As loyal readers of Media Orchard know, we’ve long had a strange fascination with the schizophrenic branding efforts of True.com. It’s the virgin/whore paradox of online dating services.

Well, we may have finally found a True banner ad that True itself is ashamed of (at left). There’s no True logo — just the logo of an online ad network called CPX Interactive.

Click the ad, and you’re sent to a special page within True where there’s a Flash video of a woman lying in bed in her underwear, pecking away on her laptop, chatting with a True.com suiter she calls “hotstuff.”

Oh well — at least she’s not holding a teddy bear.

• The five attributes that drive consumers to insist on specific brands (Branding Strategy Insider)
• FBI searches for crazed sports fan demanding more TV coverage of skimpy-outfitted cheerleaders (AwfulAnnouncing)
• Fox rips off To Catch a Predator, then one-ups Dateline by hiring Miss America to pose as jailbait (The Flack)

Check out Spin Thicket for more media, marketing and PR links.

Technorati tags: Branding+strategy, PR, Blogs, Journalism, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Media

Most working journalists have to deal with hundreds, if not thousands, of press releases that cross the transom every year. That’s more than they’re going to read, of course. And of the ones they “read,” all but a few are destined to receive a half-hearted skimming, followed by a click of the delete button.

In the world of Web 2.0, some PR agencies have tried to address this issue with newfangled formats. But ultimately it’s not about the format, it’s about the content. And I can tell you from experience as both a reporter and a public relations consultant, there are eight ways I can usually tell that a press release is bullshit.

Read about them at MarketingProfs.

As we mentioned in a previous post, when we took a six-month hiatus from regular postings, our rankings suffered. For example, our Alexa traffic rank fell from 45,000 to 396,000. Even factoring in how inaccurate Alexa is as a ranking system, that’s a big drop.

But there is a glimmer of hope, a ray of sunshine in the Alexa details: We’ve held our audience in Bahrain.

That’s right. According to Alexa’s rankings by country, Media Orchard is the 47,863rd most popular Web site in Bahrain.

Bahrain is the smallest Arab nation with a population of about 700,000. (Can you imagine the sample size issues for Alexa? This ranking is probably about as accurate as your estimate of how many jellybeans are in the big jar at the county fair. Oh, wait — nevermind.)

Thank you, Bahrainian people. Just as you demonstrated your warmth, generosity and, um, nonjudgmental nature in welcoming Michael Jackson into your homeland, so too you have demonstrated these traits in standing by Media Orchard during difficult times.