About William Moss
Trans-Pacific spin doctor. Head of Global Media Relations at TSMC. Occasional writer of humor and PR analysis. This is a personal blog and opinions are my own. More information at “About Imagethief“.
Also on Substack (where full posts live now), Bluesky, the usual places.
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Author Archives: Will Moss
The People v. McRib
The press bites on a sandwich lawsuit Here’s a possibly controversial theory: Lawyers are just specialized PR people. I can hear my lawyer friends clenching their jaws, but hear me out. Contracts are communication. Courtrooms and arbitration hearings are communication. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Business, Crisis Management, Food, Litigation, Media, Public Relations
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Rocketship to Planet Urologist
Getting older, one awkward gland at a time It’s been getting harder to pee. It’s not that I can’t pee. That would be time to rush for the emergency room and get catheterized, something that (so far) I have not … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Health, Humor, Memoir, Rants
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The Kiss-Cam of Resurrection
Born Anew in the New York Times Remember the Coldplay concert kiss-cam disaster of last July? The CEO of software company Astronomer, Andy Byron, and the head of human resources, Kristin Cabot, were caught in a suggestive embrace by the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Business, Crisis Management, Internet, Media, Public Relations
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Ward 86: Growing Up in the Time of AIDS
My father’s memoir of the terrible epidemic of the 1980s My parents separated in 1973, when I was six years old. I sometimes think the amazing thing is that they got together in the first place. They are very different … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Memoir, San Francisco
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In Space, No One Can Hear You Spin
Crisis PR for science fiction’s most evil company Note: Minor spoilers for the recent “Alien: Earth” series. I was eleven in 1979 when my dad took me to see Ridley Scott’s Alien at the Geneva Drive-In, in South San Francisco. I watched … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Crisis Management, Humor, Media, Memoir, Pop Culture, Public Relations
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Triumph of the Wankers
Stadium Concerts and the Iconography of Totalitarianism I am going to start with something polarizing. I like the band Oasis. When people who don’t like Oasis find out that you do like Oasis, they will often try an intervention, like … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Politics, Pop Culture, Propaganda
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Imagethief Turns One
Looking back at hits and misses as we enter blog toddlerhood September 3rd was the first anniversary of this joint, so I thought I’d do a quick year-in-review. There will be a small amount of navel-gazing, but not too much. … Continue reading
Growing Popularity of Alien Brain Squids Fuels Controversy
Squid-wearers call for mankind’s extermination, but some say we should hear them out DES MOINES, Iowa—Aug 31, 2025—Debate raged today over the sudden popularity of head-worn squids in this normally sedate midwestern city. First noticed in social media posts from … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Crisis Management, Humor, Media, Rants
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Red Packets in the USA!
Evaluating a New York media scandal on the international beer metric Twenty years ago last March, I wrote my first blog post about PR in China. I had been living and blogging in China for nine months, but my early posts focused … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Beijing, Business, China, Corruption, Crisis Management, Media, Public Relations, USA
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The Life and Death of a Cool Phone
That time we tried to make the Moto X in the U.S.A. I’d been working for Burson-Marsteller in China for nearly six years when I got poached away by our client, Motorola. Jumping from agencies to clients can be tricky, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, Crisis Management, Motorola, Public Relations, Technology, USA
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Imagethief 