MarketInk: PRSA Honors Public Relations Pros, Comic-Con Spokesperson, at Bernays Awards

The Public Relations Society of America San Diego-Imperial Counties Chapter recently presented its 2024 Edward L. Bernays Mark of Excellence Awards.

PRSA-SDIC said a total of 37 Silver and Bronze Bernays awards, along with “Best in Show” awards, were presented Oct. 19 before 50 attendees at the Balboa Park Recital Hall.

David Glanzer, chief communications and strategy officer for Comic-Con International, received the Otto Bos Hall of Fame award. Glanzer serves as the voice and branding lead for Comic-Con’s brand. The annual pop-culture convention shines a global spotlight on San Diego and generates a regional impact of more than $160 million, PRSA-SDIC said.

“I truly am honored and humbled to receive the Otto Boss Hall of Fame award,” said Glanzer. “As PR professionals, we are never the story, yet having your peers recognize your efforts is, well, just phenomenal. Words can’t express my surprise and gratitude.”

Bos, a former reporter and political writer, served as press secretary and top adviser for Pete Wilson’s successful campaigns for California governor and U.S. Senate. His expertise in communications and strategy helped shaped San Diego’s political landscape in San Diego. Bos passed away from an apparent heart attack while playing soccer on June 2, 1991. He was 47.

Also at the Bernays awards, (W)right On Communications was named PR Team of the Year. The agency also earned honors for its Integrated Communications work on behalf of the $5.5-billion Payment Card Settlement and additional recognition for its creative use of social media tactics on settlement work on the AEG Worldwide 2023 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report.

“We’re incredibly proud of our team’s achievements and grateful to our client partners for the trust they place in us to tell their stories,” said Julie Wright, president, WOC. “Effective communication in 2024 is no small feat. It demands thoughtful strategy, bold creativity, and a dedicated team that can navigate complexity to drive results.”

Arturo Garcia-Sierra, PRSA-SDIC chapter president, said about WOC at the awards presentation, “This past year, this team faced one of the most intense and rewarding periods in their 26-year history. The demands were high, but the heart and commitment of the team rose to the challenge. Through creativity, strategic collaboration, and tireless dedication, they achieved remarkable success for their clients and their community.”

Denise Scatena and Arika Daniels, co-CEOs and co-founders of Scatena Daniels Communications, each received prestigious individual awards. Scatena won the Eva Irving Community Service Award while Daniels was named the 2024 Deborah Baker Public Relations Professional of the Year.

Scatena has contributed in leadership roles to the San Diego/Tijuana Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the San Diego Association of Black Journalists, the San Diego Press Club, PRSA-SDIC, and the South Clairemont Recreation Council’s Clairemont Pool Booster Club.

“Community service has always been at the heart of what I do,” said Scatena. “I’ve learned that when we come together, we can truly make a difference in the communities where we live, work, and play. This award is not just a recognition of my work, but is a reminder of the power of collaboration to push boundaries, serve others, and lift up our communities.”

PRSA said Daniels was recognized for her work with UC San Diego Extended Studies, Health Care Communicators of Southern California, North County Philanthropy Council, PRSA’s Counselors Academy and Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties.

The women-owned PR and integrated communications agency, established in 2009, also earned three Bronze Bernays awards for work with clients UC San Diego Extended Studies, San Diego Rotary Club 33, and 2024 GI Film festival San Diego.

Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, considered San Diego’s oldest operating public relations agency after 51 years in business, won the two Best of Show awards in both the Silver and Bronze categories.  

NST won the Silver Bernays Best of Show for its work for the WD-40 Precision Pen launch campaign, and the Bronze Bernays Best of Show for publicity for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego’s Red Shoe Day fundraiser. More than $205,000 in donations was raised in May in support of Ronald McDonald House, a 57-suite, guest lodge and day-use center that serves as a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill or injured children being treated at San Diego hospitals.

The event also featured a keynote speech from Jorge D’Garay, president of MXUS Public Relations, a bi-national firm serving clients in both the U.S. and Mexico. D’Garay was the 2022 Otto Bos Hall of Fame winner. 

The awards are named after Edward L. Bernays, who is credited with launching the field of public relations in the 1920s. Often called the “father of public relations,” Bernays’ history-making campaigns explain why people eat bacon with eggs, women smoke cigarettes and bank managers join civic groups. He died in 1995 at age 103.

A complete list of winners is available at https://prsasdic.org/bernays/.

Marisa Thalberg Leaves SeaWorld to ‘Try It On’ at JCPenney

After only 18 months as SeaWorld’s chief marketing and communications officer, Marisa Thalberg has left the theme park entity to join JCPenney as a consulting chief marketing officer.

