Bonding Over the Fake Cow

Once again the worlds of PR, agriculture and motherhood come together!

After I tweeted and blogged about the fake cow in the Agriculture & Horticulture building at the Ohio State Fair and all the great exhibits provied by the Oho Farm Bureau, I received this @ reply.


They had a previously unidentified photo of my kids riding pedal tractors in the Farm Bureau Booth! Kudos to Ohio Farm Bureau for using social media to sow the seeds of loyalty among its membership. What a great case study for any association.

Click on the photo.

Experiencing the Fair

I set the bar pretty high with my last Multi-Media Pig Show Report, so I decided to switch things up at bit at the Ohio State Fair. Posing as non-farm civilians, the kids and I left the barn and infiltrated many fair attractions. Husband stayed behind so as not to arouse suspicion among the other farmers that we were out actually enjoying the sights.


Nothing says Oh my God, my tits are rubber and I only produce water like the look on this fake cow's face. Ryan, Justin and Morgan couldn't get enough of this. I had to drag them away from the water-producing cow so we could move on to other attractions. It only seems fair that kids who have never seen a cow in their life should take precedent over kids who have 40 cows milking outside their back door twice a day, 365 days a year.


Thanks to a very friendly Division of Wildlife officer, Justin was able to catch this fish at the Ohio Dept of Natural Resources park inside the fairgrounds. We passed on taking the fish home with us. I'm not sure what a plastic bag filled with dead fish would be like on our third day at the fair.

We passed through the sheep barn and feeling very touristy I snapped this photo of some very interesting sheep. They all assured me that they had nothing against goats and in fact had some goat friends.

All three kids enjoyed playing putt-putt in the cattle barn surrounded by educational displays of the protein content of beef and interesting kabob recipes.

We arrived home in time to do laundry and turn around and send the boys back to the fair with their grandparents a day later to show another trailer load of pigs. I'm sure their grandfather, last-man-in-the-barn-Don, will keep them focused on the business at hand. Fortunately, there will be other relatives around who can take them to ride pedal tractors or see baby chicks or get tractor tattoos from the USDA. I just hope that poor cow and her rubber udders are ready.

Is There a Pig Farmer in the House?

pigs
Originally uploaded by Flamestitch

How often are any of us called out in public to perform our special occupational skills? Do people stop at the mall and scream out, IS THERE ANYONE HERE WHO CAN COMBINE SYNERGIES OR OPTIMIZE INDUSTRY-LEADING SOLUTIONS?

No, unless you are a physician, your day-to-day work abilities are very unlikely to be tapped in a public crisis.

So imagine my surprise this past weekend at the Ohio State Fair when the ability to rouse a lactating sow would come into play in a crowd situation.

Inside the hog barn at the State Fair is a nice air-conditioned store called the Pork Schop. Staffed by a team of dedicated volunteers, the shop sells anything and everything with pigs on it. The area features a play place for kids, and, in a separate pen, a real live sow and a litter of pigs.

Morgan and I were enjoying some down time at the kids area next to the growing crowd of non-farmers and children checking out the cute little pigs. When one piglet started squealing I didn't pay attention. There are always pigs squealing somewhere in a hog barn.

The squealing stopped and people started turning away. I heard one woman say I can't watch this. Figuring the sow was doing something gross, like peeing on unsuspecting urbanites, I kept shopping and Morgan kept playing.

Finally, someone said to one of the volunteers that a little pig was getting squashed. In moments, these women, who fortunately were retired farm wives, sprang from behind their table of figurines, opened the gate and began fearlessly smacking the 400 lb sow to make her get up.

One retired farm wife pushed and one kept smacking until they were able to pull the piglet out from under its mother. His little ears were purple from lack of blood flow but he was breathing.

The heroics of the volunteers was the talk of the Pork Schop for days. Husband said I should have jumped in to get involved but I am holding out for a crisis that meets my unique skill set.

So if anyone ever has a crisis that involves breastfeeding a baby in the hog barn while prepping the COO by phone for a media interview--then I'm your woman.

Image from Flickr.

Lookin' Spiffy

The first time I saw my little sister was through a pane of glass at the hospital. After several days of burned grilled cheese, Dad had finally brought us to the hospital to see our Mom and The Baby. Back in 1979 Moms still stayed in the hospital for several days after giving birth--and big brothers and sisters got to wave at the newest family member when the nurse held her up.

We loved her. So much so that Mom used to put her in the playpen to keep us from bothering her. For years I had a scar on my cheek from where her baby fingernail scratched me away from her personal space.

Over the years my brother and I, like siblings throughout history, teased and tormented our little sister. One of our favorite "insults," though, started quite innocently. We were dressing for some occasion and our parents said, Susan, don't you look spiffy.

