Oh boy. That was painful. As you know Paula Deen appeared on the Today Show recently after abruptly cancelling an interview with Matt Lauer last Friday.

By now everyone in our industry has formed their opinions regarding Paula Deen’s rapid demise and her subsequent barrage of awkward apologies and wayward explanations. This entire situation is sad. There are no winners here. So we’re hesitant to jump in the media melee and add energy to this sadness, but as PR experts it’s our job to deconstruct this ugly mess.

These are emotional times for the Paula Deen empire, and emotional PR situations must be handled with logic, sincerity and intelligence. That means showing up and treating the public like adults. For Paula Deen the folksy, southern “aw shucks” shtick may sell Virginia ham, but it doesn’t sell the truth. Read more

Celebrity and fashion have a few things in common. One of those things: You can be super hot on Monday, and D list on Tuesday. One day, you’re sipping Champagne in Cannes. The next, you’re in a gutter crying in your malt liquor.

At one point, Jon Gosselin was actually on a yacht in Cannes. And what do you wear when you’re hanging out on a fancy boat in a fancy place? An Ed Hardy t-shirt, of course. According to the man behind those ugly shirts, that’s exactly what led to the downfall of his momentarily successful clothing company. Read more

For about 70 cents, you can buy a soda (regular or diet)…

No industry relies more heavily on the public’s good will than the non-profit sector, which ostensibly exists for the sole purpose of serving the greater good. For this reason, inflammatory reports about how some of America’s biggest charities spend their money present professional and ethical challenges for crisis comms experts.

50 foundations around the country desperately need some good PR right now after a joint project by the Tampa Bay Times, CNN, and The Center for Investigative Reporting named them among the worst in the country for doing little beyond “turn[ing] donations into profit.”

The saddest part about this story is the fact that most of the groups on the list claim to support children, veterans, cancer victims, and public servants like cops and state troopers. We’d like to think that Americans will be quick to punish any charity suspected of exploiting sick kids.

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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

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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The breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen has yet to recover from the PR disaster that was its 2012 decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood. Though the resulting controversy and backlash inspired the organization to quickly reverse its decision, Komen is still reeling from dramatically decreased donations and event participation.

The foundation announced last week that it would be cancelling seven of its three-day walks in 2014 — half of its annual multi-day events. Though the organization attributes the cancellations to economic uncertainty and competition from other charities, the sugar-coated explanation is a euphemism for plummeting support.

In light of the troubled year the foundation has faced, the public hadn’t exactly expected Nancy Brinker — who is still Komen’s CEO despite announcements made ten months ago that she would be stepping down from her post — to receive a raise in 2012. However, the organization’s latest IRS filing shows that Brinker made $684,717 in fiscal 2012, a 64 percent jump from her $417,000 salary from April 2010 to March 2011.

If that didn’t look bad enough, the filing also says Brinker devoted 55 hours to the cause each week, which translates to an hourly rate of $239.40, roughly twice the salary of Komen’s chief financial officer Mark Nadolny or former president Liz Thompson, who left Komen as a result of the Planned Parenthood controversy.

Though the organization maintains that the pay raise was set in motion back in 2010, well before the trouble started, that fact has done little to assuage the already-incensed public.

BusinessWeek recently launched a PR campaign named “Gets You Ahead” that targets the Millennial demographic. Smart move. Publications covet younger readers because the demographic represents potential decades of loyal customers and subsequent financial windfall. BusinessWeek embraced this simple PR concept, then dragged it out behind the woodshed and beat it with a phone book.

Incredulously, BusinessWeek decided the best way to woo Millennials was to belittle them by characterizing the generation as lazy deadbeats who love financial debt and living with their beleaguered parents. This absurd campaign even allows parents to send their children e-cards with crass comments such as “Our American dream is for you to move out” or “I moved out of my parents’ home after college. So it’s not genetic.”

You know what also isn’t genetic? Self-awareness. We’re guessing the parents who see the humor in these e-cards are the same ones who fight the referees at their 6-year-old’s basketball games. The entire campaign lacks perspective, tact and decency. There is nothing funny about unemployment at any age—really BusinessWeek, you didn’t know this?—but it’s uniquely difficult for industrious young people because their professional lives are passing by too. This recession has been a tragic waste of human potential on every level. Oh, and for the record, the Millennials had nothing to do with the current economic mess.

