A Connecticut cat is under ‘house arrest’ for biting six different people in the neighborhood, according to published reports.
Louie the cat, perhaps acting out his favorite Hip-Hop songs, has been a positive terror in his ‘hood as he leaps, lunges and latches onto the nearest human, biting or scratching away precious calf muscle, tendons, and god knows what else.
Assuming the cat wants to continue living, I suggest his owners immediately implement a crisis re-positioning campaign.
Having counseled many mean-spirited humans seeking to soften their tough guy images, I’d suggest the following:
1.) Rename Louie. Call him Fluffy, Cuddles or, maybe, even Honey Bun. If he does continue his pit bull impersonation, victims would be too embarrassed to admit they’d been bitten by Cuddles the cat.
2.) Embark on a therapy and re-training program to change his Mike Tyson-like deportment and issue "progress reports" along the way. This will make everyone glad to see the cat has admitted fault and is making amends. As anyone in my business will tell you, Crisis Communications 101 calls for admitting fault and putting corrective steps in place to make sure whatever happened never happens again.
3.) Go on the speaking circuit as an anti-violence advocate and educator. The media would take to this strategy like a kitty does to catnip. They’d eat it up, especially Oprah. Just imagine Cuddles the cat telling all those fawning women in Oprah’s studio audience about how he overcame his hostile and aggressive tendencies and today schools other felines about their anger management issues.
4.) The little guy should also think about penning an autobiography. How about this for a working title: "My bite is worse then my mew"
There are probably scores of other strategies the cat and his handlers could implement to re-position the vicious little bastard. Assuming he can reform his horrific habits and, assuming his owners decide they don’t want him anymore, we’d certainly welcome him in our office. I’m sure he’d make quick work of our mice problem.
Jimmy-
The fact that you are a cat man should come as no surprise to those that know you all well 🙂
Boy oh boy, I am sorry I missed this blogwar.
I-man, you have way too much time on your hands. Don’t you have any photos of the little guy to take, and paste about your office?
Kind regards to those I still know at Peppercom.
Jimmythemoock.
p.s. I am a cat man.
I-man – this blog is not just about you and me going back and forth so I’ll end this exchange by saying this. Many of your posts on this blog are way off, in my opinion. Very little of your content resembles sound, strategic thoughts on reputation management issues. I don’t expect you to agree with me but that’s how I feel and I will continue to challenge you when I feel you miss the mark (which is often)!
Mr Cody- Your supply of needles will never go away…worry not. I will try to keep all comments as you request.
Does this mean we aren’t going to shea anytime soon?
Now, now. People: why can’t we all just get along? I-man, we welcome all comments, positive or negative. The key, though, is that the comments shold provide some sort of constructive criticism. Does this mean you’re cancelling my supply of narrow-gauge hypodermic needles?
Ted-
While I was going to simply ignore your pointless comments, I decided to actually take 2 minutes to respond.
1- If you look back at all the previous blogs and comments, all of my responses have not been in disagreement with Mr. Cody.
2- Boring you say? Then stop reading my comments.
3- I do enjoy the content which is why I visit the blog. Just b/c I don’t agree with all of the opinions, doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the content. Way back, when the blog was started, Mr. Cody invited me to visit the blog and said he very much welcomed comments and other opinions. It seems to me that you don’t feel that is the case. So if you start a blog and don’t want commentary, I would happily oblige.
4- I agree with your comment about life not being all about making money. But, making money is the reason we go to work each morning. Something tells me if Messrs. Cody and Moed took away your paycheck and said “Listen Ted, money is tight, so we can’t pay you for the next 6 months, but come on in and be creative and innovate,” you wouldn’t stick around.
5- Again, I agree with you being creative comment. If you happen to ask Mr. Cody, I am sure he will tell you how on several occasions I sent him e-mails telling him that much of my success came about from I learned at Pcom. I learned how to differentiate my products and company, so yes, I too am creative and don’t just sell widgets to the John Doe.
6- I was not the one that began the attacks on the PR industry. If you take the time to actually read the comments, you will notice the first “attacking” comment came about my “peddling” medical supplies and not moving up the ranks in PR. Trust me, I know what is at the “top” of the PR mountains and it wasn’t enough to make me want to climb.
Bottom Line is this. If you create a blog and welcome commentary, you will always get both sides. And if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the blogshere.
