a publicist's worst nightmare, well, maybe

Did anyone catch Paula Abdul on QVC last week? It was Friday, I believe, when she touted her wares on the shop-at-home-extravaganza channel and sounded like a complete lunatic. You have to check out the MSN video so you can watch her total and utter inability to complete thought. I wonder if her back pain medication is set at too a high a dosage. Normal people can find their nouns most of the time. At any rate, she does seem like she is struggling with something, and I hope she gets some help.

However, if she does just enjoy acting ridiculous, why not go for cooky or eccentric rather than substance abusive? To me, that doesn't seem like the image a major celebrity should shoot for. I've heard the conspiracy theory that the American Idol producers want Paula to act like this to fuel the rumor mill and drive up ratings. Yeah, maybe, but honestly you can't fake crazy like that and make it so consistent.

Did you catch the quote by her PR rep (Howard Bragman in case you were wondering), "Paula had a great time and sold a lot of beautiful merchandise." Way to evade the question Howard. But honestly, I think I might have done the same thing. If she is struggling with substance abuse, then it's her rep's job to protect her privacy and personal medical information. As a PR rep you also need to control when and how the message is released about your client's substance abuse problem and recovery if he or she is going through that. There's a very delicate way that information like that needs to be handled.

At the same time, how do you reign in the crazy? I mean, it's your job to look out for your client's image. You can't be with them every second of the day when they're out and about having contact with the other humans. And those seem to be the times when they cause the most damage.

This is why I could never be a personal PR rep. I can't deal with the crazy. I would lose my mind trying to come up with a way to fix their weird problems. My first reaction would be something along the lines of, "Why again am I digging you out of this hole that you dug for yourself? The fact that it's my job is no longer a good enough reason." It's not to say that I don't have sympathy, it's just celebrities do some really stupid things sometimes. If Britney Spears hasn't run her rep off yet, he or she must have gone into voluntary hiding by now.

Someone has to be there to put them back together, and I applaud people who have the sanity to do it for a living. Besides, no celebrity would want me to be their rep because I would never let them leave the house. That's how I would reign in the crazy.

jimmy buffet- i should get into music pr

I went to the Jimmy Buffet concert last Wednesday, and it was amazing!!! As a lifelong Parrothead, I was ecstatic to finally get to see Jimmy live! It made me think that I should really consider a career in concert promotions. I think there could be some exciting perks associated with a musical PR career.

I must confess that I know absolutely nothing about music PR, but I really would like to find out more information. I'm sure some of the disadvantages include really long, crazy hours and a million little things to get done to contribute to the big main event. At the same time, I bet you can get some pretty fabulous tickets to some pretty incredible shows.

This is one of the things that I love most about PR- all the niches. There really is something for everyone. You can work in the music industry, you can do sports PR, and even health care to name a few. I know so many practitioners who are attracted to the health care field because they feel like they get to serve others and improve the quality of other's lives while doing something they love.

Of course there's also the fashion industry, a love of mine, where I bet a supply closet lurks filled with amazing product samples (or at least I dream it does). We can't overlook government and corporate PR as well, however droll they seem to me. I prefer agency world, but I understand the appeal of corporate PR. You can really put your heart and soul into the company and feel like you are making a difference in something you believe in. I think that same sentiment applies to nonprofits public relations as well.

With all that in mind, I assembled a quick list of few blogs I found interesting in some fields. Hopefully you will find them insightful as well.

For sports PR: Sport's PR and Marketing Ramblings from Joshua Milne and Karen's Public Relations Blog
For fashion: PR Couture
For nonprofit: NonprofitPR.com

finally! i can catch my breath!

Well, it's all over. We pitched the client Monday. We turned in the campaign book. PR campaigns is over. Let me just breathe a huge sigh of relief. In case you were wondering, I turned the 12 page Spanish paper in and took the mass communication law test this week. I still have the 400- page Spanish novel to attack, but that seems manageable now.

I love that feeling you get in PR when all of your hard work pays off. After an entire weekend spent finalizing our campaign book and rehearsing our presentation, we were thrilled to see it all culminate into an excellent client pitch. To me, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of PR. You get to see the results of your efforts.

