Damage Control

It seems someone at Google PR thought it would be a good idea to book Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer on a local morning drive AM radio show. The first question asked in the interview: How can we find naked pictures of you on the internet? Needless to say, Mayer wasn't pleased.

Apparently, the interview was to generate interest and excitement about the new Google Audio service coming out. However, someone in the PR department clearly didn't think things through, or at least didn't prep Mayer for what the experience was going to be like.

The hosts were unapologetic. "Sorry we didn't do just a pure sunshine-y, up with people commercial for your business that you didn't pay for," one said.

PRNewser reported earlier on layoffs and other changes at Time Warner's Time Inc. division today, and mis-communications as to the number of employees laid off at the now shuttered Fortune Small Business.

When asked about their take on how things played out, a Time Inc. spokesperson told PRNewser, "Obviously, when you're operating in this new kind of immediate and constant news cycle, it is hard to get info quickly enough and to correct wrong or partially wrong info in real time before it spreads virally in a way that it wouldn't have, even three, four years ago. It presents challenges that you didn't have as a PR person before."

Rumors of layoffs at Time Inc. have been swirling for weeks, and last night and today some information was revealed. The company officially filed with the New York State Department of Labor, "to give notice that it has planned 280 layoffs in the state between Nov. 2 and Jan. 31," reports the Times' Stephanie Clifford.

The PR team at Time Inc. needless to say has their hands full, and they have already been called out by Clifford for not providing accurate information. A Time Inc. spokesperon told PRNewser that the company, "is not planning on issuing any type of written document," but of course has been fielding a variety of press requests.

FishbowlNY first reported today that the company will shutter Fortune Small Business and also reports, "a majority of the layoffs are expected to come from the news division, which includes Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated." The layoffs come on the heels of parent company Time Warner's Q3 earnings, which were better than expected, as the cable division (CNN, TBS) somewhat made up for the slump in ad revenue at Time Inc. Nonetheless, Time Warner posted a 38% decline in quarterly profit, leading some to wonder if they will be looking to "scrap" Time Inc. altogether.

The Chronicle of Higher Education released updated data today on compensation for college and university presidents. A record 23 presidents received more than $1 million in total compensation for fiscal 2008. "...colleges will have to absorb the public relations hit that comes with offering seven-figure compensation to an academic leader," wrote the Associated Press' Justin Pope.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president Shirley Ann Jackson topped the list with compensation of $1.6 million. Theresa Bourgeois, Assistant to the President for Media and Public Relations at RPI told PRNewser that Jackson's salary "is a reflection of her achievements...over last ten years since she has become president she has led an extraordinary and unprecedented transformation of the institute. The value she contributes to the Institute far exceeds the amount she is paid."

Bourgeois also noted that Jackson gave back 5% of her salary to a scholarship fund, successfully led a $1.4 billion capital campaign and has seen the institute's value double after $690 million in new construction. RPI understandably seems be getting a lot of calls over the report, as they had a full statement complete with Q&A at the ready.

A contractor for public affairs and political communications agency Hawthorn Group is being looked into by Congress for an astroturfing campaign. The campaign, for Hawthorn Group's $7 million client American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, urged lawmakers to opposed climate change legislation via a letter writing campaign.

The letters were supposed be from local community groups, however they were sent from Bonner & Associates directly. Bonner did call the groups to ask for support, but those calls, "made no mention of the coal industry or of climate change," according to Talking Points Memo. They describe the process:

Phone-bankers read a quick script, then send targets pre-written letters on stationary created by using the group's logo from its website. The groups are asked to sign the letters and return them in a pre-paid FedEx envelope.

Bonner & Associates President Jack Bonner testified to Congress yesterday. "Let one thing be very clear: this improper activity was undertaken without the knowledge or permission of anyone at our firm," he said.

After a week of criticism, Pepsi has decided to pull their controversial iPhone app. The app was a game where that would feed men pick up lines and then allow them to brag about their success using them on women. According to the application's description, it is your "roadmap to success with your favorite kinds of women" and will "change your game and raise your expectations." The app broke women into categories such as "tree hugger" and "cougar."

"We have decided to discontinue the AMP iPhone application...We've listened to a variety of audiences and determined this was the most appropriate course of action," a Pepsi spokesperson told Adweek's Brian Morrissey.

The controversy around the app made it one of the most popular free iPhone apps, but apparently Pepsi had enough of the bad press. Pepsi had to have expected at least some controversy around the app - our question to you is, how much of this is all part of the marketing campaign and how much is legitimate PR damage control?

5WPR CEO Ronn Torossian was recently monitoring an interview between his client, television evangelist Benny Hinn and ABC News' Dan Harris. Not happy with Harris' questions, Torossian interrupts the interview several times, all of which made it into the final segment.

"Aren't there some other issues besides healing that we could discuss?" Torossian asked. To which Hinn, Torossian's client responded, "No, no, no, I'm fine with that" and "I'm really enjoying this, this is important."

Not satisfied, Torossian tried towards the end of the interview to get a plug in for Hinn's book. "You don't know about the book?" Torossian asked Harris. Hinn responded, "Ronn, that's not important," and rolled his eyes.

Reached for comment, Harris told PRNewser, "Publicists once in a while will interrupt interviews, but that frequency and aggression of interruption I have not seen personally before. It was a combination of frequency and ferocity which made it stand out. We all see on TV publicists interrupting interviews, it happens, but I haven't seen it at this level...it was either four or five times he interrupted me."

We asked Harris whether it was a tough decision to leave the footage in the final piece, to which he said it was "totally a no brainer." "I'll be honest, as any journalist you want tension," he said, "but I don't think it was a cheap shot, because Benny Hinn's reaction, he insisted this was important, which I thought was revealing about his character. That's really why we left it in, not just because it was some fireworks and we should use it. In this case I thought Benny Hinn's response to Ronn's interruptions was important editorially."

The exchange begins with 3:35 left in the segment, and then again with :35 left.

Reporters would never run a major story based off a press release and nothing else. Or would they? The answer is yes, as Reuters fell for a press release hoax today.

The release said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would announce changing its opposition to climate change legislation at an 11am ET press conference. TVNewser reports that the Reuters story made it to CNBC and Fox Business Network as well. The problem is that the press release was a fake. The stunt was executed by activist group Yes Men, "...to draw attention to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's fight against public interest on climate change."

Yesterday Peter Kafka of AllThingsD published in its entirety, a solicitation from a person hired by ad:tech offering discounted admission in exchange for positive blog posts, Tweets, or Facebook updates about the industry conference.

ad:tech's Event Director Mike Flynn issued an apology, "We Messed Up" explaining the strategy was hastily implemented with just a few weeks till the conference. The email was sent to bloggers and journalists who had attended in the past. Kafka, PRNewser and likely a number of others received it.

My co-editor confirmed by phone yesterday that the person who sent the emails neither works internally at ad:tech, or at their PR firm Edelman.

Flynn's full statement is after the jump:

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Blogger and technologist Stowe Boyd has some harsh words for media list and monitoring company Cision. He likens the company to "spam mafia" and cites the case of Chris Kenton, a blogger who is very angry after Cision gathered his email address from his blog and added it to their media database, which is sold to PR and marketing professionals, all without his permission.

"The spammers cannot use a list without knowing the opt-in status. I think thay all are breaking the law," said Boyd. Can PR spam be annoying? Yes. Is it illegal? No.

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