{"podcast":{"title":"Lead Balloon - Marketing, Public Relations and Strategic Communications Stories","slug":"lead-balloon-marketing-public-relations-and-strategic-communications-stories-257456","podcast_index_feed_id":257456,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/leadballoon","website_url":"https://www.podcampmedia.com/leadballoon","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/f7f1c742-fa62-11e9-a703-bfe81ccf5509/image/9b1c2168a9233fc4f00a55bbf69dbcc9.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Podcamp Media","episode_count":75,"summary":"Compelling tales from the world of public relations, marketing and branding, told by the well-meaning communications professionals who lived them. Lead Balloon is like Freakonomics for communicators and media consumers. It's a show where we tell stories from communications industry leaders, brands that everyone knows and loves (or hates), and spectacular PR disasters. With immersive storytelling and a wry sense of humor, host Dusty Weis (nominated for \"Best Indie Podcast Host\" at the 2026 Podcast Academy awards) revisits epic PR disasters, intense communications scenarios, professional inflection points and notable campaigns we all remember, and usually finds a reason to chuckle. Because sometimes, there are important lessons to be learned from someone else's worst day. And sometimes, it's just more convenient than group therapy. Lead Balloon is an award-winning program, named by Adweek as \"Marketing Podcast of the Year,\" nominated for a Webby award and nominated twice for \"Best Business Podcast\" in the Podcast Academy awards. Tune in monthly for new episodes. Visit podcampmedia.com/leadballoon to learn more.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-30T22:19:04.768864+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-balloon-marketing-public-relations-and-strategic-communications-stories-257456"},"episode":{"title":"50. Grumpy Cat, the Sound of Freedom, Watergate and More: A Look Back and a Look at What's Next","slug":"50-grumpy-cat-the-sound-of-freedom-watergate-and-more-a-look-back-and-a-look-at-what-s-next","published_at":"2023-12-27T11:07:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-balloon-marketing-public-relations-and-strategic-communications-stories-257456/50-grumpy-cat-the-sound-of-freedom-watergate-and-more-a-look-back-and-a-look-at-what-s-next","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-balloon-marketing-public-relations-and-strategic-communications-stories-257456","url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/PDM9726796187.mp3?updated=1733865333","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/PDM9726796187.mp3?updated=1733865333","summary":"When you're working with high-profile people in fields like PR, marketing and branding, things are always changing. History gets uncovered. New information comes to light that changes everything. And sometimes an opportunity comes along to learn just a little bit more about a topic of interest. So in this episode, we're revisiting three separate tales from Lead Balloon’s four-year run to dig deeper, uncovering some new \"holy crap\" moments that we never saw coming. From episode one, we find out how the manager for world-famous-Internet-meme-Grumpy-Cat feels about being cast as the villain on our podcast. From episode 13, how the Harmon Brothers agency, creators of the viral video ads for the Squatty Potty, have become involved with the rightwing-conspiracy-fueled media landscape of the \"Sound of Freedom\" film, distributed by Angel Studios, that made headlines in 2023. We also learn that they're working on an eyebrow-raising marketing/entertainment crossover called Homestead, based on the Black Autumn book series. And, we dig in to their other past projects, including Covenant Eyes and VidAngel. And from episode 40, Dwight Chapin—who served in the Nixon administration and did prison time as part of the Watergate scandal—talks about how he punked Nelson Rockefeller at a political press conference, and shares his sincere regrets about his time in politics. Plus, we're joined by our old friends, marketer and strategist Kyle Brown and Andrew Julian, senior sports editor for the Messenger, to talk about what's next for Lead Balloon as a podcast. Cheers to 50 episodes, everyone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"When you're working with high-profile people in fields like PR, marketing and branding, things are always changing. History gets uncovered. New informatio…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3066,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lead-balloon-marketing-public-relations-and-strategic-communications-stories-257456/episodes/50-grumpy-cat-the-sound-of-freedom-watergate-and-more-a-look-back-and-a-look-at-what-s-next/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-balloon-marketing-public-relations-and-strategic-communications-stories-257456/50-grumpy-cat-the-sound-of-freedom-watergate-and-more-a-look-back-and-a-look-at-what-s-next.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}