In case you didn’t notice, this has been a tough week for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, he of the quick wit, sharp temper and big ambitions.

His state was hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy, and we’d say it’s safe to assume he hasn’t gotten much sleep over the past three or four days: You may have watched him berate the mayor of Atlantic City for encouraging residents to stay at city shelters despite an earlier evacuation order; you may have heard him uncharacteristically praise President Obama’s storm response as “outstanding”; you may have seen footage of him together with the President this afternoon as the two surveyed the storm’s damage by helicopter.

This was all well and good, but today marks a far greater achievement for the Governor: he was won the week’s “best PR stunt posing as a government order” contest by officially postponing Halloween.

Its just not safe yet to be out trick-or- treating tonight, so Halloween has officially been postponed until Monday.

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 31, 2012

What does this mean, exactly? Let’s read the end of the official release, complete with charmingly arcane language:

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As the weekend approaches, you’re likely planning your costume for an upcoming Halloween party (or if you’re like us, you started planning in July). This PRNewser writer went to her first Halloween-themed extravaganza of the season as Flo from the Progressive Insurance ads (picture below).

I initially chose the costume simply because I think Flo is adorable (in a creepy, Stepford Wives sort of way), and because a recent donation to Locks of Love left my hair just short enough to pull it off. But then my costume choice got my PR-oriented brain thinking — superheroes, storybook characters, and familiar faces from TV and movies are always popular costume choices, but what does it mean from a PR and branding standpoint when a character created solely for an ad campaign becomes enough of a pop culture symbol to warrant Halloween costumes?

Insurance companies seem to have the market cornered on popular mascots (probably because insurance is duller than dirt without them). GEICO‘s Gecko, Progressive‘s Flo, and Allstate‘s Mayhem bring personality and humor to an otherwise much-maligned product, and however people might feel about insurance itself, they adore these characters. Case in point: while wandering around a costume shop, I saw a pre-made, pre-bagged “Insurance Lizard” costume hanging between the ever-popular Jack Sparrow and Spiderman.

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Halloween cometh and the mad dash for the perfect costume has begun. Among the top searches on Google this year is Nicki Minaj, the Queens-born rapper known for her wacky and colorful styles.

Video tutorials have popped up on YouTube, teaching ladies (and men, which would be a really great costume) how to get the Nicki look. We’ve got a recent one after the jump, but there’s one with over 300,000 views. That’s a lot of Minaj running around. A quick search will also show a number of websites dedicated to dressing like the rapper for Halloween.

Other popular Google costume searches include “Angry Birds” and “Black Swan,” which had been our pick months ago for what would most likely be the year’s most popular ladies costume.

And what will Ms. Minaj be for Halloween? Lil Wayne.

[via New York Daily News]

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Last week, in anticipation of Halloween, we asked whether Halloween was an important holiday for the PR industry. More than two-thirds of respondents said “Somewhat,” despite the fact that the holiday is a $6 billion business. Those respondents agreed with the statement “Only certain brands can take advantage of the holiday’s PR opportunities.” Those who did execute Halloween campaigns, feel free to offer suggestions and anecdotes in the comments.

In Facebook news, the social network introduced a new deals platform that offers incentives for checking in on its Places application. According to our friends at AllFacebook, “just about every other check-in platform has been heavily criticized for lacking a significant incentive to get users to check-in.” Already, the Gap has signed on to give away 10,000 pairs of jeans. American Eagle Outfitters, Chipotle, and the San Francisco 49ers have also signed on.

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Last week, the PRNewser Poll took out its crystal ball to ask whether it’s too soon to look forward to Web 4.0. Forty-two percent of respondents said no, that we’ll be on to Web 5.0 soon enough, while nearly 37 percent said that we still need to fully explore Web 3.0.

Given the ongoing discussion about how to measure efforts on digital media, the next step, may simply be analyzing the information we’ve gathered in order to decide how best to move forward into the next phase of the Web.

On to a topic much less taxing on the brain, this Sunday is Halloween and it looks like the Jersey Shore cast is fiendishly spreading its tackiness nationwide.

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Butterfinger enjoys the most brand passion over Snickers, Kit-Kat, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and Candy Corn during the Halloween season, according to research firm NetBase.

While Snickers generates the highest volume of online chatter, people merely “like” the lumpy, peanutty bar, while fans “love” the classic, crispy Finger (Butterfinger was renamed “The Finger” as an April Fool’s publicity stunt in 2008).

The more shocking–shocking!–result is that Candy Corn elicits the most “passionately negative sound bites.”  The 80-year-old faux corn product is the marshmellow peep of the fall holiday–people buy it out of nostalgia and sometimes ironry, promptly regretting the purchasing deciscion upon first taste.