I'm in a class this semester that helps students choose a major and/or a career. (I know, as a senior shouldn't I have already picked a career, not to mention a major? It's a little late in the game to change my mind. It's a long story how I got there, but it wasn't a complete waste of time.) In this career planning class, we took about seven personality assessments. We even assessed our assessments sometimes. What I gleaned from all these tests was that my personality is completely perfect for PR. I also discovered that my work values sync up with what PR has to offer. One of my work values was recognition, and completing our PR campaign certainly brought that.

PR is by all means a collaborative effort, and my campaigns team is by far and away the best team I've ever worked with in college. Everyone contributed ad shouldered the work load together. Even more than that though, I have never met a group of people randomly assigned to one another who got along so well together. It's like our personalities just clicked. We all like being together.

To me, this social aspect of PR is what drew me to it. I didn't want to stuck in a back corner cubicle writing copy. I want to work with people. Especially if the team is as great as this one!

american idol anyone? that was some great pr!

Did anyone watch American Idol tonight? That was some great PR! This Idol Gives Back fundraiser is a major image boost for everyone involved. Ford, Coca-Cola and AT&T look smarter by the show for jumping on board. And let's not forget Exxon Mobile and News Corporation (but that one was sort of a given) with their contributions.

This fundraiser is great because it not only helps underprivileged children in Africa and here in the U.S., but it gets the word out about the hunger issue. Check out the videos about Idol Gives Back, which to a great job of communicating this issue. It tickles my PR instincts to see them focus so much on awareness of the issue. This obviously needs to happen because when most Americans think of people who don't get enough to eat, we immediately picture people in third world countries, but rarely our own. This campaign is going to do a world of good for informing people about hunger and homelessness problems for children in America.

Using American Idol as a platform benefits everyone involved. People are more aware of the hunger problem and how they can help solve it. Corporate America gets involved and demonstrates social responsibility, which improves the public's image of these companies. American Idol gets lots of celebrities involved and attracts a huge viewing audience which means higher ratings for the network and higher prices charged for ad spots so profits increase. Advertisers get their message out to a huge audience. And most of all: people in need, especially children, get the help they deserve.

Kudos American Idol to a job well done!

hectic shcdules, a pr person's life

My schedule has been so hectic lately that I count myself lucky if I even have a chance to sleep and eat every day. I have so much work due, it's not even funny. I feel compelled to list all of my assignments, just to fill everyone in. I have to read a 400 page Spanish novel, write a 12 to 15 page literary analysis of a Spanish play (in Spanish of course), a put together a 200-something page PR campaigns book, rehearse a client presentation for Monday, study for a mass communication law test, study for a Food Science test and look for a place to live after graduation.

This is nothing new, PR is a busy, fast-paced career, no matter what industry or sector you're in. Especially if you work at an agency, however, it's best if you don't mind it. It's also a good thing that I don't mind the craziness. Not to say that I enjoy having no life, I think it's more that I am used to this type of schedule. If you look at my calendar, every day is covered with reminders and due dates, but I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.

This bodes well for me going into agency work, since it's pretty much a mile a minute there. While some people consider this a disadvantage of agency work, to me it's exciting. Life's never dull and you always face a new challenge to tackle.

While it can be stressful at times, it's usually not more than you can handle. Which is what my current life schedule is like right now. Overwhelming.

My point here: I'm sure I can hit the ground running when I start working at an agency after graduation.

it's time for some good pr

It seems like my recent posts have been on the, er, more critical side, so for a change I'm switching to looking at a company who's doing PR the right way- Ford Motor Company. You've probably caught some of their new ads on TV and American Idol. Personally, I think those American Idol music video ads are a stroke of genius.

Here's what Ford realized: the age of the gas guzzling SUV is over. Baby boomers who were buying and driving those vehicle, some as a status symbol at the time, have switched to smaller more fuel efficient luxury SUVs or fuel efficient cars, luxury or otherwise. Some no longer need the big SUVs because their kids grew up and moved out. Ford also realized they were losing their market share to Toyota and its highly economical, well-built vehicles.

So Ford stepped it up a notch and came out with an amazing PR campaign. I love the "BoldMoves" theme of the ads. If you think back a little bit, you'll recall the premier ad for this new series showing a 16-year-old getting her first car, a Ford Mustang her dad just bought for her.

