The fast food industry can’t seem to catch a break these days.

Just kidding, those chains make billions of dollars a year—and most have seen their profits increase during the recession. But their employees are another story: they keep trying to unionize! What’s that all about?

Thursday saw a successful blunt-force trauma PR campaign waged by New York City fast food employees with the backing of churches, civil rights groups and labor unions–all united under the Fast Food Forward banner and the “can’t survive on $7.25″ tagline. The first group of workers walked off the job at a Manhattan McDonald’s at 6:30 in the morning, when supporters gathered with signs demanding higher pay and better benefits. More followed suit throughout the day.

The struggle to unionize has a long history in nearly every industry, but yesterday apparently marked the first time that so many have left work en masse at dozens of different restaurants in a coordinated effort to pressure employers.

Some basic facts: The average New York City fast food employee makes approximately $7.25/hour, earning only $11,000 per year. This total obviously doesn’t amount to a living wage in a city like New York—and organization is particularly challenging in an industry with such a high turnover rate. Some also claim that their employers do not offer sufficient sick days or health care benefits. Their collective demands include hourly wages in the range of $15, which would be a substantial increase.

From a distance, this looks like a textbook case of terrible PR.

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Walmart‘s holiday season PR troubles now look to extend beyond a consumer backlash against the big-box retailers who’ve decided to begin their Black Friday sales at 8 PM on Thanksgiving day.

Last week saw more than one case of employees walking off the job in groups, and now an advocacy group called Making Change at Walmart–which operates with the support of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union– claims that this week will bring a series of protests by Walmart employees around the country. Organizers announced their plans to journalists on a conference call, predicting “a thousand store protests” from LA to DC.

Of course, the employees’ case doesn’t center on Walmart’s decision to open on Thursday evening–though some do claim that management told them about the updated Thanksgiving schedule “on short notice” and gave them no choice as to whether they wanted to work that day or not. Their primary concerns include low wages, increasing health care premiums and “alleged retaliation from management” in order to punish employees for lodging complaints and attempting to organize.

A Walmart spokesman called the planned protests “another exaggerated publicity campaign” and claimed that the employees are just looking to generate headlines, so it doesn’t look like company executives have any interest in negotiation.

We have little doubt that Walmart will succeed in its ongoing attempts to prevent employees from unionizing. But how can the company counter such a large and well-organized movement? If these protests go down as promised, we have a feeling the Walmart team will end up making a whole lot of sterile and ultimately ineffective public statements that will do nothing to satisfy the protesters.

Will these events eventually do significant damage to the business?

Over the years, retailers have begun opening earlier and earlier on Black Friday in order to make the most of the biggest shopping day of the year. This bottom line-driven phenomenon is not-so-lovingly known as “Black Friday creep,” conjuring images of something amorphous and sinister rolling slowly through the night to overtake Thanksgiving — and that’s not too far off, really.

Just ask Casey St. Clair, a Target employee whose recent petition to get the retail giant to stay closed on Thanksgiving night (rather than opening with Black Friday deals at 9:00 pm as scheduled) inspired a veritable revolt among retail employees and customers alike.

Her email via Change.org read, in part:

In the last week, over 230,000 people have signed my petition asking my employer, Target, to change its Black Friday shopping hours to let employees have Thanksgiving dinner with our families.

We have real momentum, and this Monday, I’ll be delivering my petition with over 230,000 signatures to Target Headquarters – click here to join us and add your name.

After I was on TV, my manager offered me Thanksgiving day off. But I declined. This isn’t about just me — it’s about respecting one of the few days retail workers have a year to spend time with loved ones.

While Target is certainly not alone in opening on Thanksgiving (Toys “R” Us, Walmart, Sears and KMart will be the first large retail chains to open with Black Friday sales at 8:00 pm), it has received the brunt of the public’s ire thanks to the petition.

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With every disaster comes opportunity. Last week Hurricane Sandy brought disaster, tragedy and heartache–along with the opportunity to help others while displaying compassion and courage. When people are in need, most feel that others should do something if capable. This applies not just to human beings and communities but also to brands and companies.

People always remember their times of struggle and grief–especially the people (or corporations) that helped them or exploited them.   From a public relations standpoint, Walmart and Pepsi have handled this particular crisis well by donating supplies that range from cleaning supplies, cereal and board games to snacks, breakfast bars and soda. Check out a full list of their donations.

Savvy public relations experts know that implementing a corporate response to disasters requires a deft touch so that efforts are seen as being helpful and sincere rather than opportunistic or exploitative. When the victims of Hurricane Sandy were suddenly and violently rendered without food, comfort or shelter, the fact that they received a Gatorade from Pepsi or disinfectant wipes from Walmart could create a strong bond with both the products and brand.

