New York Public Relations

It’s no mystery – children are probably the pickiest eaters on the face of the earth. If the food is not dripping with chocolate or sugar, chances are that they wouldn’t event look at it. I speak from experience, as my childhood was filled with chocolate chip cookies and Reese’s Butter Cups to my mother’s dismay, and I ran away whenever I saw anything that was or resembled a vegetable. I think its safe to say that children can be the toughest audience to please when it comes to food. In recent times, many food companies have developed product marketing strategies where for food products targeting children and their taste buds, yet still offer a good amount of nutrients and vitamins that would be sufficient to a growing child. Take food company giant, Nestle , who decided to revamp some of its promotion for one of its products, Juicy Juice. Nestle marketed the juice to have brain development benefits, low-sugar content, and finally, is 100% pure juice. Nestle also mar

Launching a product seems to be an intimidating ordeal. There are several things you have to think of – everything from making sure the production of the product goes right to the promotion and generating buzz around it. It seems stressful, complicated, and terrifying, but it doesn’t have to be. When it comes to launching a product, you have to make sure that your it is unique, appealing, innovative, and most of all, marketable. The launch is just the cherry on top to the final push for your product. Here are some things to keep in mind, which will vastly help the process of a product launch (and ease the headache): Have an appealing design: Potential customers are quick to judge when they look at a product, so it is important to have a design that is appealing and will draw in people’s eyes. This will generate curiosity for them to learn more about your product. Timing: Timing is essential for products, especially if it’s seasonal. Or even if your product isn’t seasonal but could be

Mediabistro.com put up a great post by freelance writer and book publicist Marian Schembari on its blog about the 5 mistakes to avoid when pitching - everything from blindly emailing press releases to sending irrevelant pitches. The key to the perfect pitch? Personalize it. Marian writes these 5 tips below: "Hello New York Journalist” is not a greeting. New York Journalist will stop reading there. Even if the pitch is perfect and 100% relevant – if it hasn't been addressed an actual person, it's is going in the bin. Take five minutes and find a name. Acknowledge something by said journalist. Reference an article or award. No need to be gimmicky or go overboard on the praise, just stick to why the product is worth their time. Ex: if pitching a book on automobiles to the auto blogger for the Times, say something like, “I read your piece on the new Mercedes. Our author, Bob Jones, loved that car and spends a whole chapter in his new book discussing the features.” But don’t

If you’ve been walking around the Meatpacking District lately or took a stroll to the High Line, you may have witnessed some raunchy exhibitionist behavior in the window of The Standard Hotel. As part of their PR tactic, the luxury hotel is encouraging their guests to engage in various sex acts - much to the distaste of the tourists who are walking to the new High Line park, which is the direction that the hotel faces.  On their Facebook page, they suggest that their guests “ exercise your inner exhibitionist. Please share your intimate, and explicit photos with us -- those floor to ceiling windows aren't just for the views.” In a puritan, conservative country, the PR gimmicks of The Standard Hotel are less than amusing for passer-byers witnessing the romping going-ons in the ceiling-to-floor window display. Still, this luxury hotel is generating a hell of a ton of buzz around New York City and on the web. Frankly, I'm surprised that city council hasn't done anyth

The Chicago Tribune had an interesting article today about corporate renaming as a rebranding strategy. With the global market changing rapidly every year, many companies find themselves struggling to stay relevant. Some companies figure that a name change into something that would fit more into the times – perhaps a hipper name – would help keep the company’s image fresh and intact. A company to soon hop on the renaming bandwagon is RadioShack, who wants to shorten their name to simply, The Shack. There are many reasons behind a company’s decision in conducting a name change – much of it comes from a company’s attempt to rebrand itself in a fast-changing market in order to still make itself relevant and to have a chance to compete in the expanding market. For example, losing the “Radio” in RadioShack poses little loss for them, as purchasing radios are a thing of the past.  Also, in an abbreviated driven culture like today thanks to texting and Twittering, The Shack seems to be