Perhaps the e-cards featured in BusinessWeek’s “Gets You Ahead” program should offer more accurate and self-aware comments such as “Sorry the older generation was so greedy and financially irresponsible for the past 40 years. Boy, what a mess. Anyway, glad you’re home.” or perhaps “We’re shallow and judgmental and obsessed with the approval of our neighbors, so you must move out. You’re embarrassing us. Find other ways to save money and pay off your insurmountable student loans.”

BusinessWeek should stay out of the comedy business. It clearly isn’t their forte.

It seems the only people who can upstage their own bizarre antics are the ones who initially staged them. It turns out that infamous reality TV food show couple Amy and Samy Bouzaglos, co-owners of Amy’s Baking Company (aka ABC Bistro), have both served time in prison for different offenses. Their restaurant, the subject of a surreal episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares show, recently reopened amid ongoing controversy, with curiosity seekers as patrons and full waitstaff turnover.

It’s been nearly three weeks since the meltdown during the show, where the owners exhibited such severe dysfunction that the celebrity chef threw in the towel. The couple fought with each other and with patrons, denied the waiters’ tips, and fired a waitress on the spot. They also provided slow service and offered questionable ingredients, such as frozen ravioli. But that didn’t stop the owners from acting out further. In response to rampant social media criticism, the couple responded with profanity laced tirades, and later said their social media accounts were hacked.

Now the twists in the tale continue. The restaurant recently re-opened, but they haven’t been able to retain any employees. There have been so many gawkers and reporters attempting to gain access that the couple have hired security guards. According to the Arizona Republic, Amy has served time in prison for misusing a social security number when she applied for a bank loan. Samy may be deported after covering up a past history involving drug distribution in Europe.

Samy, an Israeli citizen born in Morocco, recently had an immigration court hearing, continuing a removal process lasting more than two years. He is under ICE investigation for failing to disclose his past history involving drug distribution, threats and extortion on his U.S. immigration petition. International records show he’d served time in prison and is banned from entering France and Germany.

This PRNewser contributor paid a brief visit to the scene of the action in Scottsdale this past Sunday, while spending Memorial Day weekend nearby. After all, one of Samy’s posts urged people to “come to Arizona”, and here’s what we found. The bistro is located in a shopping area in a residential section of Scottsdale. The temperature neared 100 degrees. It was midday and the restaurant wasn’t open yet, so there were no guards on the premises. Still the signs in the window and other passers-by provided clues.

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Unless your usual drink order is brown rubbing alcohol on the rocks or a dirty dish water martini, the findings of a year-long investigation of 29 bars and resturants across New Jersey will likely leave you nauseated.

The investigation, aptly titled “Operation Swill”, culminated last week when more than 100 investigators raided 29 bars and restaurants across the state of New Jersey based on the suspicion that they had been serving cheap alcohol (and some other horrendous stuff) as premium brand liqour.

One establishment allegedly served caramel colored rubbing alcohol to unsuspecting patrons, and another is said to have filled booze bottles with nothing more than dirty water.

“What these 29 establishments have allegedly done threatens the integrity of the alcoholic beverage industry as a whole,” said Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa. “This alleged scheme is a dishonest ruse to increase profits, and it is a slap in the face of the consumer. The consumer should have the peace of mind to know that when they pay for something, they get exactly what they paid for, no exceptions.”

Thirteen of the eateries identified were TGI Fridays franchises run by the Briad Group, a Livingston, NJ-based hospitality company that runs several different establishments across multiple states. This disturbing discovery prompted Briad president Rick Barbrick to release a statement, saying that the allegations were “troubling and surprising to us.” The statement continued:

“We can assure our loyal and valuable guests that it is our corporate policy to treat all of our patrons honestly and fairly…We have already begun our own investigation to learn if any of these allegations are true. If they are, we will take immediate steps to correct any issues that may have led to less than a 100 percent quality experience for our guests…Regardless of the outcome, we will be deploying additional measures, supervision and quality checks into our process. We want every assurance possible that our guests can continue to feel confident in the great food and drink they order at our TGI Friday’s restaurants.”

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