We’re not exactly sure how this crazy rumor managed to spread (we’re looking at you, Glenn Beck), but today producer Mark Burnett, the man behind such reality hits as Celebrity Apprentice and Sarah Palin’s Alaska, had to issue a statement labeling this latest wave of short-term paranoia “utter nonsense” while the channel’s spokesperson assured the public that “The History Channel has the highest respect for President Obama.”

Of course Burnett is right, but this is the world of crazy Internet rumors that spread like wildfire no matter how reliable they may or may not be. We don’t really get it, because when we saw this picture our first thought was “Middle Eastern Obi Wan Kenobi.”

We will say one thing, though: somebody needs some moisturizer.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In addition to having a nice beard, Justin Herman runs social media at the U.S. General Services Administration’s Center for Excellence in Digital Government. This moniker may read as a joke to cynics, but Herman, like Booker, clearly believes that a more engaged government is a more effective and efficient government–and that politicians and administrators are mistaken if they see Twitter and Facebook as mere “announcement platform[s].”

Sound familiar?

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This new brand, however, would serve those with deep Latin heritage who either predominately or exclusively speak English at home and who probably only watch Univision “if they’re at their grandmother’s house” (ha ha). It’s the same audience sought by the brand new Fox News Latino brand. So where did members of this mysterious demographic get their news and entertainment in the past? From the same channels as every other English-speaking American.

The question: can brands benefit from catering to this very specific audience? They certainly seem to think so.

PR pros: have you worked on campaigns targeting English-speaking Latino Americans? How do the relevant messages differ from those intended for the general public?

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The campaign, launched in 2006, urged Americans to swear loyalty to Abraham Lincoln and implore their lawmakers to “Save the Penny” from impending doom despite the fact that each penny costs two cents to produce(!)–and quite a few end up in garbage cans, drains and fountains around the country. When the Canucks first floated the idea of putting the penny down last April, the ACA placed op-eds in major papers defending our least valuable coin.

Of course, every successful advocacy campaign needs a celebrity spokesman, which is why the group somehow convinced the great Kevin Federline to endorse it back in ’06. (And we bet they paid him in pennies, too.)

The American “penny debate” is nothing new–during his 2008 presidential campaign, a certain junior senator named Barack Obama said he wouldn’t mind saying goodbye to Honest Abe’s favorite coin, joking that “I need to find out who is lobbying to keep the penny.” Well, as the always-on-point Stephen Colbert reminded us this week, the whole advocacy campaign is really a part of the all-powerful zinc industry’s dastardly scheme to retain its influence among the heavy metals.

Glad we cleared that up–but we’re still waiting to hear from Citizens to Retire the U.S. Penny. Get on it, boys!

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McGrath/Power Public Relations and Communications has named Christina Armstrong VP of client service. Armstrong was previously MD of the b-to-b technology practice at Grayling Connecting Point. She has also worked as client services director at Phase Two Strategies in San Francisco. In her new role, she will work in conjunction with Kathryn Walker, SVP and partner, to provide program leadership and strategy for the agency’s client base. (PR Week)

Global Strategy Group hired Bill Burton as EVP and MD of its DC office. Burton previously served as co-founder and senior strategist at Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that worked to re-elect President Barack Obama to a second term in office. He served as national press secretary for the 2008 Obama for America campaign, then as deputy White House press secretary and special assistant to the president. Burton also worked as then-Rep. Rahm Emmanuel’s (D-IL) communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2006 electoral cycle. (PRWeek)

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Frank X. Shaw

Let’s unravel the roots of this little playground mud fight between two of the biggest PR pros in the business: Microsoft, still desperate to sponsor the Bing vs. Google fight that no one in the world asked for, just hired much-hated political operative Mark Penn as its top messaging man. You may remember Penn as the guy behind Hillary Clinton’s infamous 2008 “3 AM” ad implying that then-Senator Barack Obama was too inexperienced to run the country.

The New York Times ran a story on the hire, casting Mr. Penn as a negative messenger who would help Microsoft attack Google with “scorched earth” spots like this one that criticizes the company for ruining users’ search experiences by clogging results with sponsored ads. The article notes that Microsoft has “long attacked Google from the shadows” but now looks to take the fight to prime-time. A former colleague of Mr. Penn’s warned that Google should prepare to have “everything…thrown at them”—including the kitchen sink.

Sounds like a run-of-the-mill corporate PR battle, right? Well, the Times also contacted top Google spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker for comment. She said that, while Google employs lobbyists and PR firms just like its rivals, “…our focus is on Google and the positive impact our industry has on society, not the competition.”

Of course Frank Shaw did not like this one bit.

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Lena Dunham hopes young women will heed her advice before embarking on the journey that is true womanhood by losing their virginity–their voting virginity, that is.

In her now-viral pro-Obama video, Dunham reminds newly of-age girls that their first time should be with the right guy–an amazing guy, one who “cares whether you get health insurance, and specifically, whether you get birth control”. She assures us in her believable, girl-talky tone that her first time was “amazing”, and as she went to the voting booth, “pulled back the curtain, and voted for Barack Obama“, she knew she had crossed a line in the sand, transforming from a blushing girl to an empowered woman.

A clever double entendre–but not everyone is amused.

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And he’s joined today in infamy (thank God) by his female equivalent, Gloria Allred. Do they realize that almost everyone is laughing at them? We don’t think they do! It’s hard to believe!

The Donald has finally released his anti-Obama “bombshell”, and it is—get ready–a press release stating that the world’s most famous hairpiece model will donate $5 million to the President’s charity of choice as soon as he releases (dum dum dum)…his college transcripts.

Well, that was a big letdown, wasn’t it? It’s not a “reveal” in any sense of the word. And of course we’ve seen the dude pull this kind of crap before. A serious question for all the RealTrump/World Net Daily fans who read our blog (we know you’re legion): what, exactly, might Obama be squirreling away in these mysterious transcripts? Did he get a C in Philosophy 2? Did he once take a course called “Fascist Dictatorships 101”? Was he a proud, card carrying member of Harvard’s famous Gay Muslim Communist Club? Anyone?

Lest we stick to the very lowest hanging fruit, here’s Allred’s equally earth-shattering “October surprise”: Mitt Romney once testified in the divorce hearings of friend, business partner and Staples CEO Tom Stemberg, telling officials that he was actually a pretty good dad. Yeah, that’s it.

Shocking! Appalling! Petty! Completely meaningless! Pardon us while we editorialize a bit, but we can say with confidence that only one word accurately describes these shameless publicity whores: pathetic.

(We already feel icky for giving them more attention. Our apologies for putting you through this.)

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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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We’re not going to spend too much time analyzing or fact-checking last night’s debate; you’ll already read more than enough of that business today if you so much as glance at any news feed.

We’re more interested in the meme that emerged, with stunning speed, right before 10 last night–call it Big Bird 2.0 if you must (please don’t). Let’s put it this way: Well before the end of the Hofstra rumble, someone created the “Binders Full of Women” tumblr based on this well-meaning but poorly executed Mitt Romney quip:

“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’” said Romney. “And they brought us whole binders full of women!”

This was Romney’s attempt to boost his standing among female voters by explaining the actions he took back in the day upon realizing that, when he was Governor of Massachusetts, his cabinet didn’t include many women. It was…awkward. continued…

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Our nation remains mired in two unpopular wars and a devastating, prolonged economic recession. And then there is the rest of world, which is increasingly either jobless or on fire. Americans are taking this election seriously, as they should. Pizza Hut, however, is not.

As PR experts we’re concerned about Pizza Hut’s latest publicity stunt, which offers a lifetime of free pizza to any attendee at the town hall debate—to be held at Hofstra University—who asks if the candidates prefer pepperoni or sausage on their pie. If you have a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, or an unemployed family member, or if you just happen to care about fellow citizens that you don’t even know for some reason, the humor of this ill-conceived idea may be lost on you. continued…

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During last night’s presidential debate, moments after President Obama mentioned his late grandmother, appliance maker KitchenAid’s official Twitter account sent out the following tweet:

“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics”

The brand’s account was immediately bombarded with angry responses, and the tweet was swiftly deleted. In its place appeared this apology:

“Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand’s opinion. #nbcpolitics”

Later, Cynthia Soledad, KitchenAid’s Senior Director of Marketing, began sending tweets from @KitchenAidUSA, trying her best to perform some acrobatic damage control:

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The night’s most contentious moment, however, clearly concerned none other than Big Bird. When listing public entities that he would stop funding if elected, Romney took a moment to pick on perennial bogeyman PBS, telling Public Broadcasting employee Lehrer that he would have to cut funding for the channel despite the fact that “I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too.”

The Internet quickly made it a meme, and a predictable number of mildly amusing tweets ensued. So yeah, it was a weird line—but it wasn’t quite accurate. (In case you hadn’t noticed, this is a common problem in presidential debates.)

Unfortunately, we have to ruin everyone’s fun by calling an official end to this non-scandal. Take it away, Sherrie Westin, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Sesame Workshop–give CNN’s Soledad O’Brien some of that sweet, sweet damage control!

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Well, we’re going to ask the question anyway: What’s the real PR value of a debate? We can’t imagine that too many voters would honestly describe themselves as “undecided” at this point, but an estimated 50 million people will watch the events live—and an audience that big has to be worth something, right?

Maybe not. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently predicted that the debates would be a “game changer” for challenger Mitt Romney, but the general consensus holds that the overall influence of these events (which are heavily scripted, despite what they all tell us) is negligible.

Candidates love to play along. In fact, the most irritating element of the debate build-up is the lowered expectations game in which each candidate tries to convince the news media and the public that his or her (okay, his) opponent is a master debater who may well triumph—although it won’t matter in the end.

This is why President Obama recently rated his own debate skills as “okay” while veep nominee Paul Ryan called him “a very gifted speaker” and an “experienced debater”. Obama’s spokesman David Plouffe followed by saying that Mitt Romney has “…prepared more than any candidate in history. And he has shown himself to be a very, very good debater through the years.”

Geez, we get it—you can all be very annoying!

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Promoted tweets are worth about…this much.

Shock of the day: Twitter is a complex tool, and its mastery requires a bit of…nuance.

We recently reported on the company’s promoted hashtag service and its tendency to produce unpredictable results: When the Republican Party purchased the #areyoubetteroff tag to promote their National Convention back in September, the response got a little out of control—and supporters of President Obama ended up hijacking the thread. At one point, the “yes/no” response ratio was an embarrassing 5 to 1.

We have no doubt that any message promoted by the Obama team would have received plenty of mockery as well. The lesson we took from that debacle is that no campaign—and no company—can truly control the conversation on social media. Twitter is a bit of a crap shoot at the end of the day, and throwing a bone to a pack of howling wolves may not be a terribly effective messaging strategy.

But the Romney campaign didn’t agree, and they’ve made another attempt to drive the conversation ahead of tonight’s first debate by purchasing the #CantAfford4More hashtag for 24 hours–everyone who signs in to Twitter will see the tag in a tweet promoted by the candidate’s official feed. We assume that Romney will use the phrase during his monologue and encourage others to co-opt it. At the very least, this will get everyone talking, right?

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