We told you last week about Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries only wanting his brand’s clothing worn by “cool kids” — i.e. no one that falls outside the stereotypical “All American” standards of beauty, including girls over a size 10. “A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong,” Jeffries once said in an interview. “Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

To make matters worse, it seems that less-than-cool kids aren’t the only people who don’t “belong” in A&F clothing — when garments are damaged and/or cannot be sold, rather than donating the clothes to people who need them, the company reportedly burns them. Why? Because homeless people aren’t the sort of brand representation A&F wants. So basically, Abercrombie has sent this branding message into the universe: “Six-pack abs and chiseled jaw required. Soul optional”.

In response, Greg Karber decided to give Abercrombie a brand makeover. After sifting through the “douchebag section” of his local Goodwill thrift shop for donated A&F clothing, Karber headed to LA’s Skid Row to hand out the clothes to the homeless, who, after displaying initial reluctance to accept the clothing (which Karber attributes to a fear of looking like “narcissistic date rapists”), eventually accepted the A&F clothes, completing phase one of Karber’s mission.

However, in the video below, Karber says that he can’t “clothe the homeless or transform a brand” all by his lonesome, and urges viewers to get involved. A grassroots re-branding campaign to teach a company to grow a soul? Like we said before: we sense a Glee episode coming on…

Clearly, the promoters of the soon-to-be-revived cult classic “Arrested Development” did not “make a huge mistake” when they organized yesterday’s NYC giveaway of “Bluth’s Bananas”, a frozen treat featured on the show.

Diehard fans waited as long as 30 minutes in lines that stretched nearly two blocks for a chance to get their own chocolate-dipped frozen bananas from the authentic-looking replica of the Bluth family’s stand.

“I am such a major fan,” 21-year-old Sharah Stanley told the New York Daily News as she waited in line. “When I found out it was going to be here, I raced up. I hope the line doesn’t take too long because I’m on my lunch break.”

Stanley is not alone in waiting on bated breath for new episodes of her beloved show. Arrested Development, which originally ran from 2003 to 2006, will be reborn with a new season scheduled to be released by Netflix on May 26.

While many companies may reward employees’ loyalty, New York City real estate company Rapid Realty is asking for a lifelong commitment in exchange for a bump in pay; any employee willing to tattoo the company’s logo on their body will automatically receive a fifteen percent raise.

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.

Today we’re happy to bring you a guest post from friend of the site Shawn Paul Wood. Shawn is a PR and copywriting professional with more than 20 years’ experience in the field, and he spent 12 of those years as an on-air host and radio news director. He currently writes for HCK2 Partners in Dallas and contributes to Talent Zoo‘s Flack Me blog; his clients range from notable corporate giants to megachurches, entrepreneurs and even a couple of entertainment bigwigs. Follow him on Twitter!

We have all heard the aphorism, “All news is good news.” One of the champions of that familiar saying is Sir Richard Branson, social media “influencer” and CEO of all things Virgin, who put the sentiment to the test when his airline expanded its routes to Scotland this week.

After appearing at the airliner door and traipsing down the stairs to the tarmac, he took his position on a literal promo platform to discuss the plane’s maiden voyage to Edinburgh. He then lifted his kilt so as to better display a new, um, marketing slogan: “Stiff Competition.”

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PR wars over food safety, labeling, and questionable ingredients have been raging as of late, and big brands have increasingly found themselves on the wrong side of standoffs involving concerned citizens armed with petitions, boycotts and Facebook pages. As we all know, the way these brands respond often determines whether such situations become opportunities for positive PR or full-blown damage control disasters.

Now it’s Kraft‘s turn.

Food blogger Vani Hari (AKA “Food Babe“), along with with Lisa Leake of 100daysofrealfood.com, recently filed a petition asking the company to remove potentially harmful dyes yellow 5 and yellow 6 from its childhood dinner staple Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Though the petition has already garnered over 270,000 signatures, Hari decided to take her fight to the streets (literally) in an effort to earn more attention and support for her cause.

