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2017: Best, Worst & Favorites from AM:PM PR’s Staff

December 14, 2017/in AM:PM PR, Frontpage Article, Images, News /by Karly Tarsia

What was the best campaign you saw in 2017?

Pat McCormick (PM) – Big brands and companies can afford amazing, creative campaigns. I’m always impressed by the small brands that remain true to themselves and prevail against the big guys. My favorite local example from 2017 was Old Town Brewing’s defense of its trademarked logo – featuring the iconic leaping White Stag that people associate with Portland, against the onslaught of mega-brewing giant AB InBev trying to get rights to use that image through the City of Portland. The best gesture in the battle came from Rogue Ales – a much bigger Oregon craft brewing company. Rogue banned the Portland mayor, city lawyers and other “bureaucrats” from its pubs until the city abandoned its effort to license the image beer and alcohol giants. (P.S. Dan Keeney, a former colleague, is Old Town Brewing’s spokesman. He’s an exceptional PR strategist and a great friend of craft brewing.)

Allison McCormick (AM) – It’s a tie for me…

The Indivisible campaign has been awe inspiring to follow. The grassroots movement was started when former congressional staffers commiserated after the election of Donald Trump and decided to draft a guide they could share with all the progressives across the country that wanted to do something. Borrowing from the pages of the Tea Party playbook, The Google Doc guide laid out a roadmap for taking on Trump and the members of congress doing his bidding. It emphasizes starting locally and using focused advocacy tactics. Since the guide was first shared it has been downloaded more than two million times, at least 5,800 local groups have formed across the country and the energy sparked by the campaign is changing elections. Congrats, Doug Jones!

The #MeToo movement has been equally powerful in its swiftness and impact. Effecting every level of Hollywood and government, every industry, and interactions in every day life – young and old women alike are finding the courage through each other to stand up and stand together against harassment and misogyny. It makes me feel like I did when I first heard this song and saw this clip from Full Frontal with Samantha Bee:

Karly Tarsia (KT) – I’m not sure if this classifies as a campaign but the #MeToo movement along with Time’s Silence Breakers. Watching that spark on social media was both incredibly heart wrenching but also incredibly powerful. This year there has been so much noise on social media and in general it’s hard to say if any campaign has stood out but if #MeToo qualifies as that I think it’s the one that was the loudest and had one of the biggest impacts in society.

What was your favorite accomplishment (personal or professional) from this year?

PM – Marking 51 years of marriage. The accomplishment is really Donna’s. She’s delivered our seven children, endured all these years with me and still laughs at my jokes, even ones she’s tired of hearing.

AM – Hiring Karly Tarsia.

KT – Personally, getting my own place postgrad and moving in with one of my best friends. Professionally, getting hired as an Account Coordinator at AM:PM PR last spring.

What trend do you think was overhyped in 2017?

PM – The most overused term in 2017 PR plans is “influencer” marketing. It’s a trending term, but the concept behind it isn’t really new. In marketing as well as in public policy advocacy, the importance of individuals and authorities who help shape people’s view on a product or an issue has been well understood. Digital tools have improved our ability to understand and reach those whose views influence others. At our old firm, we were charter members of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. For those interested in learning more about influencer marketing, here’s a link to the WOMMA guide – http://womma.org/free-womm-resources/

AM – Mom jeans.

Just. Stop.

KT – I feel like everything is beyond hyped now and is so in your face that it becomes overhyped very quickly. Doing makeup tutorials with unconventional products, foods that you can tell are just solely so you can post it on Instagram, unicorn-related everything. Everything feels so over the top you kind of wonder how it can catch on and then it spreads like wildfire and is everywhere.

What is your favorite memory from 2017?

PM – I have lots of great memories, but my trip to Orlando in October is likely most memorable. I got to spend five days at Disney World with Luca, my eighth grandchild to share a Disney adventure with me. Our trip coincided with the NWSL championship game and we got to watch the Portland Thorns, our amazing women’s professional soccer team, win the title in a tough-fought game. My next grandchild Disney adventure will be in May, going with Keeton to Disneyland. Another great memory coming soon.

AM – It’s a tough call between Michael Flynn’s guilty plea and the defeat of Roy Moore in Alabama.

