Last Friday 360PR stepped out of the office for the afternoon to participate in its annual summer outing. The office was abuzz the day before with speculation about the mystery outing. Guesses ranged from F1 Racing and Trapezing to umm… “dance lessons” (suggested by Mike Rush, of course!). We assembled in the conference room early Friday afternoon and learned that we would become the chefs du jour at Taranta restaurant in Boston’s North End. Yum!
In true 360 team fashion, we scoured the streets of the North End for fresh, local and organic ingredients and then set up shop at Taranta where executive chef and owner Jose Duarte and team helped us cook a delicious four-course lunch including Caprese salad, homemade ravioli, chicken and pork, and tiramisu. We made fresh mozzarella, rolled out handmade pasta, stuffed pork loin, and whipped fresh mascarpone for the delicious dessert!
All in all, the outing left us full of great food and even better memories! I’m already wondering what’s in store for 2011!
A few of us from 360PR attended the BlogHer 2010 session entitled, “The FTC Guidelines: After A Year, Has Anything Changed?” The panel included BlogHer’s co-founder and CEO, Lisa Stone, marketer Susan Getgood, blogger Kimberly Coleman and Stacey Ferguson from the FTC who discussed whether the Guidelines have had any significant impact on how marketers and bloggers do business.
The FTC endorsement guidelines became final in December 2009, and Stacey Ferguson said, “The point of the guidelines is to ensure that there is no deception in advertising, and to provide transparency to consumers.” The FTC Guidelines are just that – they are guidelines, not laws. There are no fines for violating the FTC guidelines, but transparency is always best practice. The guidelines are intended to help consumers, endorsers and brands.
The main takeaway from the session for bloggers was to be absolutely sure they are always being transparent – their readers should understand their connection to the brand.
The panel encouraged bloggers to think about it more as valuing their relationship with their readers. If a blogger is endorsing a brand, the endorsement should be natural, clear and organic.
The FTC guidelines intentionally don’t tell bloggers how to make their disclosure because they want it to be in the blogger’s voice. Some suggestions:
The best disclosure is always within context of the post or Tweet rather than at the end of a post or using a hashtag on Twitter that might not be clear, for example #sp (I didn’t know what that stood for and most consumers probably don’t either! #sp = sponsored post).
There are three rules of thumb: make the endorsement clear, make it prominent and make it unavoidable.
The main takeaway for the brands was that at the end of the day it’s the brand’s responsibility to be sure endorsers are properly disclosing. Brands need to make it clear what they expect from their endorsers, but the disclosure should be in the blogger’s voice so it feels natural.
There seems to be some confusion regarding guidelines for traditional media versus bloggers, however, traditional media has always had to follow the same guidelines! The difference is that it’s about audience understanding. It is generally understood by the audience that traditional media is receiving products to review for free.
There was also discussion about celebrities and folks from the audience were wondering if celebrities get a free pass. Kim Kardashian has tweeted that she is craving a Carl’s Jr. salad. Even though she does receive a hefty $10,000 per sponsored tweet, the FTC called Kim Kardashian after she tweeted about the Carl’s Jr. salad to ask if she was contracted to do those tweets. The answer was no. Celebrities are not getting a free pass.
Bloggers felt the embrace of brands who planned out involving and playful interactions for them at BlogHer10. There was every manner of entertainment at the show, from happy mascots and hi-energy dance floors, to coloring stations and full-on hair salons!
At this year’s event in particular, I was struck by how many bloggers were turned into brand “spokespeople” right in front of my very eyes through highly creative and video-worthy stunts and campaigns.
In a nutshell, putting bloggers on camera talking passionately about a particular topic led to a whole lot of third-party endorsements for brands. On the flip side, bloggers didn’t seem to mind their starring role in the brand videos; in fact they seemed to welcome the opportunity to be on camera, bringing to mind the possibility of a future BlogHer Reality TV series?
Please read my short letters to the brands to learn why they were the video stand-outs, extending their brand through video in the most distinctive ways.
I applaud your focus on selling products that sustain people and the environment, and I admire that you knew it would be the perfect theme for BlogHer. I like how you took a page from the Grammy’s playbook by inviting bloggers who are passionate about the quality of life on our planet to tweet their “bright” ideas for creating a sustainable future, and then feeding their tweets in real time on the giant video screen at your booth for everyone to see.
