Turns out, we may have been right.

When speaking with Business Insider last week, Robin Lewis, co-author of The New Rules of Retail, claimed that A&F CEO Mike Jeffries “doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people. He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they’re one of the ‘cool kids.’”

So what exactly deems a kid cool enough to earn the privilege of wearing the A&F brand? In a 2006 interview with Salon, Jeffries said, “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids…We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

So who’s automatically excluded from this “cool” group? Girls above a size 10, apparently. Abercrombie doesn’t even list women’s XL or XXL on its size chart. According to Lewis, the only reason Abercrombie offers XL and XXL men’s sizes is likely to appeal to beefy athletes. continued…

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Selling your own skin as billboard space? Crazy, right? That’s what we thought, but apparently at least forty Rapid Realty employees have already deemed the bribe worth the body art.

Stephanie Barry justified her decision with hard-to-deny simplicity, telling CBS: “I was like, why am I throwing my money away when I could give myself from $25,000 to $40,000 for the same amount of work?” And she’s not alone. Since there are no size or location restrictions, workers have gotten creative, one person getting inked stealthily behind her ear.

Not everyone is buying in, though. When CBS asked non-Rapid Realty-employees if they would do the same thing at their jobs, responses ranged from “[the reward] would have to be extraordinary” and “It’s a scar for life. I have enough of those.”

What about you, readers? Would you be a walking billboard for a hefty pay raise? Tell us in the comments section.

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Locals are already enjoying movie tie-ins galore, including Tiffany’s ‘Gatsby’-inspired jewelry collection, Prada’s exhibit of movie costumes and Brooks Brother’s new menswear line. The Plaza Hotel’s ‘is unveiling a Gatsby’ suite. Long Island’s historic north shore mansions inspired the cinematic backdrop, so they’re getting in on the action with springtime ‘Gatsby’ galas.

Here’s what we’ve gleaned about the glitzy goods and the upcoming festivities:

Tiffany’s Collection: The luxury jewelry brand, where Fitzgerald was a client, is showcasing a series of 1920s era windows at its Fifth Avenue flagship store. On the main floor, dazzling art deco items are on display. The fourth floor is showing clips from the movie and interviews with designer Catherine Martin, wife of ‘Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann. Nearby are cases of crystal bowls, diamond tiaras and chandelier earrings.

Brooks Brothers’ Clothing Line: Fitzgerald was also a fan of the clothing brand, which has long served affluent customers. The retailer designed the movie’s menswear and recently launched a ‘Great Gatsby’ line. The limited edition clothing interprets the film’s period looks with items such as waistcoats and formal wear. Brooks Brothers is also highlighting its ‘Gatsby’ connection with different window displays at each of its New York City stores.

Prada’s SoHo Store Exhibit: Famed Italian designer Miuccia Prada created the “period accurate but modern” women’s costumes for The Great Gatsby. Starting today, those stylish fashions are being shown at Prada’s store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. Items include dresses and accessories, in addition to sketches and behind-the-scenes photos.

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The most compelling aspect of public relations is that the public keeps changing. Our attitudes toward everything in life from sexuality to profanity constantly evolve, and this makes understanding the public more of an art than a science.

Philips Norelco knows this. That’s why the razor brand took a slight risk in dropping a bleeped-out F-bomb in its most recent commercial, “I’d Date Me.” Regardless of your moral compass, we think it’s pretty funny. (Watch the video above and see if you agree.)

Perhaps what Philips Norelco knows is that there is nothing funnier than absurdity, and there is nothing more absurd than thinking bleeping out a bad word will spare anyone from knowing what word is being smothered. It’s not like these commercials are being aired on Nickelodeon.

Saying a profane word makes us listen to it, but bleeping out a profane word makes us say it in our own heads. As PR people, we can’t help but wonder if there will ever be a day when the F-bomb becomes mainstream enough to be pronounced unmolested.

Is the public ready for profanity, or are those words still too offensive?

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Dove recruited seven women of different ages and backgrounds to take part in an experiment. Early in the day, these women were asked to spend some time with a group of people they had never met before, but were not told why. Then, they met one-on-one with FBI-trained forensic artist Gil Zamora, who created composite sketches of them based on self-descriptions of their own facial features. Later, the artist met with the people who mingled with these women earlier in the day and drew sketches of the same women based on the way these strangers described them.

In the below video, we hear the women describe themselves by saying things like “my mom told me I had a big jaw,” and “I kind of have a fat, rounder face.” But when others are describing them, they say things like “she has nice eyes that light up when she speaks.” When the portraits are finished, without fail, those created from the observations of others are more flattering than those based on self-descriptions. continued…

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How can Playboy even pretend to compete with all that low-to-no-cost content? Answer: The brand will live on by being dogged, resourceful and creative, because the Playboy we know simply won’t go down without a fight (nor should it). For example, the brand’s new iPhone app doesn’t feature nudity, because its makers are abiding by Apple’s content standards while demonstrating some excellent marketing acumen.

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The purpose of this three minute short film, directed by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, is to promote Prada‘s new fragrance Candy L’Eau.  The short features all the quirk, charm and sense of humor one might expect from its creators, stars the lovely French actress/model Léa Seydoux and follows a sweet storyline that pays homage to the love triangles of French New Wave cinema. Viewers will likely be so charmed by the spot’s characters and aesthetic that they’ll hardly notice the three explicit brand plugs.

