ARMY KICKS OFF REVIEW

The U.S. Army has kicked off the mandatory review of its PR program, which has a budget of more than $25M.

Weber Shandwick is the incumbent PR firm on the account that is the overall responsibility of sister shop, McCann Worldgroup.

Edelman, Fleishman-Hillard, MS&LGroup and Qorvis Communications are among those expected to be in the hunt for the Army business.

The ultimate winner of the business faces the daunting task of promoting the wind-down of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in a new era of Pentagon penny-pinching as Defense Secretary Robert Gates rides herd on outside contractors. RFP info is at odwyerpr.com.

BROADBAND PUSH SEEKS PR PITCHES

Computers for Youth, a New York-based national not-for-profit that has landed $23M in federal grants to get computer and Internet access to low-income families, has produced an RFP for PR to support a major push in Los Angeles and the Big Apple.

The 11-year-old organization has landed the grant funds from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

Among tasks outlined in an RFP, the group wants a firm to develop a comprehensive PR plan that includes media analysis and targeting, social media, spokesperson development, and writing of op-eds and press releases, among other endeavors.

The account is a new assignment and there is no incumbent, said Philip Vlahakis, managing director, development and communications for CFY.

Computers, training, broadband enrollment discounts and tech support are part of the package CFY uses to reach its target groups.

Download the RFP at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

Matt Gardner, who was president & CEO of BayBio, has joined MSLGroup as senior VP in San Francisco. He takes command of healthcare clients in the western region.

BayBio is the trade group for life science companies in northern California. The area boasts of nearly 1,400 companies employing more than 100,000 people. MS&L teamed with the group to develop the BayBio IMPACT campaign.

Gardner reports to Jeanine O'Kane, North American healthcare practice chief, and Joe Carberry, president of the western region.

MS&LGroup is part of Publicis.

HURD CALLS ON SITRICK

Deposed Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has hired Sitrick & Co. for PR counsel as he navigates the aftermath of his forced resignation from the Silicon Valley giant.

Hurd’s departure was announced by H-P following an investigation of a claim of sexual harassment against him by a former company contractor and ex-reality show contestant, Jodie Fisher.

Sitrick partner Glenn Bunting, a crisis and media specialist who heads the firm’s San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Miami offices, is representing Hurd.

The firm repped former H-P board chair Patricia Dunn when she resigned in 2006 during the company's “pretexting” scandal.

H-P said the 53-year-old Hurd, mostly lauded for his term guiding the tech giant, did not violate the company's sexual harassment policy but broke its standards of business conduct.

H-P’s board of directors reached out to APCO Worldwide to determine the potential corporate fall-out surrounding the harassment charges after Fisher contacted H-P’s board in June. The Washington-based PR firm, decided H-P would most likely “endure a devastating PR hit” if Hurd remained at the helm.

H-P found no violation of its sexual harassment policy. Hurd maintains that he did not have a sexual relationship with Fisher.

APCO’s B.J. Cooper declined to comment about work for H-P, saying corporate policy is not to discuss client work.

Meanwhile, Caprice Fimbres McIlvaine, who headed internal communications at H-P before becoming “program manager” to the CEO, followed Hurd out the door. McIlvaine joined H-P from Blanc & Otus in 2004 and started out at Shafer PR and Advertising.

EX-BUSH AIDE TAKES EDELMAN SLOT

Deb Fiddelke, former deputy assistant for legislative affairs in the Bush II White House, is now senior VP in Edelman’s public affairs practice.

She worked for Bush from 2004-08, tackling policy, communications and strategy development.

Most recently, Fiddelke worked for the committee that sought to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago.

That effort included outreach to international chapters of the American Chambers of Commerce, embassies and federal Washington.

AEROMEXICO FLIES TO NEWLINK

Aeromexico has selected Miami-based Newlink Communications to handle its integrated marketing program of the carrier that bills itself as the “global airline of Latin America.” Paco Communications had the account.

“Aeromexico is a natural fit for us,” Cessie Cerrato of Newlink told O'Dwyer’s. Cerrato noted that a nearly three-year stint with the Mexico Tourism Board "opened many doors for us and expanded our knowledge and expertise within the Mexico market.”

