Media Orchard's only New Year's resolution was to not post a list of resolutions. We're done with lists until next year. We did find a few interesting lists created by others, however -- which you'll find below.

Well, that's a wrap for Media Orchard in 2005. We've had a great time developing this blog over the past 10 months, with your suggestions and support, and we can't wait for 2006.

A heartfelt thank-you to all readers, commenters and referrers!

New Year's Resolutions for the Newspaper Industry (Steve Outing)

Hollywood resolutions (The Hollywood Reporter)

A few resolutions for Washington (Ann McFeatters)

The Factor's New Year's Resolutions (Bill O'Reilly)

Top 10 Office New Year's Resolutions for 2006 (Bary Sherman)

New Year's Resolutions for Business Success (AllBusiness.com)

Money resolutions for 2006 (USA Today)

New Year's Resolutions for Wives with Cheating Husbands (Ruth Houston)

Technorati tags: Resolutions, New Year

From the East Valley Tribune:

A Texas public relations blog lists Arizona State University President Michael Crow's response to Playboy magazine's party school ranking as "one of the worst spins of 2005."

The year's "Top 10 Worst Spins" was published Wednesday on the blog Media Orchard, a Web commentary run by the Dallas firm Idea Grove. Crow was 10th on the list of worst spins, which was led by former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown, who had resigned amid outrage over his lax response to Hurricane Katrina. Ford Motor Co. was second on the list for its decision -- which it later rescinded -- to pull advertisements from gay publications, the blogger wrote.

The blogger criticized Crow for his response to Playboy's recent declaration that ASU is one of the nation's top party schools. Crow said the adult magazine's characterization of the university had little to do with the type of institution it truly is. "Michael doth protest too much, wethinks," opined the blogger, who signed the commentary with the initials "SB."

The blog's criticism of Crow came just weeks after the university leader started his own Web commentary on ASU's site -- one of the first blogs written by a college leader.

Crow said Thursday he stands by his comments that Playboy's ratings are "not valid in a survey sense."

"We are a great place to learn and have fun," Crow said.

Idea Grove blogger and owner Scott Baradell of Dallas said the goal of the rating was to critique bad public relations moves. He said Crow should have responded to concerns about Playboy's distinction with a different spin. ASU should "focus on the positive (attributes) and not worry about whether they're on the Playboy list or not," Baradell said.

Oh -- and the mysterious "SB" is Scott Baradell, if there was a question.

Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, Marketing

It's been derided as a "can of dumb-ass," but Media Orchard thinks Sofia Mini -- the pricey canned champagne from Niebaum-Coppola -- is a marketing phenomenon waiting to happen. Why?

1. It's named after a hip (but substantial) female celebrity, Sofia Coppola.

2. It comes in a cute pink aluminum can.

3. An equally cute fuchsia straw is attached to the side.

4. It costs a mere $20 for a four-pack.

5. Oprah likes it.

Perfect for the "echo boomer, Generation Y, largely female" customer Niebaum-Coppola is targeting.

From The Washington Post:

"It is cute," says Niebaum-Coppola President Earl Martin, who knows how out of line a cute can is with the vast majority of wines sold in traditional 750-ml bottles closed with corks...

Martin says the target demographic is "echo boomers, Generation Y, largely female," he says. "And, yes, you could say it's a girly wine." The winery, which declined to give sales figures, upped Sofia Mini production last year to 50,000 cases after a test-run of 5,000 sold out, according to Wine Business Monthly, which earlier this year deemed cans "the hottest packaging innovation to hit the wine industry."

Think 21-year-olds stepping up from wine coolers; think "Sex and the City" reruns. See Sofia's sofiamini.com for upscale-but-not-snooty still-life photos of beautiful people, mostly female, with their cans of Sofia looking like fashion accessories.

Does this analysis stereotype young, affluent women? Of course it does. But that's what marketers do -- right?

Stock the bar.

Technorati tags: PR, Branding, Marketing

Sony says being a public nuisance is really stealth marketing (Scatterbox)

The PR Issue Behind Alaska Airlines Decompression (POP! PR Jots)

Getting ready for 2006 (Inside the Marketing Mind)

Online newspaper design (Mike's Points)

One Page, Past and Future (Dim Bulb)

Interesting points about a blogging policy for employees (John Wagner)

Grab bag: Good Marketing Stuff (Marketing Roadmaps)

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, PR, Blogs, Websites, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media

Here it is, from Fimoculous.

