Paula Deen sure knows how to stir up trouble, doesn’t she? A recent lawsuit filed against Mrs. Ham-in-the-Face by the manager of her Savannah restaurant contains more than a few barely believable allegations, among them that she and her husband often used the n-word and that:

…white employees were free to use the customer bathroom at the front of the restaurant, but black employees had to use the facilities in the back.

A disgruntled employee stretching the truth? Possibly! But Deen landed herself and her brand in even more hot water today. While answering lawyers’ questions about her supposed desire to host an event catered by an all-black wait staff dressed in Antebellum-era outfits, she described a dreamy “plantation” wedding she wishes she’d planned herself:

The whole entire waiter staff was middle-aged black men, and they had on beautiful white jackets with a black bow tie…That restaurant represented a certain era in America…I would say they were slaves…I remember saying I would love to have servers like that…but I would be afraid somebody would misinterpret.

Now how could anyone misinterpret that?

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Men’s Wearhouse has fired its venerable founder, executive chairman and beloved pitchman, George Zimmer. Mr. Zimmer launched the men’s clothing enterprise in 1973 with one store in Texas. Today there are 1,143 locations across North America.

The public came to know and love Mr. Zimmer from the popular commercials featuring his famous slogan “You’re going to love the way you look. I guarantee it.” Not only was Mr. Zimmer the face of the brand, but he also became part of our culture, a sort of everyman that made men who couldn’t afford $5,000 suits feel proud about the way we looked. He guaranteed it. And we believed him. The departure of Mr. Zimmer marks the end of an era.

As PR people who tout the many indisputable benefits of transparency when dealing with the public, we’re bemused by this development and lack of details surrounding it. The public likes Mr. Zimmer. His ousting appears to have been done with an intentional amount of disrespect and disdain. What else could explain the lack of an official statement from the board regarding such an important and controversial decision? Instead of getting in front of this, they did nothing, which is the PR equivalent of pleading the fifth. It’s how guilty people act. Read more

Most 19-year-olds don’t get a chance to visit outer space, leave their pet monkeys stranded in Germany or cruise the California highways in a leopard print Audi 8 at speeds high enough to draw warnings from local cops and former NFL players.

In some ways, however, Justin Bieber is just like every other American boy; he loves his mommy enough to buy her flowers every Mother’s Day. More specifically, he loves 1-800-Flowers, and he wants his 40 million Twitter followers to know all about it.

Everybody knows I love #MyMom! @1800flowers Mother’s Day is on Sunday! Love your momma! Love u @pattiemallette – http://t.co/SGLffn0bo2

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) May 9, 2013

No one should be surprised to learn that Bieber has a contract with 1-800-Flowers, but you won’t see any mention of that fact in his promotional tweets. The Biebs is only the most prominent of a slew of celebrities endorsing brands on Twitter and other social media forums with no disclaimers in sight. Kim Kardashian, for example, often makes five figures for a single branded tweet but never discloses her relationships with her sponsors.

That might change soon if the FTC has its way.

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Life isn’t fair. Some people are born smarter, better looking and more talented than others. It stinks, but that’s life.

So the hard-working public naturally experiences a certain level of Schadenfreude when a beautiful woman with enough confidence to appear in the Miss USA pageant goes down in flames because she flubs a question about the underlying issues of why women are paid less than men. That is an important cultural and economic question, and one that even experts struggle to explain.

But Miss Utah handled that question like a flying squirrel in the cockpit of an airborne plane. She just didn’t know what was going on or what to do. She freaked. It was painful to watch, and riveting, of course. We’re human after all. In less than a minute Miss Utah’s bungled answer to such a complex question underscored the pageant’s rocky relationship with the American public. Read more

In an effort to engage younger travelers (i.e. “millennials”), Marriott Hotels is undergoing a re-branding, and is launching a new multi-year global marketing campaign created by Grey NY.

The goal of the effort, called “Travel Brilliantly,” is  to amplify the brand’s dedication to leading the future of travel. In a release, the company states that it aims to appeal to “the next generation of travelers, who seamlessly blend work and play in a mobile and global world.”

