When it comes to the tremendously competitive world of higher education, reputation is virtually everything; if students are going to incur years of debt in exchange for a diploma, they want that piece of paper to carry as much clout as possible. So when The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill found itself embroiled in academic scandal, it’s no surprise they called in some big PR guns — with big price tags to match.

For the past two years, UNC has been dealing with an academic-fraud issue involving the department of African and Afro-American studies. Inquiries have revealed 216 courses dating all the way back to 1997 with “proven or potential” problems including no-show professors, “paper” classes that did not require attendance, and 454 potentially unauthorized grade changes.

For help managing the resulting PR crisis — it seems the public generally expects professors to attend their own classes and assign the grades that students actually earn — the university reached out to three big-name industry professionals to the tune of $500,000. Read more

The New Yorker has named Breda O’Reilly as its new advertising director. She comes to the magazine from The Guardian, where she served as its director of sales since last year. Prior to The Guardian, Breda spent three years at The Atlantic, first as advertising manager and then as advertising director. She was responsible for sales strategy and implementation for TheAtlantic.com, TheAtlanticWire.com, and TheAtlanticCities.com. During her tenure, Breda and her team increased revenue by 136%, working with such clients as Goldman Sachs, Dow, BMW, and Novartis, among many others. Prior to The Atlantic, she held sales positions at IAC and Microsoft Advertising. (Fishbowl NY)

Ampush announced the recent hiring of Andrew Hersam as director of sales. Ampush, founded in 2009, is a social technology company that helps brands and agencies advertise on Facebook. The company expects Andrew to play a key contributing role in continuing to drive Ampush forward during a period of expansion and investment. Hersam is an accomplished media executive with more than 20 years of experience managing print, digital, TV, and event brands. Hersam was most recently global marketing solutions, client partner at Facebook with Facebook’s financial services business. Prior to Facebook, Hersam served as EVP, media for the Competitor Group, Inc. (CGI). (Release)

Hearst Newspapers announced that Mike DeLuca, 45, has been named senior vice president, digital for Hearst Newspapers. Hearst Newspapers’ digital footprint includes 30 websites, 11 mobile sites and 33 apps that together reach more than 50 million unique readers each month. DeLuca last served as chief revenue officer at Savored, which was acquired by Groupon in 2012. At Groupon, he most recently served as VP of sales and before that, was senior vice president, sales and operations for AOL Local. DeLuca is also on the advisory board of Yodle, where he was senior vice president of sales and marketing from 2008 to 2010. He was vice president of sales and account management at Yahoo! from 2003 to 2008, and prior to that, held various sales and management roles in the storage technology sector. (Release)

The New York Times: Tech Giants Appeal to Release Details on Classified Requests

CNNTech: Game On: Sony Trashes Microsoft’s Xbox One

The Washington Post: American Public Now a Nation of TV Binge Watchers

Los Angeles Times: Firefox’s Parent Company Launches Campaign Against NSA

Advertising Age: The Truth about Marketing to Bicultural Consumers

Since 2009, only the lucky few high-income, trendy, 35-year-old women with access to a Whole Foods or Southern California have had the pleasure of living the Resource life. Resource is a bottled water brand from Nestle, and it has everything you could possibly want from water — recycled material, electrolytenment, and the ability to accessorize your favorite outfit. Also, there’s the video above, which offers a glimpse of how those aforementioned women are living because they have Resource.

All of this is now available nationwide. All of what? We just don’t know. That’s because Nestle has gone a little too far to sell some bottled water.

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PR experts know that trust is the emotional and intellectual equivalent of gold. It takes brands enormous amounts of time, energy and money to build trust with the public.

For technology brands Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo—brands that customers entrust with their personal information and private thoughts—cultivating and nurturing that tenuous but critical bond with the public is imperative to survival. Make no mistake: these tech brands are worried about the fallout from the recent controversy over the National Security Agency’s rampant surveillance program.

