UPDATE 4:10PM: We have been notified by McDonald’s that there are some inaccuracies in this article regarding the offers extended to Mr. Ramsay from McDonald’s as a brand and individual franchises. We apologize for the mistake and will make updates soon with new information.

UPDATE 8:47PM: In reference to inaccuracies in this post and more specifically the “Not Lovin’ It: Charles Ramsay Declines Lifetime of Meals from McDonald’s, And Everyone Wins” headline, McDonald’s provided the following details:

“In light of numerous inquiries, we can confirm that the local owner-operators of the McDonald’s restaurants in Mr. Ramsey’s neighborhood have connected with him and offered complimentary McDonald’s food for the next year. In addition, we have made a $10,000 donation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the names of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight, the kidnapping survivors in Ohio, and Mr. Ramsey.”

Original post:

The skinny: McDonald’s offered national hero Charles Ramsay free food for life. Mr. Ramsay declined, bringing to a close an odd but compelling public relations predicament for the fast food chain and the individual man.

As PR people, we think this is the best possible outcome. This conclusion allows both parties to move on with their dignity intact. Here is why:

Charles Ramsay, who was catapulted to fame after helping rescue three women and a young girl in Cleveland, is a good guy. Part of being a good guy is not exploiting a sensitive situation like that terrible kidnapping for personal gain. Yes, we all agree that Mr. Ramsay deserves something, but free Big Macs just feels wrong. McDonald’s, after being thrust into this situation by Mr. Ramsay’s now renowned comments, suddenly found itself in the middle of a PR conundrum—should it reward the hero or not?

Either way, McDonald’s response was going to be newsworthy as the public was intrigued by both a dramatic situation and tricky public relations dilemma. By offering some type of reward, McDonald’s could be perceived as an opportunistic brand exploiting an emotional event. By not offering a reward it could be perceived as being tone deaf and a callous corporate entity void of soul.

At the end of the day, both McDonald’s and Mr. Ramsay did what was right. McDonald’s acknowledged Mr. Ramsay’s selfless actions with the free food gesture, and Mr. Ramsay declined the offer as he should have. In public relations, that’s breaking even, which is the best case scenario in this situation. The public has a short-term memory, and it wouldn’t be long before McDonald’s customers were taking photos of Mr. Ramsay every time he ordered fries and posting them all over social media.

And no one deserves that type of hell, especially good guys.

It seems the only people who can upstage their own bizarre antics are the ones who initially staged them. It turns out that infamous reality TV food show couple Amy and Samy Bouzaglos, co-owners of Amy’s Baking Company (aka ABC Bistro), have both served time in prison for different offenses. Their restaurant, the subject of a surreal episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares show, recently reopened amid ongoing controversy, with curiosity seekers as patrons and full waitstaff turnover.

It’s been nearly three weeks since the meltdown during the show, where the owners exhibited such severe dysfunction that the celebrity chef threw in the towel. The couple fought with each other and with patrons, denied the waiters’ tips, and fired a waitress on the spot. They also provided slow service and offered questionable ingredients, such as frozen ravioli. But that didn’t stop the owners from acting out further. In response to rampant social media criticism, the couple responded with profanity laced tirades, and later said their social media accounts were hacked.

Now the twists in the tale continue. The restaurant recently re-opened, but they haven’t been able to retain any employees. There have been so many gawkers and reporters attempting to gain access that the couple have hired security guards. According to the Arizona Republic, Amy has served time in prison for misusing a social security number when she applied for a bank loan. Samy may be deported after covering up a past history involving drug distribution in Europe.

Samy, an Israeli citizen born in Morocco, recently had an immigration court hearing, continuing a removal process lasting more than two years. He is under ICE investigation for failing to disclose his past history involving drug distribution, threats and extortion on his U.S. immigration petition. International records show he’d served time in prison and is banned from entering France and Germany.

