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• The value of America, in barrels of oil (AssetBuilder)
  
• Senator Gravel is a crazy-ass dirty old man who can't sing (YouTube)
  
• Sex storm at Weather.com (Business Shrink)
  
• Starbucks mermaid is a slut (Mother Jones)
  

Have you heard of Quechup?

I didn't think I had, either, but I apparently signed up for it -- when I was tricked into thinking it was a Facebook-like social networking site, and that I'd been invited by one of my blogging friends. For some time now, Quechup has been sending me e-mails saying I'm getting messages -- all from attractive young women.

Needless to say, I didn't bother to click the links back to the site and have allowed the messages to die a slow death in my spam folder. (I promise, honey.)

I don't know who these women are -- but let's just say that way, way back, when I did actually use online dating sites, I didn't get a message from a hot babe on an every-other-day basis.

So I'm assuming they're about as real as those invitations to collect the 10 million pounds that a Nigerian refugee has left in a London bank.

But just in case I'm wrong, I have protected the identities of these lovely young women with some brilliant Photoshop manipulation. Here are the messages I've gotten just since April:



On a not related note, if you didn't see this fall-on-the-floor-laughing TV news report on Spin Thicket, you have to watch it. It's worth it.

Labels: Marketing Views, Quechup

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• Olympic torch -- or shock baton? (The Guardian)
  
• NY Daily News scrubs away an error (Regret the Error)
  
• Attack of the healthcare flacks! (eDrugSearch Blog)
  
• 12 ideas to reduce stress on the job (Black Star Rising)
  

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• Tom Ford eyewear gets the finger (Adland)
  
• The Bourne Hypocrisy (Deceiver)
  
• Lesbos sue lesbians over brand name (Collateral Damage)
  
• Obama should have blown off mainstream media, gone with YouTube (What's Next Blog)
  

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• Russia using smiling urchins in tourism ad in war zone (Collateral Damage)
  
• The Doogie Howser of terrorism (Spinwatch)
  
• Pentagon pundits broke the law (PR Watch)
  
• Wacky PR pitches get media's attention -- if not respect (Talking Biz News)
  

[Story.]

Labels: Celebrity Culture, Heidi Montag, Political Spin, Spencer Pratt, The Hills

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• Hollywoods Publicity-Industrial Complex (Defamer)
  
• Time for a new media remix? (Ad Age)
  
• World's worst PR pitch, part 743 (What's Next Blog)
  

Nice press release by eDrugstore.MD on PR Minds. Especially like this excerpt:

"Many consumers simply do not realize they needn't pay exorbitantly for their prescription medications ... they don't know that there's a legitimate choice," notes [insert full name], eDrugstore.MD's [insert title]..."

Explains [insert last name], "We invested in the right people, individuals who are well-versed in all aspects of SEO, and our business has grown considerably because of their commitment to excellence and education."

Labels: Marketing Views, pr

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• Marketing idea of the day: drug ATMs at your doctor's office (eDrugSearch Blog)
  
• Why working at newspapers is depressing, part 456 (Black Star Rising)
  
• Disney now also stalking boys (Collateral Damage)
  
• Green for a day (Copywrite, Ink.)
  

Last month, I published a post in which I shared the favorite Web sites of a group of University of North Texas journalism students.

Since then, I've had the opportunity to speak to a class of Southern Methodist University communication students -- in this case, a group that is mostly on an advertising/PR track. So I asked them the same question: What are the three sites you are most likely to visit on any given day?

As a reminder, here were the top sites of the journalism students:

DallasNews.com (5 votes)
Yahoo! (5 votes)
WFAA.com (4 votes)
Facebook (3 votes)
CNN.com (2 votes)
MySpace
ESPN.com
MSNBC.com
Google
AOL
MSN
Reuters.com
Flickr
Yahoo! Sports
Wired News
Jasmyne Cannick
Wordpress
Weather.com
Allrecipes.com

Now, check out the top vote-getters from the SMU advertising/PR students:

SMU.edu [for e-mail] (13 votes)
Facebook (11 votes)
CNN (4 votes)
Perez Hilton (3 votes)
New York Times (3 votes)
Weather.com (2 votes)
Google (2 votes)
Deadspin
BBC
AOL
Yahoo!
DallasNews.com
Style.com
YouTube

I find it interesting that the J-students have been getting their information from local news media Web sites, while the advertising/PR students are more likely to get their information from blogs and other sources.

I don't want to read too much into such a small sample, but it does raise a chicken-and-egg scenario:

Are the J-students attracted to the field of journalism because they like the news as it is presented by local media outlets? Or, are they attracted to local media outlets because they conform to how journalism is taught in their school?

Labels: Marketing Views