My CBS News interview: a preview

Last night local CBS News reporter Dorothy Tucker came over to interview me about my thoughts on blogging and the controversy-that-shouldn't-be-a-controversy over transparency and authenticity in the momosphere. She was supposed to arrive at 6:30pm, but got stuck in traffic for an hour.

So at 7:30, when Ms. Tucker and her photographer arrived, A was in bed and Z was tired but determined to be on TV.

So imagine, if you will, this scene. The window A/C unit has been turned off. Bright lights have been set up. I'm positioned at my dining room table, iBook open. Z's on the floor behind the reporter. Ms. Tucker asks me a tough question. I start to answer, trying to be diplomatic but not wishy-washy. Mid-sentence, Z comes over to ask why the camera's not trained on her.

We try again. And again. Each time I try to deliver one of my talking points, my daughter jumps into the picture with an inane request or turns on a loud toy. Then, frustrated that I keep sending her away and asking her to quiet down, she throws a royal temper tantrum.

I pull off my mic and try to comfort her, but she's had a big, long day that included a day camp trip to the zoo, a visit to the pool and two playdates. It's past her bedtime and she's fried. Finally, with my hair frizzing and my lipstick melting off, I deliver her to Dad.

The interview resumes. Honestly, I don't know how I did. I know the soundbites I'd practiced went out the window. I talked a lot, but I felt like I was saying the same thing over and over again. No, I don't begrudge anyone the opportunity to make money off her blog. Yes, I've done the occasional product review myself. No, I don't accept money for posts or positive product reviews. No, I really haven't made any money at all; that's not why I do this. Yes, I feel transparency is crucial. Yes, I support FTC oversight as it will encourage mom bloggers to disclose.

I also spoke about how, as a marketer, I've encouraged companies to embrace mom bloggers. They are a powerful, influential source of word-of-mouth. What worries me is mom bloggers selling out their blog--their own brand if you will--to the highest bidder. I think they're doing a disservice to their readership and themselves.

When Ms. Tucker asked if I trusted any product review blogs, I responded with shout-outs to ZRecommends and Cool Mom Picks, two review blogs that hold themselves to very high standards. Both sites distinguish editorial from advertising and ZRecommends' "keep no stuff" policy is particularly admirable.

The CBS story is scheduled to run on the 10 o'clock news on August 10th.

Trust me, Trust Me's good

I don't have cable, but if I did, I can tell you what I'd be watching Monday night on TNT: Trust Me, a new drama/comedy set at a large Chicago ad agency based on the very place I work. I was lucky enough to preview the first two episodes and attend a lunchtime meet and greet with Monica Potter on Friday; she plays an award-winning yet highly insecure divorcee/copywriter on an otherwise all-male creative team.

The real Monica Potter is nothing like her character; she's a down-to-earth mother of three eager to dish off-the-record about the foibles of raising two teenage boys and a 3-year-old girl with a roomful of female bloggers.

As a female copywriter at a large advertising agency, folks want to know if I think Trust Me has any basis in reality. To which I'd reply yes, as much as any TV show is an accurate representation of life on the job. It's a glamorized, simplified version of what I do that highlights only the interesting bits. Just as the nail-biting moments on The Shield (my current addiction) and The Wire are probably based in truth, the reality of being a police officer probably includes a lot more interviewing of pickpocket victims and filling out of paperwork. But really, who wants to watch episode in which everyone attends a process meeting or brainstorms 25 ways to say "Now more absorbent than ever?"

The Olympics: Is it something to believe in?

That's the question I'm asking over at the Chicago Moms Blog. Won't you join me and weigh in?

Rosie vs. Elisabeth

Although it is amusing to see lame-duck Rosie and lame-o Elisabeth lose their tempers on The View, this clip also worth watching for Joy Behar's litany of outrages our President has committed since coming into office.

No patience for being a patient

I'm home sick today, feeding a vicious cold with hourly trips into the kitchen. I think I would be a cow if I was home full-time.

