BYE BYE BRUCE, HELLO CAITLYN

It’s Trans-Jenner Time

Risë Birnbaum

Caitlyn Looking Coy

Just when you think you’ve heard and seen it all…there’s more.   World — meet Caitlyn.  Caitlyn is gracing the July cover of Vanity Fair and, yes, Caitlyn used to be Bruce.  Annie Leibovitz captured Caitlyn for a cover that will go down in history about a his-to-her story.

No, this is not a still from Ex Machina, it’s formerly Bruce Jenner, the worlds’ greatest Olympian, who is looking pretty hot in some lingerie.  I’m not sure she’ll be the next Victoria’s Secret model, wait — strike that.  I think Victoria’s Secret might jump all over this opp.

Remember, this is the same testosterone-fueled person who jumped higher and ran faster than any other Olympian in the world (though hormone levels have probably changed).  And now this javelin-tossing athlete is striking a pose like a 1950’s  pin-up girl.

Bruce Jenner wins the Decathlon

As the red blooded all American woman that I am, I still drool over pics of Bruce when he won Gold.  That said, I guess Bruce-turned-Caitlyn still looks pretty fetching.

I could crack jokes all day.  It’s too easy.  This is an amazing story that will hopefully liberate men and women who believe they were born the wrong sex and are determined to do something about it.  If Bruce had not become Caitlyn, he might have died.  He and his family admit that.

So, Caitlyn is waaaay out of the closet, way beyond that box of Wheaties and way beyond the limits that we place on ourselves.

Bruce was amazing at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.  But, mon dieux, Caitlyn is even more amazing on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2015.

Twitter Bowl

This post is part of a series written by zcomm interns. Be sure to check back each week for their take on the latest in the public relations industry. This week, Hailey discusses the Twitter bowl and who would be winning if it was up to social media.

It’s that time of year again. Football season is back and everyone’s excited, especially Washington Redskins fans following Robert Griffin III’s impressive NFL debut. Maybe this really will be their year… The Redskins have built up so much hype surrounding RG3, and his face and name seem to be everywhere. There’s no escaping him. His Subway commercial aired what seemed like 300 times during the Eagles/Browns game, and my entire Twitter feed on Sunday was filled with “Hail Yeah RG3” and pictures of people “griffing.”

It’s clear that RG3 is a fan favorite, both on and off the field. He only has one regular season game under his belt and he’s already up to more than 340,000 Twitter followers. His remarkable talent is what brought him to the DC area and turned him into a celebrity, but what if it were the other way around? What if popularity determined success?

If the NFL playoffs were based on popularity alone, who would be the Super Bowl champion? Don’t get too excited Redskins Fans. You still wouldn’t even make it to playoffs. Behold Super Bowl – Twitter style. If the NFL playoffs were based solely on the amount of Twitter followers each team has, the post season would look like this.

Based on the bracket, it’s obvious that the amount of followers each team has is not based on success alone. The New York Jets have only been to the Super Bowl once, yet they are the Twitter Bowl champions with 449,151 followers, more than the entire AFC South Division combined. The Dallas Cowboys have been to eight Super Bowls, but they have a ton of bandwagon fans so it’s not surprising that they also have more than 400,000 followers.

The Indianapolis Colts, the Tennessee Titans, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Arizona Cardinals would be the five worst teams in this fictional league with 354,977 combined followers. With only 26,061 followers Cardinals would be absolutely horrible. Their extremely low amount of followers is surprising considering their star wide receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, has the fourth highest number of followers (1,355,554) of all NFL players. He falls only behind Reggie Bush (2,577,903), Tim Tebow (1,863,891), and Michael Vick (1,486,843).

Chad Johnson, a.k.a. Ochocinco, was the NFL player with the most followers with 3,752,474. Now that he is a free agent, that title goes to Reggie Bush, who probably wouldn’t have that many followers if it weren’t for his relationship with social media savvy Kim Kardashian.

Although the primary goal of professional sports teams is to win, they too are organizations that need to work toward having a strong social media presence. This bracket may not reflect upon the teams’ success, but it does reflect upon their social media efforts. Perhaps a little public relations training camp could do them well.

Twitter followers each NFL team has (as of Sept. 10, 2012)

AFC East

New England Patriots – 412,931

New York Jets – 449,151

Miami Dolphins – 157,929

Buffalo Bills – 112,242

AFC West

Oakland Raiders – 187,214

Denver Broncos – 182,899

San Diego Chargers – 155,173

Kansas City Chiefs – 107,369

AFC North

Pittsburgh Steelers – 382,262

Baltimore Ravens – 165,720

Cincinnati Bengals – 114,620

Cleveland Browns – 110,340

AFC South

Houston Texans – 138,797

Indianapolis Colts – 100,633

Tennessee Titans – 95,692

Jacksonville Jaguars – 53,364

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys – 402,034

New York Giants – 341,233

Philadelphia Eagles – 217,688

Washington Redskins – 129,870

NFC West

San Francisco 49ers – 225,837

Seattle Seahawks – 103,919

St. Louis Rams – 103,732

Arizona Cardinals – 26,061

NFC North

Green Bay Packers – 309,894

Chicago Bears – 188,945

Detroit Lions – 161,174

Minnesota Vikings – 140,107

NFC South

New Orleans Saints – 238,793

Atlanta Falcons – 131,635

Carolina Panthers – 112,289

Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 79,227

Spice Girls Take Olympic Gold

This post is part of a series written by zcomm interns. Be sure to check back each week for their take on the latest in the public relations industry. This week, Hailey discusses the 2012 closing ceremonies and the Spice Girls performance.

