have become so common that they rarely make big headlines these days, but T-Mobile’s latest one involving customer data for 40 million past and current customers managed to do just that.
• The US Open tennis tournament begins in a little more than a week, and already some of the biggest draws such as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and 2020 winner Dominic Thiem have withdrawn due to injuries. Combine that with women’s stars Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka having trouble advancing deep in tournaments recently, and it could be a dud of a tournament this year.

So, who won the week?

• Denver Broncos QB Drew Lock had the game of his life last weekend, potentially heading off a likely career-ending challenge by Teddy Bridgewater. We’ll see if he can keep it up this weekend.
• The Paralympic Games begin Tuesday in Tokyo, and Colorado Public Radio profiles 11 competitors who are from Colorado. If you haven’t watched the Paralympics before, do yourself a favor and tune in. NBC is broadcasting 1,200 hours, and it is even more inspiring than the Olympics.
• Zaidy’s, a legendary Denver Jewish deli that closed during the pandemic, has re-opened thanks to support from the Appel family (the founders of the OxiClean empire).

Colorado Public Radio News’ Ann Marie Awad and Vic Vela got into an unusual (for CPR) and very public Twitter spat about whether CPR has an editor focused specifically on equity issues:

Theo Wayt at the New York Post: “Two former staffers of Gov. Andrew Cuomo who helped their ex-boss smear sexual harassment accuser Lindsey Boylan have left their jobs at a politically connected public relations firm with millions of dollars in state contracts, The Post has learned. Josh Vlasto and Richard Bamberger — both former top Cuomo staffers who were named throughout the attorney general’s report into the governor’s “inner circle” — confirmed Monday they had left their jobs as managing directors at PR firm Kivvit.

‘“We agreed to amicably part ways,’ Vlasto and Bamberger said in a joint statement to The Post.

“Kivvit — which has counted Google, Tesla, Citigroup, Lyft, Princeton University and the US Olympic Committee among its clients — had already scrubbed the pair from its website by Monday morning.”

The New York Times’ Travel section focused on Denver today, and McGregor Square, Frank Bonanno’s Milk Market at Dairy Block, and businesses along Welton Street were the big winners.

Chris Daniels at PR Week reports: “It’s another sign of the times amid the COVID-19 pandemic: social media influencers are asking for — and getting — significantly more money for sponsored posts and brand partnerships than even a year ago. That’s in part because consumers continue to spend more time online. Nearly half (48%) say they increased the time they spend on social media, giving influencers a larger and more engaged fanbase, according to research from DoubleVerify. 

‘“The pandemic changed the game for influencers,’ confirms Jenny Heinrich, senior partner for global digital and influencer strategy at Finn Partners.”

• The Colorado Rockies learned the hard way about the importance of guardrails when commenting during a crisis. In a game earlier this week, broadcasters for the Miami Marlins claimed a Coors Field fan screamed a racial slur that was caught by its microphones, and the Rockies validated that before looking into it by posting to social media that it was “disgusted at the racial slur by a fan … .” The next morning, it became clear the fan had actually yelled “Dinger,” the name of the Rockies’ mascot, in an attempt to get a photo. Media quickly backtracked and blamed the Rockies for legitimizing the story with its social media post (as evidenced by this post from 9News’ Nicole Vap).
• Trust in government isn’t exactly high these days, and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) reinforced some of the worst suspicions of the tin-foil-hat crowd when it lied about Independence Pass being closed recently due to a mudslide. Media uncovered emails this week showing back-and-forth among CDOT officials about how to reduce traffic on the congested pass, and claiming a fictitious mudslide was the consensus winner. CDOT officials quickly realized two things: it is bad policy to lie, and that discussing it via email was a mistake. Officials reversed their decision after a day and discoverable email discussions were not part of that process .
• The Royal Family and Prince Andrew are in the spotlight once again this week because of Andrew’s affiliation with disgraced pedophile/sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. A New York woman filed a lawsuit against Andrew this week alleging that he raped and sexually abused her when she was a minor. Andrew’s previous denials only made the situation worse and the Royal Family has remained silent on the lawsuit, signaling that they understand what a dumpster fire this entire situation is. Here’s hoping he becomes Prince Andrew, Duke of York Prison before this is all over.
• Nostalgia purveyor Garrison Keillor hasn’t been heard from much after he was booted from his home on Minnesota Public Radio in 2017 due to allegations of inappropriate behavior with a female assistant. But this week, he came roaring back, making headlines for equating the U.S. Social Security Administration with the Nazi SS after he got caught in a bureaucratic snafu trying to obtain a replacement Medicare card.
• The chile wars between Colorado (Pueblo chile peppers) and New Mexico (Hatch chile peppers) heated up this week when The Pueblo Chieftain ran syndicated content from its parent company, Gannett, that was pro-Hatch chile. Chieftain News Director Luke Lyons issued a formal apology distancing the newspaper from the story, saying in part, “The article … was not meant to cause harm or to infer that the Hatch chile was superior. … We apologize for the harm and offense the story has caused.” It’s not clear whether journalism purists are more offended that Lyons would apologize for content or that he confused “infer” for “imply” in his apology.

So, who won the week? I’m going with “Tiana,” a somewhat anonymous Tokyo Olympics volunteer. She paid for a taxi out of her own pocket when Jamaican hurdler Hansle Parchment took a wrong bus and mistakenly ended up at the aquatics venue. Thanks to her generous help, Parchment made it to the track stadium in time and subsequently won a gold medal in the men’s 110 meters hurdle event. Parchment was able to track down Tiana afterward to thank her and repay the fare, and Jamaica’s minister of tourism has now invited Tiana for an all-expenses-paid trip to the Caribbean island.

Generally speaking, if the Colorado Rockies are making national headlines, something has gone badly. And, this morning, that would be an understatement. Microphones for the Miami Marlins television feed picked up a fan at Coors Field yesterday screaming something that the Marlins broadcasters and media nationwide quickly reported was the N-word. But audio replays seem to show that it actually a fan screaming, “Dinger,” the name of the Rockies mascot. That would make more sense given that no one in the stands said they heard anyone scream the N-word. You can decide for yourself:

Germany hasn’t exactly been tearing it up at the Summer Olympic Games this year – they have roughly one-third the number of medals as the U.S. – but it is distinguishing itself in one area: the number of coaches sent home from the Olympics.

Last week, German cycling coach Patrick Moster was banned after he was caught on camera yelling racist remarks to his riders, and today German modern pentathlon coach Kim Raisner was sent packing after she punched a horse … let me repeat that, punched a horse … that refused to perform during the competition.

Raisner’s horse punch allowed Germany to catch Belarus, who had two coaches sent home earlier this week for trying to strong-arm an athlete to return home to the authoritarian country after publicly criticizing her delegation. The athlete, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, instead accepted a humanitarian visa from Poland and is now in Warsaw.

• Denver’s air quality this week put it as the worst in the country and among the Top 10 worst in the world. It’s not often that we share space on lists that include Kabul, Jakarta, Kolkata, Dubai and Delhi. Denver would need to cut its pollution roughly in half to match that pristine oasis that is New York City.
• Actor Matt Damon proved once again that the worst PR crises are self-inflicted when he shared that he stopped using the homophobic term f****t “months ago” after his daughter called him out on it. He later insisted that has never used the term personally, and instead was referring to its use in movie scripts, which only reinforced the old political adage that if you are explaining, you are losing.
• Speaking of “if you are explaining, you are losing,” Bill Gates is trying really hard to put his association with pedophile/sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein behind him by … explaining. This week, he appeared on CNN to share that he simply was seeking foundation donations from the disgraced financier, but recent reports of Gates’ skeevy behavior with female Microsoft employees has caused many to re-evaluate his standing.
• CNN anchor Chris Cuomo is feeling the fallout from his secret PR strategy support for his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. New York State Attorney General Letitia James issued a report this week that documented multiple instances of sexual harassment by the governor, and Chris Cuomo’s CNN peers reportedly “expressed dismay” that he has not been held accountable or explained his ethically challenged decision to work behind-the-scenes for his brother while on CNN’s payroll.
• Rapper DaBaby is reeling after his homophobic comments on HIV/AIDS caused promoters to drop him from the line-up at Lollapalooza, iHeartRadio Music Festival, Austin City Limits and Denver’s KS 107.5 Summer Jam, among others.
• Mike Richards, the relatively anonymous executive producer of the television show Jeopardy, has orchestrated a string of celebrity try-outs over the past few months to identify a successor to the late Alex Trebek. Among them: Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, LeVar Burton, Savannah Guthrie, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Aaron Rodgers. The news this week is that Richards has pulled a Dick Cheney and is now negotiating for himself to be the host. Fans are not pleased.
• The City of Englewood caused a bit of a panic this week when it notified a huge portion of the metro Denver area that residents should boil water due to traces of E.coli. Non-Englewood governments and water systems scrambled to reassure residents that the water in their communities was safe.