Aren't reporters supposed to be naturally skeptical? Lately, they're acting like they've all fallen off a big turnip truck -- publishing fake information from the Internet left and right.

First a TV reporter in Nashville reports, with a straight face, that it's against the law to offer "nutrition to a prostitute"; then my old college colleague Jay Stowe, now at Cincinnati Magazine, similarly screws up.

But this tops those. It's the LA Times, for gosh sakes. As their correction puts it:

An article in Tuesday's Section A about tensions over the federal effort to reintroduce wolves into parts of the West wrongly attributed to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal a statement that Wyoming considered the Endangered Species Act no longer in force and "now considers the wolf as a federal dog." The statement, which was circulated on the Internet, was purportedly from Freudenthal but was in fact a hoax.

Regret the Error reports:

Quite the nonchalant correction for running a hoax quote on page one. Fortunately, the Casper Star-Tribune of Wyoming has a story that explains everything. It seems a Times reporter mistook a fake press release for the real thing and used the quote without verifying it. The Times owes its readers more of an explanation.

Wyoming is also considering a law making it illegal to offer nutrition to a wolf. (Actually, that's a joke. Do not publish as fact. Thank you.)

Technorati tags: Journalism, PR, Public Relations, Media

Bob Barr, former Republican Congressman and outspoken civil libertarian, has penned a remarkably candid column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Presidents all the same when scandal strikes."

Excerpts:

In the best tradition of former President Bill Clinton's classic, "it-all-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-is-is" defense, President Bush responded to a question at a White House news conference about what now appears to be a clear violation of federal electronic monitoring laws by trying to argue that he had not ordered the National Security Agency to "monitor" phone and e-mail communications of American citizens without court order; he had merely ordered them to "detect" improper communications.

This example of presidential phrase parsing was followed quickly by the president's press secretary, Scott McLellan, dead-panning to reporters that when Bush said a couple of years ago that he would never allow the NSA to monitor Americans without a court order, what he really meant was something different than what he actually said...

When caught with a hand in the cookie jar and their survival called into question, administrations circle the wagons, fall back on time-worn but often effective defense mechanisms, and seamlessly morph into one another...

A critical component of White House Scandal Defense 101 is rallying the partisan base. This keeps approval ratings in territory where the wheels don't start falling off. The way to achieve this goal is you go negative and you don't let up. If you're always attacking your accusers, the debate becomes one of Democrat vs. Republican, rather than right vs. wrong...

The signs are everywhere that the Bush White House is busily implementing all parts of this defense strategy. It would be refreshing if it decided to clear the air and actually be honest about its post-Sept. 11 surveillance. However, that's unlikely.

Too bad politicians can't be this frank while they're still in office.

Technorati tags: Bob Barr, Spy Scandal, Public Relations, Politics

Press Release Increases Blog Traffic (Communication Overtones)

Pew out with latest Internet demographics (Shel Holtz)

Is traditional public opinion polling dying a slow death? (Canuckflack)

The Alessandra Stanley Watch: This Year's Corrections Today (Gawker)

Miracle Photoshop Cures Dick Clark in Time for New Year's (Defamer)

10 Journalism Tips for Bloggers (BrandToBeDetermined)

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, PR, Blogs, Websites, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media

Blogs are forever. They're also public -- even though many people unwisely treat them as private diaries.

Romenesko reports:

The killing of Paul Berkley just days after his return home from assignment in the Middle East was big news in the Raleigh area. His wife was charged with murder, along with her teenage lover and his friend. "What made the story more juicy is that everyone in the Berkley household kept an online journal, or Web log, of their daily lives," writes ombud Ted Vaden. "The (News & Observer) was able to tap those blogs to add lush detail to its reporting."

Readers complained -- but it's not the newspaper's fault. Blogs are public record and exist in cyberspace for a very, very long time; neither individuals nor companies should take their power lightly.