Newlink has “also managed the State of Jalisco and currently has the Los Cabos Convention & Visitors Bureau for the Mexican market and the Cancun CVB for the Mexican, U.S. and Canadian markets,” said Cerrato.

Aeromexico recently launched new routes from Monterrey to U.S. destinations Miami and Houston, and a new connection between Mexico City and Bogota.

These are challenging times for Aeromexico’s home base, which is seeking a rebound from the swine flu outbreak of 2008 and current fall-out from drug cartel violence. First-half tourism revenue is up 7.3 percent though the number of international visitors grew only 2.6 percent to 6.8M.

Mexicana Airlines declared bankruptcy and cancelled scores of flights earlier this month.

The Federal Aviation Administration, on July 30, downgraded Mexico’s aviation safety rating from Category 1 to Category 2.

The Mexico Tourism Board has just launched a new campaign with the “Mexico: The Place You Thought You Knew” that runs through November. JWT developed the campaign that features natural wonders and various cultural treasures that are off the beaten tourist track. JWT’s Omnicom sibling Burson-Marsteller promotes that effort.

FIRM BACKS ALASKAN CO. AFTER CRASH

Thompson & Co. PR, with offices in New York and Anchorage, is handling PR for Alaskan telecom GCI, which owned the aircraft that crashed on Aug. 10 killing former Senator Ted Stevens and injuring former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe.

Thompson account manager Gary Scott is handling media inquiries about the incident. He told O’Dwyer’s that GCI has been a client of the firm since 1989.

In a statement issued Aug. 10, GCI president and CEO Ron Duncan expressed condolences to the victims and thanked the emergency responders who handled the remote crash scene in the Last Frontier State.

A GCI executive, Dana Tindall, was among five of the nine passengers killed.

“On behalf of the men and women of GCI, I offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends dealing with this heartbreaking event,” said Duncan. “We will do all we can to support them in the weeks and months ahead.”

TEXAS PLANS STIMULUS-BACKED ENERGY PR

A week after awarding a $175K PR contract supporting propane vehicle use, Texas has issued an RFP to boost energy efficiency and renewable energy outreach to its citizenry.

The RFP, issued on Aug. 6, carries a budget of $250K funded by the federal stimulus law.

The assignment handling "brand communications and consumer messaging strategy services" is supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which dedicated billions to renewable and new energy.

Texas’ State Energy Conservation Office received a $5M grant from the Dept. of Energy for a statewide outreach and education campaign and has launched three efforts - a website, social media campaign, and a marketing communications push - earlier this year.

The work included development of a “brand personality” and plan for reaching the public through social media, public service ads and other tactics.

Proposals are due Sept. 1. Download the RFP at odwyerpr.com/rfps.

CARIBBEAN MOVES U.S. PR

The Caribbean Tourism Organization has tapped Quinn & Company after a competitive RFP process for its U.S. PR account.

The $125K pact with the organization representing 34 regional governments was previously guided by Lou Hammond & Associates since 2007.

An RFP open through late May called for a firm to handle media relations, issues and crisis management, events, social networking and other assignments.

Five years of experience in the sector was a minimum requirement to pitch.

A selection media decided on Quinn last week, said Sylma Brown Bramble, Director for the Americas.

L.A. PR EXEC DOLL DIES AT 48

Lynne Doll, a 25-year-old veteran of Los Angeles’ The Rogers Group who guided its lucrative public sector PR practice and served as president and partner of the firm, died of a stroke Aug. 3. She was 48.

Doll, who beat cancer after a three-year battle, is remembered as a hands-on manager known for her integrity and a sharp wit, the firm said in a statement.

“I have always admired her and will miss her beyond measure,” said Ron Rogers, chairman of the firm, who recently cited Doll’s hire when asked about the best decision of his career.

Doll served on the boards of directors for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and The DAISY Foundation and previous board stints included the National Conference for Community and Justice and the Los Angeles Fire Department Community Advisory Committee.

