Ya never know.

Labels: alycia lane, Media News, WWE

Cathy was putting together a media list for a client in Cision MediaSource when she came upon this advice attributed to Fred Frailey, editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance:

Keep in mind that snail mail could be more effective to editors who are continually buried under a pile of e-mails.

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• Afghan journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy (Crooks and Liars)
  
• Bikini-scandal anchorwoman Alycia Lane to join WWE? (SPORTSbyBROOKS)
  
• CNN's Kyra Phillips and newsbabe pal want to make a "reverse Oreo" with their black male co-anchor (HuffPo)
  

You can decide which side is pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay marriage, and pro-Iraq withdrawal timetable -- and which side is anti-abortion, pro-NRA, anti-gay marriage and stay the course in Iraq. It doesn't really matter, does it?

[Story.]

Labels: flipfloppers, Mitt Romney, Political Spin

Most of the billions of Web sites out there today have a site map, labeled as such. So if you run a search on the term "site map" in Google, you should get a fairly decent indication of which sites Google thinks are most important, shouldn't you?

Here are the 25 organizations whose Web sites come up first in a "site map" search:

1. Google
2. eBay
3. Apple
4. CNN Money
5. Wikipedia
6. Microsoft
7. The Seattle Times
8. The Chronicle of Higher Education
9. The New York Times
10. Internal Revenue Service
11. FindLaw
12. CNET
13. The White House
14. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
15. Austin American-Statesman
16. U.S. Dept. of Defense
17. The Washington Post
18. U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
19. LiveJournal
20. MapQuest
21. The Arizona Republic
22. MSNBC
23. International Monetary Fund
24. U.S. National Library of Medicine
25. Los Angeles Times

Whaddya know? Google thinks it's important. Of course, we've demonstrated this before.

Labels: google, Marketing Views, search, SEO, site maps

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• 21 sexiest ads of all time (AdFreak)
  
• Sometimes you can keep a story in the can for TOO long (Regret the Error)
  
• Karlie Montana: favorite porn star of nerds (IGN)
  

From the junk mailbox:

Hi,

I would like to place an Ad on your site with the following details:

Anchor Text: Sales Leads
Target URL: [I'll be nice and leave this out.]

I don't really have a big budget so I can pay you $5 for the ad, with the agreement that you'll leave it on that page for at least a year or longer if you like.

Please get back to me if you are interested and you can also include your Paypal account ID (email) for payment.

Thanks a lot,

Jerome

He thought they looked a little suspicious.



[Story.]

Labels: Political Spin, Rudy Giuliani

The main reason I went into blogging is because it leaves a very small carbon footprint. Unfortunately, many bloggers have decided to make careers on the speaking circuit as "blogging experts" -- so many, in fact, that the greenhouse gases they emit during their fetid lectures (including carbon dioxide and, in at least some embarrassing cases, methane) have begun to threaten the blogosphere's fragile ecosystem.

We know that pengins would catch fire and the planet would die if everyone in China had a car; that much is obvious. By the same token, can the Blue Marble survive the hot air generated simultaneously by thousands of bloggers who market themselves as experts, polluting the ether with BS-generated carbon?

Maybe we need a version of Todd's Power 150 that awards marketing bloggers a rating representing the number of trees a given blogging expert must plant to compensate for the hot air he or she creates. Ad Age, if you want that idea, it's all yours.

Labels: Marketing Views

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• Rudy Giuliani was once an Inside Edition correspondent (video) (HuffPo)
  
• Lawyers' heavy-handed e-mails go nowhere -- and everywhere (Copywrite, Ink.)
  
• Presidential candidates as brands (Adrants)
  

Want to be a pick? Submit your story!

• Bad cross-branding idea: the Muppets and Law & Order: SVU (Collateral Damage)
  
• Ms. dissed for rejecting Israeli girl power ad (Adrants)
  
• In the UK, the Samie Lee nudity watch continues (Anorak)
  

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• Scientists decode dog language (Breitbart)
  
• Fox News reports on video games with the same rigor as its WMD coverage (Heresy)
  
• Reuters in another fake photo scandal? (NewsBusters)
  

1. We were the first PR firm in Dallas to "get it." Scott Baradell started Media Orchard in March 2005 and grew it to become one of the top 3,000 blogs in the world as measured by Technorati. He followed this up in October 2006 by creating his own social news site modeled after Fark and Digg. Today, his firm places in the top search results for most terms that clients use in seeking a Dallas-based PR firm. We know how social media tools work because we've been using them ourselves for years.

