There’s a subtle art to PSAs, those heavy handed, publicly funded campaigns designed to remind us taxpayers to stand away from the platform edge, resist donating money to panhandlers, and avoid the dangers of tobacco (thank you, C-3PO).

But before last week, we’d never heard of a government’s PR team working to convince the rest of the world that local prostitutes are healthy, happy, and proud of their chosen line of work.

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“It was a moment of elation. I’d been waiting for six and a half years. I’d worked hard, waited so long and rehearsed it in my head, so I was impatient.” That’s how tightrope performer Philippe Petit described his experience when he first ventured out onto the wire that extended between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) in August 1974. He traversed the span between the towers for 45 minutes, making spellbinding history that’s never been repeated.

Petit was speaking outside at the Bryant Park Reading Series in New York on Wednesday about his latest book, Why Knot?: How to Make More Than Sixty Ingenious, Useful, Beautiful, Lifesaving and Secure Knots. True to form, he turned the session into a lively performance, complete with magic tricks. He imparted his knotting knowledge to audience members and enlisted their help with demonstrations.

Petit has personified his brand since the age of five when he taught himself the art of tightrope walking. He said it was “a way to escape authority”. Starting in the 1970s, the Frenchman set his sights on world renowned landmarks, including the towers of Notre Dame in Paris, and the pylons of Australia’s Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Petit’s gravity-defying promenade across the World Trade Center towers was his biggest “coup”. In order to gain access to the site, he pretended to be a journalist at an architectural magazine. After his widely publicized risky stunt and subsequent arrest, (charges were later dropped), he gained worldwide fame. He was even feted at WTC’s Windows on the World restaurant, (on the same evening as this PRNewser contributor was celebrating a birthday!)

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Well, it looks like those of you with lofty dreams of chowing down on a Burger King Whopper while keeping both hands free to paint a masterpiece or build a jet engine will have to keep on dreaming.

A recent video released by Burger King in Puerto Rico in celebration its 50th anniversary featured customers getting creative with their new-found hands-freedom by playing music, giving tattoos, and performing other feats of manual dexterity all while eating a whopper.

But multitasking burger eaters everywhere have had their hopes dashed by Burger King’s announcement that “The video featuring a ‘hands-free’ Whopper Sandwich holder was produced by an agency in Puerto Rico to celebrate the brand and the iconic Whopper Sandwich in a humorous way. However, the product depicted in the spot was not produced, or distributed to guests as some reports indicate.”

While it seems burger-eaters will still have to take lunch breaks like the rest of us, we suppose no one is stopping a particularly driven engineer from creating a burger-holding apparatus of their own…someone get on this.

New Yorkers have often heard about Mayor Michael Bloomberg traveling domestically and overseas to meet with city leaders to compare notes on urban innovation projects. On Monday during the first day of Internet Week, representatives from a dozen cities around the globe, including New York, convened on the Mayor’s home turf.

The officials appeared at the symposium to describe their initiatives for improving their residents’ lives using digital technology. These represent quality of life and business issues rather than the most pressing urban problems. Each speaker was allotted only ninety seconds, so here’s a brief snapshot:

New York City: Last year the Big Apple launched its Made in NY website to promote local entrepreneurship. Since then they’ve expanded the effort with increased access to workspaces, partnerships with academic institutions as well as other programs and competitions to assist startups.

Boston: launched its Street Bump app, a citizen enabled sensing device for potholes. This project was introduced following extensive road construction, including the Big Dig tunnel project that lasted several years and took its toll on locals’ automobiles.

Philadelphia: The PHL program is a social enterprise partnership with funding from Michael Bloomberg. The civic challenge asks entrepreneurs to identify, select and pilot new programs that solve a host of local issues.

Chicago: Mayor Emmanuel’s ‘Broadband Challenge’ is aimed at improving the city’s fiber network by offering free wi-fi and low cost connectivity. The process even involved updating the sewer network infrastructure.

Quebec City: The Canadian city has its own social network and also has the capability for residents to send personal text messages to help with snow removal. That way they don’t ended up stranded in their cars during snowstorms.

Ottawa: The Canadian city encourages citizen engagement and government transparency. Through an open source website, the public has access to all data. The Apps4 Ottawa open data contest rewards developers who create the most valuable uses and visualizations of the open source data.

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Coke has been doing some creative things with vending machines of late; the Diet Coke Slender Vender can fit in places no hefty drink-dispensing device has gone before, while a Coke-sponsored flag dispenser in a Denmark airport helped welcome people to the “happiest country on earth”. Now, it seems Coke has bestowed an even loftier task upon its vending machines: world peace.

In partnership with agency Leo Burnett, Coke created “Small World Machines“, vending machines that function as soda-dispensing communication portals. In an experiment aimed at promoting mutual understanding and camaraderie between citizens of India and Pakistan, two countries engaged in long-standing religious and political disputes, one machine was placed in Lahore, Pakistan and another in New Delhi, India. The machines allowed people to see and interact with each other, and, perhaps most importantly, complete shared tasks. Once the tasks were successfully completed, the machines rewarded people’s amicable teamwork by dispensing a Coke.