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So we’re not really into this whole April Fools’ thing. On the one hand, we are amused by the American Eagle “spray-on jeans” and the number of users who took to Twitter in an attempt to be the 1000th person to ask “Is this Google nose thing for real? I’ve been sniffing my laptop and I don’t smell anything.”

Is it only me but I have this strong feeling thinking that Google Nose Beta is April Fool jokes

— Yahya Bin Zakaria (@YahyaImran) April 1, 2013

On the other hand, that is a little sad.

So back to our point: we kind of like Sprint‘s Sprint Specs campaign, not because it’s so incredibly clever but because it manages to make fun of a trending tech story (Google Glass) while simultaneously promoting its service’s key differentiator: unlimited data. It’s really every bit as forced as every other April Fools’ joke, but it somehow manages to be a competent promo as well.

Apple hasn’t demonstrated a terribly affable sense of humor when it comes to spoofs on its products or advertising, but that didn’t stop video game website IGN from taking an April Fools’ Day jab at the tech company’s iconic product marketing.

Riding the coattails of (rather sketchy) rumors that an Apple video game console may be in the works, IGN created this tongue-in-cheek spot for the fictional “iPlay”. The video actually starts with a voice-over from Apple’s own industrial designer, Jonathan Ive (granted, some of the words have been dubbed over, but once you hear that familiar voice, you’re clued in). Risky, but rewarding.

As many commenters have pointed out, the spot is actually quite believable…that is, until viewers learn that the only playable game on the iPlay is Angry Birds. From that point forward, the commercial dissolves into comically exaggerated camera angles and self-effacing monologues.

Given the expediency with which Apple’s legal team tends to get such spoofs taken down, we recommend taking a peak while you still can. Happy April Fools’ Day!

You may have heard today that Yahoo, which is in the midst of trying to “sex up” its brand image, just bought Summly, a “news summary” app created by a 17-year-old British kid named Nick D’Aloisio, for a whopping $30 million. But was Yahoo really expanding its product portfolio, or was the company just buying a bunch of good publicity? We’re firmly in the latter camp — and we’ll explain why.

The real value of this app has to be less than the selling price, especially when it faces competitors like Pulse, Flipboard and Pocket. But the move scored the company a first-page New York Times story with the headline “He Has Millions and a New Job at Yahoo. Soon, He’ll Be 18.” Compelling, no? He’s bold, he’s young and he’s a millionaire with his own Wikipedia page. He certainly doesn’t sound like the typical Yahoo user — and that’s the whole point. New York Magazine’s Kevin Roose notes that the last acquisition to get this much media hype was Facebook buying Instagram for a whole lot more money.

So it’s all part of Marissa Mayer‘s carefully planned image makeover.

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So Justin Timberlake released his new album The 20/20 Experience this week, and everyone’s going all out to promote it. His label allowed fans to stream the whole thing on iTunes two weeks ago, he hosted Saturday Night Live, and before all that he did this ridiculous “I’m ready” tweet thing.

Anyway, it’s Friday so we thought we’d share our favorite little JT promo stunt via our sister site AgencySpy. It’s so simple that it’s dumb — in a brilliant way. It’s called JT All Night Long, and it’s really just a quick loop from that (old) song set to different clips of Timberlake throughout his career, from the “SexyBack” video to the ramen-hair period. Just click on it before reading ahead.

Don’t you feel like you just got “Rickrolled” by Timberlake and creative agency CP+B Miami? We do — and we don’t mind at all. Say what you will about his music, but the dude has a sense of humor.

Veteran food publicist and Restaurant Intelligence Agency founder Ellen Malloy thinks restaurants need to develop better PR plans by “owning” the stories behind their businesses, but many still use shameless stunts to stand out in a crowded field. For example, an otherwise respected new Brooklyn spot called Aska turned quite a few critics’ heads (and stomachs) by including a “pig’s blood cracker with seabuckthorn jam” on its menu.

Today AdAge reports on another high-class food brand powered by an even more ridiculous PR stunt: the “calorie-neutral” meal.

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