Everyone agrees that CSR efforts are extremely important for big-name corporate clients, right?

No, seriously: we don’t know the answer to that question, and it all comes back to the biggest challenge in the industry: drawing a solid line between point A and point $.

First: The results from data king Nielsen’s latest Global Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility have already inspired headlines about CSR cementing its place as a crucial element of the big name PR equation.

Its basic finding: 50% of consumers surveyed in 58 countries say they’re willing to pay more for goods and services from companies that have “implemented programs to give back to society.” That number increased in ¾ of the countries surveyed, rising 5% in total since 2011. And the “yes” votes were highest in the crucial under-30 demo.

No surprises there. The only finding that we didn’t expect is the 12-point increase in pro-CSR sentiment among the 40-45 demo. Seems like CSR’s value has become clearer to all parties, no?

Maybe.

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Today in Ridiculously Overpaid Athletes Are People Too news, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is the latest beefed-up domino to fall in baseball’s ongoing steroid scandal. MLB commissioner Bud Selig decided to make an example of “Captain Rodriguez” with the longest suspension in the history of America’s Pastime.

The MLB Players Association appealed the decision on behalf of A-Rod, who is the only one of the 13 accused players to fight his suspension. Quite telling that the other 12 immediately ‘fessed up, isn’t it? The ensuing legal back-and-forth ensures that he will be able to wear a Yankees uniform for the rest of the season (which won’t last very long, considering the Bronx Bombers’ current 56-55 record).

PR to the rescue! According to The USA Today, Berk Communications President and “A-Fraud” publicist Ron Berkowitz posted a since-deleted tweet on Tuesday that read a little, shall we say, combative.

Hello Chicago!!! Lets do this!!! #fighting

—   Ron Berkowitz (@ronberk1) August 5, 2013

What was that all about? Well, in what one reporter called “an exceptional lack of self awareness,” A-Rod told the media “I’m fighting for my life,” strongly implying that Major League Baseball has it in for him. Poor guy.

So what will he do? And what should he do?

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Are you an ambitious, street-smart young scribe eager to expose L.A.’s seedy underbelly to the world at large? Do you decry the decline of quality reporting and live to shame the lamestream media? Most importantly, do you know your current thetan count? If you answered yes, duh, and “praise overlord Xenu!” to these questions, then The Church of Scientology wants you…to write for its in-house magazine, Freedom.

Freedom promotes “investigative reporting in the public interest,” with “the public” meaning Tom Cruise, David Miscavige, and whoever else runs the world’s most secretive tax-exempt organization. In what can only be the most incredible coincidence in history, every single article in said magazine amounts to a little piece of the church’s never-ending damage control campaign.

The most common subject is the fact that church apostates are all a bunch of fat, stupid-head liars who like to tell lies just because they are mean and evil for no reason at all except that every one of them is addicted to drugs and doesn’t get enough vitamins. For what it’s worth, the website does make good use of some strange pop-up animation.

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In case you never watched Dudley Do-Right as a kid, we’ll let you in on a little secret: things are different in Canada. For instance, McDonald’s Ontario recently added the McLobster to its menu. Let that one sink in for a minute.

Why do we mention our great white neighbor to the north? Because Canada has given us Jim Carrey, Rick Moranis, at least one member of Arcade Fire, and this week’s best case study in proactive social media PR!

This isn’t just social media community managers tweeting “We’re sorry for your experience, customer X. Please email us at LikeWeCare@yahoo.com for more info!” McDC promises to answer any consumer’s question—as long as he or she connects on Twitter or Facebook first. Crafty!

So how does this project work?

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Eliot Spitzer, who seemed silenced by a prostitution scandal and the end of shows on both CNN and Current TV, is barking again. This time he’s talking about a run for New York City Comptroller, a far cry from his days as governor of New York State, but still. He’s asking people to cast their vote of confidence in someone who had to give up office in shame and disgrace.

Of course, he first has to get 3,750 signatures by Thursday just to get on the ballot. “The public is forgiving. Whether that forgiveness extends to me is a separate question. I will ask for it. I will say to the public: Look what I’ve done in the intervening five years. Look what my record was as attorney general and governor,” he said during one of many interviews he gave today (five before noon, by the New York Daily News’ count). Despite some heckling, some say the campaign launch has been a successful one.

No doubt, he’s taking cues from Mark Sanford, who won a Congressional seat in South Carolina earlier this year after getting caught leaving his post to spend time with his then-mistress in Argentina. And, closer to home, he could be looking to Anthony Weiner, who’s now leading the pack of mayoral candidates in New York City alongside Christine Quinn. The Daily Beast also calls out President Bill Clinton, who overcame more scandal than a group of people have in a lifetime and maintains incredible popularity among Democrats into his post-presidency.