On a less tragic -- but still serious -- note, we're reminded of this college newspaper article flagged by Jeremy Pepper. In it, a junior PR major at ASU tells of her love for "thrill sex" and says she's had sex in cars "about 40 times with one man." The woman's name, and picture, is included in the article.

To the young lady (who we won't name here): You will be looking for a job someday. For your sake, we hope this article doesn't come up when your prospective employer plugs your name into Google.

Technorati tags: Journalism, PR, Public Relations, Blogs

PR practitioners are often asked to jump through hoops for their clients ... but this is ridiculous.

(Via Break.com)

Richard Edelman, together with his "blog boy" Phil Gomes, deserve mucho props for establishing Edelman as the clear Web 2.0 leader among large PR agencies.

Having said that, Shel Israel points out an important shortcoming of Richard's blog: he's stingy in linking to others. Says Shel: "I find it appalling that he is either too lazy or too self-centered to bother to link to other bloggers."

We've noticed that many blogs by traditional media outlets -- particularly newspapers -- are the same way. This communicates a clear message: "My content is better than your content. And I probably don't bother to read your content anyway."

Here's a "new PR" tip that Media Orchard thinks we can all agree on: You can't join the conversation if you don't listen to what others are saying.

Technorati tags: Newspapers, PR, Public Relations, Edelman

Stumbling politicos, corporations and pundits earned top honors in Media Orchard's 10 Worst Spins list this year -- edging out deserving Hollywood types. For those of you who need your celebrity fix, however, we won't leave you hanging: Check out Jossip's breakdown of the top celebrity scandals (and breakdowns) of 2005.

Technorati tags: Celebrities, PR, Public Relations, Jossip

Media Orchard, one of the nation's most-read public relations blogs, today unveils its first-annual list of the year's 10 Worst Spins. The list presents the most shameless, silly, ineffective and/or ill-advised attempts to influence public perceptions.

And the winners are:

1. Michael Brown: The Nero of New Orleans.


He waded through the worst natural disaster in U.S. history with a trail of sycophantic PR people telling him (a la Fernando Lamas) he "looked fabulous." (The flacks did offer some advice, too; press secretary Sharon Worthy told Brown to "roll up his sleeves" -- literally -- so he'd look better on TV.) Brown has rebounded by starting a consulting company to help others learn from his experiences. That's some wicked spin, boys and girls.

2. Ford to Gay Pubs: "I Wish I Knew How to Quit You."


Ford stumbled into a political mess when it appeared to cave to right-wing demands to remove its ads from gay-oriented publications. It said, "It is clear there is a misperception about our intent." Then it put ads back in the gay pubs to "remove any ambiguity." Ambiguity?

3. Savvis: Topless Dancers, Bottomless Expense Accounts.


Robert McCormick, CEO of St. Louis IT services provider Savvis, racked up a $241,000 tab in one night at a New York strip club (roughly enough to get lap-danced to the moon and back.) Inexplicably, neither McCormick nor Savvis took care of the AmEx bill, so AmEx sued -- creating a humiliating public scandal. Savvis responded with a letter of apology that didn't actually include an apology, so Media Orchard did them a favor and rewrote it for them. Then Savvis whipped out the PR 101 playbook (Chapter 47: When to Announce Bad News) and issued McCormick's resignation over Thanksgiving.

4. Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin: Liberal-Media Bashers Gone Wild.


PR people take a lot of flack (as it were) for their spinning abilities -- but nobody spins better than media and blog pundits. Two of the worst offenders are right-wing BS artists Matt and Michelle -- whose disingenuous rabble-rousing borders on the pathological. Drudge in 2005 tied the inarticulate rantings of a CNN switchboard operator to the vast liberal media conspiracy; Malkin linked a subpar Photoshop effort at USA Today to the self-same plot.

5. Mr. Youth: Jargon-Loving Boom 1.0 Throwback.


Matt Britton, you should be ashamed of yourself. A managing partner of New York-based student-marketing company Mr. Youth, Matt actually said this to a reporter (italics ours):

There is a paradigm shift in the way that corporations are marketing to college students. The student ambassador tactic embraces all the elements that corporations find most effective: It's peer-to-peer, it's word of mouth, it's flexible and it breaks through the clutter.