A Los Angeles native, Doll joined in TRG in 1985 after a stint as an account executive at Berkhemer & Kline. She is survived by her husband of 24 years, David Lans, a 13-year-old daughter, Natalie, her mother, Carol Doll, and three sisters.

THOMAS TO EXIT NEWSWEEK

Evan Thomas is leaving Newsweek after an almost 25-year run to concentrate teaching journalism and writing books.

He will leave with the completion of the Washington Post Co.'s sale of the magazine to Harman International.

Thomas is editor-at-large and a former Newsweek Washington bureau chief. He worked at Time before switching to Newsweek.

Thomas is joining editor Jon Meacham in departing the magazine, which has been sold by the Washington Post Co. to electronics magnate Sidney Harman.

Meacham resigned after 15 years after the deal was announced.

PSB INVESTS IN ONLINE NEWS SITE

Minneapolis-based Padilla Speer Beardsley and The Dolan Co. are investing $1M in BringMeTheNews.com, which was founded by former news anchor Rick Kupchella.

PSB CEO Lynn Casey and Jim Dolan will join BMTN's board of directors. The PR firm's involvement in the venture is to get an “insiders’ view into new and emerging ways to deliver news content to consumers,” according to the release announcing the investment.

Casey says the BMTN model “showcases reporting from respected sources, credits and links the reader back to those sources and relies on sponsored content instead of traditional advertising to generate revenues.”

BMTN “fits within Padilla's mission of helping organizations communicate with the people who are important to their success.”

BMTN has a dozen staffers who gather local news and distribute it via online and social media sites. It produces radio broadcasts that are aired on Clear Channel stations in Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Cloud, Brainerd, Marchall and Warroad.

Kupchella spent 20 years as investigative reporter and anchor at KARE-11 in the Twin Cities.

Dolan was executive VP of the Jordan Group, a New York investment bank focused on the media. He also held positions at Kummerfeld Associates, mergers and acquisitions, and began his career as a reporter.

LOVEN TO EXIT AP FOR GLOVER PARK

Jennifer Loven, a veteran Associated Press reporter who currently serves as its chief White House correspondent, is slated to join The Glover Park Group’s public affairs unit.

Loven has reported from Washington for 13 of her nearly 18 years with the AP and was tapped as the news organization’s chief White House scribe in 2008, when she also was president of the W.H. Correspondents Association.

She joined the AP out of college, starting in Detroit in the mid-1990s and moving on to cover the Michigan statehouse prior to her work in D.C.

Loven will take a managing director slot at Democrat-heavy GPG.

Ben Feller is taking over as the AP’s new White House correspondent, according to Politico.

JOHNSON PUBLISHING TAPS ROGERS

Desiree Rogers, who was White House social secretary for President Barack Obama, is the new CEO of Johnson Publishing Co., the world’s biggest black-owned publisher.

She succeeds Linda Johnson Rice at the Chicago company that owns Jet and Ebony. Rice remains chairman at JPC.

Rogers is lauded for being an “exceptional communicator” and “expert in repositioning brands, utilizing their core essence to engage customers.”

The New Orleans native was VP-corporate communications at Peoples Energy, head of the Illinois State Lottery, and ran a social networking program at Allstate Financial before joining the White House.

Johnson took heat for the “gate-crashing” incident involving Tareq and Michaele Salahi at a White House state dinner for the leader of India last year.

Anne Sempowski Ward resigned as president/COO of JPC in July. She was the first non-family member to hold that post.

In another move, Rodrigo Sierra was named senior VP and chief marketing officer at JPC. He's in charge of PR, brand management, research, digital and social media strategy.

COMPENSATION RISES AT PROPUBLICA

ProPublica bolstered overall salaries and benefits 53.2 percent to $6.1M last year, according to its Form 990 released yesterday.

That increase came as revenues at the non-profit newsroom dropped 25.7 percent to $6.4M. The Form 990 lists 47 employees last year. The 2008 filing shows 46 staffers.

Editor-in-chief Paul Steiger earned the most last year with total comp at $585,117. That compares to $584,242 in 2008.

