This week, there have been numerous stories in PR that have made it into the news headlines around the globe. Here are four of the top stories from the world of Public Relations.
Vatican Charging Five for Leak
The Vatican has charged five people, including Italian PR expert Francesca Chaouqui, over the leaking of confidential documents concerning financial reform of the curia. In a statement, the Vatican said the Court of Vatican City State summoned Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immaculate Chaouqui, Nicola Maio, Emiliano Fittipaldi, and Gianluigi Nuzzi to attend preliminary hearings beginning on the morning of Nov. 24.
The defendants are accused of “wrongful disclosure of information and confidential documents.”
Capstrat Shakes up Leadership
North Carolina PR Firm Capstrat has appointed Karen Albritton, as CEO and president, effective January 1. Ken Eudy, founder and current CEO, will become chairman.
As CEO and President, Albritton assumes responsibility as for the agency’s strategy, operations and financial performance. Eudy will continue to focus on and provide senior counsel to clients and contribute to agency strategy as part of the Capstrat Executive Team.
Albritton joined Capstrat in 2000 and was appointed president in 2007. Prior to joining Capstrat, she served as managing director at FGI marketing and as vice president and associate media director at McKinney+Silver.
Global Market Summit in Tehran
Global Marketing Summit which opened on Saturday, November 21st, at Shahid Baheshti University International Conference Center brought together prominent and seasoned executives from across the world as well as hundreds of top marketing managers from Iranian companies.
Arash Vafadari, the CEO of the Mana Payam Public Relations, and the first speaker at the Global Marketing Summit referred to the unique challenges and opportunities in the communications sector in Iran, saying, “An organization gives different messages to various members of its audience. One of the primary principles of communication is to send the right message to the right audience, and this should be done constantly.”
Lars Silberbauer, the global social media director at LEGO Group spoke about communicating effectively with customers through social media.
“When our children are born, most of them are creative, but only a few of them keep this creativity until adulthood. At Lego, by offering a product which its idea may seem primitive, we tried to maintain creativity in people until they become adults, so that we would be able to nurture talented individuals for society.” he added.
Tinder’s PR and Freudian Slips
Sean Rad is the CEO of the very popular App, Tinder, popular among millennial’s looking for connections. Last week, Rad bragged to a British newspaper, on the eve of his parent company’s initial public offering, that a “really, really famous” supermodel was “begging” him for sex.
Rad went on in the interview to make what sounded like a veiled threat to a Vanity Fair journalist, and proves that he had no idea what the word “sodomy” means in this excerpt:
“He continues: Apparently there’s a term for someone who gets turned on by intellectual stuff. You know, just talking. What’s the word?’ His face creases the effort of trying to remember. “I want to say ‘sodomy’?”
The night before Rad’s fateful interview, he met with PR representative Matthew Freud with the desire to start an art collection with the help of Freud. Freud is the nephew of the late painter Lucian Freud and a distant relative to Sigmund Freud.