But is it best of breed? Scalable? An enterprise solution? Hoo-boy.

6. Bill O'Reilly: Savior of Christmas and Low Gas Prices.


We guess that, technically, megalomania is a mental illness -- so, technically, we should be nice to Bill O'Reilly. But that would be getting too technical for us. So we'll just point out that Bill took credit both for saving our most sacred holiday (Christmas) and reducing the price of our most precious commodity (oil) in the same year. Well done, Bill. Now, please stop smirking and yelling at us ... or, at least, stop doing one or the other. We're willing to compromise.

7. The Fox News PR Department: No-Tact Zone.


Charlie Reina, an ex-Fox News producer, wrote a letter to Jim Romenesko criticizing his former employer's coverage of religious issues. Fox's media relations director, Paul Schur, issued this tactful response:

Charlie's rants about Fox News are both predictable and sad. For his sake, we hope he stops howling at the moon and moves on with his life. We wish him well in his current role making cabinets out of his garage.

Way to stay above the fray, Paul.

8. Hillary Clinton: Defender of Family Values.


Hillary is spinning herself silly to broaden her base in preparation for her 2008 presidential run. Most irritating is her campaign against the "silent epidemic" of media sex and violence. The "epidemic" isn't really silent, of course; it's blasting out of every radio speaker and cineplex. It's the politicians who are silent -- except when it suits their purposes to squawk.

9. Mena Trott and Her PR Pals: Defenders of F-Bombs.


Mena, president of Web 2.0 darling Six Apart, gave a speech in Paris earlier this month on the importance of "civility" in blogging. Then, oddly, she cursed out a questioner from the audience, using lots of uncivil words. Making the whole episode even more surreal (and embarrassing for us PR bloggers), at least one "new PR" pundit suggested Mena hadn't erred at all, and had merely been "real." Real dumb, anyway.

10. ASU to Recruits: "Pay No Attention to Our Playboy Hotties."


Playboy plans to publish a coed pictorial featuring the "Top 10 Party Schools" in the May 2006 issue. The list leaked, revealing Arizona State University among the winners. ASU President Michael Crow sniffed that the listing is "a gross simplification that doesn't have anything to do with who we are and what we are." Michael doth protest too much, wethinks (sorry -- do they teach Shakespeare at ASU?)

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, PR, Blogs, Websites, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media, Fox News, Michelle Malkin, Matt Drudge, Mena Trott, Hillary Clinton, Playboy

We're back. We hope everyone is having a terrific holiday season.

We're just posting "Pick of the Orchard" today, but be forewarned: on Wednesday morning at 6 a.m., Media Orchard will publish its dreaded year-end list! You don't want to be on the naughty side of our ledger...

Today's picks:

Oh, sure: Newspapers will become hip and fashionable in '06 (Romenesko)

A worthwhile year-end list (Shel Holtz)

Can the big agencies be thought leaders in a changing marketplace? (John Wagner)

2006 Trends to Watch Part V: Crash 2.0 (Micro Persuasion)

What Makes A "Cronkite Moment"? (Public Eye)

Arab Fatwa Bars SMS Votes for Reality Show (Son-of-a-Pitch)

The question of how many qualified PR professionals actually exist (B2B Insight Blog)

PR Search Engine (Shel Holtz)

Oh ... and on another, highly self-involved note: Media Orchard's Technorati stats haven't been updated in three or four weeks -- despite, by my count, more than 100 new inbound links during that time. I e-mailed Technorati some time back, but never heard a peep. Anyone else having this problem?

We would suggest that, if Technorati wishes to position itself as a reliable blog authority, it should at least date-stamp its inbound-link updates. (Of course, the better solution would be more frequent, consistent updating.)

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, PR, Blogs, Websites, Public Relations, Marketing, Technorati, Sifry, Media

The true origin of Santa, as well as the story of the Coca-Cola myth, is here. It's a fascinating read.

And with that, Media Orchard will board our sleigh and head out of town till Monday. Merry Christmas to all -- even you, Bill O'Reilly!

Technorati tags: Christmas, PR, Public Relations, Santa

Fox News, MSNBC and CNN all want you to believe that they present the news impartially. Without getting into that argument, it's pretty clear that the cable news channels' audiences have strong political leanings.