KT – It’s hard to remember a specific moment that stood out for me in a year, but its all the small moments you don’t realize you loved until later. Being with my friends and laughing until we cry. Being with my family and watching my relationships evolve with them now that I’m an adult. Watching some of my best friends get married. Really realizing how lucky I am to live the life I do. I’m really trying to focus on that and be more grateful going into 2018.

Favorite 2017 guilty pleasure?

PM – Binge-watching The Crown.

AM – Flaunting my new lipstick and sharing more of them as gifts.

KT – Hands down memes. I know I should stop tagging my friends in them but I really can’t (sorry Lauren and Megan). Also podcasts, I can never get enough.

What was your favorite app you used in 2017?

PM – For the last couple of years, Sleep Cycle has been a favorite app. It tracks my sleep and offers a gentle wake-up when I’m easiest to wake in my sleep cycle. This year I added a companion app called Life Cycle. It tracks all my activities throughout the day. I’ve come to appreciate Apple’s efforts to track fitness and health using my watch and phone. It’s made me much more conscious of my good habits, and more sensitive about the bad ones.

AM – The Apple Podcast app. Hands down.

KT – It’s a toss up between Apple’s Podcast app and Snapchat. But if I have to choose I’ll say Apple Podcast.

We did a similar post last year for predictions in 2017, what was the most surprising thing you felt that happened this year?

PM – It’s tempting to talk about politics because I’ve never experienced such poisonous rhetoric and distortions of conventional mores in public life. For those troubled by the lack of civility in political discourse, I recommend reading my friend James Hoggan’s book, “I’m Right and You’re an Idiot,” published presciently at the beginning of the 2016 election year. In my real life, the most enjoyable surprise of 2017 was getting to watch our adventurous Grandson Haxton start walking, then running – and smiling a smile that melts your heart.

AM – It might be Roy Moore’s loss, but this year has made it hard to remember anything farther than a few days in the past.

KT – Allison and I have talked about this so much and really its everything. When we started answering these questions we both struggled because so much has happened in a year, it’s hard to digest what happened even a month ago. I had to go back and look through different huge events and be like, “Oh yeah that did happen”. Things that would historically define a year feel like they are happening weekly and it’s hard to keep up and remember everything, whether that be in pop culture or politics. Personally, and as a civilian, I feel that so much has happened I could have never predicted this is where we would be ending 2017. It is both hopeful and terifitiyng to see where we will be this time next year.

What are you looking forward to most in 2018?

PM – Besides my May trip to Disneyland with Keeton, I’m looking forward taking Donna back to Maui for some R&R. Allison gave her a gift certificate for a restaurant we like on Maui, so using it will require us to go there.

KT – Turning a quarter of a century old! Plus a few trips I’ve planned.

Will Tesla Become a Victim of Its Own Success?

April 12, 2016/in AM:PM PR /by Mike Phillips

How Tesla Can Keep Customers Happy – Even if It Keeps Them Waiting

The exciting unveiling of Tesla’s new Model3 attracted more than 325,000 pre-orders in 72 hours. The Model3 may be the first financially accessible mass-market electric car with a 200+ mile range.

But initial demand producing three times the pre-orders initially anticipated means Tesla could face production delays. Tesla’s communication team would be wise to anticipate and prepare for potential PR challenges caused by missing delivery deadlines to customers. In this week’s podcast, AM:PM PR Co-Founder Pat McCormick, shares advice for protecting a company’s reputation and keeping customers happy when manufacturing challenges delay deliveries.

The Risk of Success

In the past few years we’ve witnessed several overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter projects frustrate their backers and generate negative media coverage when the challenges to manufacturing at scale were coupled with significantly underestimated demand.

Portland-based Coolest Cooler broke a Kickstarter record (previously set by Pebble Watch) raising more than $13 million from backers. Last month, The Oregonian reported that the company’s founder is now seeking a $15 million injection to help fulfill its remaining orders.

I had my own experience with Kickstarter delays after ordering this cat-shaped candle that reveals a metallic skeleton when fully melted. Fortunately, it wasn’t really a must-have item, so I had forgotten about it when the candle finally arrived, six months later. Their communication team was off the hook!

Making a Plan

For any launch, a crisis communication plan is as important as the go-to-market plan. In this podcast, Pat shares tips for preparing a crisis communication plan, and the role the communications team should have in all stages of the planning process.

Easter Rising Speakeasy – Rising for Revolution and Irish Coffee

March 30, 2016/in AM:PM PR, Speakeasy /by Mike Phillips

It’s been a busy year for AM:PM PR and we missed our own annual St. Patrick’s Day gathering. To make up for it, we’re hosting a uniquely Irish Speakeasy.

