PSA: Team Spirit

C'mon G-Men!

That is all.

Ethics Post 1: Wonderful World of Ethics & My Experience

It's been a while since I've been on here, but it has been a busy 2 week winter break haha. A lot has happened! I'm currently wrapping up an internship with Octagon Sports Marketing. I've learned SO many things there in the creative department. I'll truly miss the creative staff and the experience.

The above paragraph is relevant to my post, as I've also witnessed crisis management (on a lower level) and ethical decision making while working at Octagon. For more details though, I'll give a rundown of my experience with ethics in the work place in general:

• I worked as a lifeguard at a Beach/Pool club for 7 years in New York (for privacy's sake I won't mention the name). When you deal with patrons/customers on a very close level and at a regular basis, you tend to naturally take ethics into account; if you care about your job that is. For lifeguards, the contemporary professional ethics involved serving swimmers and patrons and assisting if they were in trouble. The values reflected were that we cared about the customer's opinion and the customer's well-being.
• Ironically, during my time at the club, there were many young people involved who didn't share the same understanding of the above mentioned ethics as me and a couple other employees. They would blatantly come late to work with no proper explanation as to why they were late. The more responsible lifeguards and myself were left with a decision to make: take the fall for the late employees and the lack of service/coverage around the pool, or expose the late guard and basically teach them a lesson in responsibility.
• One BIG ethical part of our job is discussing pay and paychecks. Our boss asked time and time again not to discuss pay rate, but there's always trading of info once the paychecks come out. Information such as that could stop productivity as someone feels they're entitled to more pay than someone else (or just as much). It's funny because while typing this, I thought of the term "veracity" used in the textbook; "the duty to tell the truth". Keeping information about pay rate from some employees might lead to more hostility or willingness to not work. They know there's a reason they haven't learned information in exchange with sharing their own, and this causes them to sometimes distrust other employees or the manager. I should know, it happened at my job.

So overall, my experience at the pool club taught me a lesson in ethics and keeping professional under pressure. Even situations involving public safety at the pool can be included in my ethics experience; many a time there have been safety situations involving a storm or inclement weather and we've had to keep the public in best interest no matter what they say to us (trust me, they do NOT like being told to leave the water). While it's not a PR setting, there is definitely a lot of public relation that goes into being a lifeguard as the swimmers trust you with their lives and safety. However, you still need to watch how you handle situations with them or that trust WILL be broken. Then you'll be fired and SOL...just like with many other jobs.

I want to do Graphic Design/ Creative Production work once I graduate from grad school. Something along the lines of working in print/web, filming or editing video footage or motion graphics. There is definitely some consideration of ethics in these fields, as graphic designers are the ones creating the visual product that the world will see. Not to say we don't have a stake in the actual content, but more times rather than not we have a creative director or project manager who makes the call on the finished product. Take BP's oil spill back in 2010. It resulted in a media frenzy as well as an economic foul-up (thousands of gallons of oil were lost).

I'm sure the BP Creative/PR department was quite busy for the next few months as the world was bombarded with messages of how they were cleaning up and making sure the environment was protected from further damage in the Gulf Coast. However, new reports STILL came out of how they had trouble fixing the leak and how the condition of the surrounding eco-system was steadily declining. BP worked so hard to soften their image (and gain back customers) that eventually the satirical animated South Park decided to dedicate a whole episode to their antics.

As a growing graphic designer, I've learned that one can appeal to a greater crowd and increase the meaning of content using aesthetics. Aesthetics allow the audience to interpret more meaning in the content they are viewing. One BIG example of aesthetics is the use of Sarah McLaughlin's "Angels" in the "Stop Animal Abuse" commercials; the editor specifically chose heartbreaking/somewhat disturbing images of abused and abandoned animals that would get an audience's attention. The music in the background makes the tone of the commercial a somber and sad one.

Making the right decisions can sometimes blur the line between being ethical and being moral. The difference between the two can even affect the overall interpretation of the message.

Brace Yourself

Seriously, though. It's a new semester/module and I'm going to be posting again!

