Thrusday, January 14, 1999
Whew! Cincinnati off 'worst' list
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
×by
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
And this on a sad note: For the first time in the history of the list, Cincinnati isn't on it.
Referring here to the San Francisco based Fineman Associates Public Relations and its annual list of the year's 10 worst PR blunders. To make the list, CEO Michael Fineman says, the blunder must damage the image and be widely reported.
The list is four years old and Cincinnati made it the first three.
Remember? No. 2 on 1996 list (for '95 blunders) was Structural Dynamics Research Corp., which fired a guy on Take Our Daughters to Work Day. With his 8-year-old daughter in the building.
The '97 list honored Marge Schott (“Her body of work could fill the list by itself,” Fineman said at the time) for an Opening Day whoopsie. After umpire John McSherry suffered a heart attack and died on the field and the game was called, she asked, “Why can't they play with just two umpires?”
Last year, Cincinnati was No. 1, thanks to Procter & Gamble's Scope-opera. That's the one where the company named the nation's 10 least kissable lips as a Scope promotion. Rosie O'Donnell made the list and fired back by joining Listerine to give $1,000 to charity for every on-air kiss.
And this year? Not a peep.
Big winner was Texas cattlemen (No. 1) for their fray with Oprah Winfrey; the NBA Players (No. 2) for a strike no one cared about; the IRS (No. 3) for its announcement that whoever caught Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's record-breaking home run balls would be liable for a six-figure gift tax, even if they gave it back.
MACABRE TOUR: Folks watching the American Music Awards show Monday did see lots of awards. What they didn't see was the house tour about 500 members of the audience took of Roman Polanski's basement — as in Charles Manson, Sharon Tate — the night before.
True, says local ad exec Rob Riggsbee, who was there. “Chancellor Media had a party at this mansion in the hills. I spent some time talking to the owner.
“When I asked him about the history of the house, he hemmed and hawed, then told me Polanski used to own it. Most of the original house was razed and rebuilt, but the basement was intact.
Riggsbee shared this with dinner partners — country star Trisha Yearwood and ex-child star Danny Bonaduce (Partridge Family), who claimed to be grossed out.
“But they told other people, and word spread. Soon, people were down in the basement having pictures taken. They kept saying it was gross, but there must have been 100 photo ops down there.”
PLAY BALL: So why, you were wondering, is Rabbi Abie Ingber so happy about Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball going for $3-plus million Tuesday? Because he thinks he'll reap some benefits, that's why.
Seems Ingber, of UC's Hillel Jewish Student Center, has a ball Babe Ruth signed in 1938 that he's about to auction off. He also has one that McGwire signed, though it's not a big money ball. And one that Sammy Sosa signed too.
What he's thinking here is that this memorabilia fever is going to drive up prices on his stuff.
Which is also why he's not too broken up about Michael Jordan's Wednesday announcement that he's retiring. Seems he has a game ball signed by Jordan.
“I'm thinking $15,000 to $3 million on the baseballs. Think I'm shooting too high?” he asks.
Maybe. This is Cincinnati. The auction is Feb. 6 at Crest Hills Country Club, Amberley Village.
Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