JOIN US

Wednesday, April 20th at 4 p.m.

We’re organizing a special commemoration of a pivotal historical event for the Irish – the 100-year anniversary of the Easter Rising of 1916. We’ll be offering Pat’s world-famous Irish Coffee to help set the mood for a compelling presentation by respected local historians who will explore the role prominent Portlanders played during the Irish rebellion a century ago.

RSVP

About the Easter Rising of 1916

100 years ago a group of armed men and women gathered across Ireland – then part of the British Empire – and took part in an armed rebellion to declare an Irish Republic, free from British rule.

This event is known as the “Easter Rising” and the ensuing battle proceeded as you might expect. Despite the fact that Britain was heavily engaged in World War I at the time, the Empire gathered thousands of troops and routed the Irish volunteers after a brief confrontation.

The intriguing story is rife with drama – miscommunications and counter orders from competing Irish leaders to both fight and stand down, a captured German u-Boat that would have provided adequate weapons for the Irish side, and remarkable female heroines like the famed Countess Markievicz, who later became the first woman to be elected to the British House of Commons.

After the British executed the leaders of the Easter Rising rebellion (including my distant uncle, Sean MacDiarmada), the Irish people reacted in shock. The collective anger towards the perceived overreaction of the British, and ensuing revolution, led to the formal recognition of 26 counties that would become what we know today as the Republic of Ireland.

Our Featured Speakers

Two guest speakers, David O’longaigh and Chuck Duffy, from Portland’s chapter of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians discuss what they know about Ireland’s 1916 rebellion and its support base in Portland at the time.

They will also be previewing an event to be held at Kells on Sunday, April 24 that will include dramatic readings from Portland’s Corrib Irish Theatre and renditions of popular Irish folk songs.

Brush Up On Irish History In 8 Minutes

PR PARFAIT REPOST: PR Pro Spotlight – Pat McCormick

March 11, 2015/in AM:PM PR, Cultivation, Guest Post, News, Reputation /by ampmpr

U of O senior and Allen Hall PR Account Supervisor, Kati VanLoo, interviewed Pat McCormick for her blog – PR Parfait. We’re reposting and giving Kati two thumbs up.

By Kati VanLoo
Published March 11, 2015

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to interview AM:PM PR Partner Pat McCormick. A communication pro with over 40 years of experience in issue management, Pat knows the ins and outs of the public relations industry. Now he spends his days at the Portland agency with his daughter Allison McCormick and other team members navigating the PR needs of their clients. Here’s some insight he provided on the industry and advice for those of us just venturing out into the job market.

Photo from The Portland Business Journal’s “Cool Spaces” feature May 23, 2014

How did AM:PM PR come to be?

My daughter Allison worked for me at a PR agency in Salem for fifteen of the twenty years that I was there. In the final five years she was there, she helped with more consumer-facing PR. The young professionals were really having an impact on how everybody was communicating. It made it really clear how difficult the evolution is in our business. It personally excited me to be working at a time when there was so much change going on. When I could have retired, I talked to Allison about starting this business to continue to be a part of what’s changing.

How are young PR professionals impacting the industry?

Young professionals come into the workplace now with a sense of the currency of what’s going on. There’s a type of reverse coaching that comes from young professionals today because there are ways they grew up communicating that are different from the way older practitioners communicate. This generation also comes into the workplace in a little bit of a different fashion than, say, the Baby Boomer generation. That generation’s young professionals came into the workplace with the notion of “keep your head down; keep quiet.” Young professionals will come in today thinking, “I can contribute today.” It’s energizing in the workplace.

How important are ethics in PR?

I think an important element of PR is adhering to the ethical standards of our business. We want to have credibility, and we want reporters to trust us. The longer you’re in the business, the more you value those standards to not only help guide what you do but also decide what lines those you’re working with may be crossing. Also, we are often called in to help organizational leadership identify how their decisions could impact significant stakeholders of their company. That means sometimes you’re telling a CEO something he doesn’t want to hear, but in order to live up to the standards of our business we have to do that to our best ability. If that means that we have to fire that client when they want to continue making unethical decisions, then we fire that client. There are no long-term benefits to crossing those lines.

What is one challenge you think many PR pros face?