So, who won the week?

• Olympic gymnast Suni Lee stepped into the void of Simone Biles’ withdrawal and won the gold in the women’s all-around event.
• Former CBS4 GM Walt DeHaven and soon-to-be-former Downtown Denver Partnership President & CEO Tami Door. Two of Denver’s most influential leaders are basking in positive profile articles and good wishes related to their retirements.
• Denver, after Forbes increased its projected value of the Denver Broncos to $3.75 billion, a 17% jump over last year. That valuation increases the odds that the dysfunctional Bowlen kids will sell the team, and that a new owner can put the team on the right track again.

CBS4 GM Walt DeHaven retired Friday, and I’d be remiss in not acknowledging his tenure and impact on Denver’s news community. Broadcasting & Cable wrote a nice piece that scratches the surface of who he is and what he has accomplished:

“Walt DeHaven, VP and general manager of KCNC Denver, … has spent 20 years atop the CBS-owned station, and 14 more with other stations in the CBS group, including ones in Chicago and Boston. The longest-serving general manager in the CBS Stations group, DeHaven has spent 34 years with the Viacom and CBS groups.

“Wendy McMahon, president and co-head, CBS News and Stations, saluted DeHaven in a note to KCNC staffers. ‘Walt’s importance to our organization has been defined not only by his longevity, but also by his leadership, poise and the passion he has for caring about the communities we serve, our clients and all of you,’ she said. …

“DeHaven will remain active in non-profit organizations in and around Denver. He is president and treasurer of Take Note Colorado, which provides musical instruments and education to schoolchildren, and vice chair at Swallow Hill Music, which provides music education to underserved communities.” 

Among the recent changes:

• SE2 Communications added Tony Flesor as senior writer/content strategist. Flesor joins SE2 from his previous role as managing editor at Law Week Colorado.
• Dinosaur Ridge added Kristen Kidd as director of Marketing and Communications.
• GBSM added Jacki Brown-Griggs as senior counselor.
• Dovetail Solutions added Alexandra Griesmer and Thomas Waggett to its team in Denver.
• MAPRagency added Madison Job as account executive. She previously was a marketing coordinator at Eidos Architects, P.C.
• Fox31 morning reporter/anchor Emily Allen is joining Fluid Truck as corporate communications manager.
• Former 9News reporter/anchor Liz Kotalik joined Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno’s empire, which includes Mizuna, Luca, Osteria Marco, Vesper Lounge, Milk Market and other restaurant concepts.
• Fox31 morning anchor Meagan O’Halloran is headed to D.C. to anchor Sinclair’s new evening edition of “The National Desk.”

MikeWorldWide (MWW) announced plans to open a Denver office that will be led by new technology practice Executive Vice President Maria Brown. From PR Week:

“Brown will lead and grow the agency’s U.S. tech practice … and will also establish MikeWorldWide’s footprint in Denver. Remote work has enabled the firm in the last year to create talent hubs in markets including Seattle, Portland, Boston and Atlanta. Prior to MikeWorldWide, Brown led Matter Communications’ West market, overseeing offices in Boulder, Colorado, and Portland, as well as a diverse B2B and B2C client portfolio with brands including Databricks, Nimble Storage and Progress Software.”

• HBO Max is receiving widespread criticism for its new animated series, The Prince, which “depicts the royal family as egotistical tea drinkers controlled by mafia-boss queen.” Making fun of Royals certainly is not new, but the show portrays real-life 8-year-old Prince George as “an entitled child who is worried about his weight and harbors ill feelings toward his siblings.” Six-year-old Princess Charlotte is voiced by Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner, who earlier this year criticized paparazzi for photographing her young child and called for better privacy protections for minors.
• The Olympic Games and its U.S. broadcast partner NBC had rough weeks. Ratings for the games’ Opening Ceremonies were down 36%, and that was before a string of unexpectedly poor performances by high-profile competitors: the U.S. men’s basketball team lost to France, the U.S. women’s soccer team lost to Sweden, hometown tennis phenom Naomi Osaka lost in her third-round match, and gymnastics G.O.A.T. Simone Biles withdrew from the team and individual events. Worst of all, everyone knew these results 12 hours before they could see them on NBC.
• ShotSpotter, the company that deploys networks of audio sensors – including in Denver – that triangulate the location of gunshots to help police respond faster, found its data tossed from a criminal trial after it was learned that the company adjusts its reports at the request of police departments. In the case of this trial, an analyst with ShotSpotter reclassified the location of a shot months after the incident to support a police report.
• The Idaho Springs Police Department made headlines nationally for tasering an unarmed 75-year old without warning. Video of the incident had been irresistible to media from coast to coast.
• The European Union hit Amazon with a record $887 million fine for violating data protection laws. Amazon is making a strong push to displace Google as the company most willing to violate your privacy.

So who won the week?

• The creative team behind South Park and Book of Mormon – Trey Parker and Matt Stone – made big headlines in Denver this week when they confirmed they wanted to buy the iconic “restaurant” Casa Bonita to ensure it survived the pandemic.
• Simone Biles had critics, but the general public has overwhelmingly supported her and her decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games.
• And, finally, a counterintuitive choice: Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson. Two Aurora police officers were arrested this week after one of them brutally beating an unarmed citizen as the second stood by, so how did she win the week? She campaigned on creating a culture change within the department, and as 9News reporter Jeremy Jojola noted, she isn’t messing around:

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s dream of a new 10,000 seat arena to replace the Denver Coliseum is in big trouble, in no small part thanks to Kyle Clark at 9News. Hancock announced a bond initiative two days ago for the arena that would be part of the renovated National Western Center campus, but Clark has dealt a possibly fatal blow by repeatedly calling the proposed arena by the nickname “The Mike.” In reality, no name has been announced for the arena – and, let’s face it, this city council is unlikely to name anything after Hancock – but positioning the project as a self-aggrandizing infrastructure project makes it much easier for the community and city council to oppose. And it wasn’t like the polarizing project had much breathing room to begin with.

PR Week released its 2021 ’40 Under 40′ list, and as usual it is heavy on professionals at coastal firms and companies. For example:

• 24 of the 40 who were selected – 60% – were based on the East Coast (New York City, D.C., Miami, Atlanta, etc.)
• 33 of the 40 who were selected – 83% – were based on the East or West coasts (New York City, L.A., D.C., Miami, etc.)
• 7 of the 40 who were selected – 17% – were located in the middle of the country (Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville, etc.)

The biggest surprise? Denver was represented. Terry Wei, the global head of Communications for Waze (which is owned by Google) made the list, and although Waze is headquartered in New York City, she claims our fair city as home. She may have worked her way up into the chief communications role at a division of the world’s 5th-largest company, but frankly making a PR Week list as a resident of Denver is a far more impressive achievement.

• Actor Spike Lee let the air out of the Cannes Film Festival last weekend when he prematurely announced the Palme d’Or winner for Best Picture. It was the worst movie awards show gaffe since Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty mistakenly announced La La Land as the Academy Award winner for Best Picture in 2017.
• The Washington Post is playing defense after one of its high-profile reporters, Felicia Sonmez, filed suit alleging alleging that she has been discriminated and retaliated against.
• Apple has bet its reputation in part on being the most secure computer and phone platform, but that reputation is being tested in the wake of reports that iPhone security is no match for high-end hacking tools and spyware.
• The Tokyo Olympic Games officially start today, and already they are reeling from positive athlete COVID-19 tests and sponsors such as Toyota who are scaling back their support due to the public’s concerns about whether the Olympics should even be taking place.
• Speaking of Olympics, Poland was forced to return six swimmers from Tokyo after it miscounted the number of athletes it was eligible to bring. And the US Women’s soccer team suffered a shocking 3-0 loss to Sweden – its first loss in 44 games – in its opening Olympic game.
• The Big 12 is teetering on the brink of dissolution, or at least irrelevance, after the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma made known their interest in joining the SEC.

I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, thanking his supporters for helping him become a modern-day Sputnik dog without realizing that it is making most of us rethink ever ordering anything from Amazon again.

National Public Radio is the latest media outlet to follow up on Westword’s coverage of racial tensions inside 9News:

“According to two people who attended the National Association of Hispanic Journalists meetings, the association demanded the firing not only of (9News’ top news executive, Tim) Ryan, but also of his news director and the corporate official in charge of hiring. The company made no such promises, though it did direct stations to no longer use the word ‘illegal’ when discussing immigration. (The station and the company declined to comment on the calls for dismissals.)

