Stunts

The lesser-known, and perhaps more feisty groundhog Charles G. Hogg (a.k.a. Staten Island Chuck) is making a play for publicity over his rival, Punxsutawney Phil again this year.  And Chuck is just one spot behind Phil on the Twitter Trends list at presstime (#4 Happy Groundhog Day, #5 Punxsutawney Phil, #6 Staten Island Chuck).  Perhaps it’s those thousands of underdog residents tweeting and retweeting like crazy, or perhaps it’s because Chuck is betting on an early spring.  Phil is not.

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Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

To promote the new film Chronicle, marketing firm ThinkModo rigged up three “custom-made aircraft” and flew them around New York City landmarks (above).

Gothamist notes that there wasn’t a lot of talk about any flying objects around the Brooklyn Bridge or Statue of Liberty recently, kind of strange in this post-9/11 world. But there has been some media coverage featuring the clip. ThinkModo, which describes itself as a “viral marketing company,” was responsible for the Times Square billboard hacking to promote Limitless and the “iPad head girl” stunt to promote Cosmo for Guys.

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From fascinators to cowboy hats, Kate Middleton — the Duchess of Cambridge and most-talked-about bride of 2011 — has worn headgear of every shape and size. Which is why she’s The Headwear Association’s “Hat Person of the Year.” Whoopee? That’s almost as great as being the Queen of England.

While we’re not sure the royals are planning to mark the occasion with castle festivities or some sort of Beefeater revelry, this is quite the publicity stunt for the obscure, century-old organization. The announcement has spawned much more coverage than the Headwear Association has had in a while, to judge by the news section of its website. But, this is the third year for the designation.

The Daily Beast gives the voting process the crooked eye, but The Daily Mail takes the honor much more seriously.

“She has raised the profile, not only of established names like Philip Treacy and Sylvia Fletcher of Lock & Co, but also little-known designers such as Rose Cory and Vivien Sheriff,” the paper writes.

My headline is obviously misleading.  Though other much more distant stars are available for naming rights, our own fiery orb is not for sale at this time–so Tropicana Juices decided to build their own, and rise it in dreary old London.  The campaign was more than local, of course, and is well-socialized through a coordinated Facebook campaign (which includes a chance to win an ocean of the stuff).  View the above, then view the video after the jump to see how they did it.

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When The Donald announced that he wasn’t running for President back in May, we’d hoped we were done with his political antics. But alas! He has re-inserted himself into the fray with the announcement that he will be moderating a GOP debate in Iowa on December 27. More than that, he’s billing himself as the GOP’s ultimate endorser.

“Some magazines have said I am the single most important endorsement a presidential candidate can have. I don’t know if that’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t say that to brag; I just tell it like it is,” Politico quotes him saying.

A couple of candidates aren’t buying it. Jon Huntsman has declined (Trump says he’s the decliner), with Huntsman’s peeps sending a message on Twitter: “Lol. We look forward to watching Mitt and Newt suck-up to The Donald with a big bowl of popcorn.”

And Ron Paul’s campaign chairman (oh you Ron Paul!) also responded, saying Trump’s inclusion “is beneath the office of the Presidency.”

Haha. But seriously, you know Donald Trump doesn’t give a damn what they say.

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Fun Friday story! Obermutten is a Swiss village with a population of 79 but thousands of Facebook friends around the world.

Upon launching the town’s Facebook page, the mayor said all friends would be acknowledged with their image posted on the town’s bulletin board. With that, people from around the world liked the town, and Obermutten residents struggled to keep their word. The town has more than 9,400 likes, more than some other popular European cities and traffic to the town’s tourism site has spiked.

But just as impressive is this figure: four out of five people who have liked the town’s page interact with it. The video above says that’s more than Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Coca-Cola.

[via Creativity, h/t @SkinnyNYC]

Is Rainn Wilson, star of NBC’s The Office, tweeting for the Del Taco fast food chain?

Earlier this week, Wilson tweeted, “Joanne – tell @DelTaco I will accept $12,000 to plug their shitty food. Thanks, Rainn.” In a follow up tweet, Wilson asked readers to disregard that last message because it was for his assistant then went on to talk about the goodness of Del Taco food.

Media reported it as a gaffe, but maybe it’s a Twitter campaign posing as a gaffe? Mashable corrected its original story to state that the tweets were satire and Wilson wasn’t paid. Intrigue!

ABC News notes our previous coverage of celebs that are paid to tweet, noting a bit of Kim Kardashian stickiness over tweets promoting Carl’s Jr. Either way, I’d never heard of Del Taco before this, so PR success.

You can’t swing a dead honey badger these days without hitting a hipster drinking one of thousands of obscure small batch IPAs.  So what’s a brewer to do to get attention for a new launch?  In the case of Stone Brewing Co., the PR team put out a press release insulting the “sheeple” who drink “fizzy yellow nonsense,” basically daring you to try their new brew.

Stone doesn’t think you have the stones to try their new Double Bastard Ale (Availability: Limited draft, 22oz and 3L bottles,  ABV: 10.5%  IBUs: CLASSIFIED).  If you think you might be one of the “Worthy craft beer cognoscenti,” belly up to the bar and bring a dictionary.  You’re going to need it to read this press release (available here, or full text after the jump).

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Two anonymous ad execs have found a simple, viral way to spread Occupy Wall Street’s message of inequity.

Occupy George is a series of five infographic stamps that turn the ordinary dollar into a miniature protest placards.

The movement started by “Ivan” and “Andy” stamps the bills each night, and exchanges them with occupiers each day, thus putting the greenback pitches in to the hands of the most vocal messengers.  The best part is it appears to be legal.  As long as you don’t change the denominations, or obscure the serial number, currency art is ok with the Man.

OG also gives away the templates on their site in a zip file to anyone who wants to DIY.

The price of deletion is, a dollar.

[via FastCompany]

She can’t stop and she simply won’t stop. Betty White is rapping with a snake.

The song, “I’m Still Hot,” is performed with the artist behind it, U.K.’s Luciana. The collaboration is a promotion (a little too promotional at times… watch to the end) for The Lifeline Program, a life insurance settlement company. Some of the proceeds from the purchase of the song on iTunes goes to the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.

Also interesting, note how the publicists get a shout out at the end — Susan Blond Inc, David PR Group, and Lobeline Communications.