February 15, 2010 by Tegan.

Saint Valentine’s Day (commonly shortened to Valentine’s Day) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as “valentines“).

Is that what we really envision when February 14th rolls around?

Back in elementary school, everyone looked forward to Valentine’s Day. VDay meant lunch parties with cupcakes, candy, fun and hopefully a Disney Valentine from that cute boy you stare at on the playground.

Flash forward to post-college life. What does Valentine’s Day mean now?

I’d argue that as we get older, our perception about Valentine’s Day changes for the worse.

A chance to partake in a social experiment (which I love!), I have been observing the thoughts of my peers up until today:

Valentine’s Day according to twenty somethings- Cliche cards, debating if or what you should get the person who you may (are we officially together?) or may not be dating a gift. If so, can I even afford getting them anything other than a few pieces of chocolate?  Anti-Valentine’s Day and Screw Cupid barcrawls and Facebook statuses such as “Screw Valentine’s Day, I’m making love to Tequilla.”

What happened to cupcakes and Disney valentines?

There are those twenty somethings that are in relationships and love Valentine’s Day. Don’t get me wrong. However, I feel that there is a large group of young adults that despise Valentine’s Day and don’t have someone to cuddle and celebrate the day with.

Enter the call-to-action. Cupid take note, you need to reach out to this group and communicate to them that Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be all about having a certain someone. (Many, including Pepsi would recommend a multifaceted social media campaign).

Valentine’s Day should be a holiday to celebrate the love you have towards your friends, family, pets, and yourself.  It doesn’t have to be about relationships and if you’re in or not in one. Along with an excuse to eat my weight in chocolate, that’s how I try to envision February 14th and I think that attitude would cause a little more happiness and a lot less hangovers.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted in Public Relations, Life | 3 Comments »

February 15, 2010 by Tegan.

I feel like I have been hearing a lot about how busy everyone is these days. My Twitter feed will display tweets reading “SO busy this week” or “I have so much going on this week, feel like it will be the end of me.”I have come to hate the word busy.

When I was an undergrad at the University of Iowa, I also found myself thinking (and probably tweeting) about how “busy” I was too. I held two internships, was an active member of my sorority, the President of PRSSA, the public relations director of Sigma Alpha Pi and not to be forgotten a student/friend/girlfriend/daughter/sister.

Weeks were crazy and I was going going going all day long. I definitely had my moments when I complained about my full schedule and how exhausted I felt come Friday. Reading all these tweets venting about how busy the person is takes me back to my days at Iowa.BUTEvaluating where I am now makes me appreciate all those jam packed days and weeks because if I didn’t work hard then, I would never have a job now (especially in this economy). I can’t help but embrace my hard work and long nights now because it made me who I am and has helped me learn the skills necessary to succeed in the workplace.

I’m not trying to toot my own horn, I’m a recent grad just starting out in marketing/public relations field, but I know that my experiences/internships/PRSSA and my busy schedule helped me learn important life skills (think time management, perseverance) made me grow up (think maturity, teamwork) and embrace the importance/necessity of hard work.

Big picture. Everyone is busy. Not many care about your busy schedule because they probably have just as busy as/busier life than you. Save yourself the time and stop complaining about it.Students, don’t expect your schedule to be less “busy” once you graduate. This may be a bit snarky, but life is busy and shouldn’t slow down post-graduation.

I urge students and professionals to embrace their busy lifestyles.As I mentioned above, I have complained about being busy (I’m not a saint) but this is something I’m working on too.

Wouldn’t you rather have a full schedule than an empty one? After all, if you’re not busy going somewhere, you’re going nowhere fast.

I came across this article from Penelope Trunk (author of the blog, The Brazen Careerist), “Being busy is not being honest”  and I recommend checking it out. It helped change my perspective on being “busy.”What do you think? Would you rather have a full schedule or nothing going on?

Posted in Career, Life | 4 Comments »

February 15, 2010 by Tegan.

Fantasy Football.  For those of you who don’t know (I am assuming there are a few) Wikipedia defines Fantasy Football as:

“a fantasy sports game in which participants (called “owners”) are arranged into a competitive league, earning “fantasy points” by using the statistics of real football players. The owners of each league draft real-life American footballplayers, typically from either the NFL or NCAA, filling a roster containing the various offense or defensive positions on a team, such as Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, and Tight End. Depending on how well the players on an Owner’s team do in a given week, the team earns Fantasy Points to compete against the other owners in the league.”

My boyfriend (@bryanschnicker) and guy friends are all Fantasy Football freaks. Ladies, I’m sure you know a few of them/your boyfriends may be one. Fantasy football freaks are glued to their computers on Sundays and their conversations revolve around “who they are playing this week, injuries, points, and key match ups.”  They live and breathe the NFL and their moods are often directly correlated to the performance of a) Ben Roethlisberger b) Aaron Rodgers c) Tom Brady or d) Peyton or Eli Manning (Drew Brees always plays great so he isn’t included).

I am a huge football fan and I love the NFL so my boyfriend crowned me “pseudo assistant coach” of his team and before I knew it I was tuning into every game to see how well my players fared. A moment of truth hit me and I realized what I was becoming. I also realized that this “fantasy football league” was making me crazy. I was obsessed with the NFL which is why I believe fantasy football is genius. Dare I say fantasy football is a stealthy public relations campaign?The league incorporates many facets deemed necessary in any successful public relations campaign. Most of which are being discussed and valued by professionals attempting to connect with consumers today.

1. Engagement: F.F.F. (Fantasy Football Freaks) are engaging with the NFL brand on a daily basis. They are picking their NFL players and visiting the NFL and ESPN (Also Yahoo, etc) websites numerous times a day to check on their team and stay on top of what is happening in the league.Another facet of engagement are the feelings experienced while participating. I believe that many F.F.F.s get a rush from Fantasy Football. How is their team going to do? How many points are they going to get this week? No offense men, but we all now the male species thrives on these kind of emotions. At the end of the day, most F.F.F.s are loving the NFL strictly based on the excitement that is Fantasy Football.

2. Loyalty: A F.F.F. will most likely never miss a game that their players are participating in. You can count on them tuning in to Sunday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, and Monday Night Football.  In the highly unlikely chance that they do miss a game, you can count on the F.F.Fs to be checking ESPN.com or watching highlights from the games on ESPN the next day. The F.F.Fs are loyal to the network and to the NFL brand. Not to mention, most F.F.F. create a new team and join a league every year.

Apart from engagement and loyalty, Fantasy football has progressed into a nationwide phenomenon. ESPN has an entire show dedicated to Fantasy where sports casters make predictions, report injuries, and discuss stats. A television show, The League, has also been created based on Fantasy Football!Personally, participating in the league has made me buy into the ESPN and the NFL brands. Not only do I love football season, I love fantasy football season. If that makes me a Fantasy Football Freak so be it. Great public relations tactic, NFL. I’m sold.

What do you think? Any self proclaimed F.F.Fs out there? Come on, fess up.

Posted in Public Relations | 1 Comment »