The Spin Cycle, 6/18

A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other things I find interesting.

Digital Dads: In a victory for gender equality, men now also have a patronizing label that marketers have affixed to them to describe their online habits. This caught my eye:

Though digitally savvy dads embrace the good things that come with new technologies, they're also more acutely aware that too much digital tethering can be bad for their kids. Six in 10 Digital Dads (and half of Average Joes) make it a point to limit the amount of time their kids spend online. Forty-two percent of Digital Dads and 31 percent of Average Joes shoo their children outside to play.

How about limiting the amount of time the Dads spend on their devices? My wife and I love our devices but we love our kids more, and we've had to set ground rules for ourselves to ensure we aren't checking our Facebook status when our daughter is telling us about her day at kindergarten, or our son is asking to play "Star Wars." My wife is convinced that this generation of children will grow up resenting their parents' attachment to technology.

Why Are Reporters Always Picking on Us? Christopher Parente is mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore from journalists who gripe about bad pitches and other nasty PR habits without acknowledging their own foibles. I hear ya, Chris. And certainly we need to point out, publicly when necessary, when news outlets misrepresent our clients and employers, and we need to use all the tools at our disposal to tell our story directly to our target audience. But I can live with the abuse of journalists, even if they refuse to admit they need me most of the time as much as I need them. At least in my market, I'm better paid, and there's a good chance my job will still exist five years from now.

Pass the Grain of Salt, Please: The recent study that defended the efficacy of Facebook ads was funded in part by Facebook -- no big deal, organizations fund research all the time to test their product -- but also involved more or less self-selected respondents. It doesn't mean the results are worthless, just qualified.