Managing editor Stephen Engelberg made $374,694 in 2009, down 21.7 percent from the $478,614 `08 package. General manager Richard Tofel collected $342,290, up 6.5 percent from the earlier year. Senior reporter Dafna Linzer received a 26.1 percent comp boost to $225,876. Other reported figures are for senior editor Susan White ($178,074) and senior reporters Charles Ornstein ($199,092), Tracy Weber ($197,552) and Thomas Miller ($197,155).

NJ NAMES WHITE HOUSE TEAM

National Journal Group has tapped The Atlantic politics editor Marc Ambinder and USA Today correspondent Aamer Madhani as National Journal’s new White House team.

Ambinder will continue with The Atlantic through the November elections while Madhani joins next month. Ambinder has blogged at TheAtlantic.com and ran the site’s “Politics” channel. He also writes for the magazine, is a contributing editor to National Journal and chief political consultant to CBS News.

Madhani has covered foreign affairs for USAT based in its D.C. bureau. He joined the paper in December 2008 as the Baghdad bureau chief.

(Media news continued on next page)

BOOK: PR, MEDIA AIDING ‘BEAUTY BIAS’

“How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people,” the Beatles once sung. If you are one of the blessed ones perceived as attractive, it feels pretty good. If not, tough luck.

“Baby You're a Rich Man” could be the sound track for “The Beauty Bias,” a book written by Stanford law professor Deborah Rhode and published earlier this year by Oxford University Press.

She believes attractive people get hired and earn more than those less looks-blessed, sloppy or overweight. The good-looking are viewed as more intelligent, athletic, sociable and more in control of their lives than the rabble. Women are the biggest victims of appearance bias, though short men face a similar treatment.

Rhode feels discrimination against people on the basis of their looks is just as bad as race and sex bias. Hence the book’s subtitle: “The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law.”

The author’s point is hardly a new one. A rose is a rose is a rose, wrote Gertrude Stein. Rhode does break new ground with a clarion call for legal remedies to head off appearance bias.

In a world wrestling with economic distress, war, environmental degradation and poverty, beauty bias may appear trite. Some worry about courts clogged with petty cases involving grooming, weight and appearance while lawmakers waste time drawing up “appearance codes.”

Rhode is unfazed, pointing out that Michigan and six cities/counties (San Francisco, Washington, D.C.) already have appearance discrimination laws on the books.

Cases are rare because most suits get settled before trial. Rhode’s bigger point: laws deter unjust bias.

PR Under Attack

PR people working the $200B beauty business aren’t going to be handing out The Beauty Bias as holiday gifts this year or any time soon.

In the book, media, advertisers and PR come under withering attack.

Rhode takes on the media for endlessly “magnifying the importance of appearance and the pressures to enhance it.”

PR people are scolded for promoting appearance-related products cloaked in a “veneer of pseudo-science” promising “effortless perfection.”

Madison Avenue is blistered for telling women that as long as a double standard exists, “they might as well do what they need to do and get on with their lives.”

Beauty items, diet and cosmetic surgeries are advertised as “be all they can” and “express who they really are.” Personal fulfillment is but skin deep, not from within.

Results from the communications onslaught are far from beautiful. Endless exposure to “airbrushed, surgically enhanced fashion models and Hollywood celebrities” reinforces unrealistic standards, according to Rhode.

Since only five percent of American women are in the same weight category as actresses and models, efforts to “replicate their figures often lead to eating disorders and related psychological dysfunctions.”

Millions of hard-earned dollars are wasted on diets as 90 percent of dieters fail to keep the pounds off over time.

Rhode points out that sexualized portrayals of prominent women in everything from athletics to politics. That overemphasis on appearance "deflects attention from their performance and reinforces sex-based double standards."

Hillary Clinton's cleavage, Sarah Palin's beehive and Michelle Obama's upper arms are played up and chuckled about, diverting attention from their accomplishments.

Rhode finds it telling that the highest paid member of Palin’s VP campaign was her make-up artist, which “speaks volumes about our misplaced priorities.”

She bemoans the absence of attractive older women in the media who actually look their age. Walter Cronkite and Tom Brokaw retained their influence as they aged and male movie stars play romantic leads in their later years. When in his sixties, Sean Connery was voted "sexiest man alive" by People magazine.

