Rock Star PR Move: The Wishing Tree

While strolling around her favorite Minneapolis lake a couple of weeks ago, this GH Spin blogger and her husband stopped abruptly when tiny pieces of neon-colored papers waved at them from a tree along the walking path. Before even knowing what we were seeing, we couldn’t help but smile at the whimsy. Turns out, this “wishing tree” was the first part of the 52-week Hokey Pokey Project, launched by Minneapolis mom Deb Arora and her family. Passersby were prompted to write down their wishes on the tiny pieces of paper and hang them from the tree with pieces of yarn. There were hundreds of them, calling on the giver of wishes for everything from world peace to a dog.

Photo courtesy of the Star Tribune.

We mention it here, not just because it brightened our day, but because it is also a hall-of-fame-worthy Rock Star PR move.

On her blog about the project, Arora said, “For the next fifty-two weeks, my family will strive to create a weekly public project that will serve no other purpose than to make people smile – perhaps hundreds of people or maybe just one. But smiles are the primary goal.”

Arora, a former advertising pro, says her husband’s dream is for the Hokey Pokey Project to become a global phenomenon. As both a do-gooder and savvy marketer, Arora just might pull that off. Her idea has already appeared in the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, and the blogs of other young moms and Lake Harriet enthusiasts.

In case you missed it

It’s been another busy week in the fast-changing communications world. Here are a few updates from The GH Spin’s “In case you missed it” file.

•The next odd couple: Northwest Publications, the Pioneer Press’s publisher, announced yesterday that it is partnering with The Onion, and will run the paper’s Twin Cities business operations, including sales, production and distribution. The GH Spin hopes the Pioneer Press takes advantage of The Onion’s outstanding headline writers. Read more here.

•The social network meets the retail opportunity: Target has expanded its partnership with Facebook this week past Farmville gift cards. Minnesota’s own discount retailer announced this week that customers will be able to print pictures directly from their Facebook accounts at in-store photo kiosks. Read more here.

•Internet use swells to 2 billion: Does it seem like the Internet is getting a bit more crowded? New research says the World Wide Web is on pace to reach more than 2 billion users before the end of 2010, according to a recent report. That means nearly 30% of the world’s 6.9 billion people have access to the Internet. Read more here.

Status update: Facebook remains strong despite protests

Quit Facebook Day has come and gone without leaving a dent in Facebook’s dominance over the social networking world. According to the Wall Street Journal, fewer than 35,000 people, less than .009% of the social networking site’s users, agreed to quit.

Perhaps Facebook’s most recent privacy changes – which were explained adeptly by the Pioneer Press this weekend – changed the minds of some users. Nevertheless, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Facebook (and Google) raising concerns about privacy settings. The committee is considering holding hearings on these issues.