Anyway, after finishing up a presentation deck and emailing it off to the office, I've been busying myself with the production and consumption of the hot water/lemon juice/honey mixture first prepared for me by the British nanny of some family friends when I was about twelve years old. My sister and I had been staying at their home in Islamabad, Pakistan while my dad was medivaced to Germany with acute pancreatitis (my mother accompanied him). I'm always impressed by how well this hot lemonade soothes a sore throat.

I'm less impressed with network television's daytime viewing options. Seriously, after Oprah and The View, there is nothing on but low-budget soaps and hour after hour of court shows. Cristina's Court, the People's Court, Divorce Court, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Mills Lane...even the logos for these shows are virtually identical!

The Office

The best part of last night's hour-long episode of The Office (titled "A Benihana Christmas")? When tool Andy orders a "Nagasaki" at Benihana...an eggnog and saki cocktail. I almost wet myself.

What it's like to "go on Oprah"

I promised a full recap of my Tuesday morning on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and here it is.

First, the tickets. For about the past year, I've been periodically checking the last minute tickets section of the Oprah website. It it used to fill out audiences, the topics never interested me. It was always "Do you have a diet question for Dr. Greene?" "Do you have the ugliest room in America?" or "Do you have a teen daughter who is out of control?"

Then, early last week, Oprah producers were looking for people who had seen An Inconvenient Truth and had a question for Al Gore. I wrote in and got a call from a producer the very next morning!

Fast forward a week to Tuesday. Gloria picked me up at 6:45am and we drove to Harpo Studios in the West Loop. Parking across the street is a steep $20, but there isn't really any alternative. We join the line outside the building a few minutes after 7am, and, in spite of the tent protection, it is bone-chillingly cold. The two groups in front of us in line don't strike us as looking particularly eco-friendly, and indeed, when one of them turns around to ask us if we know the show's topic, they roll their eyes and groan at the mention of global warming.

We make it inside the building around 7:45, but there is still bag check, ID check, metal detectors and purse inspections to make it through. We'd been warned to downsize our bags and leave cell phones in the car, but it seemed most of the audience members there had not. There was an organized system for checking big bags and electronic items, leaving the average Oprah fan with three different claim tickets.

From there we could make a pit stop and Gloria noted that there were two women's rooms and one men's. Apt, given the gender breakdown.

That done, we were ushered upstairs to a giant waiting room that resembled nothing so much as a bus or train terminal. It was about 8:15am and all of the 250-odd seats were taken, and one of the ushers directed us into one of the standing room only lines. But we'd only been standing long enough to fill out our release forms before my name was called out over the loudspeaker. We joined about 10 other women who had e-mailed in questions for Al Gore, and we were "randomly assigned" seats in the studio. We ended up about halfway up the center right risers.

Oprah's studio seemed smaller in person that I had imagined it. It is immaculately clean, and the metallic accents, together with all the bright lighting, make it a warm, cheerful place. Producers ushered the rest of the audience in, occasionally giving priority seats to groups with the "best colors" on their clothing.

By 8:40 the entire audience was seated and the producers warmed us up a bit, coaching us to be ready to say "awww" when something was cute or gasp at awful truths. Oprah made her appearance while a producer was talking, so there was no grand entrance. She joked around with the audience for the final 10 minutes before the show was to go live, complaining that she was bloated from her breakfast of Shredded Wheat and mouthing the bad words we're not allowed to say on live TV.

I don't need to go into the actual show, since it was taped live for TV. Nothing was edited out and there weren't any re-takes. Oprah only invited one audience question, and that was at the very end (and not from a pre-seeded plant like myself).

As I mentioned before, I got to ask Al Gore my question during the after show, and I should be able to find out on Saturday whether I made it to TV.

The aftershow was over around 10:40am, and we were able to claim our coats fairly quickly. Everyone in the audience received a free copy of the DVD and I was at work by 11am.