Welcome!

Welcome to InSites, Vanguard's blog dedicated to communications for social change. Please visit our "About" page for more information on InSites.

InSites Newsletter

Email:

The New Thinking Behind the Old Spice Viral Campaign

Bravo, Old Spice.  Bravo.  Your viral ad campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa is one of the most brilliant social media-based advertising campaigns that I’ve ever seen. It is certain to become a case study in how to effectively reach huge numbers of people.

How many people?  Let’s recap now that one week has gone by since Old Spice [...]

Advocacy Video Campaign Idea Courtesy of the Old Spice Man

I hope you’ve seen on TV or someone has forwarded you the “new, great-smelling” Old Spice “manmercials” featuring Isaiah Mustafa. Recently, the ad campaign has taken a more personal tactic.

Yup, he’s talking to the ABC’s “Good Morning, America” host George Stephanopoulos – though I doubt we’ll be seeing President Obama shirtless at a [...]

Social Media Safeguards: Protect Yourself as Information Sharing Increases

This guest post is written by Shelby Benkert, an intern at Vanguard Communications.

Unlike most college students, I tend to shy away from many social media networks. Facebook is my go-to in order to stay in touch with my friends, and I rarely use anything else. I do have a Twitter account, but I have never [...]

AP Creates an Oil Spill Editor — New Trend in Covering the Gulf Coast Disaster

On Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) announced the appointment of former Jerusalem bureau chief Steve Gutkin as their new “Oil Spill Editor.” According to a memo sent to AP staff and released to the Poynter Institute:

The Gulf Oil spill has been an enormous journalistic challenge. A sprawling story, much of it occurring literally out of [...]

McChrystal Interview Fallout Shows Why Interviewees Should Stay in Control

General Stanley McChrystal is in big, big trouble. In a profile of McChrystal appearing in Rolling Stone magazine, he’s on the record saying things about his boss (a.k.a. the President of the United States), Vice President Joe Biden and the administration’s management of the Afghanistan war that should never appear in print.  It was a [...]