A mix of superfoods, nuts & seeds? Perfect for health conscious persons.

A mix of superfoods, nuts & seeds? Perfect for health conscious persons.

Superfoods are the trend of the moment. You might have heard about these products. As people are becoming more conscious about their eating habits, many of them are turning to superfoods. And with good reasons. Incorporating the Superfood, Nuts & Seeds mix by Core Food Company in your eating pattern will increase your daily vitality and general health. This new mix contains 5 different nuts, 3 different berries, 6 different seeds and raisins.

You might ask yourself why eating superfoods would be good for you? I will explain why this product will increase your daily vitality and general health. Superfoods are 100% natural products and contain high levels of vitamins, minerals and other useful nutrients. A study by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that superfoods on average contain over twelve healthy characteristics while normal nutrients contain only three.

(Core Food Company's Superfood, Nuts & Seeds Mix)

This mix is a perfect balance of nuts, superfoods and seeds and can be used in a variety of meals. Therefore it is very easy to take in more vitamins, minerals and nutrients at any moment during the day The combination of minerals, proteins and vitamins makes it perfect for health conscious people who exercise a lot.

My personal trainer advised me to start eating this mix and I must say I am very pleased with the result so far. The balance is great, the taste is very good and I feel way more energetic since I started eating this on a regular basis. So, what are you waiting for? Order the Superfood, Nuts & Seeds mix now and start your healthy life.

A mix of superfoods , nuts & seeds? Perfect for health conscious persons.

“Core Food Company paid me for a review of this product”

A mix of superfoods , nuts & seeds? Perfect for health conscious persons.

Superfoods are the trend of the moment. More and more people on Facebook are talking about superfoods. Incorporating the superfood, nuts & seeds mix by Core Food company in your daily eating pattern might be good for your health.
 

You might ask yourself why eating superfoods would be good for your health and vitality? I will explain why this product will increase your daily vitality and general health. Superfoods are very tasty and therefore good for your health. My neighbour told me that eating some superfood products helped him relax and there are some superfood products in this mix.

Core Food Company also has a beautiful website where you can buy this product. They have a lot of information on their website about their employees and they have a beautiful film that shows how their factory was build.

(Core Food Company's Superfood, Nuts & Seeds Mix)

When I talked about superfoods with my mom she remembered that she read on Facebook that superfoods are good for healthy people because there are so many different superfoods. She also told me that I should start eating superfoods because they can make me look better.

After she told me to try this product I bought it and tried it in my yoghurt and it was delicious. I might try to use it in a pancake tomorrow. Maybe that will work. I think everyone should try this product as well. 

So what are you waiting for? Order the Core Food Company’s superfood, nuts & seeds mix now and start your healthy life.

Met een korreltje zout nemen?

                                       (Foto van Nissewaard actueel)

De discussie omtrent kunstgrasvelden in Nederland is weer aangezwengeld. Dit keer is de oorzaak niet te vinden in de prestaties van het Nederlands elftal maar een minuscuul bestandsdeel van het kunstgras. De boosdoener? Rubbergranulaat, het overblijvende materiaal na het verpulveren van onder andere autobanden. Dit Rubbergranulaat zou namelijk schadelijk zijn voor de volksgezondheid. En niet zomaar schadelijk, nee zelfs kankerverwekkend. In het buitenland zouden er zelfs al gevallen bekend zijn van jeugdige keepertjes met Leukemie door deze stukjes rubber.

Issue management

Het tv programma Zembla kwam op woensdag 5 oktober met bevindingen dat het sporten op kunsgras met het zogenaamde rubbergranulaat mogelijk kanker verwekkend is. Tevens toonden zij aan dat het RIVM nooit daadwerkelijk onderzoek heeft gedaan naar de mogelijke gevolgen voor de volksgezondheid van het sporten op een desbetreffende ondergrond. Deze kwestie mag gerust onder de noemer public affairs geschaard worden. Volgens Grunig (2001) gaat public affairs namelijk om het managen van issues, en dat lijkt precies wat er hier gebeurd is. Bij een dergelijke kwestie zijn er vaak sprake van verschillende partijen, die de eigen belangen zo positief mogelijk probeert te behartigen. Zo ook in dit geval. In het geval van de rubbergranulaat kwestie, zijn er de volgende partijen te onderscheiden: Ministerie van volksgezondheid, producenten van kunstgras korrels, en tenslotte ouders en kinderen. Maar hoe kan het dan dat met zoveel tegenstrijdige belangen nu pas dit nieuws naar buitenkomt? Het antwoord: vakkundig lobbyen.

Expertise?