According to Compete.com Bing ranks as the 13th most visited website on the internet. While Google and Yahoo still hold the reigns as the top visited sites, Bing is catching up as its traffic surpasses than that of Twitter, Digg, and CNN. From analyzing Compete.com, Mashable has calculated that "ng was able to amass 49.57 million unique visitors in its first month as Microsoft’s official search engine. Bing’s traffic trumps that of Digg(38.96 million) Twitter(23 million), and CNN (28.54 million). We want to stress that this focuses on U.S. visitors, since Compete does not track international visits." The official Bing site states, "Bing is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions." The site was unveiled at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego, California by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO on May 28th 2009 as a replacement for its predecessor; Live Search. Below is a Unique vistors chart (U

Here's a tip sheet from groupynetwork.com to refresh your PR practices : 1. Know what "news" is. 2. Let the media know about your news in a timely and concise fashion. -Who, What, When, Where and Why really comes in handy here 3. The editors' job is to report on what readers want to read, so let them do what they do best. 4. For product stuff it's sometimes best to send the gear out first and ask questions later. 5. Build relationships. 6. Plan, plan, plan. 7. Editors are always busy and sometimes lazy. 8. Email is the best way to communicate. 9. If you are pitching a mainstream publication, there are some story lines that are always popular. 10. Even big newspaper these days are desperate to build page views online. Just a quick read to refine your focus and remember what pr is really about. Then, head on over to prweekly.com to check out their 2009 Power List: Power List Are you working toward your name being on this list in the future?

(from NYT.com) Mayor Bloomberg recently announced the return of the city's Summer Streets Program . On three Saturdays this summer, nearly 7 miles of Manhattan roads will be kept free of cars, so that pedestrians can have them exclusively to walk, run, bike or skate. Mark your calendars, as the dates for the program this year will be August 8, 15, and 22, from 7am-1pm. I happened upon this project last summer. It was a weird experience walking north on Park Avenue South in the middle of the street, a street which is normally packed with vehicles. Summer Streets definitely brought out the families and the cyclers. This is a nice program in that in makes the city more pedestrian friendly and encourages outdoor exercise. It would be really cool to bike from Grand Central to the Brooklyn Bridge and back....Are you going to participate in Summer Streets this August? I like where Mayor Bloomberg is going with this program, and the determination shown by the city's transporta

Outlets from the New York Times to Gawker have anxiously been reporting on Steve Jobs' return to Apple since it was revealed he underwent liver transplant at a Kentucky hospital earlier this year. The state of his health has been under much speculation since dropping a noticeably significant amount of weight and taking a medical leave of absence. His return to the public eye has spurred much debate on how much personal health information a CEO, CIO, President, etc. should reveal to their shareholders. Why should they tell their shareholders if they are sick? Because it may affect stock pricing!! TechCrunch breaks it down nicely with a simple graph that shows how important Steve Jobs is to Apple. People feel reassured with Steve at the helm. When he took his medical leave, stock dropped. Now that Apple is promoting his return, stock prices have jumped. If Steve is back, then good for Apple. I only hope he's not doing too much, too soon. Here's the most recent pi

PepsiCo is meeting with PR agencies worldwide for a "global, multimillion-dollar corporate reputation campaign," according to PRWeek' s Aarti Shah. The PepsiCo website currently does not list PR contacts for media relations requests. Firms such as Porter Novelli, Edelman, and Hill & Knowlton are in the running. Earlier this year PepsiCo unveiled their 5th new logo in the brand's two decades of business. Additionally, public relations firm Porter Novelli recently assisted the company with their PepsiCo Internet Week NY event.

At 12:01AM Saturday, Facebook users can claim a "vanity" URL to replace the randomized numbers at the end of the Facebook profile URL. (ie: instead of http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=44444433&ref=nf the URL could look like http://www.facebook.com/YourName To do this, visit Facebook.com/username at 12:01AM, follow the instructions, and start typing! Once you choose your vanity URL it cannot be changed, so brainstorm now, and choose wisely. The URLs can only include letters, numbers and periods. For business or fanpages, you must have had over 1,000 fans before May 31st 2009 to claim your URL. You can read more info on that here This is an especially great tool for public relations firms to increase their client's visibility on the web. An important note, the vanity URLs are on a first come, first serve basis! You'll be in a Facebook war against millions of other users so brew your tea/coffee, do some typing exercises, and prepare for

Looking for something to do this weekend? Why not take a cue from President Obama and do dinner and a show ? Last weekend, the POTUS and Michelle flew to NYC for dinner at Blue Hill and a performance of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone". The NY papers buzzed with coverage. Reports even indicate that the famous first couple were given an impromptu round of applause when they finished their meal at Blue Hill. Accidents were barely avoided as theater patrons leaned over balconies to catch a glimpse of the twosome. Here's a funny little clip that shows the helicopter, the motorcade, and the excitement: Now the President caught a lot of flack for making such an extravagant gesture during these tough economic times. Do you care? Doesn't bother me! In fact, I hope he and Michelle can bring the girls next time for a little family outing!

