We all remember just a few short months ago when Maker’s Mark announced plans to water down its product to accommodate demand. It was an unmitigated public relations disaster. Diluting the bourbon was tantamount to halting production altogether. The brand had given up on its values, heritage and customers. R.I.P. Maker’s Mark, right?

Not quite. The result was a public relations bonanza. Upon hearing the breaking news in February, fans of Maker’s Mark began hording the product, rocketing sales up by 44 percent. By the time the dust had settled Marker’s Mark had very publicly reversed its decision and enjoyed the benefits of widespread, free publicity. We have to say, nice work Marker’s Mark PR team.

Whether the decision to water down Marker’s Mark was a sincere proclamation or very clever publicity stunt, well, we’ll have to leave that to industry conspiracy theorists—this all HAD to be planned, right? Conspiracy! Conspiracy! Conspiracy!

It is simply inconceivable that a brand so PR savvy, so knowledgeable of its products and customers, so in line with its own promise of quality, would consider watering down its bourbon. That would be like Taco Bell selling tacos in Doritos shells… oh, wait a minute. That would be like Budweiser putting water in its… no wait. That would be like Porsche building its exhaust system using Honda parts (no offense, Honda, I lost control of this analogy a few sentences ago and needed a way out).

Though Maker’s Mark no longer has any intention to water down its product, it should breathe a sigh of relief as this hubbub is now part of the brand’s storied history. As the saying goes, it’s better to be lucky than good. If this was an honest mistake, then Maker’s Mark was very lucky. If this was all a PR strategy, then Maker’s Mark was very good. No, they were great.

We recently told you about the success of Hot Wheels’ tweet-powered vending machine, and speculated as to what sort of real-world device would be powered by customers’ tweets next, but even we hadn’t thought of this…

To kick off its first ever global ad campaign “For the Bold”, Doritos has taken the concept to the next level (or maybe even the level beyond that) by building a 62-foot-tall, tweet-powered concert stage designed to look like a giant vending machine at SXSW.

The high-tech platform will take tweets featuring the hastag #BoldStage and use them as real-time concert controls. This means that viewers can harness their unprecedented power to choose the show’s opening act, handpick the set list, control the special effects, and send pictures of themselves rocking out directly to the four-story screen in the arena (all with only a 9.6-second lag time).

Sounds a little crazy, no?

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You’ve heard the news: Super Bowl 47 was all about social. While the TV ratings for last night’s game were higher than the year before, the audience’s social activity/engagement numbers more than doubled. The “Brand Bowl” confirmed something we already knew: social now plays a bigger role in the marketing/advertising/PR equation than ever before–and its influence will surely continue to grow.

Need evidence? Here are our 10 favorite social media moments from last night’s big game.

1. Oreo’s on-the-fly branding spot: Is it obvious? Yes. But there’s a reason people are still flipping out over Oreo and 360i‘s incredible acts of branding.

Power out? No problem. twitter.com/Oreo/status/29…

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013

2. Budweiser‘s “Name that Clydesdale” campaign: This one was a slow burn strategy win. Bud was very wise to start the hype early by leaking videos and encouraging fans to get involved.

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We usually love the idea of two complementary brands coming together and doing great things, but when we first heard about the ongoing collaboration between Doritos and Taco Bell, we were a little skeptical.

We understand that these leaders in the “corn-based foods with ridiculously high levels of saturated fat” market appeal to the same audiences (namely drunk college kids and adults in a rush), but we wondered if a taco served inside a big Dorito dusted with nuclear red “cheese” would be a little too much.

We were very, very wrong: The Doritos Locos Tacos quickly became the best-selling item in the history of the Tex-Mex chain, which got mouths watering again this week with a Facebook post sort of announcing the pending release of the Cool Ranch version. We still can’t quite get over the fact that this simple post got 120,000 likes, 11,500 shares, and more than 8,000 comments.

The Huffington Post recently attempted to discern exactly why this co-branding exercise worked so well, and we have to agree with most of their points:

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If you’ve ever read the label on the package of any sort of processed food, you’ve undoubtedly encountered a whole host of unpronounceable, unrecognizable chemicals–so it’s really no surprise that discussions about organic practices, GMOs, and the current state of our food production/distribution system have been building steam over the past several years.

But in these increasingly health-and-environment-conscious times, consumers are growing more concerned not just with what they put in their bodies, but also what they put on their bodies. Chances are, the label on your shampoo bottle is just as unsettling as the label on your cereal box. With this in mind, several specialty lines of self-care products like Origins, Murad and others have taken full advantage of the trend toward natural ingredients, building their brands by boasting about the ingredients not included in their products.

Now, Johnson & Johnson, which makes a wide range of personal care products including everything from its famous baby shampoo to familiar drugstore brands like Neutrogena, Aveeno, and Clean & Clear, has announced that it will be phasing out harmful chemicals from its products by 2015, and from several of its baby products by 2013.

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According to nearly two-thirds of  PRNewser poll takers, this year’s Volkswagen ad won’t create more buzz than last year’s “The Force.” Today, many are declaring the car ads the overall winners of last night’s Super Bowl advertising showdown, though it looks like Acura, Honda, and Chrysler, which used Clint Eastwood’s famous rasp to send its emotional message about a strong Detroit, are getting special top honors.

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The creator of Doritos snack tortilla chips, Arch West, has died at the age of 97. And like his fellow snack creator before him, Fredric J. Baur, who invented the Pringles packaging, West’s creation will be incorporated into his final send off. His family plans to sprinkle Doritos on his final resting place.

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