So strong, in fact, that the channels' online opinion polls not only have no scientific value -- they have no value whatsoever.

Need examples?

Current poll on the Fox News site:

Is the liberal media defending Saddam Hussein?

At the time of this post, more than 80 percent of respondents said "yes." View results here.

Current poll on MSNBC:

Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?

At the time of this post, 85 percent of respondents said "yes." View here.

And of course, we remember this recent poll question from CNN:

Who's Stupider -- Ann Coulter or Jeering UConn students?

We'll let you guess who won that one. (OK, go here if you're not sure.)

What Media Orchard finds most ironic is that, when presenting the outcome of their polls, the news channels never acknowledge that the results are indicative of the leanings of their sample.

We think they wrote a book about this once.

Technorati tags: CNN, Fox News, Media, MSNBC

My 2006 blog predictions (Tech PR Gems)

The future of the trade press (Presto Vivace Blog)

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (son-of-a-pitch)

Ex-journo in boat miss shocka (Clogger)

Media Blitz: Jeff Bewkes named Time Inc's only happy employee (Jossip)

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, PR, Blogs, Websites, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media

The little town of Lonaconing, Md., is causing a big PR problem for Verizon and Allegheny Power.

From The Washington Post:

Every year, Christmas lights glittered in this little coal town...They were like ordinary light bulbs, but tinted in every color, and the Goodwill Fire Co. strung them, pole to pole, building to building, and they cast a magical spell...

Those days are gone, and so are the twinkling lights. Disputes with utility companies about safety violations have left the town dark this December... Verizon Maryland Inc. and Allegheny Power, which own the utility poles in this Western Maryland town, say safety was at issue...

The trouble started in July, when after doing things the same way, year after year, something changed. The old light bulbs were becoming unreliable, so the town's Christmas Light Decoration Committee decided to invest more than $3,000 in new strings of lights for the holiday.

The committee members also decided they would need to install new outlets and sensors on the utility poles. So with an eye toward a Nov. 20 lighting ceremony, the town sent a work order to Allegheny Power. But the work order started a new set of wheels turning.

''If they had just gone up and hooked up the lights like in the past, they'd be up there right now," said Allegheny Power spokesman Allen Staggers. ''Because they asked for more power connections, that triggered an inspection process that is not done year in and year out."

Allow Media Orchard to paraphrase: "If they had never contacted us in the first place, we wouldn't have screwed things up."

Verizon piled on by notifying the town's mayor that "posting of any signs, banners, Christmas decorations or balloons onto poles without permission is illegal and can be prosecuted as trespassing."

''If a wire is hanging at 15 feet, a truck could snag it. It could snap a pole, and someone could get seriously injured," Verizon spokeswoman Sandra Arnette said. ''We never said the town should not hang the lights. But safety is the first thing."...

Overwhelmed, the Town Council voted unanimously to abandon the lights this Christmas.

In one last attempt to make a holiday statement, town workers have inflated a large green Grinch, the famous Christmas-hating character created by Dr. Seuss.

The Grinch now smiles his fiendish smile in Fountain Park, right next to the Verizon office. He guards a carefully lettered sign that reads, ''Who really did steal Christmas from Lonaconing?"

If we might make a suggestion:

Once Verizon and Allegheny Power understood the situation, they should have gone out of their way to help get the new lights up. By doing this, they'd have not only avoided the "Grinch" label, but would have provided their PR teams a terrific holiday story to pitch to the media.

And they'd have earned loyal customers in Lonaconing for life. Think of it; the townspeople would have remembered Verizon's good deed every Christmas season -- just when they were doing their holiday shopping (for things like wireless phone service.)

Oh, well. Maybe next year.

Technorati tags: Christmas, PR, Public Relations, Marketing

Okay, Who's Repping Santa? (son-of-a-pitch)

Oh Really?! (funny headline department) (FlackLife)

Who blogs at your company? (Tech PR Gems)

The Mannheim Steamroller School of Marketing (Canuckflack)

There's hope (Marketing Begins At Home)

"Journalism Hope" Launches with a Message for All of Us (Below the Fold)

Quantum Mechanics & Corporate Communication (continued) (Corporate Communication -- Theory to Practice)

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, PR, Blogs, Websites, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media

Cincinnati Magazine blasted The Kentucky Post in its yearend "Pork Roast" issue for publishing a five-column headline that called a local politico the region's "go-to gay," when it meant to call him the "go-to guy."