Part of what I think is often overlooked as a significant component to what we do is listening. We have to listen in order to fully understand what they are asking; they may not know enough to know exactly what to ask for. So, we have to listen and help them figure out what it is that they need. It’s really easy to just jump to, “Oh, why don’t you just do that,” without truly understanding what their needs are. Don’t jump too quickly to a solution without fully understanding the problem.

What advice do you have for PR pros in training?

Building a network can’t start too soon. The best available tool right now is LinkedIn. Be hungry for every contact that you make to be a connection on LinkedIn. Include the people you are going to school with; there will be times later on when those connections will give you the opportunity to speak with someone through them. Capitalize on those connections.

What are you looking for in new hires who have just graduated?

Something we look for, which I always credit Kelli Matthews for being the one who helped make possible [at the University of Oregon], is a student who understands the digital platforms. Do they have an online portfolio, a blog, a Twitter feed? What do they like to post, and how active are they? I just like to know they have familiarity with those types of platforms.

Also, we look for the ability to write. Along with being able to write well, journalistic-ally speaking, it’s important to see if the person can identify what’s important and can be clear, concise, and to the point.

Long-time Intel spokesman linking up with AM:PM PR

December 21, 2012/in AM:PM PR, News /by counsel

As winter begins and the New Year approaches, 2013 is looking like Spring to us. Our new offices are under construction. New clients are coming aboard. And today we confirmed that one of Oregon’s most respected and visible communications professionals plans to affiliate with us early next year.

In an email to his Intel colleagues and friends, Bill MacKenzie, a long-time Intel spokesman announced today that after 15 years as spokesman for Intel in Oregon, the state’s largest private employer, he’ll soon launch his “post-Intel life.”

Before starting his high-visibility job at Intel, Bill spent a decade as a business and politics reporter at The Oregonian. He also held senior positions on the staff of a subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of Commerce, including service as a foreign affairs officer working with the Department of State on treaty negotiations.

In announcing his future plans, Bill told friends he plans a short break before starting part-time work over the next year for the Encore Fellowship Program and Social Venture Partners Portland. He also plans some non-fiction writing, including journalism.

But what we liked best was reading this: “I’ll also be affiliating with Portland PR firm AM:PM PR to offer PR services such as corporate communications, crisis communications and media relations training.”

We couldn’t be more excited. Allison and I worked with Bill and his team at Intel more than a decade ago, helping with communications about one of Intel’s multi-billion dollar investment announcements. We also facilitated Intel’s former Community Advisory Panel, part of the company’s communications with its neighbors.

He’s been a good friend and a helpful professional colleague ever since.

In his email, Bill reflected on his time at Intel: “I’m proud to have played a part in handling hundreds of critical business issues with the media and in helping to secure public support for $37.5 billion of Strategic Investment Program Agreements that have facilitated billions of dollars of Intel investments in Oregon and generated thousands of high-skill, family-wage jobs. I’m also proud that Intel has consistently been voted Oregon’s most admired tech company and one of the most admired companies across all industries during my tenure.”

Intel has reason to be proud of the contribution Bill has made to Intel’s success in Oregon, and we’re pleased he thinks enough of us to link up with us.

While it seems like Spring to us, Bill is waiting for the real thing before setting off for a long-planned lark: “On May 9, 2013, I’ll embark on a bicycle trip from the edge of the Pacific Ocean to Boston, long an adventure on my bucket list.”

Bill has many more adventures in him, and we look forward to sharing some with him at AM:PM PR.

The Force is strong with Disney’s marketing of Star Wars buy

November 1, 2012/in AM:PM PR, News /by Pat McCormick

I confess I’m a Disney fan. Disneyland opened the summer before I entered 8^th grade, but I never got to go until we went 30-some years later with our kids.

When Disney announced on Halloween that it had acquired Lucasfilm, owners of the Star Wars franchise, it was big news. It also was an opportunity for someone at Disney to invest a little bit of time to make a brilliant marketing move.

Remember the long-running series of Disney “What’s Next?” commercials featuring Super Bowl or NBA or Olympics champs being asked what they plan to do after winning their championships? “I’m going to Disneyland,” was the reply.

Well, on the day of the Lucasfilm announcement, some creative Disney marketer got Darth Vader and some Imperial Storm Troopers to cut a video asking Darth Vader “What are you going to do next?” The YouTube video shows Darth and his entourage enjoying the fun of Disneyland.

