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PODCAST

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and Strategic Communications Stories

Compelling tales from the world of public relations, marketing and branding, told by the well-meaning communications professionals who lived them. On Lead Balloon, professional communicators share tales of the do-or-die situations that defined their creative careers—how they planned for the unexpected, how they navigated high-profile crises, and what they learned in the process. With immersive storytelling and a wry sense of humor, host Dusty Weis revisits epic PR disasters, intense communications

business marketing

All Episodes

48:47

44. How a Real Life Ad Agency Inspired the Robin...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2023/07/05

Every professional communicator has had a day that seems like it came straight out of a TV sitcom. For Rob Davis and John R. Montgomery, working at the Chicago ad firm Leo Burnett in the early 2000’s, it was a regular occurrence. In fact, the stories from their time there were so singular, that when they shot a pilot and pitched it to Hollywood, it was picked up and run as a CBS sitcom starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. From wacky hijinks to high-stakes drama, unbelievable

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40:23

43. Brands Don't Have the Rizz: Appropriating Gen Z...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2023/06/01

"How do you do, fellow marketers? We think it would be pretty 'on fleek' if you would stop trying to use slang terms to make yourself more relatable to young people." Certainly, brands swooping in and trying to leverage youth culture to drive sales is nothing new. But as bad as it was in the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s, the advent of social media marketing made it 1000 times worse. The internet never forgets, and whether it's the "Silence, Brand!" meme or the "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids" Reddit

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28:52

BONUS: Covid is—Air Quotes—Over. What That Means for...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2023/05/11

Communicating during and about the Covid-19 pandemic is a topic we've discussed several times on this show, including in our most recent episode. And, as of today, May 11, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services coronavirus Public Health Emergency is expiring. But just because Covid is "over" doesn’t mean we won’t still have to discuss it as strategic communicators. And so in this bonus episode, we bring back someone who has been a voice of reassurance and reason throughout this horrible,

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49:54

42. OkCupid Stays On Target During the Covid...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2023/05/02

When the unstoppable force of online dating met the immovable object of global pandemic social distancing, there was no road map for what would come next. Michael Kaye is the director of brand and communications for the online dating app OkCupid. And, in the early days of the Covid lockdown, he and his team faced decisions that weighed on no less than the continued existence of the company. After all, what is a stay-at-home order if not an existential threat to a company whose customers want to get

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48:56

41. Deepfakes: How Communicators Must Prepare Now for...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2023/04/04

It is now only a matter of time until someone attacks your reputation with a deepfake, according to the experts. So-called deepfake technology, which can synthesize audio and video of things that never happened, has arrived en masse. And, while these tools for generating potential disinformation were previously only available to trained experts and big institutions, recent advances in artificial intelligence technology mean that ANYONE can create fake videos... nearly instantly, with little to no

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48:58

40. In Event of Moon Disaster: The Greatest Speech...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2023/03/01

It has been called “The Greatest Speech Never Given.” Drafted as a contingency plan for President Richard Nixon on the occasion of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the memo entitled "In Event of Moon Disaster" is inarguably a better piece of writing than any of the presidential remarks actually delivered on that day. Penned by White House speechwriter William Safire, today it is hailed as a work of rhetorical and poetic genius. It has inspired major Hollywood features, played a central role in moon

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47:10

39. Pernicious Copyright Robots Are Targeting Your...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2023/02/01

There’s a disturbing new trend making waves in the world of online content creation. Corporate blogs, mom-and-pop business websites, podcasts… Even stuff that you posted years ago to your personal website or social media. It’s now being examined, sifted through and screened by artificial intelligence bots, which are programmed to search for copyright violations. The practice has become known as “copyright trolling,” and when the bots find copyrighted images, they send a letter or email demanding

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49:52

38. The Bud Light CoRntroversy, Revisited: Miller...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/12/21

Now with 50% new footage! During Super Bowl LIII in 2019, Bud Light launched a new advertising strategy that was... unconventional, even for them. Instead of frogs or "wazzap" guys or silly superstitions, this campaign focused on attacking Bud Light's rivals for using corn syrup to brew their beers. Stranger still, outside observers noted that the beer giant borrowed other conventions from the world of political mudslinging, twisting facts, doubling down on vague talking points and attempting to

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24:28

BONUS: Celebrating 20 Years Behind a Mic With Dusty's...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/12/15

It's been a busy year here at Podcamp Media. So busy, in fact, that we almost forgot to recognize a pretty significant milestone in Dusty's career. 20 years ago, Dusty got his first job behind a microphone. He was 17-years-old, working an after school gig at his local radio station in Monroe, Wisconsin, when he was afforded the opportunity to voice the overnight shift and eventually ride the news desk. It ignited a passion for storytelling and audio that has guided his career ever since—during his

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48:57

37. Blue Angels Ride Along: Lead Balloon Becomes the...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/11/01

For the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron, media relations is not a job that just happens on the ground. Each year, dozens of media reps, influencers and VIPs are invited to take a ride in the back seat of one of the squadron's F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets. And, in order to help tell the story of the Blue Angels public affairs team, Lead Balloon was invited to be the first podcast to take one of those rides. CLICK HERE if you prefer to watch a video podcast documentary version

