Walt Disney Signs Partnership with PATA

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) have announced a new strategic partnership. PATA's mission statement is “The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is a membership association acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of the Asia Pacific travel and tourism industry.

In partnership with PATA's private and public sector members, we enhance the sustainable growth, value and quality of travel and tourism to, from and within the region. Disney is now a PATA Premier Partner, gaining exclusive access to a range of co-operative opportunities including market intelligence, business development and co-branded events and products. Disney joins a select group of PATA Premier Partners such as Visa International, Amadeus, CNN International, TIME and Fortune. Mr Peter de Jong the president and CEO of PATA, stated that he was delighted to welcome such an iconic and powerful brand as Disney into the PATA community. Jong said “It really is a dream come true."

Disney's relationship with PATA is a very successful attempt in establishing effective international relations. Disney is successful at this attempt because they are establishing knowledge of foreign customers and knowledge of different cultures. Disney is creating strong international relationships which aid in making their presence in foreign cultures more widely accepted.
Disney

No end in sight for Dell lay offs

In an effort to stem declining stock values, Dell Inc. enacted a plan last May to lay off 8,000 employees (about 10% of its global workforce) within the next year. The Round Rock based computer company is doing this in an effort to counter certain factors and events that have hurt its stock value over the last several business quarters. One of these factors was Dell's loss of their #1 position in worldwide computer shipments to rival company Hewlett-Packard. Another milestone preceding these lay offs are the results of an ongoing federal accounting probe that discovered numerous financial discrepancies and evidence of financial misconduct at the company. In addition to falling stock prices as a result of public opinion regarding this investigation, Dell stock has also taken a hit from the $46 million cost of funding the probe.

Dell announced these lay offs in the form of a news release, but declined any sort of follow-up conference call with reporters or analysts. The following statement was later released by Michael Dell in regards to the downsizing:

“While reductions in head count are always difficult for a company, we know these actions are critical to our ability to deliver unprecedented value to our customers now and in the future.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18967391/

While lay offs are a necessary evil when conducting business, Dell's effort to keep an open and honest line of communication with their publics seems to come up short. The fact that they announced this ill news through a press release while declining to comment on the matter immediately gives Dell the image that they either don't care enough about their publics to do so, or that they are trying to hide something. This is especially true considering that Dell is under investigation for shady business practices and shoddy financing, which was one of the main reasons for the lay offs in the first place. While Michael Dell did comment on the matter, he should have done so immediately so as not to tarnish the trust that Dell has with its employees and consumers.

Since the time that the lay offs were announced, Dell's stock value has fallen from nearly $25 per share to around $20.50 per share. Clearly these 8,000 lay offs did little to slow the decline of Dell's stock value, leaving us only to wonder what lies in the future for Dell employees.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=DELL&t=1y

“Life…. Supplemented”
The Council for Responding Nutrition (CRN) is launching a campaign that informs the average citizen of the positive side of supplements. For decades, supplements have been stereotyped to have a negative source of nutrients on people’s health and body, but because of this the CRN has launched an educative campaign that will promote the positive side of dietary supplements. It is estimated that more than 2/3 of the nation is currently taking some sort of supplement (Douaud, 2007). Although sales have not been reported to decrease the CRN is doing this educative movement to secure its market and increase revenues. The vice-president of CRN was interviewed by NutraIngredients-USA and told them that “One of our main objectives is to create an environment that will increase sales”. It is evident that the CRN is doing this movement as an attempt to increase proceeds and interest from the general public. The company has not fully given the full details as to how it will generate its tactics to the audience, but they have pinpointed some plausible goals. Some PR techniques that CRN plans to launch is a website that will educate the consumer how to live a healthy lifestyle, and future partnerships with retail companies to promote supplementary diets.
The CRN PR campaign is an effective movement for their company or a stunt to promote their company? Although sales have not shown to decline, I believe that they are doing this education campaign to acquire more people to try dietary supplements and learn more about them. Although their efforts are commendable, their main interests are to acquire more revenues for their company while promoting their “clean image”. To learn more about this campaign please visit http//www.nutraingredients-usa.com.

Michael J Fox Foundation

The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, launched their new campaign today for a funding program. They are hoping to improve drug delivery for Parkinson's disease. They are promising to raise $2 million to spark research to specifically determine the two major challenges about the development of transformative research. On April 7, 2008, a conference call will be orchestrated with MJFF Research Programs staff to cover the goals of the new funding campaign. If someone wishes to take part in the conference call they can RSVP to conferencecalls@michaeljfox.org

Have you taken your Airborne today? Good, don't.

I coughed once. I sneezed twice, three times at the most. Before I knew it, my mother was filling my cup of water with two yellowish tablets the size of quarters. "It's Airborne. Drink it all. Now!", she says. I swallow the tepid, somewhat unsettling, effervescently bubbling water and hope it will have no adverse effects. My mother then assured me that I would not be ill. She promised I would be as good as new in mere minutes. She was wrong.