What I love about it is that someone, probably with no budget, could execute the idea so quickly. For those of us who visit Disneyland with some frequency (I take each of my grandkids for four days in the parks between their 9^th and 10^th birthdays), we know that Darth and the Imperial Storm Troopers have Jedi training sessions six times a day, so the costumed characters are easily available.

So is the whole park. Get a video crew Disney marketing team, shoot some video, edit and post.

In one day, the quickly posted YouTube video has had almost 500,000 plays. Congratulations to the marketer that had that idea. Brilliant.

The (millennial) Kids Aren’t Al(ways)right

August 2, 2011/7 Comments/in AM:PM PR /by ampmpr

by Jake Ten Pas

If you’ve been reading the blogs of my boss, Pat McCormick, then you know he’s an optimist who views the younger millennial generation’s contributions to evolving communication trends with open-minded anticipation. He bucks the stereotype of the technophobic member of the silent generation, and it’s this spirit of enthusiasm and youthful energy that made me instantly like him when first we met.

On the other hand, he’s wrong. Not about kids and their communications habits pointing the way toward the future. No, that’s happening, and we’re powerless to stop it. What Pat’s mistaken about is that this is a good thing.

Clearly, texting on a miniature keyboard is the best way to communicate. Why make all of your fingers work when your thumbs can carry the burden for the rest of them.

When Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this year that he was changing the way Facebook’s messaging platform functions because some of his younger relatives told him that email is too slow, I rolled my eyes so hard that my spirit animal briefly changed from a badger to a pug.

How to put this delicately? If email is too slow of a format for you, then there’s something wrong with you, not email. If email is too slow for you, you should automatically get a prescription for Ritalin in the mail. If email is too slow for you, you should stop trying to write in sentences and just resort to a series of grunts and exaggerated hand gestures. This is technology as regression, not progress. It’s using new communication opportunities as a chance to unleash your inner caveman.

You know what isn’t hard? Typing a subject line. In fact, it might actually help you assemble your thoughts into something coherent, as opposed to the absolutely pointless, unfocused ejaculations that seem to pass for conversation these days.

Perhaps I’m picking up Pat’s slack by reinforcing the stereotype of the grumpy old man, but I find it hard to be inspired by the communications trends of generations Y and Z.

Seriously, would you listen to anything somebody with this haircut told you? No? Then why take your communication cues from Gen Y?

Texting is your go-to communication method? Seriously? What is it that you find so scary about the human voice? And don’t even say that you’re too busy to talk on the phone. If you have time to watch “Jersey Shore” and listen to Justin Bieber, you’ve got time to talk on the phone or send a proper email.

Texting has a place. It’s for quick, pertinent exchanges of information. It isn’t for discussing the fate of your relationship or other important conversations in which the likelihood of misunderstanding increases exponentially.

Which reminds me, why would you take advice from a generation of kids that thinks low-rider skinny jeans are cool? Why listen to people who can’t discern between music made by artists in a studio and music that’s made with an iPhone app? Why listen to individuals who pay money, over and over again, to watch vampire movies in which the vampires are about as threatening as male models on a hunger strike and the female protagonist’s only goal is to court one of these anemic mope-heads?

If you think the Twilight movies are good – and I mean seriously good, not just good fun to laugh at because of how terrible they are – then the medium by which you communicate is probably irrelevant.

So what if they grew up with the technology and are immersed in it in a way that my generation and older can’t understand. That just sounds like a lack of context and perspective to me. Because I remember a time before people conversed only by text, I can speak in complete sentences and occasionally put a paragraph together. I can make use of new technology without ever thinking that it’s the end-all-be-all of communication. I see a Tweet as a means to an end, and not an end in and of itself.

Sure, I’m stereotyping here. There are many young people today who are turning to vinyl as a reaction to my generation’s obsession with tiny technology. There are young people who are reading actual books and watching quality movies and listening to music that wasn’t popularized on YouTube. To you, I offer my unbridled respect. Being cool at your age takes even more hard work than it did when I was a teenager, and we thought Starter Jackets were stylish and Stone Temple Pilots was a good band.

This is an important point to make. There’s nothing inherently wrong with generations Y and Z. We all like stupid stuff when we’re kids. I liked Hammer pants, the movie “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and professional wrestling when I was younger. Fortunately, nobody was turning to me for advice at that age. The mistake we’re making as a culture is thinking that young people should be steering us. That’s what they call the tail wagging the dog.