Jackie Jantos, global creative director at Coca Cola, said that the idea of creating stories around shared experiences goes back to the roots of Coke as a brand that started at a soda fountain, which is in itself a communal experience. Coke’s website says: “In 1971, Coca-Cola taught the world to sing through its iconic ‘Hilltop’ ad. More than 40 years later, the brand invited the people of India and Pakistan – two groups used to living with conflict – to share a simple moment of connection and joy with the help of technology.”

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Right on the heels of the genius marketing partnership that allows gamers to order Pizza Hut directly from their Xboxes (we wonder whether the most devoted players have left their living rooms since the introduction of said diabolical dietary dichotomy), comes another creative — if slightly odd — pizza/leisure activity partnership: pizza-scented DVDs.

Settling in to watch a movie often necessitates some serious snacking, so Domino’s Pizza in Brazil is hoping their latest ad gimmick will get movie-watchers to pass up the popcorn and candy in favor of a cheesy pie. The restaurant chain partnered with ten video rental stores in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to stock store shelves with roughly ten discs each of ten different newly released films, each stamped with thermal ink and scented varnish.

When a DVDs is played, the disc heats up, activating the varnish and releasing the tantalizing aroma of just-baked pizza. And when the film is over, viewers eject the disc to find that the thermal ink has transformed the image on the DVD into that of a miniature pizza, complete with the message: “Did you enjoy the movie? The next one will be even better with a hot and delicious Domino’s Pizza.”

While the popularity and accessibility of movie streaming in the US means it’s unlikely we’ll encounter Domino’s scented DVDs here, we must give the company some props for creativity from afar. Shameless? Yes. Cheesy? Double yes. But when was the last time you smelled pizza and didn’t get immediate, ravenous cravings?

Coke has long associated its brand with happiness — even dedicating entire websites to the philosophical meaning of the word, and calling the contents of a can of cola “140 happy calories.”

Now, the company is taking advantage of a happy coincidence — the fact that part of its logo happens to look like the Danish flag — to welcome people to Denmark, recently voted the “happiest country in the world” by the United Nations.

In honor of the Danish tradition of greeting arriving visitors by waving flags, Coke’s local agency, McCann Copenhagen, created an interactive airport ad that dispenses flags. Coke says it’s purpose is to “let Coca-Cola and Denmark spread happiness together.” The below video of a case study shows people’s reactions to the machine.

Little kids and elderly people jubilantly waving flags as loved ones rush to greet them, all made possible by Coke. We’d categorize this as a highly creative branding win.

Benetton is an Italian fashion line known for its social activism, including its creation of The UNHATE Foundation, which, according to its website, “seeks to contribute to the creation of a new culture against hate, building on Benetton’s underpinning values.”

Those “underpinning values”, however, are being questioned in light of the company’s denial that it had any ties to the garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, that collapsed last week, tragically killing at least 377 people. The company tweeted on April 24: “In reference to the tragic news on the collapse of the building in Bangladesh, Benetton Group wants to clarify that none of the companies involved are suppliers to Benetton Group or any of its brands.” .

Since then, however, strong evidence suggesting Benetton clothing was being manufactured at the factory (known as Rana Plaza) has been uncovered. Photos taken of the rubble by the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse clearly show shirts with “United Colors of Benetton” labels. Also, one of the manufacturers that had been based at the factory, New Wave Bottoms, lists Benetton as a client, and labor rights activists said they found documents linking Benetton to the factory while they were digging through the debris.

In light of this hard-to-ignore evidence, the company released a statement on April 29, which said: “A one-time order was completed and shipped out of one of the manufacturers involved several weeks prior to the accident. Since then, this subcontractor has been removed from our supplier list.”

While Benetton is far from the only big-name company connected to Rana Plaza (Wal-Mart, Ireland’s Primark, and Canada’s Joe Fresh all made clothing there), the company’s dedication to social activism — coupled with its initial denial — seem to be making it a prime target for public ire. Read more

Let’s take a moment to discuss one of the creepiest aspects of in-store shopping: the mannequins. We’re less concerned with the chances of a Valley of the Dolls-style mannequin uprising than the message these unrealistically thin figures send to real flesh-and-blood shoppers.

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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How do you make people forget (or at least ignore) the fact that they’re eating “chicken” pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones? Why, you encourage them to enter a poetry contest, of course!

Late in 2012, Chinese media reported that the chickens provided to KFC by a few of its suppliers were raised to maturity in only 45 days thanks to the use of said substances. Disgusted consumers began turning away from the restaurants in droves, but instead of immediately issuing an apology, parent company Yum Brands simply stated that it was cooperating with investigators and that all of its products were safe.

Customers were apparently unconvinced, as KFC China‘s sales slid a whopping 41 percent in January, prompting the company to issue an official apology and take further action. China is the source of about half of Yum Brands’ revenue, and so a plan was hatched to get its reputation back on track in this all-important market.

The resulting PR/marketing campaign, which boasts the laughably epic name “Operation Thunder” (is Thor involved?) began in recent weeks with a mini-site detailing the steps the company will take to ensure the safety of its chicken and promising to keep customers informed about potential safety issues. But it’s the social media aspect of the campaign that really seems to have reached consumers.

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