Brittany’s Blog!

Last summer my mom, Dr. Lee Carson, performed a great PR event by hosting a free skin cancer screening at our church.  She owns her own dermatology practice in Columbia, SC and our church is very prominent.  This event was advertised in our church bulletin for a few weeks leading up to that Saturday.  That Saturday from 7am-7pm she had all of her nurses at the church with private rooms set up.  Each person who came through would have the opportunity to hear what Dr. Carson thought of a spot on their skin that was concerning them.  After “screening” their skin, Dr. Carson gave her expertise advice to the patient without charge as well as a filled out paper as to what Dr. Carson presumed the spot be.

By inviting the community to come out to the free screening, it not only advertises Dr. Carson, but shows her in a positive light trying to better the community.  Also, if the patient gets advice to see a dermatologist for further treatment, they are most likely to go to Dr. Carson whom they have already seen. When patients came in to see Dr. Carson, they brought the paper that they had been given at the free cancer screening for her to use to further evaluate them.  Therefore, this paper was used as a message receipt.

The other day I was walking down town Clemson when I saw this POWERade College Intramural poster in one of the doors of a store. It immediately caught my eye because it looked like a form of Public Relations due to the promotion of the college intramural events but at the same time had “POWERade” sponsoring the event.

The website displays the universities who are participating, including Clemson.  Each university forms teams to compete for the championship and schools are knocked out of the rounds as they loose.  The website allows students to post pictures of the games and, since POWERade is served at every game, there are POWERade coolers in some of the pictures as well.  The website also includes two famous football stars Shawne Merriman and Vince Young.

The whole College Intramural event gives students the opportunity to associate POWERade with a fun and competitive event and, therefore, increasing the relationship that the POWERade company has with college students.  POWERade sponsors the event to get their name out to many athletic students and reminds them to drink POWERade by providing it at games.  The two famous football players approving of the competition  makes the POWERade products and event seem even more important because of their status.

I got an e-mail today from the Student Alumni Association that said “Make sure to wear your SAA shirt on Wednesday! If you see our golf cart you can receive FREE Bojangles!” By giving out free food, the Student Alumni Association is promoting themselves by spreading the word through the e-mail and encouraging every one to wear their shirts which increases the amount of awareness. Also, free food produces a good attitude towards the association. Therefore, this whole event is PR for SAA.

I couldn’t help but notice Clemson’s “Your other you” campaign pop up on the home screen of the Clemson website.  It seemed to me that this alcohol education campaign had to be a type of PR promotion for something.  While reading it I noticed that the company in charge of the campaign, Erwin-Penland, was mentioned several times.  Erwin-Penland, a marketing firm that provides advertising among other services, provided the campaign as a part of a promotion for their own sake.  This campaign not only helps out themselves by exposing their name for future clients but it also makes them look good and compassionate because the campaign is for a good cause to help people manage their alcohol consumption.