Did anyone watch Conan's debut on the Tonight Show last night? The opening clip last night showed Conan in his Park Avenue apartment, brushing his teeth, crossing off his checklist of things to do before his debut. Until he realizes...he has to move to Los Angeles! Continuing the visual gag of the angular comedian running in his suit, Conan took off running across America. Check it out: Sad for New York, but happy for Conan.

After Pittsburgh teenager Sarah Deluliis was allegedly attacked by her ex-boyfriend, 17 year-old Robertino DeAngelis, the girl's family hoped that DeAngelis would receive the appropriate punishment for his crime. Instead, he would be tried in juvenile court  and charged with attempted homicide after beating Deluliis over the head with a hammer. The family made several appeals to the office of the district attorney but were repeatedly denied. Desperate, the family turned to Forge Communications in order to have their voice heard. The family explained, " We're desperate. The juvenile system is not equipped to deal with such a violent act... I'm just a mom of a young daughter that we're trying to protect. If this alleged violent predator is released into our community once more, we believe we are all at risk."  The PR firm has since set up a Facebook group, a Twitter page , and a Website callled "Adult time for Adult Crime" in order to gain s

User @sockington (Jason's cat) is taking the twitterverse by storm with 514,199 followers while only following 381 himself (how pretentious!) Here's recent tweet by the friendly feline turned social-networking guru: "GAHH DISAPPOINTMENT thought I caught a rat TURNED OUT TO BE A SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT not tasty at all SORRY LITTLE GUY easy confu " @Sockington has made the huge jump in followers in just 3 short months according to Twitter counter: So what does this mean for us dedicated Tweeps? Are we being left in the dust to people's pets!? There's even a site dedicated to pets on twitter: http://thepetfeed.com/ Forget #followfriday tags that made you feel like your thoughtful 140 character tweets really meant something special, #meowmonday is the new thing! I guess I should head to the local animal shelter and pick out a social media savvy cat or dog to help me boost my social networking skills.

For awhile Microsoft's "Laptop Hunter" ads were taking the cake against Apple, showing people who choose PCs over Macs. Finally, Apple has made a comeback directly responding to the Microsoft "Laptop Hunter" ads with their latest ad "Elimination" featuring Megan, a girl looking for her dream computer. In the latest ad, Megan describes her specifications to the Microsoft and Apple guys. One by one, the Microsoft team leaves as they fail to meet her requirements. As if we didn't see it coming, Megan is left with a Mac as the perfect computer for her. While some of the claims made against Microsoft are not entirely accurate, one claim that defintiely shines is that PCs with Windows are not protected from malware as well as Apple Macs are. Checkout the ad after the jump. applead from Gizmodo on Vimeo .

The FDA is going after General Mills for claiming that Cheerios is "clinically proven to lower cholesterol" without getting approved as a new drug. In a letter to General Mills, the FDA says that the labeling on the Cheerios boxes is "in serious violation" of federal rules and that Cheerios, " may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application." The letter further states, "Based on claims made on your product’s label, we have determined that your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease." The Cheerios box states the following : "Did you know that in just 6 weeks Cheerios can reduce bad cholesterol by an average of 4 percent? Cheerios is the only leading cold cereal clinically proven to lower cholesterol. A clinical study showed that

