Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of the giant advertising and marketing services holding company Publicis Groupe, will step down from his post after 40 years.

The Guardian broke the news and received this statement from Lévy:

My contract is finishing at the end of 2011 and you can say that I will not be seeking a new term…There are strong candidates [inside Publicis Groupe] but it will be up to the board to make the decision and choose. As far as I’m concerned what I can do is make a recommendation which I will do.

Publicis Groupe consolidated its PR holdings under the MS&L Group banner in November 2009. The agency’s PR holdings include MS&L Worldwide, Publicis Consultants Worldwide, PublicisLive, Publicis Meetings, Emotion, Freud, and Kekst & Co.

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Many a year ago, this PRNewser remembers getting pitched by a slew of companies offering software that would allow one to boost their MySpace friends list almost infinitely.

MySpace would often close down these illegal software providers relatively soon after they sprung up, but like a leaky ship, as soon as one plugs a hole, another opens up.

Now, a somewhat different thing is happening on Facebook, albeit with the same goal: boosting the number of fans to a certain Faceook page.

This week, Microsoft’s Bing search engine grew its Facebook fan page from 100,000 users to more than 500,000 users, all via a simple ad on the popular Facebook game FarmVille. Interactive agency Deep Focus managed the program.

This led us to thinking about the implications of strategies like this, in terms of using the Facebook platform for authentic communications and marketing.

AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven posed the question to Reggie Bradford, CEO of social marketing company Vitrue, on our morning podcast today.

“I worry that those types of initiatives are dangerous, because it’s really not the true authentic…a consumer wants to hear from a brand,” said Bradford.

“That said…I’d sort of equate that to sampling, where you give out 10 million cans of Coke Zero to get people to try the product. I guess in Bing’s case they’re really trying to incent trial of Bing.”

Microsoft knows that the key now is to keep their new “fans” engaged, as a spokesperson told Adweek. That is certainly the challenge, as another digital PR executive acknowledged to PRNewser.

“It’s an inexpensive way to get traffic, and while it may not convert as well, it was a smart move that also created a great media story,” said Adam Isserlis, Director of Digital Media at Rubenstein Communications.

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“Are we being spun, are the PR teams doing their job too well, or are we not pushing hard enough?” AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven asked Lazare.

“You don’t have to worry about the spin, you can ignore that if you want,” he replied. “Not that most agencies even have great PR departments anymore, they basically decimated those…”

Listen to all past Morning Media Menu podcasts archived at mediabistro.com or download episodes for free on iTunes.

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Via Amanda Ernst at FishbowlNY:

Today is my last day as FishbowlNY editor, and I was lucky enough to be welcomed on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast one last time.

Jason Boog of GalleyCat, AgencySpy’s Matt Van Hoven and I could talk forever, but this morning we stuck to just over 15 minutes of conversation about where I’m heading next, Hachette Book Group’s current dispute with Amazon and the Superbowl.

We are sad to see Amanda go, but are also happy that she will have the opportunity to join an exciting new publication. If you think you have what it takes to fill her shoes, check out the job listing currently posted on our job board.

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Today’s guest on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast was Politico.com staff writer Michael Calderone, talking about the political stories that will shape 2010.

Specifically, Calderone discussed the media’s response to the attempting bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 and the NY Times’ rush job on an upcoming 8,000+ word article about terrorism.

Calderone noted correctly that there was “an onslaught of commentary” after the attempted bombing. He looked at some of the cable transcripts from 2001, directly after 9/11 and, “saw a lot of the same language re-occurring. You sort of have reverted back to the same language,” he said, regarding “wars against Islam,” airport security and other themes.

Regardless of the language used, the public was clearly hungry for the news. “CNN won the night on Friday [the night of the attack] and it showed to me that a lot of people wanted a steady stream of news to find out what was going on.” MSNBC stayed with taped holiday programing, while Fox News joined CNN in covering the story.

The show was hosted by GalleyCat editor Jason Boog and AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven. You can listen to all the past podcasts archived at mediabistro.com or download episodes for free on iTunes. Click here to download the MP3 version.

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This PRNewser filled in for AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven — who is toiling somewhere in the Midwest — to co-host mediabistro’s Morning Media Menu podcast today with GalleyCat’s Jason Boog.