“The outcry has focused an unwanted glare on Tegna, one of the nation’s largest and most prominent owners of local television stations, just as the company faces claims of racial bias from a dissident investor. Tegna and KUSA declined to comment on what happened to the Latina journalists and the criticism that has ensued, saying those are personnel matters.”

 “The Olympics is becoming an event that has not gained the public’s understanding.”

Toyota, explaining its decision to pull its television commercials from the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games amid growing COVID-related opposition from locals.

• Chik-fil-A stopped donating to anti-LGBTQ organizations several years ago, but that hasn’t prevented ongoing protests. The latest issue putting the fast-food chain in the spotlight is students from Notre Dame opposing an on-campus franchise. Adding fuel to the fire, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham pledged to “go to war” on behalf of Chik-fil-A, turning the protest into a national story.
• Johnson & Johnson recalled five of its six Neutrogena and Aveeno spray-on sunscreens after the potentially cancer-causing chemical benzene was discovered in some samples.
• Pundits are trying to determine whether Haiti’s presidential security detail is corrupt or just incompetent after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was shot 12 times and killed in what appears to be an attempted coup. None of the members of the security detail engaged with the assassins as they entered the presidential palace.
• The U.S. men’s basketball team lost back-to-back tune up games – first to Nigeria and then Australia – as it prepares to head to the Tokyo Olympic Games. America has dominated international basketball since the days of the 1992 Dream Team that featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and another half-dozen legends, so expectations for any U.S. Olympic team are high. It’s usually gold or bust, but at this rate it feels like bronze would be overachieving.

So, who had a good week?

• Denver was front and center as the host of the MLB All-Star Game and it pulled it off in spectacular fashion despite some inaccurate reports of a potential mass shooter situation and wildfire smoke.
• Virgin’s Richard Branson beat Amazon’s Jeff Bezos in the race to be the first billionaire in space.
• Sharks. Not only is it Shark Week on Discovery Channel, but apparently the species has figured out how to hire PR firms because some Australians are trying to rebrand shark “attacks” as “negative encounters.“

Corporate marketing budgets have dropped to 6.4% of revenue this year, down from 11% last year, according to Gartner’s annual CMO Spend Survey. This is the first time the percentage has dipped below 10%.

Marketing executives under pressure are continuing to try to reduce costs by taking over work that they used to outsource to vendors such as advertising and marketing agencies, said Ewan McIntyre, co-chief of research and vice president analyst in Gartner’s marketing practice.

Durango Herald sports editor John Livingston shared his thoughts for why he is leaving the media industry, and his thoughts are as illuminating as they are heartbreaking:

“Because of all the cuts, I no longer have the ability to live up to the standards I set during my early days … that were only elevated when I arrived at The Herald in 2014 and was surrounded by a vibrant newsroom full of incredible journalists who opened my eyes and fostered my intense love for the profession.

“Despite the staff reductions at The Herald, not unlike those seen at print – and digital – media companies across the globe, I have worked tirelessly to do the job the way I feel it is supposed to be done, even after the sports staff was cut from three to two in 2016, and again when it was reduced to one in March of 2020.

“I doubled and tripled down on my commitment and refused to lower the bar after each of those cuts. … On top of added daily duties, I frequently spent scheduled days off covering our athletes and their ever-growing list of accomplishments. Often, those were some of the best stories to write. But it became a burden on friends and family each time I broke out the laptop to write another story or conduct another interview.

“The expectation of continually doing more with less is not attainable. Burnout is rampant, and there is a greater emphasis on page views and story counts than quality journalism. I will always fight for the latter.“

Aleda Stam at PRWeek reports that Finn Partners has acquired tech agency Barokas Communications, which has offices in Denver and Seattle.

“We’ve long wanted to be in the high-growth markets of Seattle and Denver; it was just a matter of finding the right partner,” said Peter Finn, founding managing partner and CEO of Finn Partners.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

It was a tough week for a number of sports-related figures. Among them:

• ESPN and Rachel Nichols overshadowed the NBA Finals when a long-simmering story involving covertly recorded and shared racial remarks went full boil.
• USA Track & Field found itself heavily criticized after it declined to include superstar sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson on the 4×100 U.S. Olympic Relay team. Richardson had previously been disqualified from the individual 100-meter race due to a positive marijuana test, but she was technically still eligible for the relay race.
• Los Angeles Dodgers’ star pitcher Trevor Bauer has been suspended by MLB following unbelievably brutal rape allegations. MLB had to step in after the Dodgers inexplicably planned to continue playing him.
• John McEnroe was criticized for his tone-deaf remarks about the metal health of Wimbledon player Emma Raducana, an 18-year-old Londoner playing in the intense spotlight of her home country. McEnroe’s brand is tone-deaf, of course, so don’t expect any significant fall-out from this one.

There were also a few non-sports related ones as well:

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill managed one final self-inflected wound when journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones spurned it for Howard University after a months-long tenure battle that put the university and its values in the national spotlight. Making it an even bigger win for Howard, it also announced that well-known and widely respected author Ta-Nehisi Coates was also joining its faculty.
• ExxonMobil’s lobbyist broke the cardinal rule of lobbying, which is don’t make your client’s job tougher by becoming the story.
• Declan Kelly, the CEO of PR and Public Affairs firm Teneo was forced to resign after allegedly getting drunk and inappropriately touching women at a client event that included Meghan Markle and Prince Harry as honorary co-chairs.

So, who won the week? That’s easy – National Spelling Bee champion Zaila Avant-garde. The 14-year-old is the first African American to win the spelling bee, and if you weren’t completely charmed by her response to winning, I don’t even want to know you. And, it turns out, spelling is just one of her many talents.

Melissa Korn and Andrea Fuller at The Wall Street Journal: “Recent film program graduates of Columbia University who took out federal student loans had a median debt of $181,000. Yet two years after earning their master’s degrees, half of the borrowers were making less than $30,000 a year. The Columbia program offers the most extreme example of how elite universities in recent years have awarded thousands of master’s degrees that don’t provide graduates enough early career earnings to begin paying down their federal student loans, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Education Department data.”

Last week, Howard University was floundering after the dean of its College of Fine Arts (and former Cosby Show actress) Phylicia Rashad publicly celebrated Bill Cosby’s release from prison. Cosby has been accused of sexual assault and rape by more than 60 women, and his release was due to a legal technicality. Much of the media coverage noting Rashad’s support for Cosby included that Howard itself has a checkered history of addressing on-campus sexual assaults, and the university and Rashad were forced to quickly apologize. The Independence Day long weekend could not come fast enough.

This week, the conversation has shifted. Howard announced this morning that it has hired embattled University of North Carolina journalist/professor Nikole Hannah-Jones following her well-documented tenure dispute, as well as the journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. Over the course of one long weekend, Howard changed the conversation and recast itself from villain to hero.

As we approach the midpoint of tennis’ premier event, Wimbledon, The Washington Post’s Michael Steinberger explores the differing fates of tennis players you know and those fighting to become the tennis players you know. Steinberger writes:

“The match was a case study in contrasting fortunes as well. Tennis had left (Vasek) Pospisil very comfortable, with more than $5 million in career earnings. He was happy just to break even in Charlottesville and could afford certain luxuries, such as the presence of his coach and meals from Whole Foods, not available to many players on the Challenger circuit. (His) 25-year-old (opponent Chris) O’Connell, on the other hand, had made less than $200,000 as a pro and had cleaned boats and worked in a Lululemon shop to sustain himself financially. Heading into the match against Pospisil, he was ranked No. 139. He had recently won a Challenger event and reached the semifinal of another. He would go on to finish 2019 having won 82 matches in total, more than any other man or woman on the pro tour. Yet, after expenses, he would earn just $15,000 or so.”

“Everyone I know in journalism is super burned out and they make no money and you’re just getting yelled at by idiots online all the time.”

– Freelance reporter, writer and editor Maya Kosoff, who has written for The New York Times, New York Magazine, Business Insider and Vanity Fair.

Matt Moseley is hosting a launch event for his new book, Ignition: Superior Communication Strategies to Create Stronger Connections, tonight at the Denver Press Club. The book includes extensive interviews with a wide variety of experts, including fighter pilots, business leaders, attorneys, and astrophysicists. Through those, Moseley tests universal communication principles, teases out new provocative ideas, and anticipates how forming stronger connections will help us address today’s greatest challenges.

Details of the event are:
6 pm, Wed., June 16, 2021
Denver Press Club
1330 Glenarm Place
Denver, CO 80204
RSVP Here

ColoradoBiz has named Jon Haubert as publisher, replacing Sylvia Young who had served as publisher for more than a decade. Hauber is the owner of H.B. Legacy Media, a strategic communications firm “designed to tackle complex and difficult-to-message topics.” Among its projects was the launch of Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED), a pro-oil and gas advocacy group that was highly visible during recent election cycles.

