Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Thursday Short Takes

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Mike Peterson Published: March 27, 2014 1 minute 2 comments

Retail is in a story arc that both amuses and appalls me, based on the Target security breach (Ouch. Nice timing!)

Of course, Retail always both amuses and appalls me, which is why I like it so much, but, in this case, Norm Feuti has an opportunity to deal with both the damage and inconvenience done by the breach itself and the response from corporate, and let the hijinx commence.

Fortunately, there's no Target store in this area, so I've watched the thing unfold from the sidelines.

But I did get an email from Kickstarter last month saying they had detected a security breach, that no credit card info had been obtained but that passwords and addresses could have been, so they recommended changing any of those passwords. It was complete, it was apologetic, it told me specifically what I needed to know.

Which reminded me of the syringe-in-the-Pepsi case, back during the heydey of bogus tampering claims. A couple in Washington claimed to have found a syringe in a can of Diet Pepsi, the story made the press, copycatting ensued and things quickly reached a crescendo.

Pepsi rose to the occasion by, rather than ducking and dodging and refusing to comment, doing a full disclosure, including video demonstrations of the bottling line that showed the cans upside down until they are flipped, filled and sealed with a speed that would prevent anybody from inserting anything but sweet, refreshing Pepsi-Cola.

End of crisis and foundation of a public relations scenario so widely praised as "how to handle fraudulent claims" that, if you do a search for "There's a syringe in my Pepsi can," you will get a flood of links to the same for-sale college paper on the topic, which is pretty ironic.

Full disclosure and frank exchanges are also a pretty good way to handle for-real claims, but my experience as a business reporter was that corporate spokespersons generally operated under one of three approaches: 

1. Full disclosure and frank exchange (rarely)

2. Duck and cover (often)

3. Feigned disclosure and bogus exchange (too often)

That last one being based on the old Hollywood saw, attributed to various people, "The key to success out here is sincerity. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

As it happens, Hollywood even made a short film showing how I used to interview corporate spokespersons in the face of a crisis:

In fact, about the only thing I hate more than Wal-Mart is having my intelligence insulted.

Digesting your lessons

I like Zits, but it can be hit and miss, too often falling back on some eternal those-darned-kids trope. Today, however, they've hit on a very real "Today's Young People" thing.

I filled in overnight with the (local set of) grandkids a few weeks ago, and when they were packing their lunches, the eldest, a senior, chose to take hers not in a separate bag but just among her stuff, since she planned to browse on it throughout the day.

Turns out that eating in class is the norm at her high school. We're not talking about sneaking raisins or M&Ms up to your mouth one at a time, though setting out the full espresso machine Pierce has is, yes, comic exaggeration. But, yeah, open gnoshing. Including the sandwich.

In my day, consarn it, we were expected to sit up straight and take notes, not spread out a picnic on our damn desks.

However, in my day, consarn it, we had a full 40-minute period for lunch, which gave us time to stand in line, sit at a table with our friends and eat at a casual pace and then relax a little (ie, sneak out for a smoke) before the next bell.

Before you criticize kids for eating in class, better check how long they get to eat at lunch. Given the schedule at most schools today, the cafeteria should be labeled as a choking hazard.

And you should see the interest rates!

Speaking of things that have changed, kids are now being shoehorned into college degrees they don't want or need at prices that have gone from "cost of a new car" to "cost of a mobile home" and are approaching "cost of a house."

But Glenn McCoy at least puts a humorous spin on it.

The Man is Father to the Child

Over at Arlo & Janis, Gene has been taking on an adult role and finds himself now with a stepdaughter in a story arc that involves her grandfather selling the diner where she has spent a great deal of her young life.

And Gene finds that emotional cluelessness is carried on the Y-chromosome. We know where you get that one, and we sure know where he got it.

If only they were this self-aware

Mike Baldwin's "Cornered" isn't normally a political cartoon per se, but he's captured the zeitgeist with this one.

Go read this:

"Stripped" goes up for sale at iTunes next Tuesday, but you can get in line any time, the importance being that, if they can spike the first day sales (which would include presales), it will pop the title up into greater visibility. It's important that this buzz reach a wide audience.

I've seen it, I own it, and anybody who cares at all about comics should see it.

But, if you require a little more prodding, check out this Esquire article.

Speaking of things that matter:

We're closing in on the last two weeks of the Indiegogo campaign to fund the Kenosha Festival of Cartoon Art, and Anne Morse Hambrock here explains what they need the money for.

If cartooning is to remain a mainstream medium and not become some little troglodytic niche art form, this kind of public festival really, really matters.

And, as I've said before, these things may fall in the category of "Let George do it," but you are George.

And I've already given. Twice. Seriously.

They added some new stuff and I saw something else I wanted. You should go look. 

Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.