I recently attended the St. Louis Rams NFL Draft party and got a chance to chat up newly minted defensive back Cortland Finnegan. See my interview with him on JoeSportsFan here…..
Continue reading© Copyright 2011 Aaron Perlut - All Rights Reserved.










I’m Aaron Perlut, and since the early 1990s I’ve been working in some aspect of media or marketing on behalf of a broad array of public figures and organizations.
As our world becomes increasingly more digital, we each develop an online footprint. Some are larger than others, mine included. That’s why I created this site — as a hub to connect my digital footprint.
Mine includes my company, Elasticity, social networks where I participate, sites I write for including Forbes.com and JoeSportsFan, as well as the ridiculous not-for-profit facial hair advocacy think tank I run. Lest I also not forget my bacon addiction, the research institution I serve, and the New Orleans Mardi Gras Krewe I periodically roll with.
This is the center of my digital footprint and I hope it gives you a sense of who I am, the work that I do, and the causes I support.
Aaron Perlut
You could say I’ve been around the block. I wrote speeches for government officials, produced television packages for mid-tier market stations, introduced the concept of managed healthcare to the Southeast U.S., launched new Pepsi products, managed communications around power plant fatalities, nuclear security, labor strife, smoking cessation, created global thought leadership platforms for Fortune 100 executives, and I presently blog for Forbes.com on marketing and HuffingtonPost on a variety of silly topics.
Indeed, the list is long and varied. But most important, I believe, after building my career as a national media relations and reputation management strategist, I was a relatively early adopter in the new media space, creating communities and becoming active in blogging before Facebook, Twitter, and some very influential blogs alerted the rest of the world that new media really mattered. As a result, my approach to helping organizations manage their reputation or market brands hinges on using creative solutions and narratives that are integrated through multiple marketing channels to break through the clutter of a crowded information landscape and deliver tangible results.
Sometimes I support risk, but never without an eye toward the potential reward. And the culture of the brand is always a principle consideration. You cannot pretend to be something you are not or thou shalt be exposed.
I’ve proven to be an effective communications strategist for some 20 years for companies and brands like UPS, AT&T, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Papa John’s, Pepsi, Capital One, Entergy, Progress Energy, the Virginia Department of Transportation, Emerson Electric, PacifiCare, Charter Communications, Anheuser-Busch/InBev, and others.
Outside of work, I’m a typical, flawed human being who faces the same challenges as any other upright mammal not named Kim Kardashian or Kermit the Frog.
I’m married to perhaps the most tolerant woman on the planet and we have two nutty children. My dog’s name is Chewbacca. I love the woebegone Chicago Cubs and consider Wrigley Field my Mecca. I periodically ride in the New Orleans Mardi Gras Krewe of the Rolling Elvi and long to be the player personnel czar of my favorite NBA team, the Washington Bullets. I am considered a mustache pioneer in the facial hair community and have a Ph.D. in nuclear mustacheology (sad but true). I love beer. I consume vast quantities of bacon and unicorn meat breakfast tacos and believe vegetarians are Communists (apologies to my brother). Mr. T and Malcolm X are my heroes. And, I’m frightened by hypocrites, extremists, people who cannot admit when they are wrong, and those who try to make you believe they are perfectly normal.
Aaron Perlut
I recently attended the St. Louis Rams NFL Draft party and got a chance to chat up newly minted defensive back Cortland Finnegan. See my interview with him on JoeSportsFan here…..
Continue readingI recently wrote in Forbes about how commonly leaders — from CEOs to politicians — are counseled to disengage, simply ignore their detractors, and oftentimes not even address the critics. This week we saw just the opposite from President Barack Obama on his appearance on “The Jimmy Fallon Show.” I write about it in Forbes [...]
Continue readingIn today’s 24-hour news cycle, chief executives and other organization leaders must not bury their heads in the sand when facing criticism, but instead engage their critics. I write about this in Forbes here……
Continue readingAaron Perlut