“Jon will be a tremendous asset and fit in perfectly with our talented team,” said Dan Wiesner, owner of ColoradoBiz parent company WiesnerMedia. “He’s proven that he holds that right mix of thought-provoking story ideas, businesses and people to profile, and the advertising support needed to maintain business operations that any successful magazine needs not only to survive, but to thrive.”

The Denver Business Journal has promoted Kourtney Geers from managing editor to editor in chief. She replaces Rebecca Troyer who left last month to take a position with the paper’s parent company.

Prior to joining the DBJ, Geers was the director of digital news production for The Denver Post. She also worked for Politico.

The “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, speaking eloquently on behalf of his client:

It’s hardly a secret that communications professionals have a mental ranking of journalists. Those rankings usually reflect various factors such as influence, objectivity*, responsiveness, and the overall experience of working with them. (And, spoiler alert, journalists have similar mental rankings of communications professionals.)

Most of us have the God-given sense to keep those lists in our heads rather than on paper. But Jesse Paul at the Colorado Sun obtained a list distributed recently by Colorado House Republicans that rated media outlets according to “friendliness.” And based on journalist feedback on Twitter, it was a barn-burner.

The happiest journalists were those at outlets deemed “not friendly,” and the most ambivalent journalists were those at outlets described as “friendly.” The unhappiest were journalists at outlets that didn’t even make the list (I’m looking at you, Denverite, Aurora Sentinel and Colorado Community Media).

An interesting quirk to this list: the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel is listed as friendly to Republicans, but its politics reporter Charles Ashby can’t even get a return phone call, much less a comment, from his U.S. House Rep. Lauren Boebert. Maybe Charles should email the list to the Congresswoman.

(*”Objectivity” actually means more likely to be receptive to the opinions of the communications professional)

Attorneys General across the country have lined up to sue Purdue Pharma, and the members of the Sackler family that own it, for the manner in which it distributed opioids. In an interesting new development, the state of Massachusetts has now filed suit against the public relations and advertising firm Publicis Health (a division of Publicis Groupe) for helping Purdue Pharma market opioids in what the state says is an irresponsible manner.

Lecia Bushak at Medical Marketing & Media reports:

“Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has filed a lawsuit against Publicis Health over its work for Purdue Pharma during the opioid epidemic. The complaint filed Thursday alleges that Publicis Health worked with Purdue between 2010 and 2019 – the years encompassing the height of the opioid crisis – on a variety of marketing campaigns aiming to make doctors prescribe more opioids to patients, and at higher doses.” 

“This decade-long marketing scheme had clear goals: to sell more OxyContin, make a profit and manage Purdue’s reputation as the opioid epidemic was raging,” Healey said during a press conference. Healey argues that Publicis Health created marketing strategies that aimed to reduce hesitancy among prescribers to give patients OxyContin. The agency planned campaigns to “humanize” the OxyContin brand to doctors, with the goal of getting more patients on higher doses, she alleges.

Westword is out with its annual “Best of Denver” issue, and the winners include:

Best Talk-Radio Host
Ryan Warner, Colorado Matters, Colorado Public Radio

Best Podcast
City Cast Denver hosted by Bree Davies

Best Serial Podcast
The Syndicate by Chris Walker

Best Local TV Morning News Show
CBS4 Denver

Best Local TV Evening News Show
Denver 7

Best Local TV News Anchor
Tom Green, 9News

Best Local TV Weathercaster
Matt Makens, Fox31/KWGN

Linhart PR announced it has promoted four team members:

• Kelly Brown was promoted to Management Supervisor. She has been with the firm for seven years, and she will continue to lead communications strategy, community engagement and media relations programs for clients in the energy, utilities, infrastructure and healthcare industries, as well as support firm new business efforts.
• Emily Rado was promoted to Account Supervisor. She will celebrate her five-year anniversary this month and she delivers strategic counsel and leads media relations, digital and influencer strategies for consumer brands including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Nature’s Heart, and the NCBA’s “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.” campaign.
• Shannon Hughes was promoted to Account Supervisor. She joined the team in 2016 and she provides communications counsel, plans community engagement activations, and leads media relations strategies for clients in the energy and utilities, professional services, and multi-unit restaurant industries.
• Jenny Nailling has been promoted to Account Executive, after joining Linhart PR in early 2020. She executes local, national and trade media relations programs, develops content, and helps to manage social media and influencer activations for several of Linhart PR’s clients across a range of industries.

If you have been following The Denver Post‘s exhaustive coverage of the issues at the Colorado Supreme Court (conveniently tagged “Colorado Judiciary Scandal” on its website for easy reference), you know that it has been a tough few months. It could have been much tougher, though.

Word on the street is that the Colorado Supreme Court hired Steve Silvers and Paul Jacobson from SilversJacobson shortly after David Migoya at The Denver Post broke the story about allegations of widespread sexual harassment, discrimination and unethical behavior throughout the Colorado Judiciary Branch. The result has been some positive developments – Chief Justice Boatright took full ownership of the situation, asked the other branches of government to oversee an independent investigation, and has hammered the idea of wholesale culture change.

Silvers’ crisis and controversy consulting goes back to the 1993 Aurora Chuck E. Cheese murders and the building of Denver International Airport, and Jacobson spent years on Capitol Hill and in corporate communications director jobs, including the largest corporate bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. history.

Colorado Sun Editor Larry Ryckman: “The Colorado Sun is now part owner and operator of 24 suburban newspapers in the Denver metro area. The Sun has partnered with a new nonprofit called the National Trust for Local News, which is using this endeavor with us as a pilot project to show that national funders and local journalists can collaborate to keep newspapers in local hands.”

“Together, The Sun and the National Trust have purchased Colorado Community Media, which has 24 weekly and monthly newspapers serving eight counties including and surrounding Denver. Some of these newspapers are more than 100 years old (the Golden Transcript alone is 153 years old), and they range from Castle Rock to Brighton, Evergreen to Arvada, Parker to Denver’s Washington Park and beyond.”

“This is a bit of a departure for The Colorado Sun, which has been an all-digital news site since our founding in 2018. But our entire staff has extensive experience in the print newspaper world, so we’re confident we still remember how it’s done. And the preservation of these newspapers is absolutely part of our mission of public service.”

The Colorado Rockies have been on a tear lately – winning five of their last seven games – and yet they still find themselves with the worst record in the entire National League. That is especially surprising given that the architect of the current Rockies is none other than self-described super genius Jeff Bridich.

Bridich didn’t win a lot of friends when he argued that beat reporters and the general public were too stupid to be considered fair criticism. And what little support he had teetered when he signed Daniel Murphy rather than re-signing D.J. LeMehieu (who went to the Yankees and immediately became an All-Star). But it was the Nolan Arenado “trade“ that ultimately collapsed Bridich’s house of cards – only the Rockies would trade away their best player of all time and pay another team $50 million for the pleasure of doing it.

Rockies owner Tricky Dick Monfort faced the obvious, finally, and Bridich has “mutually agreed” to not be allowed to be the GM any longer. So, if you are a Rockies fan, or even just a fan of Karma, enjoy a beer tonight to celebrate the end of the Bridich era.

Natasha Bach at PRWeek: “Journalists are overwhelmed by the number of press releases they receive, but underwhelmed by the content. That’s one finding from Cision’s annual State of the Media report, released on Thursday morning, which surveyed more than 2,500 journalists. However, journalists do like to receive press releases, according to the report. Seventy-eight percent listed them as the type of content they want to get from PR pros and brands, followed by original research (68%).”

“The report makes the case for more targeted media lists to ensure that reporters and editors are receiving relevant releases, noting that journalists are overstretched and under a lot of pressure, with many covering several beats and under pressure to generate traffic. To help them do their jobs, and get coverage for announcements, PR pros should anticipate, monitor and quickly act on trending stories, according to the report.”

National government relations and communications firm Banner Public Affairs has expanded to Denver and named Vice President of Digital Strategy Cory Capps to lead the new office. Capps formerly was an account director at 90octane. She has supported numerous high-profile clients and brands throughout her career, including the U.S. Army, United Airlines and Kraft.

Denver’s Proof PR has added chef Troy Guard’s TAG Restaurant Group as a client. TAG restaurants include Los Chingones, TAG, Guard & Grace, TAG Burger Bar, FNG and Big Wave, among others. Proof PR founder/president Sara Schiffer’s experience in restaurant and hospitality includes clients such as Giordano’s Pizza, Gibsons Restaurant Group, Table fifty-two, Whole Foods Market and Texas de Brazil.

Joey Bunch at ColoradoPolitics.com: “Gov. Jared Polis has appointed well-known Denver politico Alvina Maria Vasquez to the Western Colorado University Board of Trustees, the school said Tuesday.