Funny. Problem is, the headline never appeared in the Post. As the Post reports:

Magazine editor Jay Stowe said Tuesday the magazine found the headline on the Web site of The Whistleblower, an online daily "newsletter" that skewers the prominent and the powerful across the region with a blend of fact and fiction.

Stowe said he and the author of the Pork Roast feature, Jason Cohen, didn't check out the headline carefully enough. Stowe said before the feature ran, the magazine made an unsuccessful effort to contact Jim Schifrin, the Anderson Township, Ohio, resident who publishes The Whistleblower.

Hoo-boy.

This reminded me of a similarly amusing/disturbing post from October. That's when a Nashville TV reporter resigned after reporting false information he found in a Google search. The source for his reporting: a satirical piece from the Nashville Scene.

Because he didn't recognize the Scene's humorous intent, the journalist reported -- live on air -- that a McDonald's employee had been arrested for providing "nutrition to a prostitute."

Hoo-boy. Squared.

And we're worried about Wikipedia?

Update: I just realized that I went to school with Jay Stowe at U.Va. We worked together on the school weekly, The Declaration. He's a good guy.

We all make mistakes, Jay!

Technorati tags: Journalism, Wikipedia, Satire, Media

Most in blogland know by now the provocative tale of the Canadian coed dubbed the "Saugeen Stripper." Last week, the first-year University of Western Ontario student stripped nude and gave lapdances to freshmen boys in a bedroom at Saugeen Hall. Someone took pictures, and the images have been blogged, e-mailed and otherwise transmitted around the globe and back ever since.

Sabrina Jalees of the Toronto Star has penned a remarkable column, both humorous and insightful, about the Saugeen Stripper case -- in which she questions the new "Era of Skank" and the media's role in its emergence.

Here are excerpts:

No one pays to see Girls Gone Mild

Last week, some photos taken at a University of Western Ontario dorm room surfaced on the Net. Old people around the nation were shocked to find the photos were slutty ... seriously slutty...

Now, I'm a feminist. Womyn, do what you want: Go home with him on the first date, join the army, get your nipples pierced, loop fishing wire through the rings and hang anti-propaganda posters from your chest ... but the line between "liberated female who is strong enough to sleep around" and "slutty ho" has been blurred...

It could be argued that this Western student, now the star of blog search engines and a photo-heavy e-mail that has spread wider than, well, her naked thighs in the pictures, is a liberated female... But let's be honest here people. If you're old enough to read this and young enough to have pushed on past the words "slutty ho" without starting your complaint letter to our Public Editor ..., you've been exposed to enough situations similar to this romp to have a sense of what level this girl's self-respect is at.

I'll give you a hint: here's betting it rhymes with "Nero." Comparing this girl to a powerful female, then, can probably be ruled out...

Not to get all "I'm-burning-my-bra" on you here but if you don't wanna blame the girl or the Smirnoff you can go knock on old Mama-Big-Media's door. But make sure you keep knocking for a while, she's very busy ... making whores! The media were occupied glorifying humiliatingly ho-ish female behaviour and packaging it as "liberation" long before Christina Aguilera learned her first word (which was "g-string").

As a result of these efforts, we are now living in the Era of Skank. Just in the past few years, we've had Madonna lesbian makeouts, Angelina and her brother smooching, online sex videos involving everyone from Paris Hilton to her dog (and inevitably, Paris Hilton with her dog, no doubt), with every sexual act possible performed and pontificated on by Carrie Bradshaw and Co. Lesbian cheerleaders are no longer just an innocent dream of 13-year-old boys. And there are enough Girls Gone Wild videos to keep rural Saskatchewan occupied for at least the next three years.

We're moving in this creepy direction where one day our kids will buy Teen People with a naked Dakota Fanning on the cover, smile and say, "Now that's a liberated woman!"...

