Now for the PR Fail: This outrage irritated creative director Adam Orth, who took to his personal Twitter feed to let the world know it. This message started a conversation in which Orth told the concerned parties that they were just out of luck:Orth made a couple of mistakes here: first, he commented on a story that his employer had yet to announce publicly. More importantly, he effectively told members of his own fanbase to stop complaining.

Microsoft didn’t care for that one bit, and we’ll let Brad Pitt tell you why:

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We thought Microsoft had put the series to bed earlier, but they brought it back to life this week with a couple of spots attacking the Android phone for providing Google with an unfair advantage and, again, collecting users’ private information without their knowledge or consent. It’s all a bit more complicated than that, but the message is clear: Google is evil, because Microsoft would never in a million years use customer data in underhanded ways.

This is more about branding and reputation management than technology or the business practices of tech companies. The campaign is obviously working in some way or the company wouldn’t keep pumping out these ads. But Microsoft casting itself as David to Google’s Goliath? We don’t see that message as a long-term winner. It all makes the runner-up look more than a little desperate.

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Jean-Louise Gassée worked for Apple throughout the 80′s as the head of its French division and later directed Macintosh product development before leaving due to strategic differences with other executives. On Sunday he posted an op-ed on the Monday Notes tech blog with the ominous headline “Apple Is Losing the War–of Words“. Gassée‘s conclusion will surprise many in the tech world, because he thinks the Apple PR team should take a few cues from Microsoft and hire an outside firm better versed in the art of “verbal warfare.”

Wait, what? Let’s explore this a little further, shall we?

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Welcome aboard to our new investors, team @bingfund! ow.ly/i89Nz World’s first announcement via @vineapp: vine.co/v/bXZa5BQj7e2

— Sonar (@sonar) February 28, 2013

TechCrunch hopes this move doesn’t become a thing. What do we think? Can you imagine companies announcing new hires or clients with little clips like this one?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The new features mentioned by Mayer in interviews this week include “an infinite, Twitter-like news feed” and a collection of content recommended by users’ Facebook friends. Mayer signed content deals with the three major networks, switched from Microsoft to Google for ad services and announced plans to focus more heavily on Yahoo’s original properties like Yahoo Sports, movie listings and gossip site OMG.

Will Mayer’s plan to make Yahoo relevant again succeed? We don’t plan on making the site one of our chief web destinations or using its email platform anytime soon, but we will say that she is the best thing to happen to the brand in some time.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here are the brands held in highest esteem by the 19,000 random people who participated in the poll (along with our attempts to figure out how they got there):

1. Amazon: It could be the fact that Amazon remains the first and biggest online retailer with a reputation for security and an endless inventory. It could be the brand’s truly innovative recommendation system. Or it could be Amazon’s plan to create its own “virtual” currency–because no dishonest individual would ever make his own money, right?

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We wouldn’t go that far, but it’s clear that Apple’s cheaper, less fashionable competitors are upping their game. This week, for example, Samsung officially launched a Galaxy promo campaign designed to combine several untouchably cool elements: New York Fashion Week, crowdsourcing and red-hot designer/Balenciaga creative director Alexander Wang. The campaign’s first video spot, released yesterday and titled “Be Creative”, shows Wang using his Galaxy Note II to do just that:

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Things are different now, though. The Wall Street Journal tells us that, in the light of recent stock dips and disappointing sales numbers, Apple has decided to “subtly [increase] some of its PR—at least for now.”

What does that mean? Well, the team issued an honest-to-God press release to mark the all-but-meaningless evolution of its operating system from iOS 6 to iOS 6.1–and this was “the first time Apple has issued an official press release for a non-major mobile software” roll-out since way back in 2010.

That’s not all: In addition to posting an uncharacteristically large number of press releases so far in 2013, the company has also been more active about sending positive third-party media mentions to journalists. One of the pieces circulating is a study predicting that, by 2014, Apple will be “just as accepted in the enterprise as Microsoft“. Wait, a study predicting that your company will be as much a part of the status quo as your biggest, lamest competitor?

This is not the Apple we know and love.

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As Patrick Madden, executive director of UNA-USA said, “There are various conspiracy theories swirling around about what the U.N. does. In the U.S. it’s a particular challenge since most U.S. citizens don’t see the U.N. directly at work in their country. That makes it harder for most of the American public to see the benefits”. Minh-Thu Phan, UNA-USA director of public policy, added, “Many Americans care about these issues, but not enough to act on them or to call their congressmen.”

