Political conservatives who should’ve been paying attention to the game instead of the ads got themselves all fired up over an imagined conspiracy theory about the Chrysler/Clint Eastwood ad that ran during the Super Bowl.

Karl Rove said he was “offended” by the ad, with others on his side of the political spectrum backing up his claims that the clip is an endorsement of President Obama and the auto bailouts.

Read more

On Tuesday, Chris Brown lost it. Today, he’s apologizing on BET’s 106th and Park.

We asked if PR could help him out (we saw a couple of simple “No” responses pop up on Twitter), and Mike Paul, president of MGP & Associates PR, offers an answer on his blog, The Reputation Doctor (along with the assertion that “he could really help this kid”).

In addition to intensive media training prior to the F.A.M.E. release, Paul writes, “Chris Brown needs to own the issue of hitting Rihanna. He needs to speak about it often and in every interview to prove he has learned from his mistakes and will never hit a woman again.”

*Update after the jump.

Read more

Mark McGwire Winter Warmup Interview from JoeSportsFan.com on Vimeo.

A little over a week since Mark McGwire sat down with MLB Network’s Bob Costas to begin his “I used steroids while breaking baseball’s home record” confessional tour, the baseball star is trying to get back to his previous stance of not wanting to talk about the past. Sports PR executives debated the media strategy in Sports Business Daily:

Sports and entertainment marketing and communications consultant Joe Favorito praised the decision to lead with the AP and follow with Costas. “It was a very good way to manage the news cycle and get the main message — about the use of steroids — out very clearly,” he said. But MGP & Associates President Mike Paul disagreed with the approach. “I don’t think a one-day-and-done strategy ever works,” he said. “Not in politics and especially not in sports and entertainment. If McGwire were my client, I would have had the exact opposite strategy.”

As Kevin Kaduk of Yahoo! Sports writes, “No way are the local writers going to let a couple of hand-picked interviewers ask the first and final questions about McGwire’s steroid use, nor should they.”

The proof is in the pudding. As one can see via the above video of McGwire fielding questions from the media this past Sunday in St. Louis, he clearly is giving off a terrified “deer in headlights” look, as opposed to a confident one.

RELATED: Ari Fleischer Handling Mark McGwire Steroid Admission

The advice given to Tiger Woods by a slew of PR professionals over the last few weeks has had three phases. First it was “talk fast, to everyone, now!” Then it was, “you issued a statement talking about your ‘transgressions,’ that’s good, no need to do much more.” Now it’s just, “Wow, you’re in big trouble.”

As Howard Rubenstein told ABC News today, “He is beyond PR redemption. He is in public relations hell right now. There is not a PR man on Earth who can restore his image.” That’s about as clear as one can get on this situation.

The icing on the cake came yesterday, when Gatorade announced they were canceling their Tiger Focus brand. It is the first endorsement deal Woods has lost since the fiasco began. “The more women that come out and the more mistresses we learn about…the sponsors certainly have more of an evaluation going on, and there’s increased pressure for them to at least consider dropping him,” Mike Paul of MGP & Associates Public Relations told CBS News.

RELATED: Should PR Pros Continue To Pile on Advice For Tiger Woods?