Public Relations Princess

TSA & Airlines Discriminate Against Girls With Curly Hair

Preparing for a recent trip to Washington D.C., I made my first-ever attempt to board a plane without checking my bag. I went to Target and spent a fortune on those special little 3 ounce bottles and travel-size beauty products.

When I got to the TSA security gauntlet in Des Moines, a very official TSA agent pulled me out of the line for a "special" screening. Then I was delivered some bad news. "You're only allowed a sandwich bag size bag of liquids," Mr. Screener infomed me. "You have more than twice the amount that is allowed. You are going to have to check your bag."

Not only was this going to make me potentially late in boarding my plane, but the TSA was essentially forcing me to pay a $25 bag fee. I think they must make a special commission on curly-haired girls like me. Here's the secret memo:

To: All TSA gate screening agents

From: The Money Grubbing Airlines

We have noticed that women with curly hair rarely can get through security with the regulation sandwich bag full of toiletries. Snag any of these violators and we will go half-sies with you on the bag fee that they'll have to pay for violating our arbitrary rules.

Secretary Napolitano can't understand why all these frilly chicks are bitching about the regs. Why can't they just use soap and a washcloth like the rest of us? 

So here's what I tried to bring through security:

1. Shampoo
2. Conditioner
3. 2 bottles of hair gel
4. Toothpaste
5. Facewash stuff
6. Facescrub stuff
7. Lotion
8. Babyoil (makeup remover)
9. Bodywash 

As you might surmise, this lack of product for my curly hair would be a disaster. So, instead of throwing my newly-purchased, carefully filled bottles away, Mr. TSA agent perp-walked me over to the exit lane (after my gloved groping by someone who actually turns out to be a Facebook friend) and I was forced to return to the check-in line at Delta, now filled by last-minute slackers.  

So I can only imagine how much money is being made from curly-haired girls like me. How could I possibly survive with this teeny little bag of toiletries? I mean, come on. This is ridiculous.

By the way, TSA, you're sending mixed messages to the public. Here is the picture on your website that says what the bag should look like. The bag pictured clearly contains more than three containers. That is what I looked at before packing. So get your story straight, and stop embarrassing your well-intentioned passengers.  

Don't Fall for the "Reputation Defender" Online Scams

A couple of years ago I had a meeting with a desperate and defeated client. Due to some past personal and business turmoil, when you Googled his name, all you could see was negative stuff. A bankruptcy. A bad business deal. A public failure.

However, what you saw online and the person who sat in front of me were two completely different people. The online image simply didn't match the real person, who was in a new line of work. He had totally turned his fortunes around and wanted the world to see his new successful life.

"Can you help me get rid of those old negative web results?" he asked.

The other day, I was listening to the Glenn Beck radio show and heard an ad for "Reputation Defender." It claimed that it would monitor your online presence and remove all negative references, for a small fee, of course.

I can see how this scenario would be tempting. Just pay some web jockey to erase all the bad stuff! There's just one problem with this. The Web is not some giant white board with a magic eraser. Information on the web, especially if it's a matter of public record, is not possible to change or delete. Just ask Rick Santorum, the presidential candidate who is suffering through a cruel web hoax, perpetrated by some political pranksters.

Back to my client. I asked him if he participated in social media. Not surprisingly, the answer was no. The first thing he needed to do was create some social media accounts. The same Google that was publicly humiliating him was the same Google that could save him. How? By creating social media content in places like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, he could make those negative links appear less prominent by pushing them down to page 2 or 3 of Google results. Here's how that works:

1. Google loves social media and rewards you every time you post. It's algorythms are tuned to social content and rank it higher than almost anything else.
2. You control your own social media accounts. You control what is posted and can screen all comments before they are posted.
3. Social media accounts rise very high in natural Google results. Google my friend Drew McLellan and see what you get. Even though he shares the name of a famous web developer, Drew's social media accounts and blog rank higher than the thousands of web results of his namesake.
4. Reserve your own URL. I highly recommend reserving "yourownname.com" before someone else does. I use GoDaddy.com but there are other services out there.

It takes time, persistence and hard work to push a negative result off your Google results page. It's disingenuous (at best) to promise otherwise. Use the money you would have wasted on "Reputation Defender" and use how to use free web tools like Google Alerts to monitor your own reputation. Then use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and your own blog to create content that accurately represents you and your business. The more stuff you post, the quicker you will start smiling when you Google yourself.

Here is a site that compares these supposed "web reputation" services. The interesting remarks are in the comments section, as usual! Did you notice that I didn't link to Reputation Defender? That's because it's not worth your time to explore. Thanks for reading.

This post originally appeared on IowaBiz.com on October 6, 2011.