You were also genius to offer a professional video booth for bloggers to record their ideas and share them on your YouTube page and sustainability site. Having dozens of female bloggers raving about sustainability on your website is an endorsement that means way more than any paid advertising. But you already knew that. It also didn’t hurt that you had super knowledgeable folks staffing your exhibit – they were all brilliant.
Apart from the fact that I love sausage breakfast sandwiches, who wouldn’t love meeting the “hot” celebrity from your famous Jimmy Dean commercials? As if that weren’t enough, having the chance to star in a video with the “Sun” was a marketing move that really made me melt.
In the other part of your booth galaxy, I enjoyed talking to the friendly Hillshire Farms Chef who happily took the time to make me a custom, savory sandwich. She also gave me the 411 on the “Fresh Taste Challenge Sandwich Showdown” hosted by Padma Lakshmi that had 16 bloggers competing Top Chef-style to become the champion. The really great twist in my opinion was inviting three elementary school kids to judge the goods and decide the winners (they loved the sandwich ka-bob!). Talk about great content for the Hillshire Farms YouTube site, not to mention that the 16 bloggers have most likely already streamed the video on their own blogs.
It’s really good news that you are dedicated to offering online advice and information to women, and you were very clever to extend your “You. Reinvented” brand campaign to BlogHer10. After all, what’s more inspiring than stories of women who are reinventing their lives?
I was spell-bound by your fashion news-room set-up where you invited bloggers to share their “reinvention” stories on camera. I was so enamored with the idea, that I decided that I must reinvent myself in time to participate in your video show at BlogHer11.
Good for you for not only curating the blogger videos on Yahoo!, you also smartly gave embeddable videos to each of the participating bloggers so they could easily share on their blogs too. The idea that one woman’s voice on one lone blog may not change the world–but together, they wield quite a bit of power with other women is very classy.
As ever,
Cindy
P.S. I would be remiss to not offer a shout-out to the Tempur-Pedic folks for being cheeky and dressing up in pajamas, and also for jumping on the video content bandwagon with their “Ask Me” professional photography booth.
360PR is out in full force at BlogHer this weekend (#360PR , #BlogHer10) , as are dozens of brands showing off their wares and services to attendees. Are you at BlogHer? If so, we want to know which brand/s you think are doing the best job of breaking through. Visit our Facebook page throughout the weekend to cast your vote in our poll!
I am positively giddy with excitement about the implications of the command social media performance this week by the super-suave Isaiah Mustafa and the Old Spice digital and creative team. They produced 160 personalized videos in 48 hours as the viral online extension of their award-winning manmercials. As a result, Old Spice’s Twitter account acquired tens of thousands of new followers and The Old Spice YouTube channels have been viewed over 58 million times. Without a doubt, the Old Spice social media invasion was not only brave, but has seriously raised the bar on what it now means to create buzz and human-time engagement on the web.
What came off as an easy and breezy, dare I say organic execution on social media was undoubtedly a vast and deliberate production, orchestrated by dozens of Wieden + Kennedy writers, art directors, producers, editors and social media strategists, not to mention the camera and lighting crew, teleprompter worker person, etc. I can imagine the studio in Portland might have resembled Cape Canaveral when NASA readies to launch a shuttle into space.
The team averaged around 7 minutes to make each video, and released several videos per hour, responding in what felt like real-time to fans, stars and internet celebrities from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, blogs and more. Check out the top 10 hottest videos here. Beyond the sheer creative talent at Weiden + Kennedy, there also had to be a sizeable creative and digital budget to support the production of so many well-lit commercials, not including Mustafa’s compensation (he is so handsome and clever he should ask for a raise anyway).
In an interview, the head of Digital for Weiden + Kennedy said that the digital push began with the notion of the character responding to people about the TV commercials. He said, “We knew there was a massive love for this guy and what people wanted was to be in the shower with him. So that’s where we started from.” The agency decided to really center the push around YouTube and Twitter. YouTube hosted the videos, while Twitter provided the bulk of the distribution.
The team made savvy moves. They activated influencers by pre-producing videos for people such as Perez Hilton, 4chan, and AdFreak, posting them on their blogs and @replying to them on Twitter. They also activated communities such as DIGG and Reddit. For example, they knew that Digg Founder Kevin Rose was sick so they made a get-well video for him and posted it on Digg with the title “Get Well, Kevin Rose! The video became the top content on Digg with over 5,000 Diggs. They even created a call for comments on Reddit and posted a time-stamped picture of Isaiah saying Hi to Reddit. And they bought a Twitter ad campaign to feature the push as a trending topic.