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52:04

36. The US Navy Blue Angels: Public Affairs and...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/10/04

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron is not only the world’s most well-known group of elite performing aviators. It’s also—and people forget this—a group of elite public affairs and marketing practitioners. From the pilots to the technicians turning wrenches on the planes, every Blue Angels team member is trained to uphold the unit's 76 years of tradition and legacy. As a brand management exercise, there is perhaps no other initiative in the world as rigorous and

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36:16

35. Post-Cold War PR Trip to Uzbekistan Boosts...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/09/01

In 1993, the world watched as two bitter rivals shook hands on the South Lawn of the White House, presenting the best hope for peace in the Middle East seen in centuries of bloodshed. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chair Yasser Arafat’s signing of the Oslo Accords—and the handshake that followed, cajoled by U.S. President Bill Clinton—comprised an iconic snapshot in history. In the moment, the world was awash in optimism, and Jewish Americans in particular

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1:31

Trailer—The Lead Balloon Podcast—PR, Marketing and...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/08/08

Adweek's 2020 "Marketing Podcast of the Year." Webby Award-nominated. Profiled on Forbes.com. On Lead Balloon, professional communicators share tales of the do-or-die situations that defined public relations and marketing careers--what went wrong, how unexpected obstacles were overcome, and what was learned in the process. With immersive storytelling and a wry sense of humor, host Dusty Weis revisits epic PR disasters, intense communications scenarios, professional crises and half-baked marketing

en

58:22

34. Murder in Boston Blamed on Sega's Virtua Cop...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/08/02

On a busy evening in Boston's financial district in 1995, gunshots ring out. When the smoke clears, a prominent divorce attorney is dead and a police officer is wounded. And Lee Caraher, then the Vice President of Corporate and Consumer Communications for the Sega Corporation, doesn't know it yet... ...but she's about to have a public relations crisis on her hands. Police would eventually uncover evidence that shooter John T. Lin "trained" for his revenge rampage by spending hours playing Virtua

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40:50

33. National Airlines' Saucy "Fly Me" Ad Campaign,...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/07/06

Sexist advertising that objectifies women reached its heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But, in that era, it was very seldom that any company actually faced backlash or consequences for its ad practices. That began to change, however, when National Airlines deployed a racy new ad campaign in which alluring young stewardesses invited travelers to "Fly Me" on their next business trip. National Airlines may have sold more tickets as a result of the ads. But, for a workforce of stewardesses who

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52:26

32. Tesla’s Elon Musk Fires the Entire Public...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/06/02

As the world’s most valuable automotive manufacturer, electric car giant Tesla is the largest company in the world that operates without any kind of public relations personnel. That means no media relations arm. No crisis comms plan. No PIO. In fact, the entire PR team was purged just a couple years ago in 2020, and CEO Elon Musk has defended the move, saying the company doesn't believe in "manipulating public opinion." Not only does this reflect a very unsophisticated understanding of what public

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53:10

31. Snapple: Pitching the Best Catchphrase On Earth,...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/05/03

The strategy at the heart of the Snapple brand's precipitous rise... and its cataclysmic fall... is simple: Embrace your roots. Celebrate authenticity. It's a lesson that's been served up again and again in the brands and marketing ecosystem. But it never seems to sink in. So in this episode, we'll pop the top on a Snapple double feature. First, Jane Cavalier tells us about pitching Snapple's iconic slogan, "Made From the Best Stuff on Earth," and watching it flop with the company's original

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48:03

30. Inside the PBR "Eating Ass" Tweetstorm, with...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/04/05

On January 3, Pabst Blue Ribbon lit the internet on fire with one obscene tweet: “Not drinking this January? Try eating ass.” The uproar was swift and loud. And PBR deleted the tweets and apologized publicly, even as some writers blamed a “rogue employee” for the tweets. That was NOT the case. The offending Tweeter was actually an established social media manager by the name of Corey Smale, a creative enigma whose free-wheeling, hands-on approach had really resonated with the brand’s fans. So what

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40:59

29. Ukrainian Creatives Waging an Information War...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/03/19

For Ukrainian ad agencies and freelance creatives, "business-as-usual" stopped on the day that Russian forces launched their unprovoked war three weeks ago. Now, they need your help to pierce the veil of Russian propaganda and fight for their homeland in their own way--by waging a global information war to win the hearts and minds of the world. In this episode, we talk to three Kyiv-based creatives who are organizing this loose coalition of Ukraine's creative community: Viktor Shkurba, Founder and

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52:50

28. Wendy's Twitter Account Manager Recounts Battle...

Lead Balloon - Public Relations, Marketing and... ·

2022/03/01

Wendy’s, the burger chain, is infamous for its punchy, no-holds-barred Twitter account. And social media manager Amy Brown was the creative instigator of that success. Many internet historians even point to her epic 2017 tweet-roast as the viral moment that launched an entire genre of Snarky Brand Twitter. It certainly made her a hero to social media managers the world over. So why, within just a couple of months, did Amy Brown feel like she needed to leave that high-profile dream job at

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