Blog Assignment #6: How Google Manages Crises

Yup, the last post. A little late, but I've been busy with finals recently AND it was a little difficult digging up information about crisis management. After Google-searching (ironic) and searching their website for answers, I have come to this realization: Google is a tool that other companies use towards crisis management. A most recent effort by Google itself in handling a public/international crisis was the Japan Earthquake/Tsunami early this year. Below is a snapshot of the now out-of-date website.

Screenshot taken on my *ahem* Google Chrome browser...

This website offered a widget for donating to the Red Cross' fund for aiding Japan. The site, obviously powered by Google, also posted accurate updates on the situation with the Power Plants and the rescue efforts during the aftermath. There were Japanese transit statuses available, message boards for contacting loved ones, and a Google Map widget specified for Japan.

Google Earth and Google Maps aid other companies in their crisis management efforts. This makes sense as Google is a powerful tool for gaining information and tracking events. The above information was the closest I could find to a structure that Google has to implement crisis management.

Just because this is my last academic post for now, does NOT mean this is the end of my posting on this blog; expect commentary and opinions on a WIDE range of topics, including sports, media, music, and life in general!

Blog Assignment #5:Google's Internal Relations

Google is as user-friendly to its employees as it is to customers and outside users. The main Google headquarters in California is more like a college campus than a corporate structure.

Welcoming, isn't it?

Google offers employees the option to start/end a work day whenever necessary. If an employee comes in at 8am, they can certainly leave at 5pm. However, if another employee comes to that same office at 6pm because of an issue previously in the day, they can stay until 2am if that means they will complete their quota. That's AMAZING. The cafeteria serves gourmet food from different cultures at different stations, which should please everyone. Despite straying far from the general corporate structure, Google is still a brand heavy company; they offer clothing and products slapped with the Google logo. Both employees and outside folk can purchase these items online. Apparently Google even has a "green" or quad area where they bring in musical guests (ex. Dave Matthews Band) to play during a certain time of day.

The reasoning behind this is because Google hopes that allowing the employees to have such perks and benefits in their offices optimizes their moods, and therefore optimizes productivity; as well as creativity. Even the offices are not constrained by "normal" corporate settings, as shown in the pic below.

Honestly, for a place so immersed in user experience and customer satisfaction, Google takes care of its employees and makes sure they are still aware of the touch of Google (branding, company functions) on their work.

Assignment #4: Media Relations (or Googl'ations)

Google is very relevant in today's media; they possess a technological presence similar to Apple and Microsoft respectively (even though they do not produce computer hardware/software yet). However, Google is still corporate and therefore needs certain elements of media relations to spread their business and influence (ugh, the Skynet feeling came back from my first post).

Recently Google has been launching advertising campaigns for a few of their products, such as Google Chrome, Google Music, and Google TV (really?).

Google also teamed up with Fox News to broadcast the Republican Debate in October.

An alliance forged in steel...and politics.

This move was possibly to showcase Google's use of algorithms and observation to fuel search results and accurate, real-time coverage of the debate. I saw it as a marketing strategy as the primary demographic of viewers would be Republican. In fact I would not be surprised if Google were a partner in the coverage of the Presidential primaries.

As far as I see it, the media relations do not need improvement as of late. Google has carried their brand look over to their ventures outside the internet realm. God only knows what collaboration they are cooking up next.

Watched The Throne, and Loved Every Minute

So a week ago (Sunday the 6th), my girlfriend and I went to the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey for the "Watch The Throne" concert. Hip-hop artists Jay-Z and Kanye West released a collaborative album called "Watch The Throne" in August of this year. They subsequently announced a World Tour; I was lucky enough to score tickets the second day they were out (also ironically one day before they were in danger of selling out).

Anyway, this is where we were sitting when we first entered the IZOD Center:

Pretty accurate for the gouged prices

 An IZOD Center employee came and sat down next to us. He offered us upgraded tickets down on the floor level you see in my above pic. Needless we were sold the moment he held up the tickets.

These were our new seats:

Muuuuuch better.

We were seated at the foot of the Throne, and I was able to capture these videos: