Even Rodin, the French sculptor who created iconic images like The Thinker, (left) might have a hard time getting his opinions published in some media outlets today. That is, unless the artist also possessed a writing style with a strong viewpoint that was provocative or counterintuitive with a catchy, conversational tone.

Those were some of the pointers from the editorial panelists at a recent PCNY event on pitching opinion pieces, bylined and contributed content. Other desirable criteria include articles with compelling angles that are well sourced and grounded in facts. Self-serving or promotional pieces don’t make the cut. So if a sculptor like Rodin was intent on seeing his name in print or online, he’d be well advised to write about the fine arts category, not focus exclusively on his own masterpieces.

The panelists represented a broad array of digital and print outlets with varying degrees of difficulty for outside submissions to break through. These included: CNN Digital, Bloomberg View, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Ad Age and The Muse. Of course the industries these media brands cover aren’t targeted or limited to art. They encompass categories ranging from politics and economics to technology, marketing, media, careers and lifestyle.

Each editor painted a brief picture of their outlet and provided tips for prospective guest contributors.

CNN Digital: The Opinion section of the site “hosts a wide range of views across the spectrum of politics, religion, arts and other areas”, explained Richard Galant, senior opinion editor. They only publish one or two outside submissions per day, and they want original, exclusive hooks to ongoing news stories.

Bloomberg View: Editorial board member Frank Wilkinson described the two-year old site as “a startup within a large news organization”. He said their op-ed page only takes selected outside contributors since they now produce more opinion related content in-house. Their core focus is the intersection of economics, finance, government and cultural issues, and they look for densely researched pieces.

Business Insider: The site has evolved, according to managing editor Jessica Liebman. There are now 15 sections, like technology, finance, retail, politics, sports, lifestyle, military and defense, with plans to add energy and healthcare. Their current focus is having quality contributors and selected bloggers post about newsy or fun topics.

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Say you’re a PR/branding exec at a big corporation. Say there’s a certain sitcom that’s been making fun of you mercilessly for seven years (while appearing on a network that you once owned). What would you do?

Well, if you’re General Electric and that sitcom is 30 Rock, you embrace it after maintaining an adversarial relationship for more than six seasons. G.E., which has seen its “Six Sigma” super-productivity culture mocked repeatedly by Tina Fey, recently decided to let the public know that it is totally in on the joke.

We weren’t the only ones who noticed the company’s weird “thank you” commercial on last week’s episode. Global director of brand management Linda Boff explained everything to Ad Age, saying “G.E. employees and G.E. executives have laughed for the last seven years along with the rest of the audience.”

Oh yeah? Something tells us that former CEO/conspiracy theorist Jack Welch (aka Jack Donaghy) didn’t even chuckle, but at least somebody has a sense of humor.

It’s a bit of a rebranding, really:

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So Manti Te’o, who most Americans believe to be a big old liar, visited Katie Couric‘s office for his first official post-scandal interview, set to air tomorrow. While we’re interested in the fact that he admitted to “briefly” lying about the fake dead girlfriend hoax for six weeks after learning that he’d been duped (yeah right), we’d like to examine the “Inside PR” aspects of the story.

We love Katie and all, but no one would call her a sports journalist–and we don’t feel like the scandal is quite big enough to justify a trip to Oprah-land (though the Te’o family apparently considered Oprah and Dr. Phil before settling for Couric). So how did she score this top interview? Well, the fact that the two parties share a publicist certainly didn’t hurt. That’s right–Matthew Hiltzik of Hiltzik Strategies (MediaBeat interview after the jump) now performs crisis comms/damage control duties for both Couric and Te’o, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Te’o chose Couric over both Oprah and ESPN.

Is this standard operating procedure? Or does it raise even more questions about the players involved in this sordid tale?

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Someone call Page Six: There will be a new M&M’s commercial during Super Bowl XLVII that will serve as the society debut of the brand’s new tagline, “Better with M”. Hmm…intriguing. So, what else do we know about the commercial?

Nothing, really–and that’s the beauty behind the “anticipation bubble” concept referenced by marketer Roy Benin in this Ad Age article. The big tease is a marketing strategy that your stoic nun-schooled grandmother would appreciate.

See, the public is addicted to instant gratification. We want breaking information yesterday, and we devour everything from politics to porn like a downstream alligator on an upstream antelope. Everything in our lives is there for the taking, and when can’t get what we want it, we want it even more.

(We don’t really like to pay for things either.)

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We recently told you about the Demand a Plan campaign launched by social advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The social media campaign geared toward pushing American politicians to pass gun control legislation urges supporters to sign a petition, contact their legislators and mayors, write letters to editors of major publications and voice their support on Twitter and Facebook. The multifaceted project has all its PR bases covered–and now it has a celebrity-filled viral video to boot.

