I think my fate as a PR professional working for an advertising firm was sealed at a young age. How could it not be with imaginary friends named Calgon and Xerox!?@#* I've spent nearly 15 years in PR -- from crisis management, reputation management, media relations, employee relations, community relations, shareholder communications...you name it, I've probably dabbled in it a little. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people associate PR with party planning. When I'm not running and jumping around loudly at work, I'm probably running around with my two kids, husband, dog, cats or fish. (OK, the fish don't really "run" around with us.)

The new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guides took effect on December 1, 2009. Read on to find out what has changed.

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Transparency and monitoring are arguably the two biggest elements of the new FTC guides that took effect December 1, 2009. The explosive growth of social media — and blogs in particular — has been one of the driving forces behind this update.

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As marketers, we’ve all likely devoted time to online searches about our companies, brands and products. But when was the last time you Googled or surfed the Web for information about your key spokesperson(s), C-level executives or board members?

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Recently I was forced to go on a digital diet — and not by choice. My six-month-old cell phone stopped working. As a working mom, my cell phone is my connection to nearly all my everyday communication needs. Initially, I thought the expiration of my cell phone would be a good thing — boy was I wrong!

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Heather Woolford tells you about one of the worst advertising campaigns she ever saw. It was for the new Always Infinity pad with the campaign tagline — “Experience the Magic” — featuring a red-haired women dressed in all-white magician outfit. Do you agree?

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One of the most commonly asked questions we get whenever suggesting Facebook to a Client is, “Isn’t that something used just by people who are in or recently graduated from college?” Not anymore.

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Sometimes it’s our children who remind us of what’s important — in life and in business. How one teenager’s trade off to play high school sports demonstrates the Sacrifice tenet of the Challenger Brand Philosophy.

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