“Vasquez was the political director on the governor’s 2018 core campaign team, building his network of key leaders and supporters. Vasquez is the founder and president of strategy and public relations firm Power Map Ltd. She is the former senior vice president in the Colorado office of Strategies 360, where she lengthened her resume on a variety of local and national campaigns. She was listed among the Denver Business Journal’s ’40 Under 40‘ in 2016.”

Aleda Stam at PRWeek: “Havas Formula is set to expand its U.S. footprint with a new office in Denver. The Mile High City location will be led by SVP Alexis Anderson, who manages work for some of the firm’s high-profile clients such as RE/Max and JPMorgan Chase, and Amy MacFarlane, account director for Havas Street, the firm’s activation division. MacFarlane leads its Beam Suntory business.”

“Denver is the sixth location for Havas Formula, which is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and San Diego. Havas Formula is working virtually amid the pandemic, but will choose a physical office in Denver once the agency returns to in-person work.”

It has been a terrible past 30 days for Denver Public Schools board member Tay Anderson, and it keeps getting worse. Following allegations of sexual assault and confirmed retaliatory behavior while an employee of DPS, Anderson has now shared an apology with Westword related to his behavior while leading Never Again Colorado (NAC), a gun reform organization.

The apology follows a new complaint by six female NAC members that Anderson “created a work environment that made them feel unsafe by, among other things, ‘talking in code about female board members in front of them (with romantic/sexual subtexts), daring female board members to perform sexualized actions, having conversations comparing the attractiveness of female board members, and making lewd comments in private to female board members,'” according to Michael Roberts at Westword.

Anderson has always been a self-interested narcissist who clung to a veneer of legitimacy obtained by basking in the reflected light of real leaders like state Rep. Leslie Herod and community activists Elisabeth Epps and Brother Jeff Fard. Interestingly and tellingly, none have had a word to say about Anderson since the allegations surfaced.

This column – “LatinXed: 9News Got Rid of Three Latina Reporters This Past Year, Including Me” – by former 9News journalist Lori Lizarraga is all over social media today, and it is primarily journalists, including many of color, who are sharing it. It seems to have struck a chord.

You may remember Lizarraga for her comments in February 2020 calling out her colleagues at 9News for doctoring her headshot to make her “look whiter.”

Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority wanted to show the world that it jumped into action to free a cargo tanker that became stuck while traversing the canal earlier this week. After all, every second that the ship blocks traffic, the global supply chain becomes that much more impacted.

However, I don’t think the official photo the authority released conveys exactly what they wanted to:

General Mills is a 154-year-old company that has $17.6 billion in annual revenue, a $35 billion market cap and 40,000 employees. That’s all to say, it should know what it is doing. But even big brands make stupid decisions when they are caught off guard.

Yesterday’s reaction to a consumer complaint – shrimp tails allegedly found in a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch – only served to infuriate the customer, escalate the issue, and draw media and social media attention. And it has cost the company about $1.7 billion in market cap today.

What can we learn from General Mills’ response? First, you have to understand what you are dealing with. If a customer – especially a high-profile customer married to a Hollywood actress – claims they found shrimp tails in their breakfast cereal, use some of your $17.6 billion in annual revenue to hire an investigator to grab the box and interview the individual to understand what is going on.

Second, don’t rely on a superficial understanding of the situation to try to gaslight the customer. Claiming shrimp tails were “accumulation(s) of the cinnamon sugar” is the type of colorful detail that only escalates media and public interest. The only thing worse would have been to try to claim the shrimp tails were the special toy included in every box.

And third, try to end the situation as quietly and quickly as possible. This story is now a mystery the country is watching to see how it turns out. The customer has sent the box to a lab be tested to confirm what was found in it. It will be an entire new chapter in this saga when he announces the findings. Which will then lead to the “whodunnit” phase of the story. All of this could have been handled in the background by General Mills if they had taken the appropriate steps from the start.

It’s not yet done, and most of our brackets are in tatters, but the unlikely winner of the NCAA basketball tournament may be a team that didn’t even make it – the Colorado State Rams. Thanks to an unexpected plug from one of its most-famous alumni, the Rams have had almost as much air time as teams that are competing.

Congratulations to Michelle Lyng and the entire team at Novitas Communications on being named a finalist for the Denver Business Journal’s 2021 Small Business Awards in the Extra Small category. The DBJ awards recognize small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

One of the cardinal tenets of journalism is not to accept items of value from sources or individuals whom you are covering, That’s what makes a Denver Post article today interesting.

Reporter Shelly Bradbury, along with photographer Kathryn Scott, reported on a COVID-19 vaccination event at the Colorado Muslim Society. The news hook was solid – the event was “part of the state’s larger effort to remedy racial inequities in vaccine distribution. There have been more than 100 such ‘equity clinics’ across the state aimed at all sorts of communities,” Bradbury reported.

But the disclosure that was added to the article was interesting:

Editor’s note: The reporter and photographer on this story received extra vaccine doses, after reporting this story, that clinic representatives offered because they needed to be used before going to waste.

There’s no question Bradbury is eligible for the vaccine according to 1B.4 guidelines, and the value of the shot is technically $0 since it is free to everyone. But as Coloradans scramble to try to gain access to the vaccine, is it ethical for a reporter to leverage a source relationship – presumably just hours after reporting on a story – to get access to a vaccine?

It appears the Denver Post is comfortable with the situation since it simply added a disclosure rather than pulling the story. I am curious where the line is, though. If, say, Centura Health offered reporters covering it access to hard-to-find COVID-19 vaccines, would that violate the paper’s guidelines?

Update: The always thoughtful Drew Kramer raised a few points in his comment to this post, and I wanted to acknowledge in the body of the post that “leverage” is probably too strong a term. Shelly is a respected reporter – a member of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team and an individual finalist for another Pulitzer Prize – and I did not intend to imply that she shook down a source. Fundamentally, my point is that I don’t know where that ethical line is. I’m genuinely interested in understanding what journalists think. I traded emails with Corey Hutchins, who teaches journalism at Colorado College and writes for the Columbia Journalism Review, and he is thinking about addressing the issue in his weekly column. I hope he does, because I’m very interested to learn what he thinks. If you want to subscribe to Corey’s weekly Colorado media newsletter – and it is great – you can do so here.

Heiko Vogel, a coach of the German professional soccer team Borussia Monchengladbach “was ordered to train the women’s team as punishment for ‘unsporting behaviour’ toward a referee during a match,” Stephan Uersfeld of ESPN reported.

Nicole Selmer of the Frauen im Fussball (Women in Football) network criticized the decision, saying it sent “a fatal message.”

“This punishment for the Gladbach coach puts coaching a women’s team on a level with social work,” Selmer said. “Women’s football is a sport and those who participate in it are as professional as their male counterparts. If you strip away everything and give it to them they have good intentions, it is still sending a fatal message as coaching a women’s or girls’ team is part of a punishment for a misconduct.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has retitled himself “Technoking” in a move that shockingly wasn’t made during the middle of Burning Man. In a filing made with the SEC, Tesla also disclosed that CFO Zack Kirkhorn has assumed the new title of “Master of Coin.” No comment was provided by Tesla, in part because it has disbanded its PR department.

“Media attorney and consultant Adonis Hoffman has withdrawn a bid to be a board member for broadcast company Tegna, citing a conflict of interest and that CEO Dave Lougee assumed he was a hotel valet at an industry event,” Thomas Moore at The Hill reports.

“That incident Hoffman had recalled (and which Lougee acknowledged in an SEC filing) happened in 2014 when he was seated at an industry dinner with Lougee. Though they had a significant discussion at the table, Hoffman said, after the event ended Lougee handed him his valet ticket thinking he was a hotel employee.”

“’The incident was a matter of principle as I thought about it if I was elected to a board and had to be in meetings with a man who I had interesting encounters with over the years,’ said Hoffman, who is Black.”

Congratulations to the 2021 Denver Business Journal 40 Under 40 award winners who come from the communications industry:

Kayla Garcia – Kayla is the community affairs director at Molson Coors. A Colorado State graduate, she previously worked at Mile High United Way and Denver Inner City Parish.

Maria De Camba Gonzalez – Maria is the director of communications and community engagement at the Colorado Governor’s Office. She previously was a senior associate at Hilltop Public Solutions, and she is a former mayor pro-tem of the Westminster city council.

Leanna Clark – Leanna is a former 40 Under 40 award winner who is being recognized as this year’s Hall of Fame award winner. She is the CEO of Girl Scouts of Colorado, but most of us know her as the former vice chancellor of University Communications and Marketing at the University of Colorado Denver and a principal at Schenkein.

You get the feeling that corporate public relations departments are working overtime this week cleaning up the International Women’s Day messes created by their advertising departments. While Burger King is the runaway winner for most tone deaf ad, CVS nabs an honorable mention for using the day as an opportunity to promote deals on cosmetics.