All of these tactics combined helped the Old Spice brand activate large communities and drum up buzz before they had even rolled out 10 videos. The social media team then scoured the Web for comments related to the campaign and fed the ones that were either funny or from interesting sources to the creatives, who determined which would make good fodder for the videos. It was clearly all a big commercial, but kudos to the creatives for being tongue-in-cheek and for talking about the use of Old Spice in a way that felt light hearted and fun. Mustafa’s baritone voice and convoluted wordplay made for such entertaining delivery. He even made us laugh and cry with this video to his daughter who posed a question to him on Twitter.
I don’t know if this campaign will help sell more Old Spice, but I do know that I no longer think of Old Spice as a Fuddy-Duddy brand. Smells like success to me!
Thank you, Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy, for spicing up the viral marketing landscape.
With another wildly successful 360 “Tweet and Eat” lunch under our belts, we are not only a few pounds heavier, but are also fully up to speed on recent hits and misses of digital marketing and PR. Some of the case studies shared during lunch were so great we just couldn’t keep them to ourselves! Here are a few of the highlights:
Vitamin Water and Eclipse (movie) Facebook Contest- Surrounding the release of the third Twilight movie, Eclipse, Vitamin Water launched a new Vampire-like drink. To promote it, they launched an Eclipse contest on their Facebook page where fans could win tickets to see the movie and unlock exclusive Eclipse posters! For such a fan-brand, this campaign is smart and engaging for the user. A no brainer!
Denny’s Menu Misprint = FAIL! - An older example, but one worth mentioning is from earlier this year when Denny’s misprinted the company’s Twitter handle on menus that were distributed to 1,500 Denny’s locations across the country. The menus asked customers to “join the conversation” by checking out the Twitter.com/dennys handle, which does not actually belong to Denny’s. Moral of the story? Pay closer attention to the details. More details in this CNET article.
Orbit Gum Web Shorts – In June, Orbit Gum launched a series of HILARIOUS web video shorts staring comedien/actors Jason Bateman and Will Arnet. This must have cost Wrigley’s a fortune, but it seems to be doing really well so far. The first video, Prom Date, has recieved over 220K views on YouTube!
And, it’s not really a case study, but for fans of “The Office,” character Ryan started his own social network called “Woof.” Check it out for a good Friday afternoon laugh.
The 2010 Bell Ringer Awards were bustling last night – nothing like a roomful of PR people with cocktails waiting to be recognized! The awards cast a spotlight on the leading-edge campaigns of the past year by New England-based firms.
The lifetime achievement award was presented to Larry Weber, a reminder of the caliber of talent, entrepreneurship, and innovation that has come from the Boston PR community over the past 20+ years. ”PR has always been the influence of opinion through the use of content,” said Weber, commenting on the opportunity for PR in today’s content-driven digital world. It was a simple but inspiring statement.
360 was in great company and our team was truly honored to be recognized with 13 awards, including five gold Bell Ringers. Garnering six awards, our launch of Dorel Juvenile Group’s AirProtectTM car seat safety technology was among the most gratifying. That campaign helped educate millions of parents on the very real dangers of side impact crashes and what can be done to help protect children. And campaigns for Allrecipes and Snuggie® were just plain fun, in addition to meeting their very real business objectives.
You can read a full list of the winning campaigns on the Publicity Club’s site. Congrats to the more than 40 agencies, companies and organizations recognized at the 41st Bell Ringers!
That’s the thinking behind Togetherville, a juvi-social network where the 10 and under set can hang out with their parents online and give social networking a whirl in a safe online neighborhood.
It’s free to join and parents create their child’s account through their own Facebook log-in. Parents can “play” with their kids online – hence the together in Togetherville – and can approve or reject friends that their children ask to bring into their neighborhood. Creator Mandeep Singh Dhillon told CNET.com that it’s all about creating accountability. He said, “Togetherville allows parents to create neighborhoods of the real people in their child’s life to be around their kid as they grow up online.”
Similar to Disney Digital Books, the site looks different for parents and children. And in this kiddie-size version of Facebook, your kids can comment on a status update using canned responses called “quips.” The site does let kids write their own free-form messages, but they must be approved by the parent before being sent. From the kids site, the games, videos and other activities are all pre-screened and no ads are allowed. From the parents site, you can send your kids notes and gifts, look at their activities and see what they’re creating. Kids also get passports that they can fill up with badges by playing games and watching videos on the site.