Women, by contrast, “are expected to play opposite men thirty years their senior, and to bow out gracefully or have work done when the signs of age become pronounced.”

Rhode quotes a Boston Herald columnist writing about an overly-made up Katherine Harris, who was in the midst of the Florida recount mess, as “a woman of a certain age trying too hard to hang on.” Harris was 43 at that time.

Hardwired at Birth

Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, but “aesthetic preferences are to large extent hardwired, based on circuits in the brain shaped by millions of years of sexual selection,” wrote Rhode.

Over the eons, “individuals whose genes survive are those who choose mates with characteristics conducive to reproductive success.”

Attractiveness is one of those characteristics because it signals health and fertility, particularly in females, according to Rhodes, who has 75 pages worth of footnotes in the 238-page book.

Evolutionary imperatives encouraged parents to favor good-looking children because they have the greatest potential to marry and produce kids. It’s a case of survival of the fittest and loveliest.

Besides advocating for appearance discrimination laws, Rhode believes individuals, business and the media can affect positive change.

For their part, the media should promote more diverse, healthy and realistic images of attractiveness. The author applauds authorities in Madrid and Milan for banning underweight models from fashion shows. London's Fashion Week receives raves for requiring models to have a doctor's note indicating their health is not a risk.

— Kevin McCauley

VERONIS SUHLER SEES PR REBOUND IN 2011

PR and word-of-mouth marketing, a $5 billion business in 2009, are poised for modest growth next year after double-digit declines in 2009 will ease this year, according to a robust analysis and forecast of the communications sector by Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

Spending on PR, promotions and word-of-mouth marketing is expected to fall another 2.7% in 2010 before bouncing back. Through 2014, VSS sees an annual growth rate for PR of 5.6%.

John Suhler, president and general partner of VSS, said the expansion period forecast by his firm will be a “longer and slower” recovery because of the breadth and depth of the recession.

VSS’ breakdown of the communications sector.

“Advertising and marketing investments, historically the drivers of communications growth during recoveries, are expected to be more muted due to the shift away from traditional media outlets to more targeted media,” he said.

The VSS forecast found that spending on PR, promotions and word-of-mouth fell 10.7% in 2009 to $70.54 billion.

PR by itself is expected to reach $4.4 billion in 2011, up from VSS’ estimate of $3.4 billion this year.

PR and WOMM, combined, dipped 2.8% last year to $5.05 billion, VSS noted, amid a downturn in traditional PR offset by a double-digit gain in word-of-mouth, which has proven to be effective and cost-efficient, the analysis found.

“Public relations, meanwhile, suffered a setback in 2009 as a result of tight budgets and difficulty in correlating PR to sales lift,” said the VSS report. “PR, however, will rebound in 2010 and post accelerating gains during the forecast period, as companies seek to rebuild consumer relationships following the recession.”

For 2011, VSS sees a double-digit decline in B2B promotions offsetting modest growth in consumer promotions, PR and WOMM. B2B is expected to bounce back in 2012, but the whole group, which VSS calls “marketing media,” will be slowest growing and smallest communications sector through the next few years. “Solid gains in public relations and world-of-mouth marketing will be unable to mitigate sluggish growth in traditional marketing segments…” the report notes.

VSS said PR and WOMM will benefit from an ongoing shift from “traditional” to “alternative marketing vehicles” which are seen to generate better return on investment.

Total communications spending, which includes advertising, media and marketing, is forecast to grow 3.5% in 2010.

Consumer advertising is seen to decline through 2011, while business and professional information and services, including companies like Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and Nielsen, is expected to be the fastest growing industry sector through 2014.

VSS sees the fastest communications revenue growth in the “institutional end-user space,” which includes TV programming and licensing fees, trade shows, and business and professional services.

The report can be viewed online at vss.com.

DJ TAPS CHIVERS FOR FACTIVA

David Chivers, executive director of WSJ.com and new products for the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, has been tapped as VP of Factiva products for Dow Jones, a new position based in Princeton, N.J.

