You can almost feel the money changing hands.

For decades your obnoxious uncle with the gold tooth, the arrogant office IT guy who streams illegal movies, and the cheeky neighbor whose dog pees on your lawn have all shoved out their hands and said, “How much you wanna bet? Huh? It’s pronounced ‘gif’– you know, like ‘gift’ but without the ‘t’.” Each and every time you declined the invitation. You refused to shake hands, even though you were 80% confident that they were wrong. Well, now we all know for sure.

Steve Wilhite, who unveiled the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) in 1987 while working for CompuServe, has ended the debate. GIF is pronounced “Jif”—yes, like the peanut butter. Mr. Wilhite made the announcement while accepting a lifetime achievement award for his controversial creation this week at the Webby Awards.

And congratulaions Jif Peanut Butter on a public relations coup.

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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The idea was nothing new: reward loyal customers with a gift certificate, a voucher, or some form of merchandise—anything other than cash. Cash can be impersonal; it’s what you give your gum-chewing babysitter, the anonymous man behind the register, or the angry super who fixes your toilet. So we’re guessing Apple didn’t expect this type of blowback from the public.

But it happened.

Despite shaky signs that the economy, and life in general, are poised for an upswing, brands must remember that the public is still overly sensitive when it comes to relationships. Apple has always enjoyed a strong, loyal and profitable relationship with the public. In return for Apple products and services, we’ve showered the brand with ongoing seemingly limitless fortunes. So when Apple went public with plans to reward whoever was lucky enough to download the 50 billionth app from its store, the public reacted a little indignantly. The reward was $10,000 in App store cash.

The public felt Apple was being cheap. The comments below are from this article on CNN.com.

Jonny: “What the hell are you gonna do with 10k to spend in the damn App Store?! Give me 10k in cash!” Read more

We live. And then we die.

Time is of the essence.

The public, understandably, hates waiting for anything. We want our food fast, our deliveries now and the transactions in our lives to be instantaneous. Money comes with many benefits, but perhaps the greatest power money holds is that it can save us time. eBay, the once darling and maverick of the Internet, has now entered the time game.

The brand has just launched the eBay Now app where customers can order anything carried by partners such as Best Buy, Macy’s, REI and Target, and have it delivered within an hour. Yes, 60 minutes. The time it takes you to remember you forgot that digital camera with which you were supposed to film your interview with the star of the documentary you’ve been working on for six years. Time changes everything, and eBay is hoping that time with compel customers to pay for convenience.

Saving customers time is a marketing strategy as old as time, and has worked well for every business endeavor from convenience stores to pizza delivery. Anyone in the public who has been to a funeral knows the importance of time, and so we’re guessing eBay Now will be a popular app with consumers—particularly those consumers experiencing a moment of weakness upon discovering they’ve forgotten something important, something they need now.

Is the eBay Now app enough to catapult the brand back into the online superstardom? We’ll have to wait and see as the public decides. But we all have a friend addicted to eBay, and if addicts like one thing, it’s instant gratification.

What? They want us to pay?

Hold on. Breathe. The news is true. YouTube has just (finally) made it official that it will allow content providers to charge viewers access to videos. So, what will this do to the next Harlem Shuffle, the next cat floundering in a paper bag, or the next Justin Bieber musical sensation? Not much, probably.

Most of YouTube will remain free to the public, and the channels that do decide to charge customers will probably be able to do so because they know what their discerning customers want. YouTube is going niche. This means that we can actually choose the content we want to pay for, just as we choose whether or not we want to subscribe via pay walls to our favorite online newspapers and magazines.

Though much of the public still thinks all content should be free, it is slowly coming to the realization that some people actually make a living by creating content, and ultimately consumers will have to make a choice between paying for quality content and not having access to that content at all. This increasing reality has found its way onto YouTube and it doesn’t signify the end of the world for online content. It might, however, signify the demise of cable television. Read more

The hype around the release of Google Glass has been excruciating for much of the public. From bazillionaire Sergey Brin being “accidentally” spotted wearing the connected eyewear on New York City’s subways to the absurd, hip credentials and bank accounts early adopters must demonstrate before proving themselves worthy of an untested commodity, the whole Google Glass buzz machine has become tedious.

Enter Saturday Night Live and Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers, who, via a hilarious skit late Saturday night, nailed public sentiment. The Google Glass public relations blitz started strong but fell victim to its own unwieldy inertia by inundating the public with ubiquitous marketing efforts while only allowing select individuals access to the product. Backlash was inevitable.

Much of life is figuring out what, exactly, we as people are responsible for: ourselves, our communities, our social media accounts… At least this is how Twitter wants the public and private companies to handle their Twitter profiles.

With the recent hacking of the AP’s Twitter account and subsequent drop in the Stock Exchange, the world took notice of the power harnessed by a single tweet. Immediately, everyone began pointing fingers, setting into motion a public relations crisis for Twitter.

Customers clamored for better security features on Twitter, specifically a two-step authentication system that would block “spear-phishing” attacks and prevent hackers from gaining access to customer accounts. Twitter knows this will take time to develop and implement, and may also impede speedy access to accounts, which is critical to a social media platform dependent on immediacy. So Twitter isn’t keen on this additional security idea. It has a different plan.

Twitter is asking its customers to take more responsibility for their own security. That’s right. Twitter is pointing its finger back at the public and saying, “Hey, people, this is your responsibility.” And we have to admit, Twitter does have a point. Sort of.

As much as we hate it, complicated passwords and restricted access are responses to the realities of the world we inhabit, much like taking off our shoes is now part of air travel. Cutting corners only leads to trouble. We have to be responsible for ourselves. Read more

So…it seems the iBeetle is a thing.

While a car featuring Apple-compatible features is nothing new, the Volkswagen iBeetle takes that integration to an entirely new level, working with your iPhone to allow both the car and the device to do things never before possible.

Because if there’s one thing drivers need, it’s more tech-related distractions!

Thanks to a docking station, drivers will be able to use their iPhone for navigation, hands-free calling, and listening to their favorite iTunes playlist. Also, a special Volkswagen app available through the App Store will include extra dashboard extensions and access to Spotify, social networks like Facebook, and the iPhone’s camera (so you can take a picture of the cliff you’re about to drive off while updating your Facebook status and rocking out to Justin Bieber).

The car even looks like an Apple product with its silvery color, sleek design, and chrome trim, so Mac enthusiasts who have always wanted to crawl inside their McBooks and live there will be able to make that dream a reality in the near future. The iBeetle will be abailable in two different models sometime in early 2014, and if you just can’t wait that long, you can pre-order the car in October 2013.

Today in No, You’re Not a Company Spokesperson news: last week some gamer blogs let their readers know that the new Microsoft Xbox, scheduled for a reveal in May, will require users to maintain “an active internet connection” at all times. Now get ready for a shocker: some people who own Xboxes do not have access to an “always on” connection — and the geeks voiced their disapproval online.

Now for the PR Fail: This outrage irritated creative director Adam Orth, who took to his personal Twitter feed to let the world know it. This message started a conversation in which Orth told the concerned parties that they were just out of luck:Orth made a couple of mistakes here: first, he commented on a story that his employer had yet to announce publicly. More importantly, he effectively told members of his own fanbase to stop complaining.

Microsoft didn’t care for that one bit, and we’ll let Brad Pitt tell you why:

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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.