We don’t know about you, readers, but we find this product rollout campaign much more enjoyable than listening to movie stars — however gorgeous they may be — ramble ceaselessly and unintelligibly about fate, life, and the universe (especially on a Friday!).

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By selling lingerie to the “tween” demographic, Victoria’s Secret has broken all sorts of unspoken public relations rules, most importantly “don’t piss off parents”. (We had a feeling this wasn’t going to go over well.) Brands attempting to court the tween demographic should remember one fact: these girls are too young to legally hold jobs, so their primary source of income (and purchasing decisions) is their parents.

Apparently Victoria’s Secret forgot this, didn’t think parents were paying attention, or honestly didn’t believe there was anything inappropriate about a tween girl and her divorced father’s new girlfriend going shopping together for something hot and spicy at the local VS.

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We’ve all seen the beer commercials where sleek young women can’t resist men drinking glowing beers in dark bars or the mouthwash spots where guys are denied a kiss from bedmates who don’t appreciate bad breath. The women in these ads are caricatures built to play on our fantasies and fears. It’s advertising 101.

Gillette, however, is taking a more sophisticated approach with its new campaign for the Fusion ProGlide Styler, which is not only designed for the traditional shaving of morning stubble but also for “manscaping” below the neckline — yes, for shaving the chest, back, abs and groin.

Dudes not named Pauly D don’t generally like to hear the details on this sort of thing in TV ads. But women? That’s another story.

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Most female mannequins are so proportionally ridiculous that even the smallest clothes need to be cinched at the back to keep from hanging loosely off their bony shoulders. And if they were to come to life (see aforementioned uprising scenario), they would be too thin to menstruate. Given these facts, it’s no wonder that when this photo of more realistically-sized mannequins in a Swedish store hit the Internet, the response was an international roar of approval.

A blogger at Women’s Rights News posted the photo of the department store mannequins to Facebook last week, and the comments have been pouring in ever since. Although the dummies still represent the idealized hourglass shape, blonde hair, and fair skin, their softer-looking tummies and fleshier thighs have inspired 61,538 likes and over 19,000 shares as of this writing. The fact that they are dressed in lingerie also helps to perpetuate the idea that this store recognizes its shoppers don’t have to be a size 2 to be sexy.

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First Dove posted a download on Reddit that supposedly offered users a free tool to help retouch photographs by “enhanc[ing] skin tone” and “hiding all the imperfections”–in other words, all the things that Dove’s campaign opposed. But when users pressed the button, this “tool” reversed all the modifications to the image in question. (They could then “undo” the reversal, but the point had been made.)

This “hack” was a sneaky attempt to once again push the claim that Dove keeps things real in an industry dominated by digital tummy tucks, facelifts and tone-ups. In the video below, the company directly calls out “art directors, graphic designers and photo retouchers” for using Photoshop and other tools to promote unrealistic ideals  (never mind the fact that Dove has been accused of doing the very same thing).

Oh, and this is all part of a larger campaign which includes the hashtag #DovePositiveChange and a Facebook “Ad makeover” app which purportedly lets users revise ad spots designed to play on insecurities by promising to help women improve their appearance.

So is this another branding win for Dove, or do they need to stop pushing the same old concept?

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Yesterday, I woke up to an email offering me (well, my mom) 20% off everything at CVS’s online store. The subject line of the email read: “20% Off Everything. Even the hush-hush stuff.” At first, I assumed that meant things like tampons or adult diapers–things no one waves in the air with pride and might be more comfortable receiving via snail mail. But then I opened the email and saw the accompanying picture of a young woman who looked much more like she was getting away with something a little naughty than dealing with a leaky bladder.

The caption read, “If it makes you blush, we’ll ship it to you hush-hush.”

And then, through my still-groggy morning fog, it hit me – are they trying to entice me into their online sale by promising the discreet delivery of a…um… personal pleasure device? And then, finally, the traumatic realization that this email was not addressed to me washed over me. “OMG, they’re trying to sell a vibrator to my mom.”

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Diet Coke certainly picked the right time to show its new face to the public: yesterday Jacobs marked the end of New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week with the debut of his new collection. This small reveal indicates that, for Coke, “creative director” does not mean “celebrity who had some time on his hands and will now show up at public events to hawk our products.”

What’s next for this creative partnership? We’re not sure–Jacobs has already gone topless in “pin-up style” ads for the brand, but there’s been no word on whether the “three bottles and three ad campaigns” to follow will include any of his trademark models or ridiculous outfits.

Most importantly, Taylor Swift is nowhere to be seen.

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But what’s a publicist to do? Unfortunately, no one is safe from the power of terrible pun-friendly headlines. But was “Schmuck!” really the best one they could write? The guy went to rehab and apologized thoroughly, for God’s sake.

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One of the most obvious signs of the distance between Fashion with a capital F and your average dude/girl on the street are the unbearably artsy “fashion films” that design houses use to launch new campaigns. For that reason, we love Vena Cava‘s new short, created to promote the label’s “economy” line Viva Vena and brought to our attention by the quick wits at the Fashionista blog.

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