Monday, December 10, 2007

Sick of Vick? Here's the Good News

ESPN is reporting at this hour that disgraced quarterback Michael Vick has gotten 23 months for dog-fighting.

The Yahoo Buzz Log doesn't seem to know the sentencing is today, but I expect the pop in Vick searches to hit their data soon.

For the social media/web 2.0 aspect of the story, you can't do better than this New York Times article (November 12): "In the Fund-Raising Games, Blogs Cut Both Ways" by Noam Cohen & James Freed. They note: In the world of animal rights’ charities, a certain phrase has been fund-raising gold lately — “Michael Vick’s dogs.”

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is out in front of the sentencing story today with this expert media availability posting. For the local angle, note that ASPCA retains Berlin, NH-based KD Paine & Partners to track their media messaging. This case study states that the ASPCA has -- due to a confluence of media stories culminating in the Vick firestorm -- seen huge spikes in media coverage, which has correlated to increased web hits, and that in turn has correlated to increases in donations.

Good to see something positive coming out of this, isn't it? Here's hoping today's sentencing further bulges the coffers of the animal rights groups. Here are links to what the Humane Society of the United States, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the ASPCA are saying today.