Today's Fresh Blogs...

• Return on Rodent Investments

  Published: July 23, 2007, 12:33 am

  Tags: Advertising Pr

  on July 13 renewed its advertising contract with Gus actually the Pittsburgh ad agency that created him, Marc USA. (See Advertising Week and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.) The Lottery's spokewoman, Chris Stambaugh, said the contract runs for four years, then has three optional one-year renewals. The Lottery spends about $32 million on

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• Mothers Work Moms For Sale

  Published: August 31, 2007, 2:32 pm

  Tags: Advertising Pr, Retail, 695

  it. "partner messages") to pregnant women and new moms. In a press release, Mothers Work, the Philadelphia-based designer, manufacturer and retailer of maternity clothes proudly announces a new lower base price of $65 per thousand names on its Families Masterfile' and Children's Birthdays' mailing lists. Here's how the press

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• Comcast Astroturf?

  Published: August 28, 2007, 12:30 pm

  Tags: Advertising Pr, Sports Biz, Telecomm Media

  subscribers just on general principle. Combine astroturf and Comcast and it really gets to be juicily nasty. Astroturf is a blog term for what appears to be an online grassroots movement by the people, but is instead a phony version of a grassroots movement created by the publicist. That's a no-no on the Web. In this case, it appeared to

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• Commentary: Commerce and Hershey hit a branding crossroads

  Published: October 12, 2007, 9:33 am

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing

  first story was a mild surprise; the second was not, given the departure of founder Vernon Hill this summer, although the identity of the acquirer was somewhat of a surprise. Lenny is leaving Hershey's after being rebuffed by the trust that controls Hershey's in his efforts to bring about a consolidation of Hershey's with London-based

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• Siemens' $1 million ad

  Published: October 23, 2007, 1:34 am

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing, Healthcare Business

  without its own MRI that produces the best self- promotional video, as judged by online viewers. "E.R." wannabees are welcome. Siemens told us that the device normally would fetch between $800,000 and $1 million. So figure that's the promotional cost of this innovative product launch: Siemens is inviting hospitals to stuff the ballot and

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• Business steps up on poverty and crime?

  Published: October 24, 2007, 11:13 am

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing, Politics Taxes, 1710, 1714, 1708, 1712

  PNC), and PNC's regional president, Bill Mills, today are unveiling an infusion of funds to support a pilot math curriculum at the North Philadelphia Head Start Program, part of the bank's $100 million decade-long charitable effort. That's great. But there's something else interesting here: the bank is specifically tying its action to calls

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• PNC's race for green

  Published: November 19, 2007, 12:28 am

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing, Financial Services

  couldn't grab the ultimate prize: "Green Bank" is a name already owned by Green Bancorp Inc. of Houston, says the trademark office. - Thomas

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• Beware of "boilerplate" press releases

  Published: November 21, 2007, 1:44 pm

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing

  discovered that PennPIRG's press release was actually a boilerplate document used almost word-for-word by at least two other chapters, MarylandPIRG and Massachusetts PIRG. Each press release uses the same "lag" wording. And the three we read even used the same quotation -- "Transparency is necessary to keep a watchful eye on the public purse"

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• PIRG boils its message

  Published: November 22, 2007, 12:53 pm

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing, Politics Taxes, 2112

  He said: "The state making improvement is New Jersey. ... Jersey has made improvements recently. The argument is keeping up with the joneses." Not getting anywhere. So we switched and asked why his press release seems to be a boilerplate statement used by several states. It uses an identical quotation attributed to several PIRG directors in

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• Client praises PR Newswire response to gaffe

  Published: January 15, 2008, 3:49 pm

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing, 2699

  staffer. Rogers said PR Newswire told Mental Health Association officials that the business provides "extensive training on appropriate workplace standards." She said that they circulate an in-house newsletter that deals with "a wide range of health issues, including mental health." The association has worked with the press release

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• File under: Oops

  Published: January 15, 2008, 11:08 am

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing

  PR Newswire, one of the primary pipelines for press releases, has been scrambling to apologize for a gaffe committed by one of its staffers yesterday. Huge numbers of press releases from companies, governments and nonprofit organizations flow through the PR Newswire system each day. Editors and reporters often judge a press release by its

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• Reporters Should Work With, Not Against PR Reps

  Published: February 5, 2008, 2:10 pm

  Tags: Opinions, Features, Advertising, Press, Professional Relationships

  attacks regularly aimed at PR people, it's not surprising that some of us try to hide the fact that we work in the public relations industry. One of the most common complaints lobbied by Wired Editor Chris Anderson, and most recently Seth Godin, is that PR people (ab)use email to pitch reporters stories that are irrelevant to their beats and

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• Executives: Not Quite Cheaper by the Dozen

  Published: February 6, 2008, 10:48 am

  Tags: Advertising Pr Marketing

  from a database company provides some answers. The company, from California, sent along its price list. Judging by the list, names of Canadian certified financial planners, architects, librarians and "property management decision makers" are worth more than the names of chief executives and presidents. A database of

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