Since Ford realized the market was changing, they re-branded and launched a new campaign targeting a younger generation. Great strategy- get them to buy a Ford when they're young and build some brand loyalty. Mustangs have always been cool to us young people, and we love innovative, high tech new vehicles like the crossover Edge. I love the commercial for it- catchy music and a clever, innovative connection between the crossover's name and where its driving, which is up and down the edges of city buildings.

Partnering with American Idol keeps their name in the forefront of young consumers' minds as well. Seeing the Top 8, 9 or 10 Idols in an entertaining music video featuring the Ford Edge, Mustang, Fusion and Hybrid Escape is an amazing platform to market these new vehicle to young people, to whom these vehicles have tremendous appeal. Ford has definitely gone about this campaign the right way. They stepped out and took a risk, and I think they've done a supremely successful job.

if i was doing pr for menu foods...

I saw an article on the MSN homepage today that calls me to take another look at the Menu Foods pet food recall debacle. Talk about a company going down like a sinking ship. In the complete and total absence of any communication efforts from Menu Foods, I have come up with some potential PR moves that Menu Foods would really benefit from.

1. First of all, why in the heck are tainted foods still on store shelves? If the pet food industry is as heavily regulated as the Pet Food Institute claims, why is there no action plan for immediate removal of tainted products?

My PR suggestion: This really needed to be something prepared ahead of time as part of a crisis plan, but since it wasn't, let's turn it around and use it as for our advantage. Create a contact list of every supplier carrying your pet food products with a direct contact line (i.e.- a phone number) to a department manager or other sales associate who would be immediately responsible for removing harmful items the minute they receive the call. Since we know a list like this doesn't exist, publicize the fact that your making one. This can help restore consumers' trust in the company and demonstrate that this incident has not been taken lightly by company executives.

2. Second, all of this lying low by Menu Foods does NOT improve their image in the eyes of consumers and the media. It just makes them look guilty. As you see towards the bottom of the article, Menu Foods declined to attend a hearing by the FDA.

My PR suggestion: Hiding looks bad. Accepting responsibility and facing the public looks good. Get out there and apologize. It is YOUR fault that people lost their beloved pets. Hire a spokesperson, an expert in the animal field that the public can trust. Hold press conferences where the spokesperson gives weekly or daily updates on the situation. Have the spokesperson show up at events like the FDA hearing and speak on behalf of the company.

3. Third, the lack of steady communication must be corrected immediately. In the article, Senator Durbin calls attention to Menu Foods' delayed notification to the FDA of tainted foods, even though tests showed animals were getting sick from it.

My PR suggestion: Wow, this one does look incredibly bad because it compounds people's possibly unfounded notions that Menu Foods was consciously hiding dangerous problems. But I'll tackle this one too. Communications is the key here. This message could be wrong. If it is, Menu Foods has no conduit to disseminate the correct information to the public. Use the Web and social media. Start a blog where consumers can go to get their questions answered. Have veterinarians involved in this process so that consumers can be confident they're getting the best advice on health for their pets.

Other tips I have:

• Set up a memorial fund in honor of the pets who died from the tainted food. Use the fund as a vehicle to promote pet health and to help adopt out homeless pets. It might also help to ease the pain of pets owners who lost their beloved companions.
• Work with another agency like the FDA or the Pet Food Institute to come up with a list of safe pet foods that consumers could switch to. This lets consumers know that you care more about the health and well-being of their pets than your bottom line. Take the financial hit now, in the long run it will pay off.
• Pet connection did a great job with this. Check out their page with a link to The Pet Food List complied by PetsitUSA.com. Complete list of all NOT recalled foods and info. about each one. Kudos guys for a great job!

Finally, in closing, good PR by Menu Foods means that Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, would never have to make this comment, "We didn’t have all the answers ourselves.”

what's the future of YouTube?

In my law of public communication class we just finished our section on copyright law, and when I saw this article on the Bulldog Reporter's Daily' Dog by Frank Zeccola, it reminded me of our class discussion about the YouTube-Viacom case. I find this case so interesting because it proves that legislation can never catch up with technology. As soon as a law passes making such-and-such illegal, tech-savvy consumers just find a way around it. That's not to say that copyright doesn't serve an important purpose for society. It exists to add creativity in the public domain by giving authors incentives to create new works, thereby improving and benefiting society as a whole. (On a quick side note, purchasing movies and music is a good idea, and I'm fully for it.)