This PRNewser contributor paid a brief visit to the scene of the action in Scottsdale this past Sunday, while spending Memorial Day weekend nearby. After all, one of Samy’s posts urged people to “come to Arizona”, and here’s what we found. The bistro is located in a shopping area in a residential section of Scottsdale. The temperature neared 100 degrees. It was midday and the restaurant wasn’t open yet, so there were no guards on the premises. Still the signs in the window and other passers-by provided clues.

Read more

This week, Keybridge Communications is hiring a director, while Knock Twice needs a senior account executive. EAG Sports Management is seeking a sports and entertainment publicist, and Coburn Communication is on the hunt for a beauty account executive. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.

• Director Keybridge Communications (Washington, DC)
• Senior Account Executive Knock Twice (San Francisco, CA)
• Sports and Entertainment Publicist EAG Sports Management (El Segundo, CA)
• Account Executive, Beauty Coburn Communication (New York, NY)
• Senior Account Executive – Travel Susan Magrino Agency (New York, NY)

Find more great PR jobs on the PRNewser job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented PRNewser pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

Porter Novelli announced that Karen Ovseyevitz, partner, regional director of Porter Novelli’s Latin American presence and co-managing director of Martec Porter Novelli in Mexico and Porter Novelli’s Florida office, has been appointed president, Latin America, effective June 1, 2013. Ovseyevitz will be charged with developing Porter Novelli’s Latin American presence; managing the growth of the agency’s partner offices in Central and South America; and establishing best practices and training curricula for all of Latin America. She will continue as co-managing director of Martec Porter Novelli, together with Sandra Kleinburg, and as managing director of Porter Novelli Florida. (Release)

Thomson Reuters Corp said on Wednesday it had hired Andrew Rashbass, currently group chief executive of The Economist Group, to be CEO of its Reuters news business. Rashbass has spent 15 years at The Economist in several roles, including managing director of Economist.com and publisher of the magazine. Pearson Plc’s The Financial Times Ltd holds a 50 percent stake in the parent holding group of The Economist. Rashbass will report to Thomson Reuters CEO James Smith and will be based in London in the newly created role at Reuters. Stephen Adler, president and editor-in-chief at Reuters, will report to Rashbass. (Release)

Time Inc.’s ad sales division — Time Inc. Branded Solutions — has named Tom Kirwan its vice president of digital sales. Kirwan was most recently the associate publisher of Time Inc.’s Style & Entertainment group. He has been with Time Inc. since 2008. (FishbowlNY)

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Unless your usual drink order is brown rubbing alcohol on the rocks or a dirty dish water martini, the findings of a year-long investigation of 29 bars and resturants across New Jersey will likely leave you nauseated.

The investigation, aptly titled “Operation Swill”, culminated last week when more than 100 investigators raided 29 bars and restaurants across the state of New Jersey based on the suspicion that they had been serving cheap alcohol (and some other horrendous stuff) as premium brand liqour.

One establishment allegedly served caramel colored rubbing alcohol to unsuspecting patrons, and another is said to have filled booze bottles with nothing more than dirty water.

“What these 29 establishments have allegedly done threatens the integrity of the alcoholic beverage industry as a whole,” said Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa. “This alleged scheme is a dishonest ruse to increase profits, and it is a slap in the face of the consumer. The consumer should have the peace of mind to know that when they pay for something, they get exactly what they paid for, no exceptions.”

Thirteen of the eateries identified were TGI Fridays franchises run by the Briad Group, a Livingston, NJ-based hospitality company that runs several different establishments across multiple states. This disturbing discovery prompted Briad president Rick Barbrick to release a statement, saying that the allegations were “troubling and surprising to us.” The statement continued:

“We can assure our loyal and valuable guests that it is our corporate policy to treat all of our patrons honestly and fairly…We have already begun our own investigation to learn if any of these allegations are true. If they are, we will take immediate steps to correct any issues that may have led to less than a 100 percent quality experience for our guests…Regardless of the outcome, we will be deploying additional measures, supervision and quality checks into our process. We want every assurance possible that our guests can continue to feel confident in the great food and drink they order at our TGI Friday’s restaurants.”

