By Mark Mallon, on June 28, 2012

Many of my posts have been about budgeting and evaluation, but don’t think that’s all I’ve been doing – quite the contrary. I have had a very broad range of projects here at Rocky Mount. One of the more interesting ones was a couple weeks ago, and it was in the realm of public affairs. A Public Affairs Manager (also known as a Public Information Officer) is the gateway between the city and the public. He or she answers questions from the press, advertises the city and its events, and generally helps anyone get any required information about the city. Check out my classmate Ebony’s blog for more about public affairs.

The Public Affairs Manager in Rocky Mount is quite a busy lady. She manages a city TV program and publishes newsletters and a city worker magazine to keep folks in the loop about what’s happening in Rocky Mount. Because of my background in languages and literature, the Public Affairs Manager sometimes calls upon me to write press releases on behalf of the city. A couple weeks ago, she asked if I would be interested in writing a script for a TV commercial she was planning to advertise the City’s first downtown car show. I’d never written a script before in my life, but I thought, what the heck? So I gave it a shot. The Public Affairs Manager really liked the script and made the commercial, which you can watch below (no, I did not do the voice over). They had to pare my original 60 second script down to a 30 second ad, but it’s still cool seeing my words in a commercial.

I’m sure my titillating blog posts have made you really eager to visit Rocky Mount, dear reader, and the car show on July 21 would be an excellent opportunity to do so. The City will be unveiling part of the completed downtown streetscaping and it should look awesome, so come on down!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXn2LlSO3Zo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]