The strangest thing about this story is probably the fact that the spot, created by Ford’s Indian ad agency WPP, was never meant to be seen by the (Indian) public.

continued…

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When Sarah went shopping in LA’s Studio City this week, the trusty paparazzi were there to capture all the action—and the resulting photos led gossip blogs to speculate about her apparent weight loss.

Never one to let the story get away from her, Palin (sort of) responded in an email to People magazine, stating that her family “…is writing a book on fitness and self-discipline focusing on where we get our energy and balance as we still eat our beloved homemade comfort foods!”

Palin and husband Todd have always identified as proud hunters–and Sarah has commented on her “high protein”, Atkins-style diet in the past. In her first post-election interview way back in ’08, she spoke with Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren while preparing a moose chili that sounded quite delicious. We think she may be onto something here!

As of this morning, no publisher or date for the book has been announced.

Will Sarah hire Nancy French, ghostwriter of daughter Bristol’s memoir, to pen this meaty tome? Will this new project help revive the Palin brand? More importantly, why didn’t Kris Jenner think of this first? “Kooking with the Kardashians” practically writes itself!

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According to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle, sales of Halloween masks often mirror the popularity candidates enjoy with the public and hint at the ultimate winner of presidential elections. Spirit Halloween, one of the largest costume retailers in the U.S., says that the Obama mask is leading with 64% of the retailer’s nationwide mask sales.

Spirit Halloween’s “Presidential Index” based on mask sales has accurately predicted election winners since way back in the glory days of 1996. Nothing about this survey is scientific, of course, but PR experts know that our business has as much to do with timing and circumstance as psychology and hard science.

PR professionals are trained to extrapolate meaning and patterns from even the quirkiest of correlations and relationships. This type of data is our Mars Rover, and seeing human behavior in a new and revealing way for the first time is our ancient Martian streambed. In other words, this is PR geek stuff. continued…

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An article in the paper today says the ratings for their reality show have dropped and they can’t sell magazines or their own products. And it was the Kim-and-Kris divorce that was to blame.

Forbes takes the time to pick this apart and says it ain’t so: their magazines cover sell, they’re still being paid big bucks for appearances, their shows are ratings winners, and Kim was not replaced by a dog in the Skechers ads. So there you have it. In between our “Sh*t XXX Say” videos and episodes of Toddlers & Tiaras and watching stupid GOP campaign ads, we still care about the Kardashians.

Sadly, I was having this very conversation with a fellow Mediabistro-er this week, with my colleague explaining that the fake marriage was the reason why she stopped watching the E! show. What prompted the conversation? We were talking about whether or not Khloe is a real Kardashian. Noooooooo!

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