The dust is still settling on Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Royal free agents Meghan and Harry, but Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy at CNN have assembled a list of media and PR lessons:

 – Don’t give it all away ahead of time. “If anything, all of the hype underestimated just how revealing this interview would be,” Brianna Keilar said to me on CNN. She’s right. The teasers generated a week’s worth of attention ahead of time but didn’t spill any of the tea. Oprah’s team ensured that nothing leaked. As a result, the palace couldn’t prebut the interview and the special contained maximum shock value.

 – Let it breathe. The interview “really showed the power of the long-format interview, which is almost totally gone from TV nowadays,” THR’s Alex Weprin commented. “Everything is crunched into tight, fast-paced segments now, to the detriment of all involved.” 

 – Follow-up questions make all the difference. “Oprah best displayed her interviewing chops by relentlessly circling back to emotional or newsmaking comments like a heat-seeking missile,” WaPo’s Margaret Sullivan wrote. But Winfrey didn’t rush or interrupt. She sometimes waited half an hour before circling back “to clarify, to get the specifics, to nail down the news.” And that, of course, is the luxury of a taped interview.

 – Leave something on the cutting room floor. Winfrey’s announcement at the end of the broadcast that additional clips would air on Monday’s “CBS This Morning” was a nice bit of synergy…

 – Broadcast TV still has juice, but it’s getting harder to squeeze. Legacy networks still have the ability to convene large numbers of people, but it takes something huge – something like Oprah, Meghan and Harry.

 – History has an echo. “It was hard to escape the eerie parallels between Princess Diana’s 1995 Martin Bashir interview and this one,” Brian Lowry wrote. “And give Netflix an assist, since ‘The Crown’ has brought that back to life for millions…”

 — Don’t forget about the streamers. On Sunday I encountered lots of complaintsfrom cable-free households who wanted to watch the special but seemed lost. Networks that are constantly promoting their streaming services need a plan and proactive outreach for moments like this. (The special is now streaming for free on CBS.com.)

Burger King’s UK arm went for cheeky irony on its International Women’s Day social media post, and … it didn’t work. The fast food chain was trying to call attention to the fact that women are underrepresented in restaurant leadership roles (only 20% of chefs are women), but trying to subvert an old trope didn’t exactly work out as planned.

PRWeek is out with its annual salary survey, and the results showed a mixed bag during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the survey’s findings:

• Denver saw the median PR salary increase 11% to $85,000.
• Denver’s median annual salary significantly trails markets such as San Francisco ($153,000), Chicago ($110,000), Boston ($122,000) and Washington, D.C. ($127,000), but is ahead of markets such as Atlanta ($76,000) and Seattle ($80,000).
• PR agencies saw salaries rise 6.8% on average nationally, while corporate positions saw a 4.2% increase. Non-profit salaries languished, with an average increase of 0.6%.
• 23% of respondents said their salaries were reduced at some point during the year due to COVID-19.

As drunken, riotous students took over part of a residential street on The Hill last night, residents frantically contacted Boulder Police asking for officers to help put an end to it.

It has been a tough month for Jeep. The auto manufacturer had one of the most talked-about Super Bowl commercials with its spot featuring music legend Bruce Springsteen, only to have to pull the spot from the post-Super Bowl rotation less than a week later when reports of The Boss’ arrest on DUI charges surfaced (a blood test showed he was at about one-fourth the legal limit and the DUI charges were later dropped).

More recently, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation demanded that Jeep stop using the term “Cherokee” in the names of its SUVs – a demand that affects Jeep’s best selling (Grand Cherokee) and third-best selling (Cherokee) vehicles. Jeep parent company CEO Carlos Tavares announced yesterday he is open to dropping the Cherokee name.

Congratulations to Jordan Blakesley and the entire team at B Public Relations on the agency’s 10-year anniversary. B Public Relations specializes in hospitality, tourism and lifestyle brands, and it has won a number of honors, including ColoradoBiz’s most recent Top Companies award in the PR and Communications category.

Elise Schmelzer at The Denver Post: “Aurora police officers did not have a legal basis to force Elijah McClain to stop walking, to frisk him or to use a chokehold on him, an independent investigation commissioned by the city found. The initial investigation into the incident led by the department’s detectives in the Major Crimes Unit was also deeply flawed, the investigators found. The detectives failed to ask basic, critical questions of the officers involved in McClain’s death and instead ‘the questions frequently appeared designed to elicit specific exonerating ‘magic language’ found in court rulings,’ the report states.”

“The investigators also found that Aurora paramedics failed to properly examine McClain before injecting him with 500 milligrams of the sedative ketamine — a dose based on a ‘grossly inaccurate’ estimation of McClain’s weight. Paramedics estimated he weighed 190 pounds but he actually weighed closer to 140 pounds.”

“’Aurora Fire appears to have accepted the officers’ impression that Mr. McClain had excited delirium without corroborating that impression through meaningful observation or diagnostic examination of Mr. McClain,’ the investigators wrote.”

Seattle Mariners CEO Kevin Mather resigned this afternoon. Why? From ESPN:

“Over the course of a 45-minute chat to a local Rotary Club in early February, Seattle Mariners CEO Kevin Mather disparaged a Japanese player for not learning English, belittled a star prospect from the Dominican Republic for his language skills and derided another top prospect while admitting to manipulating his service time. He called his team’s best pitcher ‘very boring’ and embellished the pitcher’s actions in a clubhouse incident, told another falsehood about a well-respected veteran and complained that the franchise’s best player over the past decade was ‘overpaid.'”

“Any one of these blunders is incalculably foolish. Together, they expose pathological levels of arrogance, hubris and myopia. This was one of the 30 people entrusted to run a Major League Baseball franchise before Mather resigned from his position Monday afternoon.”

“Rarely a day seems to go by in recent weeks without a celebrity seeing their career threatened by the social-media uproar attending either their own poorly chosen words or allegations about appalling behavior,” Andrew Wallenstein at Variety reports.

“From Morgan Wallen to Gina Carano to Armie Hammer, Hollywood executives are getting frequent reminders lately about the considerable risk that comes with associating their investments with unpredictable talent. … No one feels the weight of that burden more than the crisis-PR practitioners fighting on the frontlines on behalf of their clients. If there’s any silver lining to this rash of incidents, it’s that they offer a wealth of best and worst practices from which to learn how to most effectively handle these sticky situations.”

Two weeks after Dick Monfort traded Colorado Rockies superstar Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals (and paid them $50 million for the privilege of doing it), the Denver Business Journal features arguably the most-hated businessperson in Denver on its cover. For the record, the Rockies are 0-28 in trying to win the NL West, a division that includes five teams. But, party deck!

Former Fox31/KWGN anchor Natalie Tysdal’s recent departure from the affiliated stations has been presented as just another case of a journalist getting out of a tough business. But as Westword’s Michael Roberts reports, her husband’s impending court date to answer for “70 counts connected to alleged financial malfeasance” may have also had something to do with the timing.

Among the charges Tyler Tysdal is facing are violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, multiple counts of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and one count of theft. All are felonies. Among the alleged victims are former NFL quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Matt Cassel.

Denver PR firm GBSM has added a senior associate and two associates:

Abby Abel, formerly Chief Marketing Officer for GE’s global renewable-energy business and a consultant with policy and civic innovation firm Cityfi, has joined the firm as a senior associate.

Sam Haas has joined GBSM as an associate. She specializes in the planning and execution of authentic and impactful communications, public and stakeholder engagement, and organizational strategies. She brings a tailored focus on meaningful collaborative–process design, consensus-driven decision making, and facilitation.

Kaylie Showers, also joining GBSM as an associate, has worked in both the public and private sectors to strategically engage diverse communities, navigate complex government processes and leverage legislative policy. Most recently she worked for the City and County of Denver’s Agency for Human Rights and Community Partnerships where she managed multiple citywide efforts.

Michael Roberts at Westword reports: “Vic Lombardi is frustrated. Everywhere he goes, the Altitude TV host and multiple winner of Westword‘s Best TV Sportscaster award runs into fans upset about not being to see most Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche games on Comcast because of a fight over broadcasting rights that began in the summer of 2019 and shows no sign of being resolved. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of those fans blame Altitude TV for the deadlock. After all, the network (as well as the Nuggets, Avs, Colorado Mammoth and Colorado Rapids) are owned by billionaire Stan Kroenke, who, by their way of thinking, could simply write a check and make the problem go away but is obstinately refusing to do so.”

