Acing final exams in school, and then acing job interviews and, subsequently, earning kudos as a company’s top sales associate, and climbing the corporate ladder… that’s exhilarating!
In the career I was in — public relations — getting good press seemed extraordinary, marvelous, even magical. Good press was — and still is — hard to get. Knowing this, like many others who have been in PR, I get a kick out of analyzing what’s what, with who’s who… the folks who are making news, these days.
There’s that PR imbroglio with the British Royal family that’s been headline news for several days. But since that’s being hashed and rehashed, let’s go on to other newsmakers, such as Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who was interviewed by Molly Wood, the host of the public radio show, Marketplace.
Mr. Chesky’s business model, like those of some of his competitors, has been causing some angst among folks in neighborhoods, nationwide, including folks residing in Pagosa Springs. Short-term rental businesses have gotten bad press for causing disruption and housing shortages in residential neighborhoods.
This has been a “bubbling thing with Airbnb, this relationship with cities and whether Airbnb is partly to blame for the lack of affordable rentals,” said Ms. Wood to Mr. Chesky, during the interview.
“I feel very optimistic about our ability to have great relationships to cities,” noted Mr. Chesky, who thinks his business may be trending toward “becoming less transient. Monthly rentals is one of the fastest-growing parts of our business. But I think the other shift is, stays are going to be longer. And I think there’s going to be this blurring of the line between traveling and living.
“A lot of people are saying that they don’t live any one place anymore,” he went on to say. “Or it used to be you live one place, and you go one or two nights for a business meeting and like one or two are vacation. Now, a world where you work from home means a world where you can work from any home…I think three-day weekends will be every weekend for a lot of people. I think some people will take five-day weekends…I mean, it just makes total sense why one would do that,” said Mr. Chesky.
And then he noted…“if you could say, well, how do they afford it? Well, they can rent their house when they’re gone, so you can net it out…Traveling and living are blurring together.”
Blurring together…traveling and living?
And then, there’s former President Trump, who – no surprise! – is still making headlines, with his latest skirmish in his war on the Republican Party, especially on RINOS in the GOP. That’s short for ‘Republicans in name only.’
“No more money for RINOS,” exclaimed the former POTUS, who wants “supporters to donate to his Save America PAC via his personal website,” according MSNBC. As for those RINOS, Mr. Trump is suggesting “They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base – they will never lead us to Greatness.”
Yeah… he’s still doing his PR thing, the former president, getting political donors to do what he’d like them to do, with those words of his, about ‘greatness,’ and all. But, greatness for whom? That’s the question being pondered in various media, since, probably, a whole lot of money will be going into the Trump PAC. That’s the Trump PAC, rather than – you know – the GOP.
And, as long as we’re talking about the former president’s PR messaging, he sure stirred up opinion about the pandemic, perhaps especially, according to media, when he was politicizing face masks. When he was trying to get folks to associate wearing a face mask with weakness.
Well, governors in several states are ending face mask-wearing requirements — the state of Texas, for example. And according to a Business Insider article, “A Trader Joe’s customer accused the grocer of violating Texas state law, after employees denied the man entry without a mask…The situation highlights how the state’s new rules have put many frontline workers in a vulnerable position.”
Like I mentioned, earlier, I sure get a kick out of analyzing what’s what with – you know – who’s who.