Chivers has global responsibility for the strategy, development and management of the Dow Jones Factiva product portfolio and for Wall Street Journal Professional Edition offerings. He was previously director of online audience development for Meredith Corporation.

Scott Schulman, president, corporate markets, Dow Jones, said the company will continue to make “a significant investment” in the Factiva platform and said Chivers appointment will be key to the service’s future.

PRN ADDS PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

PR Newswire has inked a distribution deal with Ellam Tam, the 10-year-old firm billed as the first PR and communications agency in the Palestinian territories.

Under the agreement, ET, based in Al Bireh in the West Bank, represents PRN in the Palestinian market giving businesses and groups operating there the ability to broadcast news and messages globally.

Lisa Ashworth, PRN’s CEO for Europe, called the deal a “tremendous opportunity for local enterprises, international businesses and aid agencies” operating in the territories.

ET, which has seven staffers, had services in place to distribute news locally. Kamel Husseini, managing partner and a former consultant for Arthur Andersen, said “corporate Palestine can enjoy credible and assured access to both regional and global media via this specialized wire service.”

MOBILE SERVICE FOR DESTINATIONS UNVEILED

eBrains, McLean, Va., and SIM Partners, Chicago, have launched an integrated mobile marketing platform for local and state travel destination marketing organizations called destinationM.

The service incorporates a WAP and iPhone app, along with social media integration, local search distribution, text messaging, and real-time reporting.

It offers consumers hospitality industry listings, reviews, streaming video, promotional incentives, maps, and directions to attractions, events, accommodations and restaurants.

The Fairfax County Convention and Visitors Corporation is the first entity to utilize the service.

Info: destinationm.com/features.

BRIEFS: Business Wire will host an hour-long online audiocast Sept. 21 on XBRL and new SEC requirements for that reporting language at 1 p.m. Speakers include Gary Purnhagen, director of compliance services for BW and Ali Paksima, XBRL accounting manager for BW. Register at : https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/445433329. ...PRSA’s National Capital Chapter will host its annual Thoth Awards Sept. 23, 2010 at 6 p.m. at the Willard InterContinental Hotel. Chris Hansen, “Dateline NBC” correspondent, is emcee. Info: www.prsa-ncc.org.

BLJ WORKS QATAR WORLD CUP BID

Brown Lloyd James has an $80K a-month contract to promote Qatar’s bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which would be the first Middle Eastern state to host the soccer championship.

Qatar's bid focuses on five state-of-the art and eco-friendly stadia to accommodate 40K to 50K fans.

A key selling point: upper-tiers of the facilities are to be removed following the World Cup and donated to developing countries in need of sports infrastructure.

BLJ is targeting media in France, Belgium, Spain, Cyprus, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Paraguay, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Tahiti and New Zealand, according to its contract with the Qatar 2022 Bid Committee.

Key journalists will be invited to visit Qatar in November, a month before Zurich-based FIFA announces the winner.

Qatar is competing against the U.S., Belgium/Netherlands, England, Russia Spain and Portugal. Those countries have entered bids for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

Australia, Japan and Korea have submitted bids for 2022 competition. Brazil, which hosted the 1950 World Cup, has the 2014 contest.

BLJ’s John Watts, Christian Fianco, Dave Barrett, Alex Ely and Khaled Ramadan are coordinating the PR drive in Qatar's capital city of Doha.

Mike Holtzman, executive VP, and Alison Bradley, VP, are working the account from New York.

SALINAS PITCHES PERFORMANCE PAY

Salinas, Calif., home of the California Rodeo, International Airshow and Steinbeck Festival, is soliciting proposals to develop a community branding and marketing strategy to pitch the city for business, new residents and tourism.

But its payment of a firm is tied to sales of branded merchandise, according to an RFP, which calls it a “once in a lifetime chance” for an agency. “For example, if the chosen consultant had created the ‘I Love New York’ bumper sticker, the firm would receive a percentage of the proceeds from those marketing items for a five-year period,” the plan reads, noting a scale from 80% of proceeds in the first year through 20% in year five.

The city, which touts “yesterday’s charm with today's modern conveniences,” issued an RFP Aug. 10 and wants to get pitches through Sept. 7 for the assignment.