PS- Dandy, if you have nothing else to do today in between naps, and want to spell check my reply, do it. I am sure you will then post some highly intellectual comment about how I misspelled a word or two. If that’s what floats you boat…
I-man: please stop disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. It’s immature and boring to read.
If you don’t like the content on this or any other blog, stop visiting it, and for the sake of all of us, stop posting.
Also, while I don’t care for cats and could care less about Louie, I take exception to your comments about the PR industry. First, making money should not be the primary measure of one’s success. Life is about achieving goals, being innovative and creating new things – something we do in the PR world every day. If you’re doing that in the medical supply world, then I’m happy for you. But the fact that you made more money has little to do with you moving up in the business world.
Further, your sophomoric mountain comment was, well, pretty damn sophomoric. There’s plenty at the top of the PR industry’s mountains, trust me. But you wouldn’t know that, would you? You bailed after falling off the bunny hill.
Just wanted to point out that there is no client mounting or conference room peeing in Peppercom’s European office.
There are bound to be some dogs that are not suited to the office environment but this is not the case when it comes to Norbert and George.
Actually, the sad fact is that when you’re faced with demanding clients and pressing to-do lists we all get quite jealous of the dogs taking an afternoon nap under the table.
You’re absolutely right. Louie the cat should explore the blogosphere first to test his messages, wetc., before appearing on Oprah.
Excuse me, but shouldn’t the cat start a blog, first?
I heard that this ‘media supply executive’ was a superstar PR practitioner. Steve, who was responsible for his hiring, Avi?
Dandy, what are you smoking? (pardon the pun)
The Oprah thing was creative, I will give you that. We 100% agree- you can certainly call it a win-win, no spin necessary on that one…
Isaac, as usual, you lose (big time)to Cody, so may we get back to the point at hand, which is to cat (or dog) or not to cat (or dog)? I think the fact that our European office has not one but two dogs speaks volumes. Peppercom’s heritage is tied to the animal world… we were named after a dog and the dog is Peppercom’s icon. Woof.
C’mon I-man. How many crisis/re-positioning campaigns have you seen implemented on a cat’s behalf? And, I think taking a rehabilitated feline onto Oprah is anything but “boilerplate” as you call it. As for your quick exit from the PR world, let’s just call it a win-win for all concerned.
I certainly did get the point of the blog but my point was there are other stories in the news today that were more deserving of the repman’s valuable insight. The “crisis tips” you mentioned were all “boilerplate.” If there were some new and exciting ideas, I would agree that this would have been taking the road less traveled, but the tips were a road that is traveled by many if not all.
In terms of me not moving up the ranks in PR as opposed to “peddling” medical supplies, I would bet that I made more money last year in my first full year in business than 95% of PR Professionals and PR Execs made last year. Sometimes in life, its not worth trying to climb a mountain when you realize that there is nothing waiting for you when you reach the top…
Dandy – While I said we’d welcome Louie to our office to clean up the mice issue, I’m not a fan of animals in the workplace. Having been in one office where two dogs were allowed to wander free, I can tell you they can be totally disruptive. I saw them stealing half-eaten food from waste baskets, mounting clients and prospects and urinating on conference room table legs.
Re: David’s comment that “this must have been a slow news day,” I would respond by saying, “au contraire.” See my response to I-man. While I do comment on breaking stories, I prefer to take the road less traveled. Everyone blogs about breaking news, David. I’d like to think it takes imagination to see the image and reputation implications that Louie is facing.
once again, the I-man fails to see the forest through the trees. In my opinion, the best blogs aren’t those providing commentary on breaking news. Anyone can do that. It takes creativity and imagination to see the image and reputation implications in a ‘cat bites man’ story. Maybe that’s why you’re peddling medical supplies instead of moving up the ranks in PR.
You’re right about dogs making the office a better place. We usually have two here (Norbert and George) and they certainly add a nice touch to the office atmosphere. If nothing else having a dog around forces you to leave your desk and venture outdoors at least once a day for walkies.
I remember way back when, being asked if it was a slow time in Medical Supplies b/c i spent time replying. This post makes me wonder how slow must it be PR world today.
It has been documented that having a cat (or a dog) in an office improves moral and supplies a sense of kindness and humanity to an office. It also is an outward reflection of the way a company views its employees (as family) and promotes a common bond beyond business.
WELCOME LOUIE!
Slow news day, huh?