I NOT SPIFFY! came the reply. We laughed and laughed over this. And, of course, called her spiffy as much as possible.

Susan is all grown up and married now. Happy birthday to a fellow Bobcat, wonderful aunt and spiffy little sister.

Multi-Media Pig Show Report

Welcome to the only place on the internet where mad communications skilz, almost unbearable maternal pride and swine come together. It's the first ever Multi-Media Pig Show Report®.

Welcome to our report from the National Swine Registry Summer Type Conference. Where else would a Multi-Media Pig Show Report begin but the pig barn at the Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky, where the pigs were very happy. Aren't they cute when they're sleeping.

Oh, and this little one is cute too. Shhh don't tell Grandma S. that she's in your computer--she won't like it!

Back to the report... Todd showed pigs, Ryan showed pigs and Justin won first place with his poster all about pigs. The end.

But wait! I promised you a Multi-Media Pig Show Report and I don't disappoint. We have next our first-ever Bringing Home the Bacon video production, starring Ryan and featuring jerky photography and jumpy editing by yours truly.




Wait! There's more! If you act now, I'll throw in the complete photo montage on Flickr, a $24.99 value--yours FREE!

If for any reason you haven't enjoyed your Multi-Media Pig Show Report, just return it for a full refund. Minus shipping and handling.

PR Idea of the Week

Egads! Before I become a complete Mommy blogger (not that there's anything wrong with that), I thought I would get back to the third element of this blog and share an interesting PR campaign.

The marketing/PR/social media team at Discovery Channel has hit a home run in promoting Shark Week--by "killing off" most of the nation's TV bloggers. Put down your logo folder and back away from your USB drive PR people, because the press kit for Shark Week includes mangled surf shorts and a customized obituary for each recipient.

Here's a photo that's been shared on multiple blogs with the contents of the kit received by James Hibberd, blogger for The Hollywood Reporter.

There are several good blogs deconstructing this campaign but by far the best quote--and best takeaway from this press kit--is from Hibberd's blog.

"I love it, I think it's great," says one PR executive at an unrelated company about the Discovery campaign. "And the reason I love it is because you're writing about it."

It DOESN'T MATTER that the headline of Hibberd's story is "Creepiest network marketing effort ever?"

Peter Ha from CrunchGear, who also suffered a tragic shark-attack death at the hands of Discovery, similarly photographed and documented his experience with this press kit. And Sling went as far as to offer their free suggestions for other shows who might be looking for edgy press kit concepts. (I know it's a cliche but I literally LOL at the one for Hoda and Kathy Lee.)

A few years ago (a few months ago?) if you asked journalists at a media panel what they think about getting clever PR stuff in the mail, they would mostly say that they don't like it and you should just email them a solid story idea. BUT the definition of journalist has changed as well as the opportunities to go viral by appealing to vanity (Pepsi told recipients of their campaign they were among the top bloggers in the nation), and the fact that people are looking for cool stuff to post online.

You have to think that there had to be naysayers at Discovery who thought that the obituaries were tacky or that the bloody shorts were too scary, or that they shouldn't be promoting shark attacks since they are so rare and it undoes years of science education--all good points.

But if their goal was to get blog hits and people talking blogging and tweeting about Shark Week--then they were a big success.

Princess Cousins

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Morgan who had a cousin named K who lived on an island far, far away. One day K came to Morgan's farm to visit her. They rode bikes together, went to the "buzam" (museum) together, and dressed just alike.

Morgan has been beside herself with excitement about the arrival of her cousin K. She just concluded her visit tonight and both girls cried--which could also be explained by the late hour and some driveway induced boo-boos.

Both girls are a dangerous combination of sweetness and grit that had them both dressing up for church and then climbing on bikes to cruise the gravel driveway before we left.

Once K decided that her uncle's church softball game warranted a cheerleading outfit, Morgan was happy to concur, leaving both girls to root for a perennial loser, poisonous nuts (buckeyes are poisonous, did you know?) and the local Presbyterian church.

K is the subject of many bedtime stories and a role model who never says bad words, never bites her playmates and always wears panties to bed. Between our stories of her heroics and her fabricated virtues, K has been elevated to almost a legend at our house. I hate to say it but the in-person time they had this week may have been disappointing for Morgan--her hero turned out to be a very cute but very normal five-year-old girl.

Morgan and K will be reunited this fall at Disney World, where reservations are in order for them to dine with multiple Disney Princesses. The Princesses, who all live at the big castle, by the way, can take over as Morgan's heroes and K can go back to being what she should be--a wonderful friend.