“While the current brand for the City of Salinas is recognizable, there is a need to identify a brand and marketing strategy that will speak to the true nature of the community and the benefits of living and doing business in Salinas,” reads the RFP.

“The City of Salinas will be offering the chosen consultant a once in a lifetime chance to make money off of their Community Branding & Marketing Strategy Plan,” says the RFP.

Download the RFP at odwyerpr.com/rfps. Note - the deadline is Sept. 7, not the Aug. 2 date indicated in the document.

SALAHIS ALLEGEDY STIFF B-W-F

Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications says Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the couple that burst upon the U.S. scene when they allegedly gate-crashed a White House dinner, owe it $15,000.

The Falls Church, Va.-based firm says the Salahis hired it to promote their America’s Polo Cup, a D.C. event that matches a U.S. team with an international partner each year. America squares off against Costa Rica in `11 and sponsorships abound.

B-W-F president Steve Winter claims the Salahis “skipped out on the tab.” An affidavit for “debtors’ interrogatory” was served Aug. 5 at the unsanctioned premiere party for "Real Housewives of D.C.” Michaele is a member of Housewives cast.

Winter told Us Weekly the affidavit “means they have to appear in court to discuss their financial means-how they are capable of paying off the debt.”

T/K SCOOPS UP TCBY ACCOUNT

TCBY has moved its PR account to Atlanta-based Trevelino/Keller Communications after a competitive pitch process.

Lime PR was the incumbent agency for TCBY, which is based in Salt Lake City and has 800 locations in the U.S. and abroad.

The frozen yogurt icon marks its 30th anniversary this year and in the spring parted ways with its longtime ad agency Stone Ward, moving its account to a start-up firm, LevyTenny.

TCBY CEO Tim Casey cited Trevelino/Keller’s expertise in the food and beverage sector, as well as franchise industries. Clients have included Ritz Camera retail stores, Monkey Joe’s restaurants and Moe's Southwest Grill. “We needed a firm that not only was sound in public relations and social media, but showed a real hunger to work with us,” he said.

The account covers industry relations, national trade press, executive visibility, store openings, franchise sales, tradeshows and events and social marketing for the TCBY brand and its franchises.

Dean Trevelino, principal of T/K, called TCBY a “Goliath” in an industry rife with “Davids.” He says his firm can “get down to the level of grassroots tactics, guerilla strategies and outmaneuver the field by going head to head.”

He said the review was an “extensive process with multiple firms – two rounds, but no written RFP.”

THAILAND TAPS GC

Global Communicators has inked a deal to represent Thailand's commercial affairs office at its D.C. embassy.

Jim Harff's firm is to school Thai officials on the “history and role of media in the U.S.,” and to provide “practical lessons on how the media operates and how to leverage positive coverage for Thailand,” according to its six-month agreement.

GC is to organize a "Thai International Property Rights Roundtable" next month, orchestrate Congressional briefings and plot a social media campaign to promote trade policy issues important to Thailand.

Gary McCormick, PRSA chair, who is an ad salesperson for HGTV (home/garden), defined “PR” in terms of advertising and marketing in his speech Aug. 10 to the Lexington, Ky., chapter.

He said the focus of PR pros should be on “outcomes rather than output, change instead of publicity clips” and that PR's purpose is to "generate revenue, sales, profit."

Our question to McCormick is, “What is there about the word ‘public’ that you don't understand?!”

PR is the one department in a company that is supposed to educate and inform the public and be responsive to reporters when they ask questions.

PR’s chief mission, as repeated over and over in the Society’s code, is increasing public understanding of something.

The bona fide “measurement” of PR is how much detailed information is supplied on a subject, how thorough and widely disseminated the articles or broadcast programs are, and how open to questioning are the leaders of an organization.

Articles in media, instead of being derided as “publicity clips,” should be examined for their depth and completeness. Dialogue is supposed to be set up.

McCormick repeated the mantra of those who attended the “measurement” meeting in Barcelona, Spain for eight days in June – “outcomes” rather than “output” should be measured. He was there.