2. We prove it by doing it -- every day. We drive blog, social networking and SEO strategy for clients large and small. We've been helping clients with their social media programs for more than two years now; if you can find another PR firm in Dallas that can tell you that, be sure they produce evidence. We can.

3. We won't beat you down with hipster pretense. We don't do Buddy Holly glasses and all-black fashion ensembles, and we won't talk down to you. Hipsters who try to wow you with jargon are usually just trying to cover for their own inadequacies -- such as lack of real-world experience.

4. We know what it's like to run large PR departments. Scott Baradell has served as vice president of communications for two different billion-dollar corporations. He's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on PR campaigns with firms like Fleishman-Hillard and Burson-Marsteller. He's also seen the value in hiring small firms he can trust.

5. We know what it's like to run startups. Baradell co-founded and raised $3 million in funding for his own venture-backed startup. He understands the challenges of building a business on a shoestring -- and to have VCs always looking over his shoulder.

6. We believe in old-fashioned ways of demonstrating value. We don't think much of vague objectives. We translate our efforts into results -- like increased Web traffic, improved search position, you name it. We're honest about what we can do for you, and we tell you how we're going to get there.

7. We try to have fun. Life ain't worth it if you can't have an occasional laugh. Check out our social news site, Spin Thicket, to see what we mean.

8. Our phone number is easy to remember. It's 972.235.3439. How hard is that? Just dial it so we can get started.

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• Why don't we talk about smoking and celebrity deaths? (PR Watch)
  
• Is Miley Cyrus purposefully leaking provocative photos? (Ninja Dude)
  
• Pepsi to debut "deaf ad" during Super Bowl (Adland)
  

As many of you know, Media Orchard was a Technorati Top 3,000 blog back in the day (Summer 2006). We got distracted with other things (mainly clients) and more or less abandoned the blog for a while, then brought it back in September 2007 with a new approach.

It might not seem coherent enough to be called "an approach" to you -- but it works for me. And you do seem to be enjoying it based on the traffic increases shown here:

StatCounter:



Alexa:



It's cool that at January 25, traffic for Q1 has already exceeded the total for the entire third quarter of 2007. But the most exciting news for me is that Spin Thicket is also becoming a larger community -- which is so important since it depends on your conversations to make it worthwhile.

We're planning a complete overhaul of Spin Thicket that we expect to launch by the end of February. Stay tuned.

Labels: Marketing Views

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• Lowlights of Heath-basher John Gibson (Media Matters)
  
• The fakery behind Amazon's "top 10 reviewers" (Consumerist)
  
• BoSox defile uniform with corporate logo (O'Dwyer PR Blog)
  
• How corporate strategists neutered the BBC (Spinwatch)

... and back into space.



[Story.]

Labels: 2008, Dennis Kucinich, Political Spin, presidential campaign

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• Travolta talks Heath Ledger: Real sympathy or blatant attention grab? (Deceiver)
  
• Are people STILL flogging the social media news release? (The Buzz Bin)
  
• Facebook made me kill myself (Collateral Damage)
  
• Scott and Cam argue about Iraq, again (Spin Thicket)

Heath Ledger could be the latest star to have died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Ledger was taking anti-depressants as well as the "dangerous drug" Ambien at the time of his death, although his autopsy today was inconclusive. While most celebrity drug deaths have been the result of either suicide or the use of illegal drugs, a surprising number of stars have died by accident -- from medications you can purchase at the corner pharmacy. Here are 12 of the most famous:



1. MARILYN MONROE. Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" died from an overdose of sleeping pills -- specifically, Nembutal and chloral hydrate [pictured]. Although Monroe's death was officially listed as a suicide in 1962, many forensic experts and investigators now say the overdose was more likely to have been accidental.



2. ELVIS PRESLEY. Perhaps the most famous prescription-drug abuser of all time, Elvis died in 1977 from an overdose of medications while on the toilet in his Graceland mansion. Presley's ex-wife wrote: "Presley was taking Placidyls [pictured] to combat severe insomnia in ever increasing doses and later took Dexedrine to counter the sleeping pills' after effects." Presley's personal physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, concluded: "Elvis's problem was that he didn't see the wrong in it. He felt that by getting [pills] from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie..."



3. JUDY GARLAND. The Wizard of Oz star was found dead in her London bathroom by her husband in 1969. Coroner Gavin Thursdon said the cause of death was an accidental overdose of Seconal [pictured].



4. HOWARD HUGHES. The germophobic genius and subject of Martin Scorcese's The Aviator died in 1976 in route to a Houston hospital from his Acalpulco estate. Although the official cause of death was liver failure, his autopsy showed lethal amounts of codeine and valium [pictured] in his system.