So how is it possible that politicians can thwart scandal with relative ease? Are the suits made out of Teflon? Are they wearing Wonder Woman Bracelets of Victory underneath those cuff-linked Brooks Brothers shirts? Do they have one of those crazy gizmos that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones use in the Men in Black movies to make people forget everything? We’re going to propose that politicians have the benefit of distance and low expectations.

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Let’s play the hypothetical game: Say you’re a government agency that many see as a necessary evil, but you still get singled out as an example of everything wrong with our system. It’s tough to be popular when your job involves insisting that everyone remove their shoes, belts, wallets, ice picks, meat cleavers, spear guns, brass knuckles, gasoline canisters, and any other vaguely metallic objects before entering a full-body scanner with an NC-17 rating.

What do you do to improve your public profile? Start an Instagram account to show the world what you’re doing right—because who reads things anymore?

Our point: here are some fun weapons that the Transportation Security Administration confiscated and featured on its brand new picture page. Oh hey, it’s a loaded pistol small enough to fit in your toiletry bag!

Next comes another tiny, poorly hidden handgun:

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Kellie Pickler accepting the Mirrorball Trophy as winner of this year’s ‘DWTS.’

After the craptastic couple of weeks Paula Deen had, where in the world would she go? Disneyland? Home to Savannah? Off the grid to the outback of Australia maybe? No. Dancing With the Stars.

Word is that Paula Deen could be on the next season of the dance program. The Huffington Post went to ABC directly with the rumor. Their response: “We don’t comment on casting until we officially announce.”

As that story points out, DWTS has a history of bringing on controversial stars. Kate Gosselin and Bristol Palin are noted. In an interview with Rob Shuter that we’ve previously linked to, Jon Gosselin, now reeling from accusations that he’s responsible for the fall of the house of Ed Hardy, says he would consider a spot on the show.

In fact, the show has become a place for both exposure and redemption. Andy Dick, who has been arrested for allegedly dabbling in drugs and groping underage girls, was on this season. Nancy Grace, known for her bombast on HLN as much as her “journalism,” was on a previous season. David Hasselhoff, whose drinking problem reportedly cost him a television job and fueled an appearance on Entertainment Tonight in a home video shot by his then-16-year-old daughter, has also been on the show.

So what is it about DWTS that brings out everyone in need of, not just a career revival, but a reputation revival?

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Old-school retailer J.C. Penney faces several big challenges moving forward—but executing social media strategy isn’t one of them.

The company fired CEO/former Apple man Ron Johnson in April after a big sales dive and followed his exit with an all-media campaign designed to address the backlash over controversial changes adopted during his tenure. It all started with this apologetic TV spot:

JCP continued the campaign by turning its social media forums into customer service complaint lines, promoting the #jcpListens tag and asking for feedback on Facebook and Twitter in order to absorb frustrated shoppers’ many suggestions on how to improve the business.

Thanks for sending in all of your feedback! We’re off for tonight, but we’ll be back in the morning. #jcpListens

— jcpenney (@jcpenney) May 3, 2013

The chain didn’t just ask for ideas; it got specific.

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In case you missed it, those dumb “Bing challenge” ads aren’t the only front in Microsoft‘s ongoing war with Google. Over the holiday season the company started the “Scroogled” campaign taking its big competitor to task for…we don’t know, failing to protect customers’ privacy or offer “unbiased search results.”

We thought Microsoft had put the series to bed earlier, but they brought it back to life this week with a couple of spots attacking the Android phone for providing Google with an unfair advantage and, again, collecting users’ private information without their knowledge or consent. It’s all a bit more complicated than that, but the message is clear: Google is evil, because Microsoft would never in a million years use customer data in underhanded ways.

This is more about branding and reputation management than technology or the business practices of tech companies. The campaign is obviously working in some way or the company wouldn’t keep pumping out these ads. But Microsoft casting itself as David to Google’s Goliath? We don’t see that message as a long-term winner. It all makes the runner-up look more than a little desperate.

Full disclosure: we recently Googled a friend from long ago to see what he/she had been up to in recent years and found ourselves confronted by an entire images page filled with mugshots. Is there a point to this sad story? There is! Yesterday our sister site Social Times (follow them on Twitter!) posted an interview on a topic that should be of interest to anyone in PR: the art of online reputation management. The primary lesson stressed by Mike Zammuto, president of rep management firm Reputation Changer, is “fight negative content with more (positive) content.”

What does that mean?

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