I guess I should back up a minute here and explain why this YouTube case is so interesting to me. When Google bought YouTube, they set aside somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million knowing that as soon as the deal was made, the litigation would start pouring in because now the copyright holders have some big bucks to go after.

Like Kaleel Sakakeeny said in the article, if Viacom is smart, they'll go for a deal with Google/YouTube rather than trying to hold fast to copyright that is becoming increasingly hard to protect. These massive we-own-everything copyright holders like Viacom have been clinging steadfastly to the dying notion that they will and should have an iron grip over every little piece of copyrighted material. Thank goodness for fair use, right? Well, there's a fine line between fair use and infringement.

Now, like I said before, if Viacom was smart they would try to get some good PR out of this and use it as a image boost in the eyes of young people/college students like myself who are the primary users of YouTube. Instead of looking like a bunch of curmudgeons, they should try come out on the better end of this and win some favor in the eyes of students. Many students share the opinion that big companies are just greedy and are out to get everyone.

It's going to be impossible to maintain the tight control over everything, so why not try to just try to strike a profit-sharing deal, or find a more innovative way to adapt to their ever-changing environment. The social media are not going to away. Just like systems theory explains, organizations that don't adapt to their environment die, no matter how big and powerful and tough they think they are.

It's ironic in a way that this study found most of the copyright-infringing videos were hardly watched. That begs the question, what are they really suing for here?

crisis communication

This pet food recall has crisis communication fresh on my mind. With a crisis like this on their hands, and no good PR to speak of, it begs the question, "What is this company thinking?!?"

There's simply no reason to lack PR plans for issues, crises and catastrophes. The lame old excuse of pretending like the worst possible scenario will never happen to our company doesn't hold water anymore. Bad stuff will happen to you at some point. It just depends on the degree of severity. Having a PR plan in place will help with the damage control. Yes, dwelling on all the disasters that could befall your organization is a scary thought, but it's not an optional task here. You MUST do it!

Look at it like this, what's worse, sitting there for a day or two at a time thinking up all the dreadful events that will place your company under glaring public scrutiny or having a well-thought out, smoothly executed action plan for when Awful Event X occurs? During a crisis, pandemonium will ensue, and rather than running around like chickens with your heads cut off, you and your colleagues will have a plan of attack.

If that still hasn't convinced you that you NEED an a crisis communication plan, think of it this way: you will look so much better in the minds of your customers, the media and the general public (and you might need any image boost you can find after your disaster), if you have a fast, effective way to communicate important information with affected publics and hopefully a method to come up with a temporary solution. When you're in a crisis, information is the sole factor everybody wants and no one seems to have. You have to find a way to get that information to the people who need it most.

Just imagine how much better (at least marginally better) the impression of Menu Foods might be right now if they had a plan that implemented these aspects. I mean, here's an idea, why not have a list of suppliers with direct contacts at each one, who they could contact immediately in case of a problem with their pet foods and have questionable foods removed from store shelves as a precaution. Pet owners would be inclined to think Menu Foods actually cares. Also, a comprehensive and easily located and accessed list of all the suspected tainted foods would help.

Out of curiosity, did anyone check the list on the Menu Foods Web site to see if their pet's food was safe? I did, and it was such a hassle! You clicked on the brand name, and you were taken to a link on that site and 10 clicks later you found the information you wanted. Tip: that was way too complicated. Make it much simpler for panicked pet owners who want to make sure their baby isn't being poisoned.

All I have to say: thank goodness one of my cats is allergic to wheat gluten.

7 ways to find that perfect (PR) job

Why seven you may ask? Well five wasn't enough and 10 is far too common. I had to be original, so seven it is.

My seven suggestions for finding your perfect PR position:

1. Plan ahead
Start out with all your ducks in a row, and you'll already be in a better position than your competition. Have dates marked in your calendar and your memory if you can. This sounds so elementary, I know, but when talking with a potential employer, you'll look like you really have it together if you can give them exact dates. Remember, employers notice someone who can manage his or her personal schedule well. Those skills translate into work too. For those of you already addicted to your rigid schedule, keep in mind that employers like to see flexibility too.