Oprah teamed up with KFC to give out "free KFC meal" coupons to everyone in the U.S good now until May 19th but excluding Mother's Day available here . The free meal includes two pieces of newest menu item, Kentucky Grilled Chicken, two sides and a biscuit. KFC is already extremely popular in the U.S., and Oprah has millions of viewers, so why didn't KFC forecast what would happen next?... Kentucky Fried Chicken has endured quite a lot of negative press over the years, especially by animal rights organizations such as PETA who are always protesting in front of KFC restaurants. KFC has also been hit hard by the latest attacks on the fast food industry. To improve their image and attract new customers, KFC has started to offer healthier menu items. The Kentucky Grilled Chicken was definitely a smart move, as its lower in all things unhealthy (sodium, fat, calories, sugar, etc) . The company says, “Kentucky Grilled Chicken has fewer calories, fewer fat grams and less so

Recent debate has brewed over whether or not McDonald's video tour of one of their meat processing factories is strong PR tactic or just further hurting their image. McDonald's posted a video on their official website which gives viewers a tour of one of their meat processing factories, Lopez Farms. The video is aimed at showing the quality, and safety of McDonald's meat. Richard Lane, V.P. of Operations at Lopez Foods leads the tour of the factory, assuring viewers of their sanitation and safety procedures. Surprisingly, I am initially impressed by the tour, as I see how thorough they are with their sanitation and quality assurance procedures. Lane explains that the Mc Donald's beef is 100% USDA inspected beef with no fillers or extenders. I appreciated seeing the step by step process of producing McDonald's beef patties. However, there are a few shots that are giving me mixed feelings about the video/the franchise: -In one shot where the beef is put through a g

The Swine Flu has given pork a bad wrap and consequently hurt the U.S. pork industry. The United States pork industry produces over $21 billion in personal income while adding $34.5 billion to the U.S. gross national product. The National Producers Council noted that the pork industry supplies nearly 35,000 direct full-time jobs which producers 500,000 additional jobs. Clearly, the pork industry not only produces a LOT of pork, it also creates a substantial amount of jobs. So why isn't the industry backing themselves up enough when they are accused for being the cause for the swine flu? The truth, (which most people are unaware of right now) is that the U.S. Center for Disease Control has reported that pork products are safe to consume. To get straight to the point, consuming pork products is not going to give you the swine flu! The CDC has reported the following on its official website: "Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food. You cannot get swine influenza fr

The Film Society at Lincoln Center recently honored Tom Hanks with their Lifetime Achievement Award. It's really nice to see all these big names come out to celebrate with Tom: What's not to love about Mr. Hanks though? Charming, funny, lovable, handsome, tall, talented - the list goes on. He seems like a normal guy (if he wasn't an A-list movie star). He's been in soo many good movies: Philadelphia, Apollo 13, Forrest Gump, Toy Story, Catch Me If You Can, BIG, The Green Mile, Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own....these are American classics! We will certainly be seeing a bit more of him this summer. Maybe you've caught the trailer for a little movie he's in, called Angels & Demons ??? Here's a clip of Julia Roberts' tribute: What do you think? Offensive, self-indulgent, funny? I like it that Julia doesn't censor herself. Though I'm sure her publicists aren't jumping for joy.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of Susan Boyle by now. She's a 47-year-old Brit competing on Britain's Got Talent. Here's a pic of her singing her heart out on the show: Her voice amazes, her style does not. Now, after a little cut and color: She's rocking a leather coat and a Burberry scarf. Her eyebrows have been shaped and her hair colored. What effect will this makeover have on the formerly frizzy haired, frumpy nightingale? Her new look has certainly engaged the public across both sides of the pond. Her fans love her for who she is and don't want her to change. Susan Boyle inspires them as someone with everyday looks who is extraordinarily talented. Plus, people love an underdog. Cinematic evidence: Frodo from the Lord of the Rings , Rudy , Babe the sheep-herding pig, Rocky , Miracle (the young US Hockey team that beat the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics), the Jamaican Bobsled team in Cool Runnings , K

Prince Charles has joined the club of politicians and celebrities aggressively attacking environmental and economical concerns by publishing a book and documentary film called "Harmony" which is set to be published sometime in 2010. The book "Harmony" seems follow on the same path as Al Gore's eco documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth" and Leonardo DiCaprio's film "The 11th Hour." The documentary will be produced by Balcony Films while the book is being published by HarperCOllins in collaboration wtih co-others Ian Skelly and Tony Juniper To go even further, the author's fee will be waived and all royalties will be donated to his charity, The Prince's Trust which In a statement the Prince said, "I believe that true 'sustainability' depends fundamentally upon us shifting our perception and widening our focus, so that we understand, again, that we have a sacred duty of stewardship of the natural order of things,"