This is an epic public relations story. Americans understand the need for security and want the government to do everything within its legal powers to ensure our families, culture and values are safe. But our society’s values also demand an uncompromising respect for personal privacy and human dignity. Amid this volatile clash of priorities are the technologies that exist between the public and our families, friends, jobs, bank accounts, personal vices, political views, religious beliefs, sexual preferences and our very individual humanity.

Upon learning that the U.S. Government, via a program named PRISM, monitored foreigners, citizens and residents—really, who else is there?—via information provided by the popular aforementioned tech brands, the public took a huge mental step back. It’s like we all a came home early and found our spouse’s underwear on the kitchen floor. This is completely unwanted and unexpected information, but we’re hoping a simple explanation will restore our faith in the relationship. Read more

Anyone who ever had a science teacher assign a project centered around the creation of a Rube Goldberg machine — an overly complex contraption that uses a chain reaction to accomplish a simple task — was likely awed by Honda‘s “Cog” ad when it debuted over a decade ago. Ten years later, it seems the spot still possesses the power to amaze — a mark of truly inspired advertizing.

Neil Christie of London agency Wieden + Kennedy received the below letter on Monday morning from a 10-year-old girl:

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Having worked many summers with my painting contractor father, I’ve seen firsthand the transformative effect something as simple as a new coat of paint can have on a place — the change is sometimes so drastic and multifaceted that one could swear they’re holding a magic wand rather than a paint brush.

Now, Benjamin Moore Paints is partnering with Brad Pitt‘s charitable organization Make it Right to use the transformative power of paint to revitalize the Main Streets of America. The campaign asks consumers around the country to vote online for which 20 Main Streets should be renewed of the more than 100 North American cities nominated at www.paintwhatmatters.com.

Along with Make It Right, Benjamin Moore is partnering with local Benjamin Moore dealers, local municipalities, small businesses, and local Chambers of Commerce to get the effort underway. The paint company itself will provide the paint and supplies needed, and its color experts will consult on the best choices to enhance the architectural style, regional influences and historic references in each community. The company will also be hiring local professional painters, many of them members of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, further supporting local business. 

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The New York Times: Apple Unveils New Innovative Look for Mobile

PR Daily: Marketing Agencies Should Adopt ‘PR Thinking’ or Face Extinction

Los Angeles Times: McDonald’s Menu Upgrade Reaps Profits in May

The Washington Post: Amazon Bets the Future in Now for 3-D Printing

CNN.com: Hillary Clinton Joins Twitter to Address Her Future

No one in the PR industry can resist a story that involves high-powered U.S. Senators, the health of American children and a juggernaut entertainment brand focused on profits. Indeed, the current health debate surrounding Nickelodeon contains drama of Shakespearean proportions.

Regardless of one’s view on the role of government, the dynamics of the family unit or society’s responsibilities to protect its children, from a public relations perspective, Americans see health as an important and challenging issue. We love the freedom to make personal decisions unfettered by the government or outside organizations. And we also love our children and want to protect them from those who seek to profit from selling our kids unhealthy products. And that is where the PR battle lines are being drawn with Nickelodeon right in the middle.

Nickelodeon generally has a clean, wholesome image. Chuck E. Cheese and junk food brands, which advertise on the Viacom-owned network, have a more complicated relationship with the public, particularly parents whose job it is to raise healthy kids. But now groups such as the Prevention Group, Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Berkeley Media Studies Group are teaming up with four Senators in an effort to convince Nickelodeon to stop running ads that market sugary, salty and greasy foods to kids and tweens. Read more

Big agency news today as LEWIS PR announced that it acquired Davies Murphy Group (DMG), a Boston-based PR firm with 65 staffers, as of May 31. DMG has offices abroad (UK and Germany), and focuses on B2B technology clients across the spectrum, from startups to larger businesses.

The acquisition, according to LEWIS, raises the firm’s annual global revenues up to $45 million and US revenue up to $20 million* and pushes the staff total up to 420.  This marks the third acquisition for LEWIS in five years, following Page One PR in the UK and Leeds United in Antwerp.

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