Perhaps technology will eventually facilitate conversation that isn’t as brief and vapid as what most people say via text and tweet. Perhaps it will usher in a new era of democratized, personalized exchanges, as Pat suggests. Until then, we seem to have mistaken technological advancement for its own sake with true progress. While this willy-nilly dive down the rabbit hole might be shaping the brave new world one nano-second at a time, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be a world any of us take pride in populating.

The upside, of course, is that introspection will by then have been bred out of the gene pool, and people will judge their quality of life by the richness of their tan and their ability to afford a variety of flavors of Axe Nutrient Spray, which will replace both food and deodorant by 2050.

Meanwhile, I’ll be keeping up with the technology so that, A) I don’t lose all touch with where we’re headed as a society, B) nobody can say that I fear it because I don’t understand it, and C) I can keep an eye on you lunatics so I don’t have to scream and gnash my teeth after the fact like Charlton Heston in “Planet of the Apes.”

Don’t worry. That reference can’t be lost on somebody who doesn’t have the attention span to read past the first paragraph. Put that in your phone and text it.

Not-So-Horrible Bosses

July 8, 2011/4 Comments/in AM:PM PR /by ampmpr

– by Jake Ten Pas

The revenge comedy “Horrible Bosses” opens this weekend, and I’m kind of looking forward to seeing Charlie Day, Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis stick it to Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell. Not necessarily because I’ve had a lot of bad bosses in my day, mind you. Sure, there was my white-boy-thug-life boss at the Eugene Toys ‘R’ Us, who loved to point out my unflattering swoop-part hairdo by constantly calling me Little Nicky in reference to the Adam Sandler movie. But he was the exception rather than the rule.

I’ve probably been blessed with more cool bosses in my 34 years than most folks get in their whole lives. I worked at a new and used record shop called Happy Trails in Eugene and Corvallis, and my bosses there were total music geeks who loved to party, so you can imagine how bad that sucked. Then there was my boss at the fruit stand, who always had two kegs on tap in one of the coolers. I even lucked into a string of nice bosses at the corporate movie chains I worked right out of high school and the newspaper I worked at after college. Sure, my publishers/editors and I went head-to-head over some of my more controversial columns, but that’s just because I’m a rebel maverick renegade bad boy hell raiser with thunder in my soul and hot lava flowing through my veins. They can hardly be blamed for making the mistake of trying to contain the human equivalent of weather patterns.

Ahem.

All this brings me back to my current bosses, a plucky father-and-daughter team that gave me a shot at the glamorous world of public relations when I was still just a street urchin selling newspapers to buy a crust of bread for my purebred dog. Many of you reading this are familiar with Pat and Allison, so I’ll spare you the bios. If you want them anyway, click on their names.

Late last week, I set out to write a blog about our year anniversary party, but got sidetracked talking about the experience of starting a business. I ended up scrapping it and starting over, and the results were posted Tuesday. As for the aborted version, it basically said that when the McCormicks proposed the idea of leaving our old firm to start a new one, I not only didn’t bat an eye, but my eyelashes actually froze with a sense of inner peace and stillness the likes of which they’ve never before experienced. Especially not during The Great Four Loko Binge of 2010.

While starting a small business has undoubtedly been a lot more stressful for Pat and Allison, who’ve born the economic brunt of the endeavor, it’s been a lot of fun for me. I knew that I’d follow them wherever they went for two reasons. First, they’re both energetic and creative, loyal and savagely witty (wait, is that more than one reason?). Second (or fifth), they recognize my strengths and let me do the jobs around AM:PM PR that cater to those proclivities. I get to write constantly, meet new people, brainstorm and come up with creative ways to market our clients and company. And, as several friends have noted, there seem to be an absurd number of opportunities to drink on the job. I don’t want to paint myself as a lush or anything, but if the tumbler fits, drink it. When your job entails doing stuff you’d do for fun anyway, you’ve probably found a pretty decent fit for yourself.

So, take that Mr. Toyz’N’The Hood. And to anybody who goes to see “Horrible Bosses” in the near future, remember to take a moment and appreciate the good bosses you have or have had. If, on the other hand, your boss reminds you of those portrayed in the movie, just remember: There are plenty of ways to get revenge that don’t involve murder. As I mentioned, I love to brainstorm.