The spot, which features such familiar names and faces as Jon Hamm, Beyoncé, Chris Rock and many others, made it to number 6 on the Ad Age Viral Video Chart this week. Like all of the campaign’s content, the video’s simple, straight-forward, no-frills style serves to promote its overall message: less rhetoric, more action.

We recently told you about the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) pulling a clever Soda Stream ad for allegedly “denigrating” the competition (i.e. Coke and Pepsi) even though neither company’s products appeared in the commercial. This over-reaction demonstrates a larger trend in Brittan’s advertising world — the ASA now fields a record number of complaints about ads, and the complaints just keep rolling in.

Did commercials become more offensive all of a sudden? Or is this less an issue of individuals being offended by ads than of organizations using complaints to further their own causes and companies trying to squash competitors by getting their ads pulled? (Hint: it’s the latter.)

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Stella Artois produces mid-range “European” beer, but the brand also looks to sell a certain sort of effortless cool—remember 2011’s awkward Super Bowl commercial starring Adrien Brody as a chick-magnet crooner?

Now they’ve created one of the best PR/ad campaigns we’ve seen this holiday season. A brilliant Facebook app called “Holiday Carole” revolves around a video of a Mad Men-era lounge singer who shows up at your virtual front door (or that of a friend) to deliver a swingin’ holiday ditty—and it’s all personalized.

Not only does Ms. Carole check out the weather report for your hometown, hand her driver a note with your home address written in lipstick, and deliver a personalized message of your choice along with a fresh-poured glass of Stella; the app uses images drawn from Google Maps, Street View and other resources to place the actress and her entourage on your block. If you live in the city like we do, you’ll be amused to see your cross-street neighbor’s taped-up windows behind Carole and her band as she sings. (And, as Ad Age notes, her snowy drive would prove particularly fun if you happen to live in the Hawaiian Islands.)

It’s all so cool that we can overlook the lead actress’s not-even-remotely-convincing stab at lip syncing. The promo vid is nice, but you really should try it yourself.

This week brought an intriguing bit of culinary news: Former Saveur publisher Merri Lee Kingsly, who left the magazine after it folded into related Bonnier properties in 2011, founded a food-focused ad agency known as Palate. Though created as a spinoff of Texas-based agency FKM, Palate will be based in New York (no surprise there).

While we’re not familiar with Kingsly’s work at Saveur, we certainly admire her love of food and her personal bravado: last year she admonished former Times food critic Sam Sifton for writing zero star reviews and told him to “stop being so rude to the chefs in our world that work so damn hard every single day”. Kingsly’s obvious passion for the culinary arts leaves her more than qualified to spend her days promoting them.

She also offers restaurateurs a unique take on the traditional agency, assembling a team composed of experts in the areas of food prep, wine selection, and mixology to create unique groups designed to advise each individual client. Her team’s collective portfolio includes big brands like Top Chef, Iron Chef, Jean Georges, Gramercy Tavern and Chicago’s Balsan. Impressive, no? Who better to help restaurant managers define their brands than celebrated veterans of the restaurant industry?

What do we think? Can a former food publisher make for a successful ad executive? We don’t mean to gush, but after reviewing her team’s credentials, we’d say yes.

We’d like to take a moment to return to a great piece posted on Ad Age earlier this week about the post-election scramble for top PR talent in politics.

There’s no doubt that elections often attract the sharpest of the communications bunch. This may have something to do with the fact that campaigns—especially presidential campaigns—also draw from some of the country’s biggest bank accounts.

We’ll let MWW CEO Michael Kempner explain it:

“There’s no better training than a campaign. They’re working under pressure, unforgiving deadlines, speaking to diverse audiences and seeing the media impact with real consequences in every program they execute.”

This makes perfect sense. Who has better experience working with media outlets and personalities across the country (and the world) than the veterans of political campaigns? Of course they’re hot commodities.

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Love is complex and often painful, but nothing is worse than being in love with a tease.

Today, McDonald’s announced—through a memo leaked to Ad Age—that the McRib sandwich won’t be available this coming fall. America will have to wait until December to continue its tangy and delicious love affair with the McRib.

As with all strategic teases, this move is designed to leverage attention and expectations. Not being able to have something makes you want it more, and McDonald’s, which typically offers the McRib in October, has concluded that an end-of-the-year release allows for the greatest possible profit margin.

To fill the pork sandwich vacuum, McDonald’s will feature a Cheddar Bacon Onion Angus burger. Though some may argue its better to settle than to be alone, for those of us in love with the McRib, there is no alternative. Angus? Puh-lease. Read more