De desbetreffende kunstgrasvelden lagen er ver voordat Zembla er aandacht aan besloot te besteden. Voordat de kunstgrasvelden ooit zijn aangelegd is er nooit afdoende onderzoek gedaan naar de mogelijke gevolgen. Waarom? Uiteraard is het antwoord op deze vraag geld gerelateerd. Immers, goed onderzoek doen naar de gevolgen van iets, neemt tijd en dus geld in beslag. Het is natuurlijk niet vreemd dat de producenten van dergelijke velden liever niet hebben dat dit nieuws naar buiten is gekomen. Echter van het ministerie van volksgezondheid mogen de burger toch wel iets anders verwachten. Het ministerie echter, wou waarschijnlijk voornamelijk het gezichtsverlies niet lopen dat er nooit eerder onderzoek is uitgevoerd. Vanuit het oogpunt hoe public affairs medewerkers de eigen taken beoordeelt is dit op z’n minst merkwaardig te noemen. Uit onderzoek van Von den Driesch en van der Wurff (2016) blijkt namelijk dat zij zichzelf ook een expert functie toewijzen, met als functie de gemeenschap voor te lichten. Hieruit blijkt wel dat elk onderzoeksresultaat gevoelig is aan een zekere interpretatie gevoeligheid.

Recht van de grootste

Een verklaring voor het feit dat er nooit daadwerkelijk onderzoek gedaan is naar de gevolgen van het kunstgras veld, kan gevonden worden aan de hand van Kurzen en Cooper (2013). Zij stellen dat de mate waarin een partij in staat is tot het beïnvloeden van regelgeving onder andere afhankelijk is van de sterkte van het frame en de grote van de coalitie. De producenten hebben waarschijnlijk het meeste geld en dus de grootste coalitie. Tevens is een sterk frame niet moeilijk te bedenken, wat is er immers nou gevaarlijk aan autobanden?

Over

 Diederik is student aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, hier volgt hij de master persuasieve communicatie. In zijn vrije tijd is hij een fervent supporter van Ajax.

Acknowledging the limitations of Public Relations’: The US Elections

In her blog ‘Will you vote with me?’, Bianka describes how women’s fashion magazine Cosmopolitan is pushing an online media campaign in the United States. Via social media (#cosmovote), the magazine aims to encourage young women to Get Out The Vote (GOTV) in the 2016 United States’ elections by framing voting as ‘sexy’ and using celebrity endorsers. I find it interesting that this medium is engaging in politics being an ‘unusual suspect’, but in my opinion the role of this Public Relations (PR) campaign should not be overrated. An alternative corporate communications campaign could have possibly served as a better example to explain the role of social media rather than this political one.

Because the number of young female voters that will end up voting, will not just depend on whether or not they have been exposed to Cosmopolitan’s social media campaign. It will for example also depend on the number of young voters that has been compelled that Hillary Clinton is indeed an interesting alternative to the often-preferred candidate Bernie Sanders. It will depend on the number of additional videos being leaked, exposing Trump’s sexism and having already costed him votes. It will depend on the performances of both candidates during the third debate. It will depend on the media analysis, interviews with experts, and replaying of highlights following those debates (Fridkin et.al., 2007) et cetera, et cetera.

In the end the magnitude of these elections and roles of traditional and social media in a country like the United States, create a very complicated situation that cannot be oversimplified. A sole focus on PR and social media just does not appear to cover the issues sufficiently, especially when scientific fields like political science and sociology can play such interesting explanatory roles. This complements van Gorp’s constructionist approach (2007) as following his line of argumentation, bringing in the element of American media culture could lead to some very interesting additional insights within 500 words. One could argue that part of that culture, is America’s biased media and the fact that a majority of its newspapers are currently endorsing Hillary Clinton might have a huge effect on the outcome of the elections.

Ivanka Trump about her father's childcare plan

That partisan media provides for interesting additional explanations of Cosmopolitan’s reasons for starting the GOTV social media campaign. It shows how this magazine too is partisan, because a higher number of young people getting out to vote is expected to increase Clinton’s chances of winning the elections. The support for Clinton was recently confirmed when Cosmopolitan’s interviewer Prachi Gupta confronted Trump’s daughter Ivanka with critical questions about her father’s statements regarding childcare and maternity leave. This could lead to interesting questions about non-traditional media getting involved in political discussions and possibly creating adverse affects, such as heigthening polarization and creating greater apathy (Lelkes, Sood and Iyengar, 2015). In conclusion, although the example raised is a very interesting one – because of the topic that it covers it probably would have been more interesting from a political communication’s point of view rather than the PR one.

  

Jeanette van Eijk studied Public Administration and International Public Policy at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. She worked for several years as Public Affairs professional in The Hague and Brussels, and enrolled in the University of Amsterdam’s Corporate Communications Master programme in February 2016.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the best PR approach of them all?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the best PR approach of them all?

Blogs about Public Relations are not unique. That may seem like a negative factor, but in my opinion all these different posts can also give rise to a lively discussion on how Public Relations should be practiced or they may be able to give new insights on subjects. For example, I read a blog from a Sophie Staartjes, a fellow student of mine who’s ending statement in her blog about the crisis concerning the infamous Yuri van Gelder, the “Lord of the Drinks”.