Sustainability is an area where the U.N. has been active, and one that has gained traction in the public and private sectors. On Monday the panel discussed the aftermath of Rio+ 20, a U.N. conference on sustainable development that was the U.N.’s biggest conference ever, with 50,000 attendees in Brazil last June.

“The message was simple: we need to re-think development”. Those were the words of Nikhil Seth, a U.N. director of sustainable development. He provided a broad overview of the Rio + 20 conference, and Eban Goodstein, director of Bard College’s Center for Environmental Policy, focused on sustainable business issues.

Click through for takeaways.

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The Onion

But now we know that’s not all “America’s Finest News Source” can do. See, Digiday taught us something this week: The Onion also helps brands discover (or re-discover) their sense of humor via its in-house ad/marketing/advisory team, Onion Labs. This strange experiment all started last year when Microsoft Internet Explorer, desperate for a rebranding, decided to embrace its reputation as “The Browser You Loved to Hate” and ask The Onion‘s advisory team for ideas (one of which was this cute “Child of the 90′s” video). The project grew rapidly from there.

Onion Labs is still relatively new, but the group’s site features a series of funny spots for brands as disparate as Jack Links and 7-Eleven. They’ve also worked on social media campaigns like the #vacationitis project for Hilton Hotels and Resorts.

We can certainly see why the Onion Labs aesthetic appeals to so many brands–if you’re not comfortable making fun of yourself then you’re going to have trouble appealing to that crucial 18-30 demographic. Here’s one of the Lab’s commercials pitching Dove deodorant to men by making light of the fact that guys don’t really like to deal with their dry skin problems:

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It does make us want to go read Goosebumps, listen to Smashing Pumpkins and watch My So-Called Life re-runs. But it doesn’t tell us anything about how Internet Explorer has changed–or why we should be interested in the first place.

So yeah, cute commercial. But we’re still not going to use Bing or buy a Surface.

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ASICS America, designer and manufacturer of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories, has selected Allison+Partners as its public relations agency. A+P will promote the company’s product launches, events and sponsorships as well as its cause marketing initiatives and its legacy-inspired Onitsuka Tiger collection of shoes and apparel. (If that left you breathless, wait until the next sentence):

The agency will also implement a national campaign incorporating athletic, business and consumer-focused media relations, awards and road tests, in addition to celebrity and influencer relations tied to numerous sponsorship opportunities including the New York City and Los Angeles Marathons.

Wellies Well, Well:

Hunter Boots, the UK’s leading wellington brand, recently launched a new global Facebook campaign from global social media agency We Are Social.

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The concept is fairly self-explanatory, and it’s not completely new: both Apple and Microsoft have produced table-sized versions of their popular tablets. But Korean electronics company Moneual plans to begin mass-producing its touchscreen cafe table very soon; curious onlookers may get a chance to see this interactive furniture in action at next week’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

We love the concept from a design perspective, and it will make for a great spot to promote other local businesses and events, but we have to ask: Will this newest tech toy become another promo tool for restaurants looking to make a name for themselves? Will it be another short-lived trend? Or will it simply become common practice like the iPad menu/register?

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In 2007, the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD (yeah, we’re not sure how that acronym works, either), partnered with Google to make Santa Tracker the government-official means of following the man in red on his Christmas Eve quest. So when NORAD announced that they would partner with Microsoft this year instead, it was assumed that Google would would take a major marketing hit.

In actuality, the break from NORAD seems to have given Google the freedom to use its Santa Tracker as a marketing tool for its many other services. Not only could families track Santa this year, but they could interact with colorful and elaborate games and features, which the Microsoft/NORAD tracker lacked. Three different games starred Santa’s elves, and there was even a Google Voice-powered tool that allowed users to send friends and family customizable voicemails from Santa himself. The system also incorporated Google+ by allowing users to refer to the voicemail recipient as a Google+ Circle Buddy. Google even offered an extension of its Chrome browser for tracking Mr. Holly Jolly. continued…

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Yesterday’s Q&A

It’s a tall order. Firms adopting Jackson-Warner’s model would move beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects that are–let’s be honest–almost always designed to improve public perceptions of a brand rather than the lives of people touched by that brand.

These considerations leave us very interested in the most recent study conducted by the Reputation Institute, which asks whether CSR efforts are worth the time and money required. The study’s conclusion: In most cases, they’re probably not. As the Institute’s recent Forbes guest post puts it, CSR isn’t necessarily dead–it’s just “mismanaged.”

Interesting. How so?

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