== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. Keep Your Smoke to Yourself, S'il Vous Plait
2. "I Shop. Therefore I Give."
3. Santa Ho Ho Ho's for Coal
4. An Industry Look at 2007's Biggest PR Blunders
5. Weekly Radio Spin: Want Fries with That Grade?
6. The Best Propaganda Ever
7. Numbers Game
8. "Posted to YouTube, Sir!"
9. 2007 Most Deadly Year for Journalists in Over a Decade
10. Bush a Uniter -- of Iraqis, Against the U.S.
11. FCC: Big Media Should Get Bigger

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== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. KEEP YOUR SMOKE TO YOURSELF, S'IL VOUS PLAIT
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6838
  The French National Committee Against Tobacco Addiction is
  launching an edgy new campaign based on previous ones against
  AIDS/HIV, "except that there is no mention of condoms, but of
  cigarette butts and the 'toxic emanations of cigarettes' remaining
  several hours after smokers have left." The film for the campaign
  was conceived of pro bono by the Compagnie 360 Euro RSCG ad agency.
  It shows an amorous couple in a Paris dance club. A voice-over
  intones, "Caroline doesn't know that she is in the process of
  contracting a deadly disease ... because every day here she absorbs
  toxic substances left by the smoking of cigarettes, which stay for
  several hours after ... " The target of the film is second-hand, or
  passive, smoking. The public service announcement will show on
  television in conjunction with the January 1, 2008 start of a
  smoking ban in French dining establishments and leisure and
  entertainment venues.
SOURCE: Le Monde (France), December 17, 2007

2. "I SHOP. THEREFORE I GIVE."
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6837
  'Tis the season of gift giving, and of retailers trying to grab as
  much of their market share as they can. While encouraging
  consumerism and excessive consumption, sellers also seek to tap into
  nobler urges toward benevolence and charity at this time of year.
  But, as the New York Times editorializes, "people who feed their
  philanthropic urges by shopping should beware. This kind of
  fund-raising is largely unregulated, and the few state laws that
  exist are mostly unenforced. There's often no telling where the
  money goes. As The Times recently reported, several charities named
  in a holiday catalog from the upscale New York retailer Barneys --
  including the World Wildlife Fund -- found out they were listed only
  when a reporter contacted them." This cause-related marketing, or
  what is also referred to as embedded giving, is not new, but
  continues to grow, without accompanying oversight or regulation. "A
  host of profit-seeking sites have sprung up online, with names like
  benevolink.com (slogan: I Shop. Therefore I Give.) and
  charitymall.com, offering to satisfy the giving spirit." But Senator
  Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, recently introduced a bill
  "that would require better notification to charities and their
  consent in any marketing. Buyers would have to be told how much of
  the item's price actually goes to the charity." The Times editorial
  board concludes, "For now, the old-fashioned, direct, tried and true
  route to charity seems best."
SOURCE: <i>New York Times</i>, December 22, 2007

3. SANTA HO HO HO'S FOR COAL
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6834
  Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a front group for the coal
  industry, is "sending 30 Santas to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to
  deliver stockings filled with coal-shaped chocolate," reports The
  Hill. "The goal of the campaign is to shift coal's image as a key
  contributor to global warming to a relatively cheap and increasingly
  clean provider of electricity." David Roberts predicts that "This is
  only the beginning of what promises to be an enormous PR campaign by
  an industry that sees the writing on the wall. In public, it will be
  smiles and Santas. Behind the scenes, it will be slime campaigns
  against candidates who dare propose a shift to renewable energy."
SOURCE: Grist, December 19, 2007

4. AN INDUSTRY LOOK AT 2007'S BIGGEST PR BLUNDERS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6833
  Fineman PR of San Francisco, California, has released their list
  of top ten PR blunders of 2007. Topping the list at number one is
  "No Reporters? No Problem" -- the fake news conference staged by the
  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about their response to
  the California wild fires. (FEMA also merited a Dishonorable Mention
  in CMD's 2007 Falsies Awards.) Coming in second was a poorly
  conceived guerrilla marketing campaign. "When Boston residents
  suddenly noted blinking, cryptic devices attached to bridges, bus
  depots and subway stations, they alerted city authorities, who shut
  down sections of the city to remove the devices and ensure that they
  were not related to a bomb threat or other terrorist activity." The
  culprit? The Turner Broadcasting-affiliated Cartoon Network,
  advertising their program "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
SOURCE: The Huffington Post, December 15, 2007

5. WEEKLY RADIO SPIN: WANT FRIES WITH THAT GRADE?
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6832
  Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the
  Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind
  the news. This week, we cover the military march on YouTube, Gitmo's
  not so anonymous defenders, and what the Lincoln Group has been up
  to in Iraq. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how
  baby bottles and Happy Meals are connected. The Weekly Radio Spin is
  freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can
  subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If
  you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us
  at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!
SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, December 21, 2007

6. THE BEST PROPAGANDA EVER
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6818
  The latest email bulletin from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy
  called our attention to a list that someone has compiled of the "Top
  10 Propaganda Videos." Viewing the list in chronological order is
  like taking a trip through the social obsessions of yesteryear: a
  clip from Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 pro-Nazi film, "Triumph of the
  Will"; a 1943 anti-Nazi cartoon by The Walt Disney Company, and a
  pro-tax film from the same year featuring Donald Duck; a Communist
  propaganda film from Moscow in the 1940s; American anti-Communist
  and anti-homosexual films from the 1950s; anti-porn and anti-LSD
  films from the 1960s; an anti-software piracy film from the 1990s;
  and a recent anti-American film that denounces the war in Iraq and
  the Project for the New American Century.