The Tribeca Film Festival began yesterday, and runs through May 3rd. This festival seems to bring out the best of lower Manhattan, plus there are a number of free community events related to the festival happening this week. I accidently happened about the Family Festival Street Fair last year. It was packed, there were kids everywhere, music was playing and the food smelled delicious. This event brings visitors, press and movie buzz into the city. At the Kick-Off event, Robert De Niro said, "It’s great to see how much the Film Festival has grown since we began in 2002 and how it has impacted the neighborhood. We invite everyone to come to Tribeca to enjoy all that our Festival has to offer – from great films to industry gatherings to free community events.” If anyone can help New York during a recession-gloomed hour, it's Robert De Niro! Whether it's restaurants, hotels or festivals, De Niro knows how to bring the buzz. Plus, who can't resist escaping in t

I Don't Advocate Making Little Children Cry, But... At the bottom of this post is an anti-smoking commercial that has been airing in Australia for a bit of time, but finally made it to the states and caused a major hullabaloo. It is a moving, jarring, and effective piece of advertising, so if small children crying isn't your thing, don't watch it. I am not someone that thinks small children should be put in situations where they're tricked into crying for the cameras. Look at myriad child stars whose lives have spiraled because of apparently irreparable harm their childhood has done them. And I think that's where genuine concern for the child in this video comes into play. However, most people are outraged without knowing much, and they're bringing a lot of media attention and negative PR to something that, otherwise, has life-saving value. 1. The child on the set was a 4-year-old actor 2. His mother, who was also on the set, but not filmed, is an actor 3.

This site has previously addressed negative NYC publicity. Here's Mayor Mike Bloomberg attempting to do something to change that: I saw this commercial this morning on NY1. It definitely caught my attention, and it is reassuring that the Mayor is addressing the current economic climate. It shows he knows and recognizes how crappy things are, and that he is actively working to make things better for his constituents. Somehow, it doesn't seem so contrived that the Mayor would be out, listening to the people, as this clips shows. The commercial is promoting his Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan, which calls to create/save 400,000 jobs, provide loans to small businesses, secure infrastructure investments and add new high value jobs in bio-tech and green tech industries. However, this strikes me as too little too late. But maybe I'm wrong. What do you guys think?

Amazon has been criticized for its "de-ranking" policy. The company was under attack after de-ranking adult titles which were mostly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender books. The company had recently implemented a new policy of removing adult-material from search rankings, which would result in their exclusion from best-sellers lists. Amazon came under fire on Twitter after it was reported that the sales rankings of two newly released high-profile gay romance novels had suddenly disappeared from the sales rankings. The twitter community responded immediately and angerly, as tweets flew around and a top-ranked hash-tag ( a hot topic) appeared: #amazonfail. To make matters worse, the next day hundreds of gay-friendly books disappeared from the sales rankings and best-sellers lists! The GLBT community doubted it was a website-glitch and were outraged. Publisher Mark R. Probst, a member of Amazon Advantage sent an email to Amazon about the incident to clarify to followers

Who knew Bernie Madoff was a New York Mets Fan ? Well, I'm sure some people knew it. Madoff’s firm had two Delta Club Platinum season tickets, with seats costing as much as $695 per game. Madoff's seats were directly behind home plate. Now that Bernie is awaiting sentencing in prison for all his dirty deeds, all of his Citi Field season tickets are being sold on E- Bay. The two tickets that were for today's first home game of the season and first ever home game of the New York Mets new Citi Field went for $7500 on E Bay.

New York has been taking Public Relations blows over the past few months/year. From the NY Governor Spitzer prostitution scandal to Bernie Madoff to the current investment banking debacle and slumping economy that many are blaming Wall Street and the rest of new York for. The New York housing market has taken huge hits and the general feeling of rich New yorkers is that they may need to move because of the new taxes.

