New York mayor Mike Bloomberg's crusade to ban large-sized sugary drinks has some surprising new foes: the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation, two large nonprofits ostensibly dedicated to advancing the rights of minorities. In this case, they are advancing the interests of their own corporate backers at the expense of…

Last night, Jodie Foster, a famous actress who has been a famous actress for many decades, stood on stage at a glittery Hollywood awards show being broadcast around the world, and, in a lengthy, self-glorifying speech, in front of a crowd of the world's most famous people, asked for.... privacy. Is Jodie Foster…

The most exciting public relations industry development of the day is undoubtedly the official launch of the hottest new PR agency in town: $100 Dollar PR. That is actually the name of the new PR agency: $100 Dollar PR. What's that screaming sound you hear? Oh, it is just the name "$100 Dollar PR" screaming "quality."

A.I.G., the backbone that runs one inch beneath the surface of the global economy, has gotten itself millions of dollars worth of free PR today by just considering joining a lawsuit against the U.S. government. To sue, or not to sue? To be ungrateful bastards, or to potentially miss a payday? It's not a complicated…

After the Sandy Hook Shootings, the NRA—America's most influential force for putting guns in the hands of everyone—went conspicuously silent. Now, after what has doubtless been a staggering amount of fretting by PR types, the NRA has released its first statement on the incident:

Let the Booker Backlash begin. Newark Mayor Cory Booker has enjoyed an endless stream of slavishly positive publicity—in the national press, at least—since he first became mayor in 2006. There was the time he rushed into a burning building to save a neighbor. And the time he personally shoveled out constituents'…

Ever since the Jimmy Savile sex scandal brought a bunch of BBC executives tumbling down, the UK has been, shall we say, more sensitive to the fact that famous people might have committed a bunch of sex crimes back in the Good Old Days, when sex crimes were not something that famous people much worried about. The…

Here is the IFC Network Press Team's official holiday card. Note that it is signed by hand by all four members of the IFC Press Team. Now, imagine how many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stupid identical holiday cards the IFC Press Team has to send out, the vast majority of them to random reporters the IFC…

This morning, a press release hit the wires of PRWeb, a paid press release distribution site, saying that Google would be acquiring the tiny company ICOA Wireless for $400 million. ICOA's stock, which trades at fractions of a penny, briefly quadrupled in price after the press release hit. Media outlets (including our…

So there's a new poll, see, and one thing that makes this poll special is that three quarters of the respondents were just regular people all over the world, and one quarter of respondents were "marketing professionals." Got it? A poll heavily weighted towards marketing professionals. That's the setup. Now, here is…

In the public relations industry, the fine art of pitching stories often consists of little more throwing shit against a wall and seeing what sticks. Regardless: it's important to have the right shit, and the right wall. This is PR Dummies. Having the right shit is what we do.

One Direction are a very famous British boy band who're currently more popular than Botched Jesus Fresco. Since their serendipitous formation on Simon Cowell's X Factor, they have stolen the hearts and minds and babysitting incomes of young squeeing girls across the world, including a very notable one named Malia…

Public relations often involves the delicate art of tiptoeing around sensitive subjects in order to continue your ruthless and unceasing marketing activities. Fine. But it is not required that you incorporate these sensitive subjects into your ruthless marketing activities. This is PR Dummies. Remembering Ivy Lee,…

We just came from the DNC's daily "blogger briefing," not to be confused with the Real Press briefing. There were 20 or so bloggers, various Democratic media reps and invited speakers.

The public relations industry could fairly be described as a machine that functions on broken dreams. The only question is whether your dreams will be broken now, or later. If that dream is about meeting Oprah, the answer is: now. This is PR Dummies. Oprah will not be coming.

The public relations industry enjoys drilling into its young whelps a single phrase to guide their decision-making: "Know your audience." Sadly, after all these years, the lesson still has not sunk in. This is PR Dummies: Evading the audience-seekers, every week.

The practice of public relations is so powerful that the simple act of composing a press release can turn an ordinary citizen into a raving monster. This is PR Dummies. Going WAY haywire!!! on subluxated flackery, every week.