A Fairytale For the Modern Age
-- Posted by Interrobang, at Spocko's request
From Scottish blogger Christopher Dallman at Deacon Barry, comes this delightful retelling of Spocko's story...
A Short Comment from Spocko to His Nineteen Readers: I'm having problems getting the updated list out to everyone who asked. And remind them that the ADVERTISERS are our FRIENDS. BE polite. This is NOT a boycott. They just need to hear and choose. They can choose to stay.
A Short Interrobangish Comment: That's what this is all about, folks. This is not a boycott. For once, the advertisers are on our side. Many of them have corporate policies in place regarding diversity and human rights, non-discrimination and all that good stuff. Our job is merely to inform the advertisers of the content on KSFO, and ask them whether they consider their proximity to KSFO's messages to be good for their brand. Again, as Spocko says, if they choose to remain with KSFO after that, then that's their business (and you are free to behave as you like afterwards), but what we're primarily concerned with here is informing and educating.
Three Tips for Writing an Effective Informative Letter: When writing to the advertisers, the way to get the best effect is to follow at least these three principles.
1) Keep it short and simple. Stick to one or two main points. Use lots of white space, bulleted lists, and other formatting to make it easy to read. A letter of this type should ideally be one page.
2) Be polite. Keep your tone respectful and professional. In corporate communications, you always catch more metaphorical flies with honey than with vinegar. If you're really angry when writing your letter, don't send it until you're calmer.
3) Take some time before writing to figure out what you want to say. That way you're less likely to get sidetracked and you can stay "on message" more effectively.
Good luck!
From Scottish blogger Christopher Dallman at Deacon Barry, comes this delightful retelling of Spocko's story...
Spocko and the Mouse-King - A true fairytale
Once upon a time, in a far off land, there lived a little blogger called Spocko. Now where Spocko lived, there was a radio station which was owned by the Mouse-King. And on this radio station were three bad rats called Mel, Lee, and Tom, who enjoyed saying naughty things about people they didn't like. One of them was even the princess of the land and Mel was heard talking about assassinating her!
Spocko got very angry when he heard this, so he recorded what these bad rats said, and put it on his blog. He also told the station's advertisers what they were saying, and they started to withdraw their advertisements from the station.
When the Mouse-King found out what Spocko was doing, he became very angry indeed! His minions sent a decree to Spocko's landlord, and Spocko was summarily evicted!
Poor Spocko. There is no happy ending - yet. He is still homeless. But he has been found by a friendly giant called Markos, who has shouted out Spocko's story with his great big voice, across the sea for me to hear and post it for you to read.
There may yet be a happy ending, because the story is still unfolding.
A Short Comment from Spocko to His Nineteen Readers: I'm having problems getting the updated list out to everyone who asked. And remind them that the ADVERTISERS are our FRIENDS. BE polite. This is NOT a boycott. They just need to hear and choose. They can choose to stay.
A Short Interrobangish Comment: That's what this is all about, folks. This is not a boycott. For once, the advertisers are on our side. Many of them have corporate policies in place regarding diversity and human rights, non-discrimination and all that good stuff. Our job is merely to inform the advertisers of the content on KSFO, and ask them whether they consider their proximity to KSFO's messages to be good for their brand. Again, as Spocko says, if they choose to remain with KSFO after that, then that's their business (and you are free to behave as you like afterwards), but what we're primarily concerned with here is informing and educating.
Three Tips for Writing an Effective Informative Letter: When writing to the advertisers, the way to get the best effect is to follow at least these three principles.
1) Keep it short and simple. Stick to one or two main points. Use lots of white space, bulleted lists, and other formatting to make it easy to read. A letter of this type should ideally be one page.
2) Be polite. Keep your tone respectful and professional. In corporate communications, you always catch more metaphorical flies with honey than with vinegar. If you're really angry when writing your letter, don't send it until you're calmer.
3) Take some time before writing to figure out what you want to say. That way you're less likely to get sidetracked and you can stay "on message" more effectively.
Good luck!
9 Comments:
Maybe you can do something with this: http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2007/01/time-honored-family-classic.html
Or these: http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2007/01/julian-darley-on-corporate-disobedience.html
i'm not blogwhoring... just feeding you good information... Read it... Watch it... You'll LIKE it!
--mf
Fight the good fight, spocko. I have a pretty-robust reseller account and might be able to help you host stuff. If you still need that, comment on this post, as I fear putting any form of email address here.
Hey Spocko,
I have had diabetes for twenty two years. I was really upset to see the American Diabetes Association ran ads during the KSFO show you wrote about. After trying to call them, I finally got a response when I put a post up on one of thier forums. After reading all of the heartwrenching stories of diabetic people without health insurance trying to find work, I wrote a post about your story. I wondered if any of the people there had any thoughts. I was immeadiately assailed by the moderator who accused my of ranting and spamming the forum. The moderator sent me a nasty email, locked me out of the forum, and erased my post's. I was polite and brief and despite some difficulty I had cutting and pasting, I was not trying to spam anybody.
I hope you enjoyed the story. I'm sure Disney will want to turn it into their next musical extravaganza.
A list would be nice.
Corky -- That's really awful. I'm sorry to hear that. :(
I will admit that sometimes merely being polite and brief isn't enough to get the response you want, but sometimes nothing is. :(
Corky,
try emailing them back, and een a polite, brief way, outline the problem.
Tell them that the on-air pipples at KSFO, and what they say, reflect poorly on the station's advertisers.
Eef possible, put some leenks to the KSFO soundfiles in jour letter. I find the "Brite-cream" one particularly effective at getting the point across.
I can tell that joo care about the reputation of thees Association.
Joo would no stand by to see eet dragged eento the muck by sometheeng eet ees no responsible for, yet.
Tell them that the Association must respond, eventually. At the very least to avoid the appearance of sponsoring thees kind of hateful language.
Buena suerte.
so.
Holy mouse that roared Batman!
This gargantuan threat to the integrity of the magical kingdom may be big enough for the lawyers to throw caution to the wind, tear away the use only in case of emergency wrapper, and lunge their sweaty palms upon the giant red button that initiates the predestined thawing of Walt from his frozen slumber chamber to arise and rescue the happiest corporation on Earth!
...RUN!!!
I disagree. These sponsors must know what the content of these stations is. Threatening to boycott them works wonders. It's happened before.
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