After fighting and winning that fight to be able to run for a 3rd term as New York Mayor, Bloomberg is focusing on top tier public relations strategies to get him elected for a 3rd term. People are already whispering that he, (Bloomberg) might spend his own money to help save our jobs. Maybe he said it, I don't know. But there is no doubt that Bloomberg profits from helping the city. But that's not a bad thing. Bloomberg knows what he's doing and I think that he's ultimately, a good dude. Mayor Bloomberg has basically given all the duties of managing NYC to his Deputy Mayor, Edward Skyler . This guy is a firecracker. His similarities to the fallen steamroller, Elliot Spitzer, are amazing. Skyler has made some douche-bag moves like getting furious over a guy in the Bronx, illegally cleaning someone's windshield. He actually had somewhat of a crusade against illegal windshield wipers for a little while. But, he has also done some stand up things like speaking his mind

Segway's Electric Vehicle was in New York for a little PR . Segway and GM have teamed up to produce this prototype in the above picture. The vehicle is called the PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility) and is capable of 35 miles an hour and a 35-mile range for urban driving.

Bats are already looked at with a largely negative bias. This bias could stem from Hollywood images of blood sucking and hair tangling. East coast scientists feel that this negative perception many people have of bats could be thwarting an effort to analyze and stop a mysterious illness that is sweeping the bat populations from Vermont to Virginia. The scientists are seeking a Public Relations Bat Man of sorts to deal with the negative PR the bats inspire. They feel that if people understood that most fears of bats are unsubstantiated, then they would feel better about helping scientists fund and solve the deadly situation East Coast bats find themselves in today.

It's an unfortunate public relations problem that the New York Mets, Citi Field is opening at the same time the new Yankee Stadium is opening. Visitors say they like the new field, but they liked both new fields. The problem was with how the two New York City Baseball stadiums made people feel. General consensus was that the new Yankee Stadium located in the Bronx, felt more like the city. People felt that Citi Field didn't have the New York feel to it. I'm sure NY Mets fans will eventually love their stadium, but if you are in the NY Mets Marketing or Public Relations department, you cant be happy with your task of getting new Mets fans.

The other day, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which yes, I absolutely intend on seeing in the theater) was leaked online sans watermark or any of the other typical "Not for general viewing" markers that traditionally grace movies that haven't been released yet. According to Fox, "[they forensically mark [their] content so [they] can identify the source..." To me, that means that it must have been an inside job, someone with access to the movie and with motive to release it to the public (perhaps a recession casualty taking his aggression to the Web?). It would seem that this is a bit of entertainment PR damage control... Now, what makes the release suspect, as far as some rogue (ex?) Fox employee leaking the movie is that Fox further went on to state, "It was without many effects, had missing and unedited scenes, and temporary sound and music." What the leak effectively did was give people a good sense of what the movie would be about, but since it was i

Most will know the title of this post is Reminiscent of our beloved Mugatu 's immortal words, "Hansel... So Hot right now... Hansel." Barack and Michelle Obama have been welcomed everywhere they've been so far in this European tour. The Public Relations face lift for America that most expected to get when they elected Obama is happening right before our eyes. America 's allie's citizens seem relieved that it looks like the US wants to cooperate with the rest of the world, after 8 long years of destructive and stupid Cowboy talk. Technological advances in telecommunications and travel have made the world a much smaller place. It is essential, now more than ever that the world figures out how to work together proper. That is what Barack Obama seems to be reflecting to us at home and the rest of the world. How much easier will it be to have Russia and China as actual allies instead of Frenemies. They might handle North Korea instead of us and the Russians migh

Obama is on USA Public Relations Mission. While some rowdy soccer fans were knocking windows out of the Royal Bank of Scotland today, our President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were also in London making the United States look better than we have looked in about 8 years. Barack Obama even gave the UK's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown some good PR, just by standing next to him. Apparently, Barack Obama is much more popular in the UK than the PM right now. Many speculate that PM Brown is on his way out. We'll see if the Public Relations image boost he gets from Obama helps on that front.

Sunkist will be needing some good old fashioned Public Relations solutions after the nationwide, voluntary Pistachios Recall . The recall was issued because of possible Salmonella contamination. Sunkist's public relations problem is most definitely only going to get bigger and worse as those same pistachios are in other packaged products. Some news sources are only pointing the finger at Sunkist and some are saying that it's a smart idea to not eat any pistachios until authorities get a better handle on the problem.

