It's that time of the year!

Super Bowl XLIV was aired on CBS on Sunday night at 7 p.m. The Saints won their first Super Bowl against the Colts! Though, I paid more attention to the advertisements than the game! Some of my favorites this year were the Doritos commercial called "Dog Gets Revenge" and Career Builder's "Casual Fridays". Some other good one's were the Dodge Charger Commercials and the Bud Light Commercials featuring T-Pain. I always like the more humorous commercials. Of course the GoDaddy.com commercials were with the usual girls attracting attention by doing something sexual. I think it's safe to say that we are all getting sick of these. Then of course there was the Tim Tebow ad, which had all of the controversy surrounding it. Was the Super Bowl the right place to air this kind of ad? The commercial, honestly, didn't grab my attention at all the first time.
It seemed as though, overall, the themes of this year's Super Bowl advertisements were women being knocked over and pants less men. I wonder what next year's Super Bowl ads will bring us...more naked people?

Twitter Challenge!

So this week my PR Campaigns class was challenged/assigned to "tweet" 35 times in one week. This meant we had to get on Twitter about 5 times a day and respond to people by @replies, post links in our tweets, and basically just get used to using Twitter professionally. We also had to start a list and add people into it. My list was called "PR Campaigns" and in that list I added everyone that is in my PR class. I figured this would make it easier for me to communicate with the whole class.
Now, when I first started this assignment I was skeptical. I know how to use Twitter, but I have always had a hard time seeing the significance of it. As soon as I followed more professionals and started tweeting more, I realized that Twitter is a very important social media tool. I was able to network with PR professionals all over the world. I got responses to my posts within minutes, rather than e-mailing people, which can take forever for a response.
I encourage everyone to take the "Twitter Challenge". It will open up many opportunities! So, go to, http://twitter.com/ and follow me at CaraRyanW.

Digital Bridges

This year, in PR Campaigns, our client is Digital Bridges. Digital Bridges is a non-profit organization that bridges business and technology. They hold "brown-bag" luncheons and other workshops to teach people that technology is important, especially for businesses. In this day and age, people use technology for everything! It is important to keep up with the technology trends to keep your business successful.
Well, back to the "project", our class was divided up into 4 target groups and from there we will create campaigns to raise awareness for Digital Bridges. I have Courtney and Brooke in my group so I know we will do well!

Good luck to everyone! It's our last semester!

For more information about Digital Bridges, visit: http://thedigitalbridges.org/db/home/home.html

PR in Action

Our last assignment for PR Admin this semester is to upload a video depicting "PR in Action". My video is an interview with PR Admin classmate, Keri Allgood. She described her role in the Relay for Life Kickoff event and the success of it.
Like I've said in earlier posts, the Relay for Life Kickoff for Baldwin County was our big assignment for the semester for Dr. Miller's PR Admin class. We were split up in teams and we pitched our ideas to the Relay for Life Committee. There were about 5 groups and my group, which included myself, Kara Teresi and Lyric Burnette, won. I was in charge of decorations, Kara was in charge of food, and Lyric was in charge of everyone. The theme this year was "Celebrate a Memory" and the event was held on Tuesday, November 17. We spent all day Monday and Tuesday decorating and getting the food together. Everyone worked really hard and for the most part, stuck to our budget. Like Keri said in the video, I think the event was overall a success too.

See everyone in PR Campaigns next semester! I can't wait to work with everyone again!

Relay for Life Kickoff a Success!

I am so proud of my PR admin class, we put on a very successful Baldwin County Relay for Life Kickoff! Like I said in my earlier posts, I was in charge of decorations, so my committee and I worked all day Monday and Tuesday before the event to put up all of the themed "birthday" decorations.
This was one of my first big events and I was partially in charge of it so I wanted it to be perfect...and it was! Lyric and Kara were also in charge and you guys did awesome! Everyone worked so hard-Thank you for the awesome banner Courtney! Thank you for printing off all of those amazing black and white photos as well as being the ultimate cupcake maker Marianna! And of course thank you for the amazing and heart-felt slide show, Keri and Andrea! I could go on and on about all of the good work everyone did...
I hope next year's Relay for Life Kickoff is as successful as this year! So "Celebrate a Memory" and help out with this year's 25th anniversary Relay for Life.

A visit to William-Mills Agency in Atlanta

For Dr. Land's class, Advertising Admin., we had an assignment to visit an advertising agency. So Monday night I drove home just to wake up at 7 a.m. to face Atlanta traffic traveling to William-Mills Agency. In the back of my head I just kept wondering if I would be doing this in a year, traveling into Atlanta for work.
I was really nervous to meet with Kelly Williams, Senior VP of William-Mills, who had agreed to meet with me Tuesday at 10 a.m. He was a very nice guy and "showed me the ropes" of his PR firm. He gave me advice and kept repeating that "internships were key to getting a job". I also got a tour of his three-story office building. All in all it was a very informative, eye-opening experience and I feel really lucky I got this opportunity!

Not So Much Fun in the Sun

Does summertime mean tanning time for you? For 23-year-old Kenneth Burnsteen, or “KB” as he is known to his friends, every summer that goes by reminds him of his struggle with skin cancer.
KB was a very active 15-year-old boy. He played soccer for his high school team while keeping an “A” average in most of his classes. Though, none of his achievements and successes would prepare him for the struggles he would soon encounter.
When KB was 15 years old he was diagnosed with melanoma, or more commonly known as skin cancer. As a young, high school boy he went through two surgeries to remove the cancer as well as having six months of mild chemotherapy. For the first few months KB got IV treatments and then for the last five months he gave himself a shot every other day. This was a big responsibility, especially for a 15-year-old boy. KB continued to go to school throughout the treatment and he even kept playing competitive soccer.
“Soccer helped me keep my mind off of things. I was so young at the time that I didn’t fully understand the extreme situation I was in,” recalls KB.
For KB’s family, this was not the first time someone in the family had been diagnosed with cancer. KB’s mother was diagnosed with skin cancer earlier on in her life too.
“My family has learned that protecting your skin is very important. I put on sunscreen everywhere I go now,” says KB. “The scars on my neck from cancer are a daily reminder that I am lucky to be alive and that I must take care of my skin.”