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In yesterday’s third chapter of our week-long “PR and Porn” series, performer/producer Joanna Angel described her entry into the adult entertainment industry and the events that inspired her to dedicate her career to her company, Burning Angel Entertainment.

Today, she discusses some very old-school PR techniques that she used expand her brand in a challenging market.

After Joanna attended her first AVN Expo in Las Vegas in 2004, she made a few key decisions:

“I decided I wanted to be one of those big studios, but I wanted to do it my way. I wanted to show people what I thought was sexy– so I went home and made it happen.”

How did Joanna promote her company in its infancy?

“We didn’t have the money to do big ad campaigns or market research like real businesses, so we reached out to friends and fans and had them hand out stickers and flyers wherever they went–it was real ‘grassroots’ marketing. I grew up in the punk scene, where people help each other out, and I posted stuff all over MySpace, Friendster and all the punk and hardcore message boards. Friends who ran little record labels put our ads on their sites. I tried to get our name out in whatever avenues were either free or affordable.”

Burning Angel’s PR efforts slowly grew more organized.

“I got to know all the New York party promoters I could, and we helped each other out. Every good party needs hot girls, so I brought my girls to events, we’d dance and have fun, and the promoters would put the Burning Angel name on their flyers and banners. We still do that today.”

“We pay very little for advertising. Our whole marketing strategy is really based on trading favors.”

Her first big move was producing the company’s debut full-length DVD.

“Something about putting out a DVD, a physical product, lit a fire under my ass. We started to get more press–someone wrote about us in the New York Times, then we started getting calls from Hustler and other big magazines and setting up meetings with big distributors. We were on the map.”

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The public understands why Walmart wants the Kindle off of its shelves. What kind of retail store would sell a product that encourages customers to shop from home? That would be like a bar selling home brewing kits to customers.

The big box chain’s very public move to drop the reader, however, is mostly symbolic because Kindle sales do not constitute a significant amount of revenue for Walmart. Symbolic gestures, however, are designed to make a statement. So what, exactly, is Walmart trying to convey to the public?

Ostensibly, Walmart’s stance is an act of defiance against the Amazon juggernaut. And that’s fine; Americans like a little rebellion and feistiness. But by kicking Kindle to the curb, is Walmart communicating the strong message its handlers seem to it is? Probably not. Read more

Miami-based Schwartz Media Strategies is expanding its real estate, hospitality and consumer affairs practices with the addition of four new clients.

Schwartz Media Strategies’ work on behalf of these companies will include regional, national and international media relations, targeted marketing initiatives and social media campaigns that engage audiences via digital platforms–all with the goal of raising brand awareness and supporting business growth.

The new clients are:

Global retailer Walmart, one of the most influential companies in Florida with more than 94,000 associates and nearly 300 stores statewide.

Jones Lang LaSalle, a publicly-held international financial and professional services firm specializing in commercial real estate.

The 641-room InterContinental Miami, a property owned by Strategic Hotels & Resorts–the premier luxury hotel for business and leisure travelers in downtown Miami.

Miami-based Pinnacle Housing Group, the nation’s seventh-largest affordable housing developer, which has built more than 6,500 affordable residential units in Florida and the southeast U.S. over the past 15 years. Read more

As we reported on July 7, the Walmart promotion that promised Pitbull would pay a visit to whatever store got the most Facebook “likes” by July 15 had been hijacked by the folks at Something Awful and The Boston Phoenix, leading to the most “likes” going to the store in the remote town of Kodiak, AK. Not quite the Miami setting the artist had been hoping for.

Once everyone was done laughing, they began to speculate as to whether the retailer and the musician would actually follow through, given the circumstances. Looks like “Mr. Worldwide” is going to live up to his name. Take a look at his classy response to the prank:

Video Via Ad Age

Many things have made us LOL today. Among them, this. This. Oh man, this. And this. But this may be the funniest.

Walmart had a promotion with Pitbull in which he would pay a special visit to whatever store managed to get the most Facebook “likes” by July 15. An alt-weekly, The Boston Phoenix hijacked the promo, suggesting that a bunch of people send him to the store in Kodiak, AK. So guess where Pitbull is most likely going? Kodiak, AK. Bap!

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Walmart is feeling the repercussions of The New York Times’ massive story about the Walmart bribery scandal in Mexico. Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) have announced that they will begin an investigation into the company’s lobbying efforts against the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Act that that the company allegedly violated with its bribes. The Huffington Post and The Washington Post reported on the lobbying effort. David Tovar, VP of comms for Walmart, denies this.

“Walmart has never lobbied on FCPA. Simply because Walmart is a member of an organization does not mean we agree with every position they take,” he said.

A shareholder, Henrietta Klein, has also sued both Walmart’s board and a number of officers over the damage to the company’s reputation and the cost of the investigation. The very busy Tovar says the company is looking at that lawsuit “closely.”

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