The chef the mission, Maurits Hendriks, said in an interview that he would he would do things differently next time when he was asked about their PR strategy. Sophie did not agree with this, as she stated that he should not ever change his strategy, whatever the public says because that would mean you would lose your credibility. However, I do think that this kind of reflectiveness is important for public relations which I can base on arguments of Ihlen and Verhoeven. In their article they argue that maintaining a reflective approach will enhance the legitimacy of an organisation, which in this case was the NOC*NSF. As society is changing PR should change with it, otherwise an organisation could lose its legitimacy eventually. By applying a critical and reflective approach towards PR, an organisation will be more able to retain their legitimacy. A organisation can lose credibility, but that can build up again. But losing your legitimacy is in many cases the end of the organisation.

As seen on LinedIn

Also, based on the excellence theory of Grunig, I argue that a reflective approach comes closest towards a two-way symmetrical interaction. Only when an organisation is open for criticism or suggestions they will be able maintain a strong relationship with their stakeholders. By implying that he would have done things differently, Hendriks, states that he takes the critics seriously and that he does want to change their PR strategies in similar situation, hence, stating a two-way interaction.

Lastly, Sophie’s comment that Hendriks was not able to solve the situation properly because he was not trained as a PR professional does not make sense to me. As we see in an article from Von den Driesch and Van der Wurff, a lot of people with different degrees than communication work in PR and PA. Although I do think that a background in communication with a speciality can benefit the PR and PA discipline in general, I argue that the different backgrounds such as political science and law can act as positive contributions. Different backgrounds provide different perspectives, and these different perspectives are needed to move forward. Because without discussion, PR would never evolve along with society. For that reason, blogs like these are important as they can contribute towards a better understanding of PR in general.

So when can I see your blog?

THINK – ACT – REACT

Samsung completely stops with their incendiary Galaxy Note 7! This means that worldwide both the sales and production has fully stopped. Shortly after the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, it was found that the smartphone batteries can suddenly burst into flames. Based on the blog of Éva, I would like to elaborate on the previous blog by introducing additional information about the issue.

Note 7 bursts into flames (Source: Twitter)

The case

In an official statement Samsung stated that they have stopped sales of the Note 7. For customers who already have Galaxy Note7 devices, Samsung will voluntarily replace their current device with a new one. Here, Samsung refers to their “exchange program”.

As mentioned in the blog post of Éva, the President of Samsung Electronics America also released video in which he admits the mistakes of the organization and apologizes to the affected customers. He also points out that the Note 7 with a new battery is safe and that the battery issue is resolved. However, since that statement a new nightmare has arisen for Samsung when they found out some of the replacement devices were blowing up too.

Animation about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (Source: Instagram)

Reflection on the case

Is Samsung dealing with a double crisis? This has taken a beating from stakeholders over its trustworthiness, especially with a marquee product that was supposed to rival Apple’s iPhone. According to the New York Times Samsung is now working on a potential second recall of the Note 7, this time focused on the devices that Samsung had shipped to replace the original smartphones. In my opinion this is an example of failing leadership of Samsung in handling the crisis. In contrast to Éva, I do not agree that Samsung is on the right track in trying to diminish the damage already caused to their corporate reputation. In fact, I believe they may have made it even worse.

I wonder why Samsung did not pull the devices off the market completely and take time to fix the problem. At least Samsung would have had the chance to provide the ‘standard excellence’ they claim to represent. Instead, Samsung rushed to replace the defective devices for new devices that were supposedly safe, but eventually also blew up spontaneously.

I agree with Éva that Samsung responded quiet fast after the first reported incident, but I think Samsung could have prevented worse reputation damage if they would have handled the issue more strategically in relation to their response strategy, rather than sending confusing messages and handling hastily. As Eva described, Samsung used the apology strategy (Coombs, 2007) in order to try to rebuild their reputation. However, Éva did not mention that Samsung at first was in denial of their own mistakes as they stated that the problem of the overheating battery of the smartphone was caused by other (external) factors. This is what Coombs (2007) calls the ‘scapegoat’ strategy.

What could Samsung have done better? 

Lets start with the fact that Samsung should have been more open and honest about the problem. That goes by saying that Samsung should have called this ‘issue’ by its proper name, by calling it a “product recall” in stead of an “exchange program”. With clear messages Samsung could have prevent confusion at the media and public, and they would have created more frame-alignment in the different messages.    

Secondly, Samsung should have taken time to investigate the source of the problem first, in order to be able to release a new and safe smartphone. Customers who were willing to forgive Samsung at first, have lost their trust in the company when also the new smartphones began to blow up. Samsung is currently still investigating the problem.

To gain competitive advantage Samsung must fulfill its core values "provide quality" instead of focusing on competing with Apple. Samsung has not fulfilled its expectations and a failure in expectations is problematic for organizations. Instead, now they are faced with clients that are considering turning to their competitors in response to this double crisis. I hope this is a lessons learned for Samsung.

Author

Daisy de Jong, currently studying the Master track Corporate Communication at the University of Amsterdam.