"I had no idea what to do. I called American Express and told them what I suspected. They immediately shut everything down and gave me the phone numbers to all three credit bureaus to close the door on any further credit fraud. Generally, you’re only liable for the first $50 but American Express waived that. I cannot praise the people at American Express enough. They were absolutely fabulous to deal with and every person I spoke with was over the top with helpful suggestions and encouragement."

I think the old vehicle of traditional PR still runs more than some people think

I friend of mine forwarded to me an email excerpt of a blog entry on Penelope Trunk's blog at Brazen Careerist.
It eloquently and succinctly describes the new paradigm that Web 2.0 and social media represent to the PR and advertising/marketing in…

REALSELF?!?! (how ironic!)

Good God. Why do you keep doing things that make me completely lose all respect for you and your opinions? Suggesting (cheesy, horrible) webpages like this as a solution to making it in the business world makes me feel like there is no hope, ever, for business in this country.

How about doing a good job, looking your age, and thereby reinforcing the notion that age=experience=good? How about advising women about how to better communicate their efforts, results, and impact on a project or company, as opposed to *advocating SURGERY??* (sigh). I wish you realized this suggestion of yours is the problem, not the solution.

Thanks for your response. I did read through the site but didn’t see the section where people commented that they had not undergone surgery – all the comments seemed to be from people who underwent surgery or procedures already.

I realise not all responses are positive, but looking at the site as a whole, overwhelmingly they are. I don’t know whether this is a genuine reflection of patient satisfaction, as the people responding on the site are self-selected, not randomly selected. Are people who are satisfied more likely to find and post on a site like RealSelf? Are people who have spent a lot of money on a vanity procedure likely to try to justify the worth? I don’t know, but they’re worthwhile questions.

I also note that cosmetic doctors can post before/after pics. Obviously these pictures are going to be biased towards procedures that the doctor regards as good results, not average or even poor ones. There’s also a section where people ask questions and working plastic surgeons respond – expert, but hardly independent advice. And finally, surgeons often respond to poor reviews, frequently recommending further procedures to fix what went wrong.

With these kind of selection biases, I don’t know how the site cannot be regarded as promoting plastic surgery on the whole.

Of course, people don't set out to look freakish but I've certainly seen that happen from too many face lifts or implants or botox injections. I agree there can be a middle way.

Lasik eye surgery is a form of cosmetic surgery by the way. I'm not saying that as a judgment (it's something I'd contemplate), just as an accurate descriptor of what it is.

Isn't there a case of respect for age in the workplace, though? I know, from being a sort of wunderkind at my first non-self-employed job six months ago (for a games developer, no less — not someone with a lot of older employees!) that however great your degree was, and your dedication and work ethic at the job are now, if you're one of the youngest employees, people still tend to step all over you. Now, that will partly have been the particular company I was at, but nevertheless: isn't there an argument to be made that older people garner more respect, possess more gravitas, have more of a presence and power? Not ALL older people, but maybe you take my point.

I've been thinking this (reluctantly) for a long time now – how can PR not have a major crisis when print journalism and local electronic journalism are plowing through one now? As you probably heard, The Rocky Mountain News is now a goner.

One of the things that made the news release so weak post Web 2.0 was the demand for two-way communication. Blogs (and even forums) provided a solution to this through the advent of reader comment, etc. Twitter enables two-way communication, but that doesn't mean that people using it understand the need to manage the feedback loop.

Jennifer James McCollum, APR
(i thought i'd make it official. ha!)