We talked about the breakdown of talks at the U.N. Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, Google’s smart phone, former Eliot Spitzer call girl Ashley Dupre‘s new advice column with the New York Post and of course the latest with Tiger Woods.

You can listen to all the past podcasts archived at mediabistro.com or download episodes for free on iTunes.

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My co-editor’s press release on the anniversary hits upon key points of TWIA’s success including low expectations, low morale, and constant use of the TV show Mad Men as a traffic lure. Saatchi and Saatchi CEO Gerry Graf was not quoted as saying anything about the program.

You can catch Matt Van Hoven, a blogger you’ve never heard of, on TWIA each week by visiting AgencySpy.

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On the heals of mediabistro’s UGCX conference, we joined AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven on today’s podcast. Our guest: Jessica Amason, viral marketing editor at BuzzFeed and co-creator of “This is Why You’re Fat” – a Tumblr blog turned book deal. Amason’s job at BuzzFeed is to marry editorial content and marketing. In other words, figure out how to make some money from user generated content.

Amason spoke about BuzzFeed’s analytics reports, where clients can see everything that’s happening with their content – what keywords are hitting, which social media technology is most used to spread it, who is reading/watching. “Each of those elements points to how and why something is spreading,” said Amason. “And I think that those are key [data] that advertisers don’t really have.”

Also discussed: Times earnings report; Google music; and a social media strategy recap from Forrester Research’s presentation at UGCX. You can listen to all the past podcasts archived at mediabistro.com or download episodes for free on iTunes.

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AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Fox Interactive head Jonathan Miller, R/GA founder Bob Greenburg, Interpublic CEO Michael Roth, Crispin Porter and Bogusky’s Chuck Porter, and many more we didn’t immediately identify were on hand for Advertising Week’s Opening Gala last night. (We were on AgencySpy’s turf, after all.)

The event moved this year to Times Square from Rockefeller Center. Bonus: use of giant flat screen in Times Square. Minus: The opening video played on the flat screen had an error and instead just showed random images of the crowd and podium.

Sunshine & Sachs, who is handling all PR for Advertising Week, had a team on hand, including partner Shawn Sachs. One S&S employee told PRNewser that the “Crash Test Dummies” costumes (pictured above alongside other brand icons in the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame portion of the event) were actually filled by S&S staffers. She was kind enough not to reveal their identities.

PR man (he still runs an agency, Plesser Holland Associates) turned video blog founder (Beet.tv) Andy Plesser had his video gear set up in the middle of it all. After the Time‘s Stuart Elliott declined him an interview, Plesser was quick to remind us that Beet.tv is up for an OMMA Award in the “Video-sharing” category. He said the site is doing “more original video than just about anyone as far as I can tell,” with 150,000 video views a month and recently inked distribution deals with TechCrunch and Huffington Post.

Back to Sunshine & Sachs – the agency found itself managing yet another busy day of events. Sachs informed us that Ken Sunshine was at another client function, a ribbon cutting at the new permanent site for the Frank Sinatra school of arts featuring Tony Bennett and Susan Benedetto. S&S also managed a press conference for the innovative $1M Netflix contest, which pitted teams of engineers in a three-year contest to improve the site’s movie recommendation system. The press conference drew coverage in hundreds of outlets.

Sachs told PRNewser, “Companies announcing news around it [Advertising Week] is a vital sign that you have a living event.” Heather Lylis, who runs the Advertising Week account for Sunshine & Sachs said they had registered more than 200 press and that people had flown in from across the country. “It’s not just the ad trades anymore,” she said, citing involvement from CNBC, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal.

[Photo Credit: Matt Van Hoven]

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PRNewser was a guest again today on our Morning Media Menu podcast with GalleyCat editor Jason Boog and AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven.

We talked about some of the changes and challenges the PR industry is facing and if there is more coverage of the industry than in the past. Then Jason asked, “Do PR agencies have PR people?” To which we responded, “Of course!”

We also discussed the day’s biggest media headlines, including: author Dan Brown selling one million books in a single day and The Wall Street Journal raising mobile app subscription prices.

You can listen to all the past podcasts archived at mediabistro.com or download episodes for free on iTunes.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.