“According to Lombardi, the situation isn’t nearly so simple. He feels that both parties (plus DISH, which isn’t airing the channel, either) are to blame, with Altitude shouldering some responsibility for failing to clearly communicate the issues that have led to the standoff. As for Comcast, he thinks the cable giant is essentially getting a free ride despite what he sees as it overcharging customers for regional sports network coverage they haven’t gotten for nearly a year and a half.”

“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ lopsided win over the Kansas City Chiefs combined with a pandemic that prevented many from attending big viewing parties in homes and bars led to the smallest audience for a Super Bowl since 2007,” Joe Flint at The Wall Street Journal reports.

“About 96.4 million people watched ageless wonder Tom Brady lead the Buccaneers to a 31-9 Super Bowl victory over the defending champion Chiefs on CBS, a 5.5% decrease from the 102 million that saw last year’s much closer and coronavirus-free match between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers on Fox.”

Michael Roberts at Westword talks to former 9News reporter/anchor Ryan Haarer on his decision to leave the business to pursue a career in real estate:

“Viewers may assume that reporters and anchors on TV are making a king’s ransom, but that’s not the case for most local talent. Back in 2019, when he announced his own exit plan (one that was followed by a return to the airwaves and then a controversial dismissal over a pointed tweet), former 9News weathercaster Marty Coniglio told us, ‘There are a lot of schoolteachers who are making more money than some on-air people here. That’s the reality of the business.'”

“For his part, Haarer confirms, ‘If you’re asking if I want to increase my pay, I think every journalist would say they do. There are few people who work in the newsroom who are paid sky-high salaries. That’s no secret. I was well-paid at 9News; I had no issues with my pay. But these are lean and tough times for a lot of journalism outlets, and TV is no exception as the industry looks to redefine itself and determine what the future will be.'”

Due to a “test malfunction” (translation: human error), the Texas Department of Public Safety broadcast an Amber Alert for the horror-film doll Chucky.

Bryan Pietsch of The New York Times reported, “The alert said that Chucky and (the doll’s owner) Glen were last seen at a residential address in Henderson, Texas, a city about 130 miles southeast of Dallas. A woman who answered a call to a phone number associated with that address on Wednesday said, ‘Yes, I’m aware’ when asked about the alert before hanging up.”

“Don Mancini, the director and screenwriter who created the Chucky character, shared a news article about the alert on Twitter, saying, ‘PLEASE FIND THEM.’”

SSPR, a national agency with an office in Denver, is rebranding as Next PR. The change, the agency says, highlights its ability to “push the boundaries of traditional PR that enables brands to meet new challenges and opportunities head on.”

“As difficult as it was, 2020 was also a powerful learning and growth experience for us as an agency,” said Heather Kelly, Next PR CEO. “We proved that we’re not a one-size-fits-all firm operating out of a traditional PR playbook. Any agency can tell you what to say; we make sure your brand is also living up to that promise. We’re not afraid to push our clients to think outside traditional PR boundaries. 

SSPR was founded by namesake Steve Simon in Chicago in 1978.

SoulCycle is playing defense today after one of its instructors in New York reportedly jumped the line for a COVID-19 vaccine, arguing that she is an “educator” who was eligible.

Ben Smith at The New York Times reports, “David Carr, the legendary Timesman who made this column a destination, told me back in 2012 that he kept a ‘helicopter on the roof’ of The New York Times Building in case he needed to escape. After all, he had been taking shots at media moguls, including, occasionally, his own bosses. That helicopter, he said, was his Twitter account, and it gave him the power, if needed, to flee The Times and take his followers — more than 300,000 when he died in 2015.”

“Twitter has occupied an uncomfortable place between journalists and their bosses for more than a decade. It offers journalists both a newswire and a direct line back into the news cycle. But it has also set off a tug of war between the voice of the brand and of the individual.” …

“The other, and perhaps more ominous, tension for the big newsrooms is the one that Mr. Carr spotted in 2012. Social media has shifted the balance of power in the same direction it has long been moving in everything from entertainment to sports: away from management and big brands, and toward the people who used to be called reporters, but now sometimes get referred to as ‘talent.’ Reporters have every incentive to build big social media followings. It’s a path to television contracts, book deals, job offers and raises. And that can be in tension with what their employers want.”

Congratulations to the team at Subway, which managed to break its own record for earliest PR crisis. A lawsuit filed against the ubiquitous sandwich chain in mid-January alleges that the tuna it advertises is “not tuna and not even fish.”

Tim Carman at The Washington Post reports, “The star ingredient, according to the lawsuit, is ‘made from anything but tuna.’ Based on independent lab tests of ‘multiple samples’ taken from Subway locations in California, the ‘tuna is ‘a mixture of various concoctions that do not constitute tuna, yet have been blended together by defendants to imitate the appearance of tuna,’ according to the complaint.”

Subway has a long and distinguished history of PR crises, including:

• Its spokesman Jared Fogle was sentenced to 15 years in prison for child pornography and sex with minors
• A study found that the sandwich chain’s oven-roasted chicken is actually only 50 percent chicken.
• An Irish court ruled that the company’s sandwich rolls contained too much sugar to legally qualify as “bread”
• And, most dastardly, it was accused of serving “foot-long” sandwiches that were actually only 11.5″ long

I joined Michelle Ellis, PRSA Colorado president, today for a Facebook Live conversation about some of the year’s PR winners and losers.

“The dog had a lot of work to do. He was co-starring in a political ad that had to showcase the candidate’s good-natured warmth. But the ad also needed to deflect an onslaught of racialized attacks without engaging them directly, and to convey to white voters in Georgia that the Black pastor who led Ebenezer Baptist Church could represent them, too,” Shane Goldmacher from The New York Times reports.

“’The entire ad screams that I am a Black candidate whom white people ought not be afraid of,’ said Hakeem Jefferson, a professor of political science at Stanford, who studies race, stigma and politics in America.”

“While there is no singular factor responsible for victories this narrow — Mr. Warnock won by less than 100,000 votes out of roughly 4.5 million and the other new Democratic senator, Jon Ossoff, won by even less — there is bipartisan agreement that the beagle played an outsized role in cutting through the clutter in two contests that broke every Senate spending record.”

Ed Sealover at the Denver Business Journal reports: “Visit Denver President & CEO Richard Scharf said he believes the organization can salvage most of the large conventions and meetings planned for Denver in the second half of 2021 following the state’s release of the Colorado Convention Center from serving as an alternate hospital site.”

“Event planners and hotel officials have greeted that news warmly, even if its effects aren’t expected to play out immediately. Scharf estimated that the events canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 — both those to be held in the convention center and in nearby hotels — cost the city 450,000 visitors and $800 million in economic impact.”

“But the biggest impact of the state’s decision is that Visit Denver can work with convention planners who have yet to cancel events scheduled for the facility in the summer and fall to assure them they can move forward, Scharf said in an interview Thursday. That likely means that the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market — a show that previously was estimated to generate a $57 million annual economic impact — could stay on the calendar in June and that other gatherings of large professional associations and consumer shows may move forward.”

Despite some amazing performances, it may be frumpy Bernie Sanders that will become the iconic memory from President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Most people are familiar with Apple’s “1984” Super Bowl ad that helped launch the company. Today, however, is the anniversary of a much more ignominious event. It was 36 years ago today that the sequel to “1984” – titled “Lemmings” – premiered during the 1985 Super Bowl.

Never heard of the sequel? You are not alone. While the “1984” ad is widely considered one of the best and most effective in television history, the “Lemmimgs” ad went down in flames. A senior Macintosh executive quit on the spot after seeing the ad, and Apple was accused of exploiting the Holocaust to sell computers. The ad ended a short-lived era – it was the last time Apple aired a commercial during a Super Bowl.

Two weeks after being named communications director for Rep. Lauren Boebert, Ben Goldey has resigned. Lachlan Markay at Axios reports:

“Ben Goldey’s resignation cited last week’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which followed efforts by Boebert and lawmakers to block certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The Hill veteran’s departure highlights the deep divide among Republicans over President Trump’s conduct.”

“Goldey said in a statement to Axios: ‘Following the events of January 6th, I’ve decided to part ways with the office. I wish her and the people of Colorado’s Third District the best.’ … Boebert is a strident Trump supporter firmly on the right flank of the House GOP caucus. She was clear about her views during her campaign, but they have suddenly become politically toxic following last week’s attack.” …

“Goldey, by contrast, has a more establishment pedigree. He was the press secretary at the Department of Interior until this year, and previously worked for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”

“Saying that I have ‘contributed nothing of value to support the ideals of either the Benson Center or CU Boulder’ is preposterous …,” said John Eastman, CU Boulder’s visiting conservative scholar, to the Boulder Daily Camera.

Professor Eastman caused controversy for his remarks at the Washington, D.C., rally for President Trump prior to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. His spring classes at CU Boulder have since been cancelled due to low enrollment.

