pinkMOXIE

YouTube Video of a Carls Jr. Burger Smoothie Doesn't Go To Smoothly for Three Jamba Juice Employees

Another YouTube video stunt gets employees fired. This time it's Jamba Juice employees blending a Portabello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger from Carls Jr. in a Jamba Juice blender while the store was open for business. Three employees, who all appeared in the video, were fired.

These latest firings are just coming off the heels of firings at Domino's Pizza where an employee posted a video of himself, while his co-worker recorded it, doing some-less-than-desirable things to a sandwich he was making, such has putting a string of cheese up his nose before placing it in the sandwich.

Prior to the Domino's incident it was three female employees at a Kentucky Fried Chicken who decided to take a provocative bath in KFC's sink. And let's not forget the Burger King employee who also took a bath in the sink of the dish washing area of Burger King while his manager was in the front of the store.

Despite how funny some of these videos are, employees need to realize that there are consequences to having that kind of fun while on the clock, on company premises, and/or wearing company attire while engaging in such activity. Employees also need to know that in some cases these stunts may seem funny at the time, but in hindsight they are not funny at all because in severe cases it can damage a company's image and hurt sales, especially in cases where the stunt presents health risks to customers.

It is critical that companies do a better job at not only setting social media policies, but effectively communicating to employees what the policies are, why they're important to adhere to, and the consequences of breaking them.

The working relationship between the public relations and human relations departments at most companies is not really an integrated one, but with the rise of social media, it's time these two departments start working more closely together. Many PR departments and agencies are very active in social media, now it's time for HR to be equally active and to work with PR to avoid employees using social media to intentionally or unintentionally embarrass and hurt the company.

Smart companies will get this and begin taking steps toward having PR and HR work together to educate and prevent employees from using social media for what some employees may think is a fun and harmless stunt, but later leads to PR nightmares for the company and legal actions against employees. Having social media policies and best practices in place enables companies to hopefully prevent these stunts, but it also gives them the ability to take quick action and immediately address a situation as soon as it hits the Internet and goes viral.

To read more about the latest video stunt gone bad, see KCRA-TV's story on how Jamba Juice worker Lorenzo Adams lost his job, along with his two co-workers, after he posted the burger blending video on his YouTube channel. You can no longer watch the video because he has since made it private, but you can watch clips of it in the KCRA story.

NEEDED: A Perfect Stranger for Nick Glasgow and Others Who are in the Fight of Their Lives

Sadly, I haven’t posted in more than two months, but today, I happily have a little free time to write a post. I also had a minute to log into Facebook and it was there that I saw a status update that inspired me to write this post.

Autumn Truong, a friend and colleague of mine, had a Facebook status update and link that caught my attention. She, along with many others, are helping spread the word about Nick Glasgow, 28, of Fremont, CA who is fighting for his life and is in need of a bone marrow donor.

In March, Glasgow developed a sore throat and over the course of a week began experiencing body aches and other symptoms, which then led to him being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a blood cancer. In hopes of going into remission, Glasgow underwent two rounds of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, he is not in remission and is in desperate need of a donor match.

However, finding that match is not easy because it’s like finding a tiny needle in a gigantic haystack. To further complicate the matter, donors have to be of the same ethnic background, and even that doesn’t guarantee a match.

The U.S. Marrow Registry has 6.6 million registered donors. There are 10 million registered donors worldwide, with just over 506,000 of them being Asian American. Ethnic minorities only have a 30 percent chance of finding a donor, whereas Caucasians have up to an 85 percent chance. There is a shortage of Asian, Asian American and other ethnic minority donors worldwide, which is why it is important to spread the word and help close the gap on the shortage of ethnic minority registered donors.

Glasgow is ¼ Japanese and ¾ Caucasian so he needs to find a donor match who is also of mixed Asian-Caucasian descent. The donor pool among Asians is small, but as Glasgow’s friend Stacy Morales said in a recent KTVU news story about Glasgow’s need to find a donor, “it only takes one.” She’s right. And that one person could be you or me.

Regardless of your ethnic background, you could be a match for somebody who is in need of a donor. Get involved and save a life.

Be The Match Marrowthon
From June 8-22, The National Marrow Donor Program is having the “Be The Match Marrowthon” where people across the country can register to become a donor at the numerous donor drives happening during the 15-day marrowthon. The process to become a donor is simple, either have a kit mailed to you or attend one of the many donor drive events during the marrowthon. The test itself involves getting the inside of your cheek swabbed with a cotton swab, which is then sent to a lab for testing. If you are a match, in many cases, the transplant itself can be done through blood.

