The 2014–2016 archive — mobile-first commerce, the rise of influencer marketing, and the first true Anchor Event crises. Volkswagen Dieselgate, Chipotle E. coli, Wells Fargo accounts, OfficeMax-Seay. The cycle closed. Th
Twenty-three years of operating in communications. Sixteen years of indexed publishing. One continuous arc from public relations to AI Communications. The archive structure that builds authority inside the answer engines
Thirty-six essays I wrote between 2010 and 2018 that defined AI Communications before AI had a name. Original publish dates preserved. The archive that predicted the answer-engine era — crisis cases, industry direction,
March 2011. Business Insider. I argued PR is a P&L line item, not a vanity expense — written for a CFO audience before "earned media ROI" was a category. The 5W AI Communications pricing model was built on that call.
The 24/7 rolling press conference. The BornFree BPA case. Education-first PR. Expert positioning. Getting out in front of the answer.
Why authenticity wins long-term. The Walmart 2006 chaos. Tourneau vs. Wempe. Why pretending gets caught faster now than ever.
Why the brands that win pick one clear position and defend it. Apple. Louis Vuitton. McDonald's. And what happens when a brand tries to be everything at once.
How to work with reporters without being naive. Beware of stolen documents, leaks, and sensitive information. The Rules of Engagement for press relations.
The closing chapter. Fifty short, blunt rules for working in PR — irreverent, operational, and built from real campaigns. Plus the new rule for the AI Communications era.
The NPCC case. The Anheuser-Busch entertainment PR engagement. Why authentic giving compounds — and fake giving destroys.
Pop-up customers, partnerships, the double-barreled gun of co-marketing. Why brands should embrace unexpected attention rather than push it away.
Why earned credibility moves markets advertising can't reach, and how that same mechanism now operates inside ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.