Read more

CNNMoney: Nike to Stop Making Livestrong Products

The New York Times: 20 Questions about Media, Advertising and Popular Culture

AdWeek: J.C. Penney PR Curse Continues with ‘Hitler’ Billboard

Miami Herald: American Public’s Consumer Confidence Is Growing

Advertising Age: Sports Illustrated Starts Live Daily Video Show

We all have a crazy aunt who describes the romance novel she is reading as “transcendent” or a brother-in-law who rages that his medium-well porterhouse steak is a “frigging tragedy perpetrated by morons!”

You have to love the public, because the public is you, your family and your friends. It’s us, and we know how unfair we can be. So the public understands why businesses that rely on online customer reviews are terrorized by social media. Social media is the bullhorn our nutty aunts and brother-in-laws have been waiting for all of their lives, and managers in every industry from car rentals to Italian restaurants are getting an earful.

Many online rants and rave reviews are written by people looking for a way to express emotions or to give them (sadly) a feeling of significance. Regardless, brand managers must take these reviews seriously because prospective customers consider reviews an important factor when determining how to spend their money. In fact, this article in The New York Times states, “Olery, a company that offers brand reputation management for hotels, said in a report that about 78 percent of travelers used online reviews to help decide which hotel to book.”

If you’re a hotel brand manager, that statistic is as welcoming as the sound of someone breaking into your house. It’s scary. Responding to negative reviewers as well as thanking positive reviewers is an excellent idea in theory, but most companies don’t have the time or resources for this level of social media vigilance. The best brand managers can do is stay calm and think as a prospective customer would think.

The public knows that many reviews are written by the more emotional and less informed people in our lives. We know to filter out the irrational tirades or oddly glowing celebrations of an individual’s personal experience. Like the public, brand managers should look for legitimacy and sincerity—those reviews that contain valuable information regarding a customer’s experience. There is gold in honest reviews, especially the negative ones. Companies spend billions in search of constructive criticism. And the public is offering it for free.

To ignore such information would be crazy.

Billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, head of Tudor Investment Corp. and founder of charitable organization the Robin Hood Foundation, found himself in hot water last week after he told an audience at the University of Virginia that he thinks it’s difficult for mothers to be successful macro-traders because having a baby is such a distraction for women, calling motherhood a “killer” of the desire to trade.

If that weren’t cringe-worthy enough, his word choice was even more unfortunate: “As soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom,” he said, “forget it.” Yikes.

After social media and the blogosphere erupted with angry responses and heated debates, Jones released the following statement last Friday, which explains that he did not intend to make a blanket statement about working mothers, and — as mea-culpas given in response to cries of chauvinism often do — assures the public that he has real human relationships with living, breathing females by reminding us that he has three daughters: Read more

Abercrombie & Fitch has been embroiled in controversy since Business Insider re-published disturbing comments CEO Mike Jeffries made in a 2007 Salon article, including doozies like, “A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely,” and “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids…we go after the cool kids.”

In a society deeply engaged in anti-bullying discussions and efforts to make standards of beauty and “coolness” more inclusive, these comments ignited a widespread and fiery backlash, including a grassroots re-branding campaign and a Change.org petition.

The petition, started by 18-year-old Benjamin O’Keefe (who has himself overcome an eating disorder), garnered over 70,000 signatures and asked the company to stop sending the message that teens aren’t beautiful, demanding A&F start selling clothes larger than a size 10.

Here’s a graphic recently published in the Huffington Post, which shows the major hit Abercrombie & Fitch has taken over the past month. For the full effect, we recommend listening to this audio clip of a nosediving airplane while viewing the graph.

After a brief apology Jeffries recently posted on Facebook failed to turn the tide, the company invited O’Keefe and members of the National Eating Disorders Association to its headquarters in Columbus, OH last week to discuss their concerns with executives. After the meeting, A&F released this statement: Read more