A wall poster caught my eye on a recent visit to a San Francisco company that provides online customer support. "Customer service," it announced, "is the new marketing."

Bill Clinton got a hard lesson recently in a new rule of politics. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), meanwhile, tried to make some new rules of his own.

Even before protesters started disrupting the Olympic Torch relay on several continents, the Games had long since lost its luster as anything but an extremely big-time professional sports meet. Now it's turning into a big-time PR disaster for the host nation, China, and the feckless International Olympic Committee.

The old aphorism - "Under-promise, over-deliver" - remains timely. But it's never been so relevant as it is now during an age when systems of all kinds are growing ever-more complex.

When a company gets into trouble, one of its essential recovery tools is solid leadership. This goes beyond keeping employees on track.

Awhile back, I wrote in this space about a PR innovation at United Airlines: Channel 9 on the audio system was devoted to communications among pilots and air-traffic controllers.

Even now, I get calls from reporters asking if bloggers are journalists. Sigh. The answer, of course, is that most are not, and that some are.

Anyone with the slightest appreciation of irony would surely have appreciated a recent editorial in The Wall Street Journal.

A cliche of business holds that good ideas are a dime a dozen; it's hard work and investment capital that turn them into businesses. As with most cliches, this one has a solid foundation of truth.

A few years ago, I joined a gaggle of technology journalists at the Cupertino, CA, headquarters of what was then called Apple Computer. (The company is called Apple now.) The occasion was an announcement of some sort; I've long since forgotten the specifics.