At the heart of the campaign is the idea that a hotel is not actually bound by its four walls. Instead, the focus is on celebrating how the global travel experience is a mind-opening, inspiring life event that cannot be measured in miles or contained within brick and mortar. “This is not a hotel,” the advertising states, “It’s an idea that travel should be brilliant… It’s not only about where you’re staying. It’s about where you’re going.”

Compelling though this romantic and existential view of travel may be, the company is backing up its message with tangible changes, including re-designed lobbies and public spaces to better accomodate “the next generation of travelers who blend work and play, demand style and substance, and require technology.” The hotel chain is also introducing new concepts designed for the new mobile worker including Workspring at Marriott, Red Coat Direct and Workspace on Demand. Read more

Cohn & Wolfe announced two senior appointments to help drive growth and lead new accounts. David Henderson, who joins as SVP in Los Angeles, will oversee the US Communications business for Nokia, while Josh Levin, based in New York, joins as SVP and Co-Lead of the US Corporate Practice. Henderson will report to Los Angeles office President Kazumi Mechling and Levin will have dual reporting to North America President Jim Joseph and Global Corporate Affairs Practice leader Geoff Beattie. (Release)

Veteran public relations specialist Joanne Forster has signed on as general manager and PR director of Bolt PR, Irvine. As general manager, Forster will be responsible for managing day-to-day company operations, overseeing all Bolt accounts, mentoring staff, and driving new business development initiatives. The most significant accomplishment of Forster’s career was “Force of Nature Concert for Tsunami Aid,” which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Forster co-produced and directed all domestic and international marketing efforts for the multi-artist concert, which raised over eight million dollars and made news headlines around the world. (Release) Read more

The Washington Post: Google Challenges U.S. Gag Order

The New York Times: Nickelodeon Resists Critics of Junk Food Ads

Forbes: Lululemon Showcases Its Sense of Humor

CNNMoney: Chrysler Capitulates, Agrees to Jeep Recall

Advertising Age: Taco Bell to Launch ‘Power Protein’ Menu for Healthy Eaters

Code and Theory is a creative agency behind publishing websites like “The Verge,” and “Interview” magazine. They also have an odd fondness for the Dewey Decimal System.

Managing partners Steve Baer and Mike Treff took the mediabistroTV crew on an Olde Timey New York meets modern design tour of their fifth floor offices. The guys showed how they added wide open spaces, planned randomness and hip wood floors to the windows, the wood and the brick that originally came with the building built by the Astor family in 1886. Then there were the books, the many, many, many books.

You can view our other MediabistroTV productions on our YouTube Channel.

Vice is known for tackling controversial topics. To accompany that approach, the magazine will also include imagery and fashion spreads that push the limits (oftentimes including women who are missing an article of clothing, like a shirt). It looks like Vice crossed and stepped all over the line of good taste with its latest spread, and has issued an apology.

Included in its most recent fiction issue was a section called “Last Words,” featuring fashion models depicting the last moments of female literary figures who had committed suicide. For example, the model playing Sylvia Plath stares into an oven wearing a pretty dress.

We’ll quote our friends at Fishbowl NY directly: “Last Words is gross because it glamorizes suicide. There’s nothing sexy, fashionable, or edgy, about people killing themselves.” They weren’t the only ones who took issue with the spread.

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Of all the ways in which an artist can garner attention for a new song, stirring up controversy seems to be a method with which rapper Lil Wayne is quite familiar.

His song “Georgia…Bush” stirred the political pot back in 2006 by heavily criticizing the Bush administration’s actions both overseas and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. More recently, Wayne lost his PepsiCo endorsement after the lyrics of his remixed song “Karate Chop” considered insensitive towards civil rights icon Emmett till.

Now, the rapper is taking heat for what many feel is an anti-American and anti-patriotic display: treading on the American flag — well, technically, dancing on it.

Earlier this week, behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoot for Weezy’s new single “God Bless Amerika” was leaked to the public, and features the rapper performing in front of Old Glory. At one point the flag falls to the ground and he dances across it. Though his attitude in the below clip appears to be more casual than blatantly disrespectful or malicious, according to the U.S. Flag Code, the flag isn’t even supposed to touch the ground, let alone be trampled on, and so the music video is being lambasted even before it’s released.

But it got us to watch the clip, didn’t it?