Airborne: the Effervescent Health Formula is marketed as "the best-selling herbal health formula that boosts your immune system to help your body combat germs. It was created by a former second-grade school teacher, Victoria Knight-McDowell, who was constantly exposed to germs in her classroom". For several years now, Airborne has been the panacea for middle-aged housewives across America. This "miracle" herbal supplement has recently run into a spot of trouble that even Airborne's essential vitamins and herbs cannot solve.

The company, based in Bonita Springs, Fla., has agreed to pay $23.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against the company for falsely claiming its vitamins prevented colds. Anyone who has purchased Airborne is entitled to a refund. The lawsuit was lead by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit advocacy group that accused Airborne of having "no credible evidence that [it] prevents colds or protects consumers from germs". In addition to the million dollar settlement, Airborne has also agreed to pay for ads in several magazines alerting consumers where they can receive their small part of the settlement money.

After flying high on their creation, Airborne founders were snatched from atop their home-remedy pedestal when ABC's Good Morning America did some of their famous investigative reporting. The same media outlets that helped them rise to the top of the "dietary supplement cleverly disguised as a cure-all" game, was now revealing that perhaps there was more to the story than what was shown on Oprah. Apparently Airborne's claims that it has been scientifically proven to do what the box says was challenged when it was discovered that their much-touted lone clinical trial was actually conducted without any doctors or scientists, just a “two-man operation started up just to do the Airborne study.”

Airborne has responded with an open letter on their website thanking their loyal customers for remaining loyal. This kind of PR crisis is not new. The vitamin and drug aisle of the grocery store is rife with the kind of FDA scandals that might frighten the general public. However, those who are dead-set on claiming that Airborne saved them from the ever-treacherous common cold will most likely not turn away from their beloved herbal supplement. Although, 23 million dollars is ALOT of money, but that is something accounting has to deal with. From a PR point of view, all Airborne has to worry about is having their loyal fans find them when they are moved from the drug aisle to the supplement aisle.

Sweet Barrymore

A handful of fingers can not count the amount of wonderful movies Drew Barrymore has starred in. Today, this sweet Barry is one of Hollywood’s delightful, influential stars. As an active philanthropist, she has used her power to give back to communities’ worldwide, turning her into a modern day role model http://www.drewbarrymore.com/. However, that was not the case more than ten years ago. After starring in the four-time Oscar winning motion picture ET in 1982, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000106/. Barrymore’s life came dumpling down. Two years after ET, 9 year old Barrymore began drinking and then shortly became abusive of drugs. Being born into a theatrical family, Barrymore lacked the lessons of family value, for she often partied at Studio 54, in New York, with her father. By the age of 17, she legally divorced her mother, and checked herself into rehab http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/1:244/2/Drew_Barrymore.htm. Although the cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol addictions were kicked to the curb, Barrymore still fell under the “sex symbol” image. In 1995, Barrymore posed for Playboy.
All this has change since then.

Barrymore today graces the cover of Vogue, and has her own production company, Flower Films. In this month’s issue of Vogue, Barrymore talks about her new up and coming film and how difficult is was to become the character of Onasis debutant, Edith. The issue also mentions budding romance with Apple commercial star, Justin Long.
From helpless, alcoholic child to respected, successful actress/producer, we must do nothing, but to love Barrymore!

Audrina Patridge Nude Pictures Surface

Recently, nude pictures of The Hills star Audrina Patridge surfaced on the celebrity blog What Would Tyler Durden Do. The pictures were taken when she had just graduated from high school and was only 19 years old. The pictures were meant to kick off her modeling career and be sent to Playboy, but were never meant to be released to the public. The Hills is a popular MTV “reality” show that follows the life of Lauren Conrad, previous Laguna Beach star, her best friend Audrina Patridge, and their enemies Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. Since the new season of The Hills premiers Monday, March 24th, Audrina and her publicist had to respond to this issue immediately so that it would not affect the shows season premier.

"I took these photos years ago when I was just out of high school and beginning to model. I was young and very trusting of others and I didn't know to protect myself," said Patridge in a statement released by her representative and obtained by TMZ.com. "It is a lesson learned, for myself, and hopefully for the young girls who look up to me."

Not even 24 hours after the pictures surfaced online, Audrina posted a response to this issue on her myspace defending the pictures because she was young and naïve and advocating that her young fans learn from her inexperience. "I intended them to be artistic and not in any way provocative," Patridge wrote in a blog posted to her MySpace Celebrity page. "I was naive, overly trusting of people and inexperienced. I thought that to be a model you had to be comfortable in front of the camera." She also made an immediate blog post similar to her address of the situation on her myspace page. She also made an appearance on the morning WPIX CW show to explain the situation.




I think that Audrina and her publicist have handled the situation very well so far. She immediately made a response to the situation rather than hiding from it and waiting for it to go away. The other Hills cast members are also helping the situation by being supportive and not giving out any unnecessary information. While she has not apologized for the pictures she has admitted that they were a result of being young, inexperienced, and taken advantage of, which is an appropriate response. By making a statement that she hoped that other young girls will learn from her mistake, she will probably keep some of her younger fans and not be so attacked by parents, etc.