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From The Onion:
OMAHA, NE — Responding to the negative press coverage Tom Cruise has received in recent weeks, University of Nebraska financial-aid clerk Ben Matherson, 28, announced Monday that things would be different if he were the megastar’s publicist.
Read Ben’s advice here. Wow, and he’s not even an APR 
In the wake of the controversy over explicit sex action embedded within “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has made the title only the 19th video game to receive the AO (“Adults Only”) rating. Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and others are pulling the title from their shelves.
The ESRB found that the sex scenes had been hidden in the game from the time of its launch last fall, and that hackers had not created the content later — as the game’s maker has claimed.
All of which begs two questions:
1. How sophisticated a regulatory system do we have when embedded content, available to children, is only discovered 10 months after a video game is released?
2. Doe this regulatory system really have teeth when only a handful of games have ever received the AO rating?
Exxon Mobil is not known for the subtlety (or effectiveness) of its public relations efforts on environmental issues. For most people, I’m afraid the company’s “social responsibility” campaigns seem more like damage control than anything else.
Need an example? Via PR Watch:
Recognizing Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington, ExxonMobil ran a quarter-page ad on the op-ed page of Monday’s New York Times headlined “Saving Tigers.” According to Exxon’s website, the company has given more than $9 million since 1995 to efforts to save endangered tigers. Exxon has claimed the tiger as its brand mascot since the 1930s. While “preserving the endangered Bengal tiger” did make its way in to an early State Department press release on the summit, India’s nuclear industry, the global war on terrorism and foreign investment in India were the dominate themes of the meeting. The agreement to help India further develop its nuclear energy capacity is part of a larger U.S.-India Energy Dialogue that also includes an Oil and Gas Working Group that “will endeavor to strengthen mutual energy security and promote stable energy markets.” Several NGOs have targeted ExxonMobil, criticizing the company for violating human rights and destroying the environment.
Media Orchard entered the day fairly confident that every anti-establishment organization and credo of the ’60s had long ago been absorbed (and rendered absurd) by the triumphant capitalist system. Well, we were wrong — until now.
As Smoking Gun reports, the heirs of the Black Panthers are seeking to trademark the phrase “Burn Baby Burn” to market hot sauce.
For a little historical context, Huey Newton, founder of the Panthers, is the same political pundit who once said: “We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism.”
While spinning in his grave, Newton might at least find some solace in the fact that this new capitalist venture is minority-owned.
From USA Today: “Food marketers hope veggies look fun to kids.”
As Media Orchard has argued before, we can’t lay the blame for our fat kids on food companies and their marketing. It’s actually a relatively minor factor in the childhood obesity epidemic; you can read more here.
However, food companies are wise to address this issue from a public relations standpoint; otherwise, they can expect regulation and lawsuits — which in this case, would solve nothing.
