You only have to spend a few minutes on “The Campus” of ESPN in Bristol, CT to understand how big the company has actually become, and how much it continues to grow. The first thing you see from the street when driving by is the army of satellite dishes pointing skyward. They vary in size from small to huge and they litter the entire campus. And they don’t call it the campus for nothing. Walking from a parking garage to the building that houses SportsCenter immediately takes you back to your undergrad days when you would have to trek across campus from your dorm to your political science class. It’s no wonder there’s a shuttle bus.

The campus has the feel of an airport, and that’s not just because of its sprawling 100 acres–when the network launched more than 25 years ago it barely had two–it feels like an airport because of the construction that’s taking place around every corner. From the expansion of the cafeteria and the construction of its newest office building, to the building of the satellite farm that will house all of the networks satellites–including one so big it will do the work of thirty mid-size dishes–the construction seems never ending.

Aside from the size of the campus and the number of satellite dishes, it’s the number of people working at ESPN that boggles the mind. Every time you turn a corner in any of the numerous buildings no matter how remote of a corner you may think you’re in, you’ll find three to four guys sitting in front of monitors watching and editing highlight packages. And in some rooms there are upwards of 50 people sitting in front of monitors.

But to get a real feel for just how much the company as well as technology has evolved one only need to step on to the old and new SportsCenter sets and then walk through the old and brand new newsrooms. Seeing each side by side sums up the company’s growth better than anything.

What originally looked like a PR coup could be turning into a PR headache for Verizon Wireless. Earlier this week the the company announced that it had signed an exclusive deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) to sell its customers ring tones from music catalog of Bob Marley. But just two days later the singer’s family said they would file a lawsuit to block the deal, reports.

According to the Times, a spokesperson for the family said Verizon Wireless originally approached him a few months ago and after meeting with representatives of the company twice it proposed the deal as a matter of simply licensing the music. The family, the Times reports, held that if the cellular company was going to provide the ring tones exclusively and use Marley’s image to its marketing benefit, it amounted to an endorsement.

An endorsement contract would give the family more control of how Marley’s image and name could be used. Verizon did not make an endorsement offer and went to Universal and made a deal without the family’s blessing.

Is Eric Alterman touchiest media guy ever?

Quite possibly.

The Washington Post reports today that a Health and Human Services campaign to encourage breast-feeding was toned down after the powerful formula industry got involved. What began as a blunt ad campaign intended to show the health risks of not breast-feeding, somehow morphed into ads that carried as much bite as….well as anything featuring “dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops” possibly could.

The story says the formula industry hired a “former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former top regulatory official” to lobby the HHS. Now, predictably, Congress is getting involved. I say predictably because when former surgeon general Richard Carmona testified last month that political considerations interfered with his job, one had a feeling Congress would be hearing more on the matter.

Toyota is taking a run at the 30-year-old global sales record held by General Motors and said it plans to sell 10.4 million cars globally in 2009, the reports. The company is planning to boost sales not only in North America and Europe but in other emerging markets as well including Brazil, India, China and Russia.

Analysts say Toyota is “likely” on pace to surpass GM as the world’s top automaker in global vehicle sales and production in 2007–a spot that GM has held for 76 years.

We have provided extensive coverage of Toyota’s rise over the past year including its surpassing GM as the world’s top auto seller, its entry into NASCAR, the launch of the 2007 Tundra, and the big three’s reaction to the Japanese automakers’ rise.

Absolut held a party in Manhattan two nights ago to introduce its limited edition Absolut New Orleans vodka. (To mark the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, click here for a scathing recap of federal government response and here for a wrap up of the president’s visit to Gulf area.)

The party included haunting photos of post-Katrina New Orleans as well as a silent auction with Absolut New Orleans bottles signed by celebrities such as Eva Longoria and Brooke Shields, a guitar signed by Little Stevie Van Zandt, and other items. A jazz band played, Absolut New Orleans cocktails were served (it has a pepper/mango taste, which sounds scary but when mixed with muddled watermelon, for instance, was surprisingly refreshing), and chefs from Ruth’s Chris Steak House handled the food. All of the proceeds from Absolut New Orleans will go to charity. More details here.

While you’re there, take a look at the main Absolut Web site. There’s so much good stuff going on here, I spent 30 minutes trying to see it all.

The Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile-defense system was never very popular in Europe, where citizens in countries such as Germany feared that hosting interceptors used to track or shoot down nukes coming from Russia would make those countries actual targets of missiles.

The modern incarnation of the missile-defense system, on which the US is still spending billions to develop but has only very rudimentary capability to show for it, apparently is still causing fear within potential host countries, judging by this report that the Czech Republic is looking to hiring a PR firm to sell the alleged benefits of the system to its citizens.

For decades, filmmakers and marketers have tried to harness the power of aroma to generate audience reaction. They’ve used electric fans and scented mists, plug-in air fresheners and Internet-style “smell servers” – mostly, to little reward. So leave it to chicken-mongers KFC to come up with a low-tech concept that might actually work: piling a plate of the Colonel’s hot-and-savory breasts, legs, and thighs (and a biscuit) on an office mail cart, and wheeling it through a busy work space just around lunchtime.

In what KFC is calling its “first-ever aroma-focused” product placement program, the chain is launching this corporate mail-drop pilot in Washington, Chicago, and Dallas. The goal? To tempt hungry cubicle-dwellers with KFC’s latest creation, the “$2.99 Deal.”

It’s an interesting idea, and will likely get folks talking about those 11 secret herbs and spices. Let’s hope none of the pilot-program corporate execs have any scary childhood memories related to poultry.

The Coors Brewing Co. is trying to take advantage of the shifting tastes of American beer drinkers and has launched a new subsidiary called AC Golden Brewing that will develop high-end beers, reports . In an e-mail sent to beer wholesalers last week, Coors Brewing said AC Golden Brewing would introduce above-premium beers into the market at a calculated pace, which contrasts with the “usual brewer process of full-blown, national rollouts that are very expensive and have had only limited success historically.” The company said it would grow its upscale beers at a pace reminiscent to that of its Blue Moon brand, which took over a decade.

The launch of AC Golden Brewing comes at a time when the beer industry has lost market share to wine and spirits brands as well as upscale “craft” beer brands. Conventional domestic beers have also been losing market share to imported brands. The country’s top two beer producers Anheuser-Busch, SABMiller PLC’s Miller Brewing Co., both recently launched new beverages in response to the changing tastes of consumers.

Reporters: fear for your jobs. This is the .*

Publicists, learn how to  pitch via Twitter or else.

* Or, more likely, the absolute opposite of where reporting should be heading.