Let’s face it, kids under 13 are not allowed on Facebook, but they are joining anyway. And while there are some really nice things about Facebook, the perils aren’t worth the trouble that can happen if your young child isn’t supervised.
The question is whether parents will take the Togetherville step before letting their kids loose online. And, we’ll find out soon enough whether the Togetherville model even proves to be “safe enough.” Let’s also hope that Togetherville doesn’t turn into Addictedville and shut out important real-life experiences for young kids.
For now, it seems to me like a great solution for parents whose kids who are chomping at the bit to get online. It may just provide a valuable head start in teaching kids early on netiquette and the importance of safety and privacy on a social networking site. There is no denying, these sites are here to stay and will only evolve and grow.
So please share, would you use Togetherville with your child?
We recently kicked off a new monthly shin-dig here at 360. We order lunch, gather in the conference room and share hit (or miss) uses of digital media. The inaugural “Tweet and Eat” (#360TweetandEat) was held earlier today and it was a rockin’ good time! There were a ton of great stories and case studies shared and the P.F. Changs was delectable. Now, for the round-up. Here are just a few of the highlights:
Tom Tom Darth Vader Video: GPS maker Tom Tom recently released the first in a series of downloadable Star Wars voices that people can upload to their own GPS devices. What an innovative partnership! As part of the campaign kick-off, they created a mock behind-the-scenes video of Darth Vader in the audio studio. It’s hilarious. And in just a couple weeks, it has garnered over 1.2 million views on YouTube.
Macy’s Fashion Director Monthly Challenge: On Facebook, Macy’s links to an innovative and interactive contest website on which they challenge consumers to assemble the perfect summer outfit (or at least that is the “challenge” for this month) and the winner gets a $1,000 Macy’s gift card. Overall, over 10,000 outfits have been created on the site so far. Check it out for yourself here.
Boeing Social Media Lesson Learned: Recently, a NYC ad agency executive emailed a drawing of a plane to Boeing from his young son, at the son’s request. A very corporate form letter was sent in return that said something to the effect of ‘we can’t accept unsolicited ideas’. New to Twitter, Boeing saw that the ad exec was tweeting about this not-so-friendly form email and reacted. Even though Boeing was new to social media, they are taking steps to use it to communicate with people – and, therefore, making the company a lot more “human”. Read more on the NY Times Media Decoder blog.
Google Job Experiment This should win an award for “best job-search strategy” if there is such a thing. An unemployed ad exec implemented a $6 Google Ad Words campaign, so when leading ad agency Creative Directors vainly searched for their own name an ad came up that said “Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too.” From this, the executive received 4 out of 6 responses and 2 job offers and is now employed at one of the agencies. This quick YouTube video illustrates.
If YOU were at our “Tweet and Eat”, what would you have shared?
If you think about it, many of the foods you eat and items you purchase are influenced by what your mom used in the home when you were a child (even though you might not want to admit it)! Nowadays, moms are taking that influence online-in the form of blogs- and influencing more than just their kids about what they should be eating and buying.
McDonald’s, which recently named Rick Wion as its first Social Media Chief, has expressed three main goals for McDonald’s – to use “social media to build the business, manage customer problems, and beef up (pun intended I presume) outreach to target groups such as mommy bloggers.”
This topic – building the connection between brands and mom bloggers was the focus of a Blog with Integrity & Council of PR Firms webinar that our 360 team participated in last week titled “Bridging Brands & Bloggers.” Panelists Susan Getgood, Beth Blecherman, Michelle Madhok, and Tim Hurst shared the three “R”s of blogger relations: research, respect & relationships.
Research: Any brand or PR firm that wants to get in-front of the momosphere needs to find the right moms first – picking at random won’t cut it with the mamas.
Respect: Well, who wouldn’t respect a mom to begin with? But as a rule, treat bloggers with as much respect as journalists.
Relationships: Possibly the biggest theme of the session – building relationships with bloggers is key. Without any sort of relationship, the blogger has no reason to listen to your pitch or even your brand.
For brands large and small who would like to connect with not just moms, but bloggers in general, you might just want to keep these nuggets of wisdom to mind.
A good parody is an attention grabber, especially when it’s on YouTube.
That’s one of the lessons I learned first hand at the “how to make a viral video” session at SXSW, where along with 500 other people, I had the good fortune to star in a parody video that since it’s posting only four days ago, has already been viewed over 34,0000 times on YouTube.
