Tag: office

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The case for cause marketing

We all are exposed to traditional and typical advertising and marketing messages every day, for everything from food to fragrances to banking to many other products and services we consume on a regular basis.

However, sometimes companies with the most powerful brands in the world take their marketing messages a step further and align them with a cause, which can be incredibly beneficial to society, reports Huffington Post Gay Voices.images-2

“When done properly, cause marketing can change the world and help to move that cause in a positive direction, whether it is health-related, environmental, humanitarian, or social in nature.

“We are currently seeing a positive example of cause marketing by Office Depot, a leading national retailer, who has dedicated its back-to-school effort for the second consecutive year to raising awareness for anti-bullying as it specifically relates to parents, teachers, and students. The company has recently launched a campaign with worldwide music phenomenon One Direction, coinciding with their U.S. summer tour. The theme of the campaign is “1D + OD Together Against Bullying,” and has been designed to raise awareness for anti-bullying, culminating in educational programs beginning this Fall in schools across America.

“By embracing the anti-bullying cause, Office Depot is aiming to create more positive environments for three of its key consumers. First, they want to enable teachers to have more positive classroom and teaching experiences. No one can deny that teaching is a tough profession. Reducing and possibly eliminating bullying at school will take one more stress factor off of teachers’ already full plates. Continue reading “The case for cause marketing”

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Looks remarks damage women candidates

imagesObjectifying comments about women running for office damage their candidacies, according to two recent studies. NPR reports that “Any mention — positive or negative — of a woman’s looks, hurts her chances with voters. That’s according to two new surveys commissioned by Women’s Media Center “Name It, Change It” project.

“In the survey on media coverage of women candidates’ appearance, conducted by Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners and Robert Carpenter of Chesapeake Beach Consulting, the research used actual quotes about women candidates from media coverage of the 2012 elections and demonstrates that when the media focuses on a woman candidate’s appearance, she pays a price in the polls,” the center said in a press release. “This finding held true whether the coverage of a woman candidate’s appearance was framed positively, negatively or in neutral terms.”

“Another study presented participants with profiles of “candidates” Jane Smith and Dan Jones. If participants only read the profiles, the woman emerged with an edge. But that edge was eclipsed immediately, as soon as physical descriptors — like “Smith dressed in a brown blouse, black skirt, and modest pumps with a short heel…” — were added to a “news story.”

“The survey also found that when the women themselves or a surrogate called out the sexist language, they earned back some support. That was the case even when the respondents did not read any of the sexist language.

Celinda Lake, one of the researchers, told Poynter that the bottom line is that “women candidate pay a real price” when the media takes notice of their appearence.

“Even what we thought was benign coverage about how a woman dresses has a negative impact on her vote and whether voters perceive her as in touch, likeable, confident, effective, and qualified. And, in close races, sexist coverage on top of the attacks that every candidate faces can make the difference between winning and losing.”

“Of course, this study gives some context to the uproar over Obama’s comments about California Attorney General Kamala Harris, last week. The study was conducted online last month. It has a margin of error of 2.5 percent.”

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/08/176613966/study-any-description-of-womans-appearance-hurts-with-voters?ft=1&f=1001

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Yahoo says work is better at the office

imgres-1In trying to get back on track, Yahoo is taking on one of the country’s biggest workplace issues: whether the ability to work from home, and other flexible arrangements, leads to greater productivity or inhibits innovation and collaboration, reports The New York Times.  Across the country, companies like Aetna, Booz Allen Hamilton and Zappos.com are confronting these trade-offs as they compete to attract and retain the best employees.

“Bank of America, for example, which had a popular program for working remotely, decided late last year to require employees in certain roles to come back to the office. Continue reading “Yahoo says work is better at the office”

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Women making (some) more movies

“Claire Danes Flaunts Post-Baby Body” was the headline ABC News chose to begin its Golden Globe online coverage. Then there was all the media fuss about what many thought Jodie Foster was going to say.

But if one looks beyond the headlines to the past year’s statistics, women have been some discernable gains in the notoriously male-dominated movie industry.

Last year nearly 10 percent of the top box office earners were made by women directors, nearly double that of 2011.Similar statistics characterize overall

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employment in the entertainment industry, with UC San Diego’s Celluloid Ceiling report saying that women now account for 11 percent of movie jobs of all kinds.

Obviously it’s going to be a long haul, as discussed in a recent New York Times article:

“The storyteller’s gender matters. When more than nine-tenths of movies are made from the male perspective, Continue reading “Women making (some) more movies”