A month ago Microsoft filed a case against the company TomTom regarding their GPS car system and the software it uses. Microsoft said with an e-mail from its public relations firm Monday that TomTom has settled, agreeing to pay Microsoft for technologies in their navigation and file management system. Read the whole story on PCWorld .

Public Relations is proving to be Cost Effective Promotion during the latest economic downturn. Some companies have decided to cut back on public relations efforts, but according to Stefanie Guzikowski , you cant afford to not spend a good amount on your public relations budget. Public Relations Firms offer non-traditional and cutting edge marketing ideas. And we have found that a lot of the time, non-traditional and cutting edge methods mean they are cost effective ... until everyone else has figured it out.

Executive Compensation has already become a PR Nightmare for anyone involved in trying to make the economic mess get smaller. It doesn't matter that the public doesn't understand that the executives at AIG could have sued the government if they hadn't been paid those large compensation packages. It doesn't matter that it could have cost 2 times as much as it did to just pay them off. The public are drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and clipping coupons, and the guys that helped put us in the whole are getting massive pay outs. AIG has already taken some PR advice and decided to change its name to AIU Securities or something like that. They also took their location down from the internet so people will stop chanting death threats outside the downtown New York office building. The Public Relations strategies have been narrowed down to changing the name of the company and hiding the bulding from public. That's about as bad a PR assignment you can get. There may be no mer

Eco-Friendly Public Relations Tips provided by a Jackson Hole PR Team. The Jackson Hole PR team performs green audits where they check for green industry best practices. They explain that yesterday's state of the art green expectations can be today's public relations faux pas. They have clients that will receive negative coverage if they are found in a less than a Top of the Line Green standard location. For more tips on offering Eco-Friendly PR - Click Here to read the whole article .

PR Assessment of Punch Drunk Obama - Barack Obama did seem a little " punch drunk " in his interview with 60 Minutes reporter, Steve Kroft. And Steve Kroft deserves a lot of credit for calling Obama on it. He definitely sized up the situation quick. To some, Obama seemed to be laughing a little nervously when discussing the economy. A few PR Gurus discuss their takes on the interview which has come to be called, "The Punch Drunk Obama Interview". Click Here to Read the article .

The writing is on the wall, and it's been there for awhile. Digital Media is quickly and most certainly taking over Print Media . Advertising in the Print Media has dropped by 23% in the last 2 years. Almost 1 out of every 5 journalists that were working for newspapers in 2001 are now not working for newspapers. Public Relations people are trying to monetize online media and divorcing themselves from the dying print media at the same time. Read the whole story here .

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on a PR Newswire press release that he expects New York to bounce back from the recession before other cities. Read all about it here .

Statistics are showing that magazine marketing and other print material advertising efforts have drastically decreased because of the struggling economy. Social Media PR is a cheap but very effective way of getting your message out. Read more about it here .

Rachael Maddow reported last night that the now 80% publicly owned AIG is using bailout money to pay for a Burston-Marstellar PR Firm . Basically using American's money to fool Americans in to liking them again. Video is below:

Social Media PR - Skittles, the 35-yr old candy company changed their homepage into an online portal that opens up into all the social networks they currently have a presence on. With ever decreasing marketing budgets, big and small companies alike are doing their creative best to make their presence known on Twitter , Face Book , etc... To read the whole story Click Here .

Gravity Event at Stanford. Gravity announces a Social Media Marketing for Business seminar. Read about the details here :

Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing is the snowball rolling down the hill. Currently the snowball has reached the point of massive. To prove the point, New Zealand is holding it's first conference on Social Media Marketing . Click Here to read all about it . Now that New Zealand businesses are using and profiting from social media marketing, it's probably time to get your business involved. Start with Twitter and Face Book. Try and be creative. The more creative the strategy, the more likely it will hit big. There will be trial and error, just like anything else, but because of how new the medium is you have a good chance of cashing in, so to speak. Social Media Marketing is most certainly here to stay, at least for a couple years.

Public Relations Strategies Below is a video with some useful Public Relations Tips.

A former Public Relations consultant hired by Illinois Sen. Roland Burris in the run-up to his being successfully seated in the U.S. Senate offered a few unsolicited words of advice on Monday to the new lawmaker -- stop taking bad advice from your new public relations team. Read the Whole Story Here Below is a video of Burris and a bit of his Public Relations Strategy: