Labels: Media News, Nancy Grace, twins

Labels: Blog Council, Chris Crocker, Marketing Views

Eager to win their share of the "totally A-list" media coverage surrounding the death of Benazir Bhutto, Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag of "The Hills" briefly set aside their differences to travel to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Pakistan, for the assassinated leader's funeral services. Fellow cast member Audrina Patridge also made the flight to Karachi.

Only after they arrived on Saturday morning were they informed that the funeral had been held on Friday. They were then beaten by rioters before barely escaping via an MTV production van to the U.S. embassy.

"I'm freaking out. I'm like, my publicist is totally fired," Conrad fumed to Patridge. The pair only cheered up after learning that Montag, who received the worst beating of the three, would have to stay in Pakistan for treatment and would not be able to accompany them on their return flight.

Labels: Audrina Patridge, Benazir Bhutto, Celebrity Culture, funeral, Heidi Montag, Lauren Conrad, Pakistan, The Hills

Labels: Britney Spears, Celebrity Culture, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton

[Story.]

Labels: Celebrity Culture, Hitler, Will Smith

Inspired by a post by my friend Bill Green at Black Star Rising, I decided to write my own rant on the limitations of Creative Commons. It obviously struck a nerve, as it hit the Digg homepage and made the social-network rounds. Check it out. And if you're so inspired, Digg It.

Labels: Creative Commons, Marketing Views

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• 400 global warming deniers can't be wrong -- can they? (Senate.gov)
  
• Best TV show titles of 2007 (Adland)
  
• An advertising parable for the holidays -- inspired by Bill Green?? (YouTube)
  
• The War Against Contraception (Reno and its Discontents)
  
• Five worst press releases of 2007 (Collateral Damage)
  
• Branding America: The Year of Living Stupid (Copywrite, Ink.)
  

Labels: Britney Spears, Celebrity Culture, Jamie Lynn Spears

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• Get your custom Red Kettle portrait from Cam Beck (Chaos Scenario)
  
• What motivates people to give? (Your PR Guy)
  
• Top 10 marketing blunders of 2007 (Collateral Damage)
  

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• The Spears sisters won't stop making babies (TMZ)
  
• Sleep.FM, the "Social Alarm Clock" that lets your friends wake you (Business and Networking)
  
• PR is not all about relationships (inmedia Blog)
  

As of 9:45 a.m. today, we've had more than 20,000 folks visit the site in the past 24 hours to see the above image, originally posted way back in May. Why? Because the Britney-esque Philadelphia anchorwoman is at it again.

Seems the Photochop above is the top Google image search result for Lane. But we've had plenty of hits to these Alycia pics as well.

Labels: alycia lane, Media News

Labels: Blog Council, Marketing Views

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• Sports journalists did nothing while drugs ruined baseball (Romenesko)
  
• Web-famous TV anchor Alycia Lane arrested for smacking cop (TV Newser)
  
• All rappers look alike (Regret the Error)
  

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• FEMA fake news conference named year's worst PR disaster (Huffington Post)
  
• Proof that toys can kill you (Consumerist)
  
• Sissy Romney cries on Meet the Press (Wonkette)

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• Decline and fall of Western civilization continued: Tila Tequila's show a hit (MSNBC)
  
• The Ukrainian Army wants you! (Break.com)
  
• The meaning of Huckenfreude (Atlantic)

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• Quentin Tarantino has a conversation with Hayden Panettiere's boobs (Ninja Dude)
  
• Burger King supersizes the misogyny (Marketing Whore)
  
• Shame, hypocrisy and steroids (O'Dwyer's PR Blog)

Labels: burger king, hayden panettiere, steroids

Labels: Blog Council, Marketing Views

Congratulations to my friend Bryce Zabel and his wife Jackie (pictured) for earning a Writers Guild of America nomination for their Pandemic miniseries on the Hallmark Channel.

Maybe now Bryce will have the Hollywood juice to introduce me to Tiffani Thiessen like he promised.

Labels: Bryce Zabel, Media News, WGA

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• Good luck with that: Italy creates "Mr Prices" ombudsman to stop inflation (Collateral Damage)
  
• Murdoch argues in favor of media bias (Spinwatch)
  
• Top 10 viral videos of 2007 (Valleywag)
  
• Russian computer program fakes chatroom flirting (Reuters)

Labels: Rupert Murdoch, viral videos

Labels: Boing Boing, customer service, Marketing Views, Wells Fargo

The hard rolls look really good.

Labels: Blog Council, Marketing Views

Labels: Blog Council, Marketing Views

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• Free newspapers are the cause of global warming (Strive Notes)
  
• Are your conversations migrating to Twitter? (PR 2.0)
  
• So, Mr. Tech CEO, why did your startup fail? "I would say it came down to lack of vision on the part of investors" (Diggings)
  
• Why is digital signage creepy? (The Web Outside)
  

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• WTF: Fark to trademark "NSFW"? (Adland)
  
• If famous philosophers ran political attack ads... (YouTube)
  
• Barbaba Walters forgets to tell Larry Birkhead that he didn't make the "fascinating people" list (Huffington Post)
  
• "How many people get on the front page of Fox News with a story that doesn't contain one single ounce of truth?" (Romenesko)
  
• If Hitler ran your agency (Make the Logo Bigger)

[Story. Original image found at Sketchy Thoughts.]

Labels: Blog Council, Marketing Views

OK, this has really gone too far now.

Labels: Celebrity Culture, Jennifer Love Hewitt

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• Why won't women support Hillary? (CareerDiva)
  
• Social media's impact on investor relations: a case study (Strive Notes)
  
• Pick your favorite PR disaster of 2007 (Better Communication Results)
  
• Beyonce shows the world her vajayjay (Ninja Dude)

Joy Jennings, who has offered guests posts previously on dumb things that smart communicators do and marketing buzzwords, today brings us seven useful tips for getting back on track when you're mentally tapped out at work:

1. Take a break. Surf the Web, chat with a co-worker, get away from your desk. Think about other things, clear your head and go back to your project refreshed.

2. Get inspired. Look at award-winning work, peruse your competitor's work, visit an art museum, skim a favorite book. The great work of others will stimulate your creative side or help you see unexpected solutions.

3. Find external motivation. Examine your checking account balance, make out your Christmas list, re-read your last performance review. Everybody needs to pay the rent. Find the motivation that will flip a switch in your brain and get your ideas flowing.

4. Lose the tension. Exercise, take a nap, eat some chocolate, have a good cry, pop some Advil, master your domain. Got a headache? Feel your muscles tightening? Stand up and stretch, book a massage or find other, ahem, ways to cope.

5. Just start typing. Type your thoughts, type out the project's mission, type up your notes. Free-flowing ideas can lead to your Aha! moment. Especially if you have a writing project, just start writing about your topic and see where it leads you.

6. Brainstorm. Sketch on paper, map out your ideas, get some coworkers into a conference room and pick their brains. In brainstorming, no ideas are bad -- write everything down. Your lukewarm idea may spur a brilliant one.

And finally:

7. Just say no to drugs. You're a grown-up with a deadline. Drugs including alcohol may relax you, but not in the way you need. Even caffeine can make you jittery, plus the acid in coffee can sour your stomach.

[Image by Diong at Objects and Pixels.]

Labels: creativity, Marketing Views, workplace

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• Hacks vs. flacks: Which one is Tom Biro? (inmedia Blog)
  
• Wired Magazine: flacking for nukes (see comments) (Wired)
  
• New Oscar-winning formula: Adam Sandler, Rumer Willis and the Girls Next Door (Buddy TV)
  
• Iran report spoils some good old-fashioned CNN fear-mongering (Variety)
  
• Mark Cuban has street cred (FrontBurner)

Since I was such a big fan of Blogging Heroes, I thought it would only be fair to also create a Photochop of select bloggers who didn't make the Blogging Heroes cut. For lack of a better term, we'll call them Blogging Zeroes.

Media Orchard plans to celebrate Blogging Zeroes everywhere by including you in our commemorative portrait, just in time for the holidays. Just shoot us an email or post in comments if you'd like to be included.

Labels: Blogging Heroes, Marketing Views

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• Bill O'Reilly doesn't know what a MILF is (Townhall.com)
  
• Defense of cellulite is a career-booster for Jennifer Love Hewitt (New York Magazine)
  
• Are Hershey's marketers on crack? (Collateral Damage)
  

Why does Mike Huckabee think he's surging in the polls? Quote:

There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people.

Labels: Mike Huckabee,