The mufti of measurement could only define PR in the negative – “ad value equivalency is not the value of PR.”

McCormick Defines His Job

McCormick, who is not on the PR staff of HGTV, defined his job as "co-branding" HGTV with such companies as Bed, Bath & Beyond, Whole Foods and Disney.

They buy ads on HGTV and are able to say in their stores and media that they have advertised on HGTV.

“We get to their audience and they now feel the same thing about our brand…(co-branding) can increase customers quickly,” McCormick said.

HGTV not only sells an ad, it gets the company to give it free publicity! McCormick urged chapter members to try to do the same.

Lacks Knowledge of ‘Race’ and ‘Ethnicity’

McCormick's answers to a reporter at the meeting show he does not know the difference between "race" and “ethnicity.”

The former can't be changed while the latter is a group of behaviors and beliefs that can be changed. The two are “separate and distinct entities,” says the U.S. Census Bureau.

The 2010 PRS candidate form focuses on candidates' commitment to “diversity” and this is said to include “race.”

PRS has only had two black women on its board in 63 years and no black men (one served for four months and quit).

For the second year in a row has rejected a highly-qualified black candidate. This year it was Regina Lewis, 25-year PR veteran who has worked for about ten PR firms and companies (including Kodak, Fleishman-Hillard, Shandwick and MS&L), and who presently heads communications for The Potter’s House of Dallas, a “mega-church” serving hundreds of thousands.

McCormick defined Lewis in terms of her “ethnicity,” saying that while “a great candidate,” Lewis would not want to be on the board solely because of her “ethnicity.”

Lewis was no doubt sold on being a PRS candidate by Wynona Redmond, president of the National Black PR Assn., a non-voting member of the board of PRS.

Lewis is the parliamentarian of NBPRS. We wonder what she thinks of the PRS Assembly allowing voting by proxy.

A big culprit in the information freeze at the Society is the staff.

A staffer told a delegate in an e-mail last year that the identity of the 300 or so delegates would not be provided even to delegates until the delegates “sat down” at the Assembly.

Rank-and-file members are not allowed to see such a list at all. This has been the policy since 2006.

The staffer relented after protests and allowed delegates to see the list but only if they personally requested it.

We asked ten delegates to get the list on behalf of us and the general membership and all refused. They were afraid of being tagged as the leaker.

Staff Withholds Voting Records

A subject rarely mentioned but decisive is that staff and leaders have the voting records of Assembly delegates since 1999 when electronic voting devices were introduced.

The devices are numbered and generate an electronic record with each vote.

This is invaluable political information, telling staff and leaders what chapters are the most loyal to national and what chapters might be critical.

The Committee to Promote Democracy in PRSA (CPDP) should have access to all this information.

Thus far it has obtained 352 signatures on its petition to remove the APR requirement for board/officer service including those of nine Fellows and nine PR professors.

Withholding such information is only the tip of the iceberg of such stonewalling activities at h.q.

Leaders/staff, in yet another violation of Robert’s Rules, did not supply in the minutes the actual vote totals of the more than 50 votes that were taken at the 2009 Assembly.

The minutes of a meeting, as defined by Robert's and others, are a record of any actions taken and this includes the vote totals that were flashed on the screen after each Assembly vote last year.

Leaders and staff combine on numerous other information-withholding and delaying activities including:

• Refusal to supply a complete list of members in PDF or any form since 2005. The 21K list can be printed out 50 names at a time. Staff/leaders refuse to discuss this topic.

• Refusal to supply a transcript or recording of the Assembly since 2005.

• Refusal to allow the Assembly to be audiocast although it would be cheap and easy.

• Refusal to publicize the speaking schedule of chairs such as McCormick.

• Removal of the printed list of attendees from the packets given to registrants at the annual conference. Attendees must make a special request for such a list.

• Removal of the names and contact points of all but seven of the 55 staffers from the website. Until this year staffers were listed by their names, titles, phones and e-mails. Tracking staff turnover has become impossible.

• Removal of the single list of chapter presidents and their contact info. Members have to download 110 chapter websites to get such info.

— Jack O'Dwyer