Denver-based Novitas Communications has promoted Krista Crouch to vice president. Crouch has more than 15 years of experience in communications, public relations and digital media, and she manages clients in a number of industries, including finance, healthcare, tourism, government, oil and gas, and associations.  

Crouch has worked with media internationally including top-tier media outlets in the U.S. such as the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today, CNN, ABC News, Bloomberg, Reuters, Cheddar, and many other national and local media outlets.

Edelman has released its 2021 Trust Barometer report and the bottom line appears to be that the COVID-19 pandemic, among other 2020 challenges, has sent trust in government, business and media on the fun part of a rollercoaster ride.

“Trust declined across all institutions… . Only 59% of respondents said they trust businesses to do the right thing; 57% felt that way about the government and 56% about NGOs. Only half of those queried said they trust the media to do the right thing,” reports Thomas Moore at PRWeek.

Edelman CEO Richard Edelman cited three takeaways:

“The first is that business has become the most trusted institution. That is a significant change from May when we did the spring trust update and when we saw the government leading the pack for the first time. Now government has fallen off significantly.”

Second, “the data shows people distrust the information they’re being given from most sources. … You saw the result of [this] last week in the Capitol being stormed with false hopes. You also see it in vaccine hesitancy.”

“The third story here is the real fall from grace of the U.S. and China. The Chinese because of being the place where COVID-19 started but also because they kept the story under wraps and people were irritated by that. And then the United States, because we’re the worst country in the world in terms of managing the pandemic, and we’ve lost a lot of ground that way.”

The University of Colorado Denver named Marie Williams its new vice chancellor for communications. From the announcement:

“Williams has served in senior leadership roles at public relations agencies and within higher education, most recently as vice president of marketing and communications at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. At CU Denver, Williams will lead the 18-person University Communications team responsible for external and internal communications, media relations, marketing, brand strategy, social media, and web development.”

“Williams began her public relations career in editor roles at the University of Pennsylvania (her alma mater) and Temple University. For the next six years, she worked in the private sector, in communication and marketing positions for Pennsylvania companies, including PECO Energy and The Pep Boys. From 2007-18, Williams held leadership roles for the education practices at two New York-based public relations agencies, serving as senior managing director at RF|Binder Partners and senior vice president at Edelman. Most recently, at Saint Joseph’s, she transformed the Office of Marketing and Communications into an in-house creative and strategic consultancy that has enhanced the visibility and reputation of the university.”

Emily Kaplan at ESPN: “NHL analyst Mike Milbury is out at NBC after 14 years with the network. The news came on Monday as NBC unveiled its game and studio commentary lineup for the 2021 NHL season, and Milbury was conspicuously absent.” […]

“Milbury, the former Boston Bruins and New York Islanders coach and GM, was pulled from NBC’s Stanley Cup playoff coverage in August after his on-air comments about players not being as distracted in the league’s bubble because no women were there in the league’s bubble.” […]

“Milbury had been flagged for insensitive comments several times during his tenure at NBC, including other instances last season. In a qualifying-round game between Pittsburgh and Montreal, Milbury said playing in an empty arena was like being at a college women’s hockey game.”

Dan Kika at the Boulder Daily Camera: “Crispin Porter + Bogusky is in the process of moving from Gunbarrel to a 20,000-square-foot office in McGregor Square in Denver’s LoDo District, according to a statement from the company. The move is expected to end in July.” […]

“Doyle Albee, the president and CEO of Boulder-based public relations agency MAPR, said CP+B’s move isn’t a large immediate loss for Boulder because the majority of the agency’s accounts are national. … He pointed out that Denver and other cities in Boulder County can offer far lower costs of living while providing the Front Range lifestyle that companies in the region leverage for recruiting employees.”

“’I’m not worried about Boulder becoming a ghost town by any stretch … but it underscores the fact that we are facing some very serious economic and lifestyle issues here that we need to proactively address on a daily basis, or we’re going to see more of this in the long run,’ Albee said.”

Congratulations to Sharon Linhart, Paul Raab and the entire team at Linhart PR as the firm celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.

The James Bond movie franchise reached iconic status with the release of its third movie, “Goldfinger.” What was the secret to becoming one of the most beloved movie characters in history? Why, public relations, of course. Oscar Holland at CNN reports:

“In a then-unprecedented publicity move, journalists and photographers were invited to the Swiss Alps for the seven-day shoot, where they mingled with cast and crew members. The strategy appeared to work — ‘Goldfinger’ became, at the time, one of the box office’s highest-ever grossing movies.” 

“‘Almost every day was a press conference’ said Peter Waelty, co-author of the new book ‘The Goldfinger Files,’ over a video call. ‘The idea was to get into the newspapers before the film was even made.’ Reporters were also given detailed plot information, even though the movie was months away from release, he added. ‘They knew exactly who was going to die, who was going to win, what was going to happen. It’s unimaginable that this could happen nowadays.'”

The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts are in a “ground war” for the hearts and minds of America’s youth, and, as is the case in most of these situations, it is the lawyers who are winning.

Amid declining enrollment in 2017, the Boy Scouts changed its program to just “Scouts” and opened its ranks to both boys and girls. The Girl Scouts sued, alleging that the Boy Scouts are marketing its program in a way that infringes on the Girl Scouts’ trademark.

The Hill: “Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo told viewers Wednesday that her show had been ‘punk’d’ after she interviewed an animal rights activist who claimed he was the CEO of the pork producer and food-processing company Smithfield Foods.”

“The segment earlier on in the show was presented as an interview with CEO Dennis Organ on the process of coronavirus vaccines being distributed to food workers at the company, which had an outbreak of coronavirus cases at one of its plants.”

“However, as it was later revealed, Bartiromo was actually speaking to Direct Action Everywhere activist Matt Johnson, who remained in character as Organ for the nearly six minute interview.”

One of the early predictions of the pandemic was that Corona was in real trouble because beer drinkers would associate the brand with Coronavirus. Stuck in a position that didn’t really have a playbook, Corona even tried to lean into the association last spring, only to quickly realize that it was a bad idea.

Good news for the brand, however. A Wall Street Journal article headlined, “Echo of Coronavirus Didn’t Keep Beer Drinkers From Corona” reports that its sales are doing just fine:

“In-store spending on Corona-branded beer and hard seltzer in the U.S. comprised 6.78% of the category this year through Dec. 6, essentially unchanged from the equivalent period a year prior, according to IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm.”

“Excluding fast-growing spiked seltzers—such as Corona Hard Seltzer, which was introduced during the pandemic—the story was the same: Corona’s share of in-store beer sales through Dec. 6 held steady with a year earlier, IRI said.”

“’There wasn’t really any kind of negative impact on Corona sales,’ said Vivien Azer, managing director and senior research analyst at investment bank Cowen Inc. ‘That’s clear in the data.'”

Boulder’s MAPRagency is partnering with South Carolina-based Stryker-Munley Group (SMG) in an arrangement that gives MAPRagency additional resources and capabilities, and SMG additional geographic reach.

SMG is a national integrated public relations and marketing communication agency, and now has nine independently owned offices in Boston, Boulder, Charleston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Knoxville, Portland and San Antonio.

Army had a great football season – it went 9-2 while winning the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy for head-to-head wins over both Navy and Air Force. So which bowl game will it be attending? None. Army has been left out of any bowl game due to a number of them being cancelled and byzantine contracts between bowls and conferences.

Adding insult to injury, the Armed Forces Bowl selected 6-2 Tulsa and 3-7 Mississippi State.

UPDATE: Army will now face West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl after the University of Tennessee had to withdraw due to positive COVID-19 tests among players and coaches.

Daily Beast: “A voting machine company baselessly accused by President Trump and pro-Trump conspiracy theorists of illegally tipping the 2020 presidential contest is working with one of Washington, D.C.’s most prominent public relations firms to beat back the allegations.”

“Shortly after the election, (Denver- and Toronto-based) Dominion Voting Systems hired the firm Hamilton Place Strategies to coordinate a public relations campaign responding to the outlandish claims by the president, his legal team, and their supporters, according to Michael Steel, a HPS partner and former spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.”

“The local and national investors who bought Denver’s Tattered Cover book stores have watched as reactions roll in to their purchase, ranging from joy at the local chain’s apparent salvation to fury that its owners would dare claim it as the nation’s largest Black-owned book store,” John Wenzel from The Denver Post reports. …

“However, skeptics of the deal say the Tattered Cover invited this scrutiny for claiming to be the largest Black-owned book store in the United States despite Pearson being the only Black person in the mostly white, 13-member investment group.”

“Shortly after the sale was made public, Black booksellers across the U.S. denounced the Black-owned claim as an insulting marketing ploy that ignores their work, at best, and at worst, cynically hijacks this year’s Black Lives Matter progress for commercial purposes.”