So here’s what happened. Spoofing the highly popular surprised kitten video – as in viewed 21 million times popular – Damian Kulash, the You Tube sensation from the OK GO band, pretended to tickle a room full of people in the SXSW audience. See surprised SXSW audience.If you like this spoof, check out Damian’s attempt to tickle his pet dog, who doesn’t seem at all surprised. See surprised dog.
The SXSW viral video seminar was led by Jonathan Wells, the creative director at Flux, Margaret Gould Stewart from YouTube, Jason Wishnow from TedTalks and Damian Kulash from OK GO. They were informed and articulate, and it was one of the more meaningful and lively discussions at SXSW. I learned that many popular viral videos happen not on purpose like, Charlie bit my finger. So the question is, how do you create a successful viral video on purpose? Here are 10 secrets I learned from this panel of pros:
1. Don’t be a Debbie Downer. Most videos that go viral spread happiness.
2. Go for a sense of wonder, inspiration and surprise, and create content around the unexpected and the great reveal.
3. Use multiple camera angles and close ups so viewers can develop an emotional connection with those on camera. Watch James Watson on TedTalks to see some awesome camera angles and inspired delivery of content, in turn creating both an emotional and intellectual connection with the speaker.
4. Exclusivity online doesn’t work. Allowing people to embed your video is good common sense. Science has it that the traffic that drives virality in the first 48 hours is due to embedded video on blogs, not on You Tube.
5. Viral doesn’t always mean having to create original content. You can also curate original content from others and provide a platform to help them gain a larger audience for their content.
6. Create a video people will compulsively want to watch over and over again. One way is to think of the most impossible thing to do. Then do it. That’s the approach taken by OK GO on their latest video, which took 6 months, 65 takes and 60 engineers to create. But it averages 4-5 views per session.
7. Metadata is the SEO equivalent of making your video go viral. Make sure you tag your video properly once it’s on YouTube so people can find it. It’s also recommended that you connect your YouTube channel with your Facebook account. This way all your YouTube updates will get automatically posted on Facebook.
8. People are compulsive about sharing human experiences. Visceral emotions in video around love, food, sex, and laughter generally get passed around.
9. Viral is in the eye of the beholder. People who come to YouTube from social networks are more interested in what else their friends are watching. The idea is to understand the mindset that people bring with them and build off that in creating your video.
10. Be quirky.YouTube’s top celebs are quirky and lo-fi, but they draw audiences any cable network would envy.
Without a doubt, it’s always fascinating to see smart, unique, and occasionally crazy concepts come to life. Most interesting are those that connect with a brand and really support brand awareness.
I welcome your comments and love to hear what you see working to hook fans with video!
Click on the two videos below for a sneak preview of the SXSW discussion called “Pass it Back! Kid Apps on Grown-Up Devices” featuring PBS Senior Director Sara DeWitt (the actual discussion is on Monday, March 15 @ 5 PM in Ballrooom C in case you are one of the lucky ones in Austin).
Sara tells 360 that she will be revealing real-time research findings from PBS on what kids are learning by using iPhone apps. From what I’ve seen, most parents have a “do touch” instead of a “do not touch” policy when it comes to iPhones and other grown-up devices, and kids at all ages appear more than ready to embrace the technology. Apparently parents are buying apps to entertain and educate their kids in growing numbers. They also use the apps for distraction purposes, such as long rides in the car or to give their kids something to do while waiting in the doctor’s office (at least it’s their own germs and not someone else’s!)
We look forward to hearing Sara’s research reveal, and you can bank on finding the results here on the 360 blog.
In case you’re unaware, the 360PR Facebook Fan page launched yesterday! To celebrate, this week’s digital news stories all focus on, you guessed it, Facebook!
The 360 digital team invites you to become a fan of 360 Public Relations and poke around on our page. You may be surprised to see dogs outfitted in Snuggies walking the runway and 360PR staffers dressed in furry hats and boas, but we promise, it’s all there. You can also catch up on news related to 360PR, like our most recent edition of the MomSquad Trendletter. You can even read our blog posts right on our page!
So log on, and then read on, for the latest Facebook buzz!
All Facebook “Want To Run a Promotion For Your Company? Facebook Must Approve It First” – Many brands offer promotions via their Facebook pages. Previously, these promos were, for the most part, freely run and seemed to greatly benefit the company behind the contest by gaining fans and building buzz. As of last Thursday, Facebook is cracking down on the rules and regulations behind company-run Facebook promotions. Not only is there a new set of strict guidelines outlining what companies can and cannot do, Facebook must approve all promos before they go live.
