Friday, April 4, 2014

CVS to Stop Selling Tobacco Products

CVS, a large chain health pharmacy, has announced that it will stop selling tobacco products at the end of the year.


In recent jaw-dropping news, CVS, a pharmacy focused on health and wellness, has just announced they will stop selling tobacco products in their stores by October 1st.  According to CVS, the product does not align with their mission of providing health services to the public.   When such a dramatic announcement is made, it is important to consider all aspects of public relations, with online reputation being a one of them.  CVS would benefit from the reputation management services of Centel Media™, a top online reputation management company, in order to monitor and manage the press after such a large public announcement.  Centel Media™ online reputation management services offer tools that allow a customer to track and manage online reputation, in real time, at their own convenience.


This is no small announcement, as CVS receives $2 billion a year from tobacco customers, which may cause shares of CVS will go down a substantiable amount. It still yet to be seen whether other pharmacies will follow by attempting the same stunt.  If CVS manages to continue its recent profitable path, others will probably march the same path. As CVS is the first to try this, none will be as jarring or create such a media blitz as this recent announcement.


In addition to stopping the sale of tobacco products, CVS will be creating a stop-smoking program later this year. Resources will be available in-store and online.  The sale of tobacco cessation products, such as nicotine patches, will continue to be sold in stores.


Hopefully, this move by CVS will hopefully have a domino effect on the health of the general public. Tobacco use causes premature death such as cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease.  According to the CDC, one in every five deaths is a result of cigarette smoking, and tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the US. Almost half a million people in the US die every year from smoking, including second-hand smoke.


CVS has received an overwhelming amount of public support, but online reputation is notoriously fickle. It is important that they continue to represent themselves in such a positive manner, and continue to manage their online reputation through companies such as Centel Media™. Way to go, CVS, for putting your companys’ morals ahead of profit margins.


Renee Miller,
Creative Writer,
Jonathan Wong,
Editor-in-Chief,



Control For Controversial Commercials

Even though commercials aired during the superbowl are extremely popular some of them receive a massive amount of negative reviews online. Top online reputation management company, Centel Media offers negative review suppression services that could help those companies and others bounce back from negative backlash.


Millions of viewers tune in every year to watch the superbowl for the intense game, awesome halftime show, and of course the entertaining commercials. The SuperBowl is the one event and probably the only time where people actually look forward to commercials interrupting their regularly scheduled programming. Companies fight to remain on the minds of viewers by the end of the night. In order to accomplish this, many of those companies try to touch the hearts of their potential customers and others take major risks with their ads. Landing a commercial spot during the superbowl has to be one of the biggest platforms of publicity for any company but not every ad is an easy win.
For example, this year Coca Cola attempted to pull at America’s heart strings by displaying Americans of a variety of ethnicities all singing “America the Beautiful”. The ad was meant to celebrate what America is about, which is diversity. However, not everyone felt the way that Coca Cola had hoped they would. As a matter of fact some viewers felt the exact opposite, calling the ad “un-American”. Viewers even took to Twitter and created the phrase “Speak American” which began trending immediately after. Since the SuperBowl generates such a wide audience the risk of offending a portion of viewers is almost one that you can’t avoid.
Negative reviews such as the ones I referenced before and those that may be similar are usually written in an impulsive and angered state. The person responsible probably isn’t even aware of the damage they may have caused someone’s brand or company. Other times the person who writes these negative responses is someone who may have had some previous grudge against the company they’re targeting, such as being fired by the company or even being an owner of a rival company. This is why top online reputation company, Centel Media™ assists companies with this problem by offering their negative review suppression services. In regards to the service, Centel Media™ employees will create an impressive amount of positive and most importantly truthful reviews about your company.  
These reviews will be posted throughout the internet on important sites that usually generate a lot of reviews. The positive reviews written by Centel Media™ professionals will suppress the negative ones and promote your business at the same time.Centel Media™ is dedicated to helping the true identity of your business shine through all the negativity.    


Tia’Lavon Butler,
Creative Writer
Jonathan Wong
Editor-in-Chief,