In a Linkedin post, Thalberg said the phrase “try it on” has been a metaphor for her three-decade marketing career. Prior to SeaWorld, she held senior marketing positions at Lowe’s and Taco Bell.

Thalberg wrote, “When a colleague offers a new idea for how to do things, when a recruiter emails with an opportunity that isn’t immediately obvious, when a boss asks you to tackle something outside of your comfort zone, our brains often leap into defensive mode, serving all the reasons something isn’t right. It’s a safety impulse. New + different = risky.

“However, allowing ourselves to `try it on,’ first in our imaginations, and potentially then in real life, is arguably the best way to find what can suit surprisingly well. If I had not instinctively taken this approach to my career since moving from luxury beauty to fast food, I don’t think I ever would have given myself the permission to come out of the fitting room wearing the entirely new outfits of big-box home improvement executive, and more recently, theme park executive.

“In that spirit, the biggest new outfit I am putting on is that of a consulting CMO, which I’m starting to do for an iconic, 122-year-old American retailer that is ripe for brand reinvigoration, what I love to do most. I see so much potential here. Quite literally, I can’t wait to show people how much is in this store that is worth trying!”

Thalberg joined SeaWorld Entertainment in April 2023 to help modernize and rebrand the 60-year-old company. The original SeaWorld park opened in March 1964 in Mission Bay.

Her work at SeaWorld included launching its first major U.S. advertising campaign in six years. The campaign, themed “So Many Worlds to Love,” featured “the magic through the eyes of a real family as they discover the wonders of SeaWorld, from up-close animal encounters to the thrill of riding world-class roller coasters,” a statement said.

Starbucks Hires Former Chipotle Exec to Lead Brand Revamp

Tressie Lieberman, former marketing executive at Newport Beach, CA-based Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., has been named Starbucks’ first global chief brand officer. It’s a newly created role.

Lieberman will join Starbucks on Nov. 4, and lead marketing, product development, digital, creative and analytics, a statement said. She was mostly recently chief marketing officer for the past year at Yahoo, Inc.

At Starbucks, Lieberman will be reunited with Brian Niccol, who previously served as CEO at Yum! Brands, where he oversaw the Taco Bell chain. Niccol also worked at Chipotle as CEO starting in 2018. Lieberman worked as VP of digital marketing at Chipotle under Niccol from 2018 to 2023. Lieberman also has experience working at Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

Niccol, who took over as Starbucks’ CEO this fall, has been rearranging the coffee giant’s ranks and implementing leadership changes, as reported by Ad Age, an advertising industry trade publications. Yahoo reports Starbucks has consolidated its communications and corporate affairs team.

Ad Age said Lieberman’s assignment, according to Niccol, will be to “reintroduce Starbucks to the world.”

Niccol said in a statement, “Starbucks is a brand people love. It’s time to tell our story again and reintroduce Starbucks to the world. Tressie is the perfect person to help us do that. She has a proven track record of building strong brands, developing compelling products, creating great customer experiences, and leading breakthrough marketing.”

This Election Cycle, Brands Avoid Risky Get-Out-The-Vote Campaigns

Four years ago, widely-known brands, including Under Armour, Foot Locker, and Spotify, were involved in get-out-the-vote advertising campaigns. But, not this presidential election cycle.

As reported by Ad Age, an advertising industry trade publication, the country’s hyper-politicized sensitivity has convinced fewer brands to participate in voting initiatives because even nonpartisan efforts can receive backlash.

“We are so polarized that even the small things can be perceived, sometimes unintentionally, as being partisan rather than neutral,” Pam Jenkins, chief public affairs officer at Weber Shandwick, a marketing communications firm, told Ad Age.

In the 1990s, MTV’s “Rock the Vote” campaign was one of the first such endeavors. However, Ad Age admitted while it simply encouraged voting, MTV’s campaign was perceived as favoring Democrat Party candidates.

This year, Ad Age wrote, “Brands are wary of dipping a toe into a topic they’re not sure consumers want.” Jenkins said a survey found 72% of people with various political affiliations would prefer if companies “stay neutral” politically.

Exceptions to the trend include Ben & Jerry’s. The ice cream chain created a flavor based around Vice President Kama Harris as part of a get-out-the-vote campaign with left-wing MoveOn.

As reported by The Washington Times, the flavor, called Kamala’s Coconut Jubilee, plays on a May 2023 comment by Harris who recalled her mother asking rhetorically, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s who each have a net worth estimated at $150 million, have long championed liberal causes, said The Washington Times.

Another recent example of consequences arising from political stances is streaming giant Netflix and its co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the rate of Netflix cancellations nearly tripled in the U.S. after Hastings announced this summer his endorsement of Kamala Harris and donation of $7 million to a pro-Kamala political action committee.

Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.