Mashable “Facebook Ads Now Let You Target Friends of Your Fans” – A new feature from Facebook Ads allows you to expand your audience beyond just your friends. Now, if you’re invited to an event, are part of a group, or use a Facebook application, your friends are able to see ads targeted at you. Marketers rejoice!
For the past 48 years, The Hatch Awards, hosted by the Ad Club, have been New England’s premier creative awards show. Over 1200 entries are reviewed by a dozen judges – high-ranking creative executives from outside the New England area. Awards are presented across 32 categories including every kind of media possible.
As part of the Ad Club’s PR Committee, 360PR attended the show on Tuesday night…and was blown away (props to Boston University’s drum corps)!
Hatch Awards 2009
I serve on the Ad Club PR Committee and one of the things we try to do is to cast a light on the young, diverse creative ad biz in Boston – the industry has moved well beyond the bygone “Mad Men” era. This year, we invited some special guests to attend — some leading bloggers from the Boston area. As we all know, mom bloggers are the movers and shakers of the world — they can topple brands or create success stories in the blink of an eye. In fact, U.S. moms say 80% of ads miss the mark (via M2Moms). But experts say that we can improve those results by using social media to create online communities and brand advocates.
We also set up a hash tag for bloggers and members of the Hatch audience to follow. Over the course of the evening, there were over 70 Twitter status updates using #AdClub. The following local bloggers in attendance driving the conversation were:
Some of the gold bowl recipients were Arnold’s picturesque FootJoy print ads (something any golf fanatic would love) in the Consumer Magazine Spread category, Mullen’s hilarious Boston Bruins national TV spots (my personal favs), and Hill Holliday’s sobering Liberty Mutual TV spots.
We just wrapped up the latest 360PR Book Club with a great read – Tactical Transparency by Shel Holtz and John C. Havens. It was a lively discussion (to say the least) and this book left us all contemplating…what is the balance of transparency?
In a nutshell, the bookemphasizes that with the Internet and growing use of high-speed connections it is necessary for companies to be transparent. Holtz and Havens define transparency as the degree to which an organization shares its leaders, employees, values, culture, business strategy and the results of its business practices, with stakeholder publics.
There are organizations that use transparency to their benefit, and others who miss the mark. One of my favorite examples is Apple, which was transparent in their response to negative reactions online resulting from a sudden drop in the price of the iPhone. Instead of ignoring complaints from early adopters who felt cheated by the holiday price drop, Steve Jobs apologized in an open letter and offered a $100 credit.
On the other hand, an example from Wal-Mart illustrates how a lack of transparency can backfire. The WalmartingAcrossAmerica.com blog followed the adventures of a couple travelling cross-country, stopping in Wal-Mart parking lots. Customers had a strong negative reaction when it was leaked that Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM) funded the trip.
It’s clear that transparency is no longer just a “need-to-know” concept. As Holtz and Havens state, “The flood of social media has brought in an age of digital transparency that is putting the power to create or destroy a reputation into the hands of consumers. Every business today must speak the language and meet the expectations of a new digital population.”
As the combat mission ends in Iraq, 30,000 additional troops are heading to Afghanistan. Comparisons between the two wars are inevitable. Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq, brings to Afghanistan many familiar military faces and the strategy of creating local forces to take control of security at the grass-roots level. […]
The rapper and his wife, singer Tameka Cottle, were arrested in Los Angeles Wednesday night after police smelled what appeared to be marijuana coming from their car on Sunset Boulevard. […]
A gunman police shot to death after he took hostages at Discovery Channel's headquarters said he hated the company's shows such as "Kate Plus 8" because they promote population growth and its environmental programming because it did little to save the planet. […]
Tourists were largely gone from North Carolina's Outer Banks, but those resolute residents who stayed behind say they were prepared Thursday to potentially face down the most powerful hurricane to threaten the coast in years. […]
Amateur chef Mark Zable from Texas has a new culinary invention: fried beer. Zable tells Steve Inskeep this is the first time anyone has successfully deep fried a liquid. He'll debut his fried beer at the Texas State Fair later this month. […]
The European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, but the Swedish central bank raised its rate, citing worries about inflation. […]
We just wrapped up the latest 360PR Book Club with a great read – 