7. NUMBERS GAME
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6828
  In late November  the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers
  announced the results of a survey of 353 East African corporate
  executives for its "Most Respected Company" award for 2007. The
  winner was the Kenyan mobile phone company, Safaricom. One of
  Safaricom's claims to fame is that it boasts the highest profits of
  any company in the region. Betty Caplan, who recounts her own
  unsatisfactory experience with the company's customer service, is
  less than impressed. "Could the highest profits in the region -- and
  amongst the highest on the continent -- be the result of cutting
  costs on customer care, and spending a lot of our hard-earned money
  instead on hype? And don't give me that nonsense about Corporate
  Social Responsibility. What they spend is the equivalent of about 5
  cents to you and me and done purely to improve their image, not out
  of any real desire to give back to the community," she wrote.
SOURCE: Daily Nation (Kenya) , December 17, 2007

8. "POSTED TO YOUTUBE, SIR!"
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6827
  YouTube has become de rigeur for posting official war propaganda.
  As CMD reported in October 2007, NATO has dedicated at least 1
  million Euros (about $1.46 million U.S.) to produce and post footage
  to the popular video sharing site. In Britain, the Ministry of
  Defence (MoD), Royal Navy and Royal Air Force all have channels on
  YouTube, with dozens of short videos shot by or with their forces.
  The Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNFI) also has a presence on
  YouTube. Their videos include combat footage, like one titled "Close
  Call for Marines," deemed graphic enough by the community of YouTube
  users that it is necessary for viewers to sign in to prove that they
  are adults. Other clips of a more general, human interest nature are
  those like "Iraqi Boy Scouts prepare for Jamboree," which can be
  viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH80g_Mkin0.
  "The MNFI said the purpose of its videos were to give a
  'boots on the ground perspective' of Operation Iraqi Freedom."
  Defense analyst Gordon Mackenzie "said videos shot by soldiers on
  operations had been appearing on the internet for some time despite
  MoD efforts to control them and these have been used in the past by
  the BBC. However, Mr Mackenzie said videos of operations uploaded
  officially by the ministry and armed forces verged on sending out a
  political message. 'Effectively the armed forces are carrying out a
  political order. The Ministry of Defence is a political
  organisation, the army isn't, but has to find support for what it's
  asked to do.'" In May 2007, CMD reported that the U.S. Department of
  Defense had blocked soldiers and journalists from accessing YouTube
  and other sites when using DoD computers.
SOURCE: BBC News, December 13, 2007

9. 2007 MOST DEADLY YEAR FOR JOURNALISTS IN OVER A DECADE
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6825
  The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a report stating
  that 64 journalists died as a direct result of their profession in
  2007. That marks the highest mortality rate since 1993. Nearly half
  of those deaths occurred in Iraq, with Somalia following in second
  place. 2007 is the fifth year in a row that Iraq topped the list,
  and the Committee reports that "most of the killings were targeted
  attacks, as opposed to deaths caused by cross-fire." The Committee
  also states that in Iraq "unidentified gunmen, suicide bombers, and
  American military activity" are the main perpetrators of the
  violence. All but one of the 31 reporters killed in Iraq were Iraqi
  citizens. Committee Executive Director Joel Simon said, "Working as
  a journalist in Iraq remains one of the most dangerous jobs on the
  planet. These journalists gave their lives so that all of us could
  be informed about what is happening in Iraq."
SOURCE: New York Time, December 18, 2007

10. BUSH A UNITER -- OF IRAQIS, AGAINST THE U.S.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6824
  The PR firm outed in 2005 for planting U.S. propaganda in Iraqi
  newspapers is still in Iraq, working for the U.S. military. The
  Lincoln Group, "which has conducted surveys for the military since
  shortly after the invasion, received a year-long contract in January
  to conduct focus groups," reports Karen DeYoung. The focus groups
  interviewed "separate groups of men and women ... in Ramadi, Najaf,
  Irbil, Abu Ghraib and in Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad."
  When asked to describe "the current situation in Iraq to a foreign
  visitor," most Iraqis "would describe the negative elements of life
  in Iraq beginning with the 'U.S. occupation' in March 2003,"
  according to a December 2007 report. So few participants mentioned
  Saddam Hussein that the report states, "the current strife in Iraq
  seems to have totally eclipsed any agonies or grievances many Iraqis
  would have incurred from the past regime." The Iraqis interviewed
  had "far more commonalities than differences," including that they
  "see the departure of 'occupying forces' as the key to national
  reconciliation."
SOURCE: Washington Post, December 19, 2007

11. FCC: BIG MEDIA SHOULD GET BIGGER
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6823
  On a three to two party line vote, the U.S. Federal Communications
  Commission (FCC) voted to overturn "a 32-year-old ban," allowing
  "broadcasters in the nation's 20 largest media markets to also own a
  newspaper." FCC Chair Kevin Martin, who proposed the change, called
  it "a relatively minor loosening" of media ownership rules.
  Dissenting Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein
  disagree. Copps commented, "We shed crocodile tears for the
  financial plight of newspapers -- yet the truth is that newspaper
  profits are about double the S&P 500 average. We pat ourselves on
  the back for holding six field hearings across the United States --
  yet today's decision turns a deaf ear to the thousands of Americans
  who waited in long lines for an open mike to testify." Congress may
  try to overturn the change, though Bush is likely to veto any such
  attempt. In related news, Martin delayed a vote on product
  integration on television. The delay came after lobbying by "the
  three main U.S. advertising trade groups," though the FCC is
  expected to address the issue by early 2008, according to Hollywood
  Reporter.
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 18, 2007

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