The 2012 Olympics generated more than 150 million tweets during the 16-day event, but the most talked about moment had nothing to do with athletics. The Spice Girls generated a whopping 160 thousand tweets per minute during the closing ceremonies, breaking the Games’ previous TPM record of 80 thousand after Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won the 200m race.

Although 160 thousand seems like a large number, it’s nowhere close to what Blue Ivy Carter generated when Beyonce Knowles showed off her baby bump at MTV’s Music Awards in August of 2011. Before even leaving the womb, Blue managed to generate 9 thousand tweets per SECOND. If you do the math, that would be about 540 thousand tweets per minute, more than three times what the Spice Girls’ performance accumulated.

If we had the technology in the 90s that we have today, I bet the Spice Girls would be right up there with Beyonce. I have a hard time imagining what my childhood would have been like had I grown up with the easy access to the internet, but I’m pretty sure I would have singlehandedly given the Hanson Brothers the TPM record.

As a 90s child, I like the way we obsessed over celebrities better.  We didn’t express our love for them on Facebook or Twitter. We wrote it in our Barbie journals or our marble composition books. We didn’t stalk our pop star idols online. We read about them in BOP or Tigerbeat. We didn’t take videos of ourselves singing and dancing to our favorite songs. We just charged our parents and neighbors to watch us do it live.

The Spice Girls may not have generated nearly as many tweets as Beyonce and then unborn baby Blue, but they created some of the best childhood memories for us 90s kids. Most of their 160 thousand tweets during the Olympics closing ceremonies came from us 20-year-olds who spent our summers dressing as Baby, Sporty, Posh, Scary, and Ginger, and choreographing dances to every song on the Spiceworld album. I shudder at the thought of children dressing and dancing like Beyonce. Nevertheless, so she can continue to run the (Twitter) world, and I will continue to spice up my life.

“Today” is So Yesterday

So, what’s going on at the Today show?  Can you imagine what breaks must be like for Ann, Matt and Al this week?  Yipes.

I never thought Ann was the right fit for the hole Meredith left.  Meredith was a vibrant and intelligent co-host, while Ann talks too much and too fast and isn’t an insightful interviewer.  So NBC got it wrong from the start.

I’ve become much more of a fan of Morning Joe these past few months (and I’m not alone).  Not to mention that GMA is coming on strong while Today’s ratings soften from too much soft news.  It’s hard to beat Mika, Joe and Willie’s rat-a-tat-tat style of news banter and the show’s overall energy, style and dynamism.  The Today show seems so stagnant in comparison.

The latest news is Savannah Guthrie will replace Ann.  That’s a step in the right direction, but more of a band-aid than a long-term solution.  Matt is terrific, but is best when he has the right sidekick.

Maybe Today should have conducted an online poll asking viewers their pick for Matt’s co-host.  My pick is to bring back Amy Robach.  She left in May to go to ABC as a news correspondent and has the magic mix of news chops, talent and smarts that’s perfect for the morning chair.

As for Ann?  Though not a fan, it’s tough to watch the show these days while knowing Ann is probably crying in her coffee.  The Holy Trinity is straining to keep it together until Ann vanishes into the green screen (or green room).

Savannah’s got big shoes to fill and they’re not Ann’s.  They’re Meredith’s.  And in my mind, they’re at least a size 10.

K ALREADY: Kim Kardashian Kools on Marriage

Why am I not surprised? Seventy two days into the “marriage of the decade” and this Special K dumps her NBA hubby. That’s 72 days after Kim reportedly raked in $18 million after taking her vows. Do the math. That comes out to a quarter of a million bucks a day for each day they were married. Talk about fantasy.

I was already seeing way too much of the Kim, Kourtney and Khloe show before the split. Talk about over exposure in the media. And now the marital meltdown…

But not for long. Here’s my prediction from a PR stance: the American public will begin to see through Kim’s quest for money and fame and start pulling away from the brand. That means fewer viewers and fewer buyers. I mean how long can some curvy con artist get away with pulling the wool over honest consumers’ eyes?

There’s already so much skepticism and cynicism about marriage in this country. Do we really need more? Come on! Seventy two days to decide your best guy friend isn’t going to cut it for the next couple of decades. It usually takes years to figure that stuff out. Or better yet, figure it out BEFORE you get married.

I think this is endemic of an entire generation of overindulged, young adults. Kim’s just a bit more overindulged than most. Give me a break! Seventy two days and $18 million later she says, “sometimes things don’t work out as planned.” My response is Kim’s career shouldn’t work out as planned and we, collectively, have the means to make that happen. De-friend her on Facebook and stop following her on Twitter. Because in my opinion, Kim’s fans should call it KWITS.