Erik Schechter's blog

How PR Can Get Blurry at the Margins

By Erik Schechter on April 22, 2013 - 1:40pm

The field of public relations has a communications problem. Ironic, I know — and yet it’s there all the same.

NYC Shouts: Silicon Alley is back!

By Erik Schechter on March 7, 2013 - 12:38pm

According to a number of indicators, New York City is back in the hi-tech business — and Big Apple politicians, analysts and PR people are not missing a beat in letting the world know about the city’s resurgence following the dot.com crash of the early 2000s.

During Social Media Week, held in cities around the world, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) played host to an event entitled "New York City's Tech Future."

Social Media: Opportunities, Yes; But Also Limitations

By Erik Schechter on February 6, 2013 - 10:57am

I don’t know about you, but whenever I think of a defense contractor, the image furthest from mind is that of a hipster in an ironic T-shirt, downing PBR whilst uploading something cheeky to Tumblr.

Iron Dome is Great PR — But For Whom?

By Erik Schechter on November 30, 2012 - 2:38pm

The cease-fire between Israel and Gaza seems to be holding. Last month’s fighting did not, as so many worried, spawn a new Mideast war.

It did, however, produce a new war hero: the Iron Dome counter-rocket system, developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

From The New York Times to CNN, to Slate, Iron Dome has been hailed in the media for its ability to reliably shoot down short-range Palestinian rockets.

Reenergizing Support for the Afghan Conflict

By Erik Schechter on June 14, 2012 - 8:44am

The War in Afghanistan was supposed to be the good war. After all, we fought it for all the right reasons. Al-Qaeda really did murder 3,000 Americans on 9/11, and the Taliban regime really did host the terror network.

And yet despite the near-universal hatred of violent Islamists and the low level of casualties sustained by the U.S., the American people have turned against the war. Why is that? And is there any way to turn around public opinion?

Lesson #1 from Navy League

By Erik Schechter on May 2, 2012 - 11:00am

How do you get people excited about a non-descript widget? A while back, I wrote a blog post about the advertising challenges faced by components suppliers and offered some workarounds.

Plasan Levels the Playing Field with Recent Acquisition

By Erik Schechter on March 12, 2012 - 9:15am

A while back, I wrote about vehicular Active Protection Systems (APS) as a niche that Israeli defense companies could fill in the American market.

Defense Advertising and Self-inflicted Injuries

By Erik Schechter on February 8, 2012 - 5:40pm

Do no harm. It’s a cardinal rule for doctors – and it should be the same for advertisers because a poorly executed ad can do as much damage as a surgeon with a shaky hand.

Recently, when flipping through a defense magazine, I came across one of these misguided ads and was shocked by how badly it served the company that had purchased it.

The one-pager was for comms equipment, and it depicted your typical soldier as an operator. But on his camo cap, there was the word “infidel” written in Arabic-style script, a tweak to Islamic extremists.

Boeing Enters Damage Control Mode

By Erik Schechter on January 25, 2012 - 5:13pm

Boeing is swearing up and down that it has not abandoned Kansas. Sure, just a few weeks ago, it ordered the shuttering of its Wichita plant — a move that put 2,160 people out of work and raised hackles across the state.

Emotion, Not Logic, Will Sell the F-35

By Erik Schechter on December 9, 2011 - 10:14am

It’s no secret that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a troubled program. Over the past 10 years, the price of Lockheed Martin’s cutting-edge stealth aircraft has shot up 64 percent, while sales projections have continued to slide. Indeed, foreign countries that once fell over themselves to join the multinational F-35 program are now showing far less enthusiasm for the $120-150 million plane.