But you don’t need to wait until the Be The Match Marrowthon because Glasgow and many others are in need today, so visit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to learn more on fighting blood cancers. For those of you who are of Asian descent, visit the Asian American Donor Program.

Jeremy Pepper Likes to Eat His Own Kind

Pinkmoxie is simply a personal blog for my own amusement about my personal interests and has nothing to do with my professional life –

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk (http://thomashawk.com/)

at least not until today. However, today I feel compelled to blog about an incident that occurred in my professional life because time and time again I come across huge egos that go unchecked. And frankly, it gets old and I feel the need to call it out; not to be mean-spirited, but in hopes to change the climate. This post is 100 percent my own opinion and not that of my employer or any of my co-workers.

PR guy Jeremy Pepper somewhat runs in the same circles as I do and I would consider him an acquaintance, and frankly he’s always been nice and I like the guy. But this week he decided to jump on the I'm-so-important-and-hot-and-need-to-tell-the-world-who-sucks bandwagon that has the likes of Gina Trapani, Chris Anderson and others riding along. Given Anderson leads the pack, not bad company I suppose (don’t get me wrong, I really do like and respect Anderson, but his blacklist post was a crappy move, buy hey, maybe he was just having a shitty day that day).

Whatever happened to being a decent human being? This week Pepper took it upon himself to call out a colleague of mine who works on my team, is fairly new to PR and is a rising star. Pepper published a post on Tumblr calling my colleague out for an email pitch she sent him, which in his opinion, was giving him too much information on an "embargoed" announcement, and (in his opinion) for writing a pitch that was much too long (yeah, yeah, I get it, nobody likes long emails. Hell, I hate email and hope to stop using it someday).

I'm not going to get into the embargo debate because that's not what my post is about. Of course, I'm more than happy to do so offline with anyone, anytime because I have strong opinions on using embargoes as a PR tactic, and the different types and uses of embargoes.

Pepper’s actions are akin to a Businessweek reporter not liking how a Wall Street Journal reporter wrote a story, so he writes and posts an article dissing the Wall Street Journal reporter's writing style and approach to the story. It’s unprofessional.

Pepper was obviously highly annoyed at her email approach and felt she made a PR 101 blunder. But what’s funny is that another PR blogger actually direct messaged my boss on Twitter complimenting her on her approach and pitch. Funny, huh? Yeah.  And there were quite a few others who she contacted who were interested and asked her for the link and password to the embargoed video, whitepaper and additional information.

Aspiring Model Takes His Life in Public Park, Leaves Suicide Note on Facebook

This morning in a Brooklyn park a 30-year-old aspiring model was found hanging in an apparent suicide. Hours earlier he had left what many are viewing as a "suicide note" on his Facebook status update, which read:

"...born in San Francisco, became a shooting star over everywhere, and ended his life in Brooklyn... And couldn't have asked for more"

Paul Zolezzi used a very public forum, Facebook, to tell the world that he was here and lived a life in all its glory, but was now ending it. And then he went out and took his life in a public place. To me, this hints to him wanting to be noticed and remembered. Something I think we all want.

Tonight, Zolezzi is clearly noticed because the news of his suicide spread like wildfire across the social Web.

I first learned of Zolezzi's suicide this afternoon when I saw his picture and a headline of his death in my stream on FriendFeed. It linked to a post by Duncan Riley of The Inquisitr.

After reading Riley's post, I noticed a flurry of other stories and blog posts of Zolezzi's suicide. The news spread quickly and gained a lot of attention because of Zolezzi’s use of Facebook to leave his final message to the world before taking his own life.

Social networking sites have become so ingrained in our everyday lives that it's only natural that a private act like suicide becomes so public. Zolezzi's suicide is not the first suicide to be associated with a social network. Just a few months ago on November 19, 2008, Abraham K. Biggs of Florida committed suicide while broadcasting it live on Justin.tv, a popular online video site. Biggs was 19 years old.

Death and suicide are never easy and the public openness of the social Web adds an additional layer of complexity for the families and friends of Zolezzi, Biggs and any others who have used social networks prior to taking their own life. And I suppose it even impacts strangers. I know it affects me, which is why I'm blogging about it.

Any time a young person dies it has an impact on me, but especially suicide. I am all too familiar with suicide and its aftereffects. My father hung himself 13 years and three days ago -- February 17, 1996. With every suicide I read and hear about it brings that night when I learned of my dad's suicide rushing back all over again, just as it did today when I read about Zolezzi’s suicide.

My heart goes out to Zolezzi's family and friends, especially his mother. I know that kind of pain and it saddens me when others have to experience it. Too many of us have, as you can see and hear in this Good Charlotte music video, which includes others sharing their stories about the impact of suicide.