5. ANNA NICOLE SMITH. According to Wikipedia, "Ultimately her death [in 2007] was ruled an accidental drug overdose of the sedative chloral hydrate that became increasingly lethal when combined with other prescription drugs in her system, specifically 4 benzodiazepines: Klonopin (Clonazepam), Ativan (Lorazepam), Serax (Oxazepam), and Valium (Diazepam). Furthermore, she had taken Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) and Topamax (Toprimate), an anticonvulsant GABA agonist, which likely contributed to the sedative effect of chloral hydrate and the benzodiazepines."



6. DOROTHY DANDRIDGE. The first African-American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, Dandridge was found dead in West Hollywood in 1965 from an overdose of Imipramine [pictured], a tricyclic antidepressant. It's believed she improperly combined the medication -- which she took for her bipolar disorder -- with pain medication she received after breaking an ankle.



7. DANA PLATO. The long-troubled Diff'rent Strokes star died from an accidental overdose of Vanadom [pictured] and Vicodin at her mother-in-law's Oklahoma home in 1999.



8. KEITH MOON. The Who drummer died in 1978 from an accidental overdose of Heminevrin [pictured], a medication taken as part of a program to wean him off alcohol.



9. ROB PILATUS. The Milli Vanilli star, disgraced after the public learned the music duo did not actually sing on its hit records, died in 1998 of an accidental overdose of a medication (reportedly methadone [pictured]) designed to help him with drug withdrawal symptons.



10. ROBERT WALKER. Perhaps the most bizarre accidental prescription-drug death. The star of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train died mysteriously in 1951 after being given an injection of the "truth serum" sodium amytal [pictured] by psychiatrists at his home.



11. NICK DRAKE. The influential singer-songwriter died at his childhood home in the U.K. in 1974 from an accidental overdose of the antidepressant amitriptyline [pictured].



12. PAIGE SUMMERS. The 1998 Penthouse Pet of the Year was found dead in her fiance's home in 2003 from a combination of the painkillers codeine and oxycodone. Her death may or may not have been an accident; some have pointed a finger at fiance Bracey Bobbitt -- who was a pharmacist.

[Reprinted with permission of eDrugSearch.com]

Labels: anna nicole smith, Celebrity Culture, Dana Plato, Elvis Presley, Heath Ledger, Howard Hughes, Marilyn Monroe, Paige Summers

1. You can crack one open.
2. You can be Merck CEO Richard Clark.

[Story.]

Labels: advertising, Marketing Views, pharma, vytorin

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• How come I have to find out about cool Dallas outdoor campaigns from a Swedish blog? (Adland)
  
• Ladies, look who's dead! (Valleywag)
  
• Sean Hannity's pal: "Go to hell, black man" (News Hounds)
  

[Story.]

Labels: Fred Thompson, Miley Cyrus, Political Spin

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• Americans For Balanced Energy Choices "Clean Coal" PR Spin Campaign Revealed (DeSmogBlog)
  
• Fox & Friends: We "Made" Mike Huckabee (News Hounds)
  
• What if the Internet threw a party and all your favorite sites were invited? (Break.com)
  

Mad Money's opening weekend take was $7.7 million; at 10 bucks a head (yeah, I know that's not the scientific way to do it), that's an audience of 770,000. Meanwhile, the leaked Cruise Scientology rant has been viewed 1.8 million times on Gawker alone.

Labels: Celebrity Culture, Katie Holmes, L.Ron Hubbard, Mad Money, Scientology, Tom Cruise

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• Pierce Mattie PR names the top 20 publications to watch in 2008 (Pierce Mattie)
  
• The villagers have pitchforks -- and they want Digg's secret editor list (Marketing Whore)
  
• ESPN hates Jesus (NewsBusters)
  

Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. [Story.]

More after the jump.

Labels: attention whores, Celebrity Culture, Lindsay Lohan, nipple slips

[Story.]

Labels: Blog Council, Digg, Marketing Views, social networks

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• Citroen learns genocidal dictators aren't good advertising (Collateral Damage)
  
• Even student photojournalists fear "amateurs" these days (Black Star Rising)
  
• Digg's secret editors (Valleywag)
  

Want to be a pick? Submit your story!

• SF zoo takes a PR hit (PR Week)
  
• Bud Selig blames online pharmacies for baseball's steroid problem (eDrugSearch Blog)
  
• PR Newswire does damage control over offensive slug (O'Dwyer's PR Blog)