2. Go to career fairs, even when they don't look promising
Go and talk to as many businesses as you can. Even if they don't look promising on appearance, wander the aisles and just meet people. I attended a career fair for mainly business majors and ended up falling into conversation with a woman who graduated with a journalism degree from my university, shifted to public relations and is looking to build her practice. At the very least, you will learn about a company and meet some new people. You never know who they know; that accounting firm might have contacts in PR.

3. Learn the industry, find your niche
How many different ways can you say PR? What I mean is that PR has so many niches, you need to know what interests you the most. Personally, I love agency world. I find it exciting, challenging and fun. Some practitioners think we agency folk are crazy; they feel like it's such a whirlwind pace they can't catch their breath. Learn about all the different opportunities available to you. Agency, nonprofit, corporate, government, health care, education; they all represent completely different opportunities and challenges in the field. Knowing about yourself is going to help too, which goes along with my next point.

4. Understand your personality
You can't possibly pick the realm of PR that suits you best if you don't know how your personality stacks up against the various aspects of the aforementioned fields. For me, I loathe fundraising, therefore, nonprofit would NOT be the way to go. I can do it, but it's not my first choice. I have a friend who has a huge heart for service and wants to do nonprofit PR more than anything. It combines her two loves in one career. Take a personality test or two, or sit down and objectively analyze yourself. I think it helps to start by asking yourself what you want out of your career and go from there.

5. Get advice
Probably the most underrated, forgotten point on the list. Seeking advice from people who have searched for an entry level PR position before can help you figure out what places in your search are going well and which ones need more attention. If you can't find a PR person to talk to, the next best person is a career counselor or even someone who has experienced searching for an entry level position in other fields, like business. Even if you know you have it together, a little reassurance never hurts.

6. Network, make contacts and keep in touch
The old saying, "It's not what you know, but who you know," comes to mind. Now that's only partially true; if you are incompetent, even if you land the job, you'll eventually get fired. But knowing people helps. Don't be afraid to tap those contacts. Asking people if they know of any openings in your field is a great place to start. Daunting I know, but once you get the hang of it, it'll be second nature to you. Then 15 years down the road when someone asks you the same question, you'll know exactly how to help them.

7. Have a back up plan
Unfortunately, job offers don't always work out, so be prepared. This is where having lots of contacts and good networking skills can really help you out. Remember that woman you talked to who offered you that job you weren't so sure about? Now maybe the timing is better for you to consider it. Your back up plan will probably be constantly changing, and won't look anything like that to-the-letter crisis plan you put together for your client. Even if it remains a little vague, the point is that you've thought about it. It'll keep you constantly evaluating your options.

it's all about the details and the big picture

I just got back from vacation in Las Vegas, and while I relaxed out there it reminded me of the press event I helped plan there this past summer. Nothing quite compares to planning a press event. I love it. I'm a detail person, but I like to see the big picture too. On all those personality tests where they ask you which one you prefer, I never know what to choose. I want both.

Planning a press event, or any event for that matter, takes lists and dates and schedules and a major coordination effort on the part of many people. When it finally comes to fruition, and you see all your hard work pay off, you know it was well worth the effort. That's partly why for me PR is such a rewarding career. You make it happen. I relish that sense of accomplishment I feel when the event ends, mainly because for those brief 30 seconds I forget I have 7 million other things that piled up, awaiting my attention.

I like that PR creates a balancing act between so much, between details and the big picture; between strict planning and flying by the seat of your pants. Versatility really appeals to me, and PR definitely never lacks in variety.

all things considered, i do love fashion

So fashion PR could be my calling. I have always loved clothes. And shoes. And jewelry. And purses. And you get the idea. Even as a little girl, I'd be ready to leave the house and decide my outfit just wasn't quite right, so I'd dash back upstairs and put together a completely new look. As you probably guessed, it drove my parents crazy.

Now as a college senior, exploring the realm of PR niches, my professor introduced me to the world of fashion PR and fashion blogs. I must say, I'm smitten. Check out PR Couture, if you haven't already. They recently did an interview with Najwa Moses, who writes her own fashion blog, and she made the coolest comment on the difference between fashion and style. My What-Not-to-Wear-addict self loves this distinction. She talked about how "fashion" is really the industry- designers, runways, etc.- whereas "style" comes naturally. She's totally right, and like she said-stylish people just know how to dress themselves to look fabulous, whatever the season's trend.

