Public Relations

"McDonald's marketing generals have convened a war council and are hatching a strategy to combat a new attack," reports Advertising Age. The "threat" they face is journalist and author Eric Schlosser. A movie based on Schlosser's 2001 best-seller "Fast Food Nation" comes out later this year, as will his new book, which is aimed at younger readers, "Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food." McDonald's is "worried about a backlash," reports AdAge.

Sam Walton just might be spinning in his grave. He was said to detest public relations, preferring to let Wal-Mart products and services speak for themselves. Under the new regime, PR has taken on a special urgency, with company officials locking into a political campaign-like "war room" mentality to respond to critics of its labor and big box store siting strategies. Now comes word that the company is looking for "triage" and "emergency response" talent in its next key hires.

Former producer of BBC World's World Business Report and a former editor at CNBC, Jules Heynes, told PR Week UK that corporate supplied video footage - referred to as B-roll - is commonly broadcast even when stations have a policy against its use.

PR Week's Hamilton Nolan offers a candid, if not glib, analysis of the Project for Excellence in Journalism 's third annual "State of the News Media" report, which looks at major trends in American news media. "Not surprisingly, into the maw of overworked journalists and reticent corporate owners comes the PR industry.