However, something you may want to explore, Saugeen Stripper (I'm sure you don't mind the new nickname), is how far you want to be taking this "you go girl" attitude toward skankiness in your daily life. I suspect you're learning the hard way -- maybe not so far next time...

"But all the stars are doing it! Paris Hilton was in a video." True. But when Paris Hilton winds up in a scandal like that, she's working her public image.

If Media Orchard might interject -- and at the risk of objectifying women in a very literal sense -- we'd like to put this in a marketing context:

As a woman, what is your brand? In other words, how do you want others to perceive you? Will the image you present help you reach your goals?

Anyone with direction in life should think about these questions. The current trajectory of the Saugeen Stripper, we would suggest, is similar to that of the inner-city kid who pins his hopes on becoming a professional athlete. She might idolize Paris Hilton in the same way that the kid looks to Allen Iverson. But for most of us, these are media-generated fantasies -- not constructive life paths.

Would-be Saugeen Strippers should already know this, but just in case: flaunting sexuality often hurts women in the real (as in, business) world.

We'll let Sabrina have the final word:

Why am I being so hard on you, S.S.? ... Now that you've gone buck naked, insecure young women the nation over are challenged to match your dirtiness...

Yes, a new standard of skankery has been set. But there's good news, S.S.: How many minutes do you think it will take for someone to break your record?

Technorati tags: PR, Saugeen Stripper, Branding

The visual thinking club (Communication Nation)

Helping Smart People Learn (DallasBlog.com)

Do you practice CBWA -- "communication by walking around"? (John Wagner)

How Cocaine Kate became Comeback Kate (Media Culpa)

Media Bubble: Frustrations and Grievances Abound! (Gawker)

"Banning" viral advertising (Marketing Technology)

Smithsonian Blogs and Podcasts (Strategic Public Relations)

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, PR, Blogs, Websites, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media

Here they are, from Adrants.

Our favorite concerns Hungary's Sawyer Miller Group (a PR firm that we assume broke off from the SMG that merged into Weber Shandwick?)

As an incentive for those completing an online marketing survey, Sawyer Miller bypasses those "one dollar bill, Amazon coupon and free iTunes download offers for what really matters: a stripping hottie. Answer the question, off comes a piece of clothing."

And we wonder why Iran doesn't want its people exposed to Western decadence?

Technorati tags: Adrants, PR, Public Relations, Market Research

Mike Orren of Pegasus News has teamed with Cindy Chaffin to create TexasGigs.com. Mike discusses the citizen-journalism site's launch on his blog. The Poynter Institute and paidContent.org also weigh in.

Poynter's Steve Outing writes:

For those of us watching the "citizen journalism"/"grassroots media" space, the wait to see what Pegasus News is up to is almost over. The Dallas-based start-up, which first announced its intention to build a "new" model of hyper-local citJ website last spring, has finally debuted the first of its offerings.

What's visible as of today is TexasGigs.com, a citJ-oriented local-entertainment site covering Dallas. TexasGigs actually existed before, but as a blog run as a labor of love by Cindy Chaffin since 2002. Pegasus, which plans to launch a full-fledged "citJ"-based community news website covering Dallas in the late first quarter of 2006, brought Chaffin on board and turned the blog into a more complete, citJ-based entertainment website.

TexasGigs will be part of the full Pegasus Dallas site (as yet unnamed) when it debuts. Pegasus president Mike Orren says he's also considering other components similar to the music site, but the next step probably is to launch the full site, which is meant to be a new model for local online news websites.

Congratulations to Mike, Cindy and all involved.

Technorati tags: Journalism, Citizen Journalism, Music, Texas

From the Media Matters for America post, "Cavuto's World populated by Victoria's Secret, Playboy models and a pole-dancing Pamela Anderson" --

A Media Matters for America review of Fox News Channel from December 5 through December 15 found at least eight different segments featuring photographs or video footage of nude or nearly nude women, as well as discussions on news programs of "hot" videos, and an item on provocative attire in the workplace.

One program, Your World with Neil Cavuto, a weekday business program that airs at 4 p.m. EST, featured six of the eight segments. While host Neil Cavuto offered little in the way of explicit justification for the use of the material, the segments ... were all cast as business stories.

You're not alone, Neil. Rita Cosb