This makes me think back to a job opening I saw in fashion PR, and I started to wonder whether I'm actually stylish enough for a career in that industry. I've always felt like my style is unique, and thanks to Najwa Moses' great advice, I can take confidence in my stylish self. I mean, I already put so much time and effort in on the style front anyways, since I love it, why not consider incorporating it into my career too?

someday my toaster will read me the news

A few months ago, my 17-year-old brother stood in line all night to ensure he was one of the first owners of the long-awaited Nintendo Wii. If you have not yet had a chance to dabble in the excitement of this interactive gaming system, I recommend you give it a try. My brother conned his non-gaming sister who barely knows which way to hold the controller into playing one day, and to my surprise I found it quite fun. For me, Wii bowling proved more fun than actual bowling, probably because I seemed slightly better at it than when I bowl in real life.

Last week, MediaPost's Marketing Daily published a very interesting article about Nintendo's Wii. According to the article, Nintendo plans to make news from AP available through the Wii. To me, this sounds like an avenue to entice tuned-out youths to get into the news. Although definitely not foolproof, I think those of us in the communications field need to acknowledge new, innovative ways of getting our message across to our publics. We know that if you want to want to reach your audience, you must go to them- relying on them to find to you usually fails to achieve much success. So if our audiences start TiVoing through commercials and watching YouTube rather than the news, we will just need to upload our message to YouTube to keep up.

For a communications profession like public relations, this translates into message appeal. Obviously your message itself must appeal to your audience, but you reach your audience more successfully if your message comes though an appealing medium as well. In the case of those crazy young whippersnappers, they might actually read it.

writing- yeah, it's actually kind of important

So, the professor of one of my classes wrote a textbook. A incredibly educated individual in his realm, his knowledge far exceeds my expectations for a teacher of an entry level elective. The fact that he's personable and funny also works in his favor; my point here being I maintain no qualm with the individual. Now, back to the textbook- it's not published yet, so he provides a draft of each chapter to students in the class via an online administration tool. I've read two chapters of the book thus far, and I pity its future editor. Littered with passive voice and cliches, reading it presents a unique and boring obstacle for a student whose major essentially consists of learning how to write in a manner that won't put your readers to sleep or into a coma. I should mention the first and second chapters of the book brazenly insult journalists and the media, who frankly comprise a group of some of the best writers out there.

As I have learned in my tenure in UGA's PR program, writing essentially constitutes the basis of PR. Communication in the form of the written word requires time and study. Good writing often proves a rare find, and bad writing usually floods in superfluously.

As for the the media- traditional and nontraditional- they play a huge role in the overall function of society; bringing issues of concern to the forefront of public attention. They create forums for public discussion of political and societal issues. And their PR counterparts assist journalists of all kinds in discovering the important information they need to present a fair and balanced perspective. I think I could even get some English majors in on this, after all, it drips with irony- insulting journalists through poor writing.

celebrities- all a pr stunt or the real deal?

I'm sure by now everyone has heard of the controversy surrounding Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington and his comments about costar T.R. Knight. In case you haven't, (because you have better things to do with your time) here's an overview. Supposedly Washington made a derogatory comment about Knight's sexual orientation. Washington reportedly apologized, but then brought the incident up again the Golden Globes. The latest development includes Washington issuing a formal apology for both incidents and seeking help for his problem- which brings us to how PR comes into play in this whole twisted drama. While listening to the radio, I heard some morning DJs discussing their doubt about the sincerity of Washington's apology. They chalked it up to being just a PR stunt to keep his job and protect Grey's reputation.

Well, celebrity PR exists, in part, to help celebrities recover from public embarrassment. Think back to Michael Richards and his Laugh Factory fiasco. After his horrendously long apology on Letterman- which desperately needed scripting by a PR professional, so that at the very least it would have made sense- he eventually enlisted the help of New York based Rubenstein Associates Inc.

PR is not there just to make nice for the mistakes and bad judgement calls Washington and Richards both made. Its role includes helping these celebrities get their message across. They can't sit down field calls from a hundred journalists, nor do they know who to inform about the steps they're taking to make things right. PR levels the playing field; it gives celebrities a chance to say their piece in a world where gossip and rumors oftentimes are more sought-after than the actual truth.