In a front page article in today’s New York Times, Dr. Kara Alaimo, a professor of public relations at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, discusses how the global reach of social media has dramatically changed how advertisers respond to their consumers. In particular, a viral backlash against Pepsi’s latest ad forced the company to pull it off the airwaves, and more than 50 companies pulled their ads from Bill O’Reilly’s popular FOX News show after reports of harassment involving at least five women. Dr. Alaimo contends that Americans now expect that advertisers make their positions clearer on sensitive issues such as race and politics.
Dr. Alaimo is also author of the book, Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication, and a former spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury Department in the Obama administration.
