Following up on a Fact File I wrote a few weeks ago about reverse product placement with 7-Eleven turning into Kwik-E-Mart–today those faux store fronts come down. The animated yellow “brick” pieces, along with polystyrene renditions of some of The Simpsons Movie cast, will be donated to children’s hospitals around the nation.

Some Simpsons fans crossed state borders to visit the cartoon-like stores to see the show come to life. And while many of them offered money for the Simpsons characters displayed at the Kwik-E-Marts, 7-Eleven has decided instead to spread the goodwill and fun by donating all Kwik-E-Mart “sets” to Children’s Miracle Network-affiliated hospitals–all located in the same major metropolitan areas as the Kwik-E-Mart stores–for them to raise funds and to entertain patients.

Other Simpsons branded merchandise will still be available at 7-Eleven stores through August while supplies last. And the popular, bright pink donut from the movie’s logo will continue to be offered…Yum.

Saul Hansell, of New York Times fame, stopped by the , and criticized the Facebook pitch meme that has .

To my mind, any pitch on Facebook is automatically a Bad Pitch.
Why aren’t you using e-mail? If you are really telling me something useful, your e-mail is the most handy way to get it to me and I’ll find it.

This week we reported in a news brief that H&K has partnered with Nutrition & Culinary Consultants (NCC) to support clients in the food and beverage industries.

According to the director of NCC, Kyle Sandix, who’s also a registered dietitian, the shift in attitude towards food is due to obesity. NCC will offer registered dietitians and chefs to aid in strategic planning related to health, wellness, and nutrition.

“There’s so much misinformation out there,” said Sandix. “We hope to bring nutrition science to a new level.”

Sandix says he’s trying to trademark the phrase “Stealth Health,” an anti-marketing technique whereby the healthfulness of the food product doesn’t radically change the brand (for instance, Kraft removed transfats from its products without altering the status of the brands). Some other trends to look out for according to Sandix - sodium as the next big topic of nutrition conversation, growing popularity of antioxidants, and increased opportunities for pharmaceutical companies as foods become more fortified.

With word that Sun Microsystems would be announcing their financial results via their Web site and RSS feeds ten minutes before sending the info out on the newswires, I thought it would be interesting to find out what it would mean for IR and corporate comms professionals.

“This is sort of inevitable,” said Susan Stillings, EVP and global managing director for financial communication at Edelman. “I think it was only a matter of time before a company decided to use the Internet for their primary distribution.”

However, Stillings believes it’s more of a tactic than a strategy, meaning corporate communications work may only change minimally. One important factor will be the stakeholders involved. A more technologically savvy group may be better equipped for the transition. Another is timing.

“We always counsel our clients to release material information outside of market hours,” Stillings added in an email. “We would make this recommendation even more strongly than we already do in order to ensure all investors have access to the information at the same time.”

The Bancroft Family has decided to sell. According to reports, family shares representing 32% of the company’s overall shares have agreed to vote in favor of News Corp’s $5 billion offer. The line for solid approval of the deal was reported to be 30%, giving Rupert Murdoch the comfortable margin he desired. That figure means that about half the family’s shares went in favor of the deal.

Caveats: There must still be a full shareholder vote to approve the deal. The majority of non-family shares are expected to vote in favor, although technically nothing is final yet. But in all likelihood, the deal is essentially done at this point.

Welcome to the Fox Street Journal. Geraldo’s take on stock options backdating, coming up at 11!

Reporting has been all over the map for the last 24 hours on Rupert’s bid for Dow Jones. A 5 pm deadline yesterday came and went with no official words. Early stories today either emphasized that the deal was not done yet (ominous) or that the details were being worked out for the deal to take place (promising).

As of 11:30, Reuters is that the deal is done and DJ has agreed to sell to News Corp. The Wall Street Journal itself has not reported that yet, and no official statement has emerged. Either way, look for definitive word by the end of the day at the latest.

Liz Claiborne CEO William L. McComb took a new route to potential success when the company known for its department store brands launched a line for J.C. Penny, which led Macy’s to significantly cut orders, The New York Times . The former J&J division president and new-to-fashion exec has decided to deflate the company by “…keeping only the brands with the potential to sustain dozens of retail stores, multiple product categories (not just clothing, but shoes, handbags and cosmetics) and international growth.”

While analysts have endorsed the plan, McComb has laid off many high-level execs and hired Project Runway star Tim Gunn as chief creative director, prompting complaints from designers.

Current and former Liz Claiborne executives said that Mr. McComb had damaged morale by effectively creating two tiers of brands — winners (like Juicy, Lucky and Kate) and losers (like Ellen, Dana and Sigrid). “It’s no fun to learn you haven’t made the A Team,” said one well-known designer whose brand is up for sale, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company forbade employees from discussing the changes.

…Four made [the] cut: Juicy Couture, Lucky Brands, Mexx and Kate Spade. By 2010, the company plans to open 300 new stores for these labels. It will operate 148 Juicy stores, up from 56 today; 311 Lucky stores, up from 189; 120 Kate Spade stores, up from 40; and 275 Mexx stores, up from 234.

Actress Sonia Manzano — better known as Maria from “Sesame Street” — took a temporary leave of absence last week from her sweeper- and toaster-repairing duties at the neighborhood’s Fix It Shop to help the National Association of School Nurses launch its “Give Your Kids a Boost” vaccination campaign.

Targeting preteens, teens, and their parents, the nationwide effort by NASN, Cohn & Wolfe, and editorial/funding partner GlaxoSmithKline is intended to raise awareness regarding the importance of keeping kids’ booster shots up to date. For certain “Sesame Street” residents, too, the campaign arrives in the knick of time: Bert’s been looking a little … yellow these days.

In particular, “Give Your Kids a Boost” focuses on the prevention of whooping cough, a disease that’s on the rise among kids 10-18. Unless they receive updated vaccinations, NASN says, middle- and high-school students across the US are also at risk of picking up highly contagious unpleasantries such as measles, mumps, and polio.

But the 36-year “Sesame Street” staple had good news on behalf of NASN: Keeping adolescents up on their shots is easy, Manzano said in a statement. “Kids are never too old for a check-up.”

Similarly, kids are never too old to stay home and feign sick, even if they did get their required vaccinations. And “Sesame Street” goes on at almost exactly the same time as that third-period algebra test.

AOL released its “Email addiction” study and found that 43 percent of e-mail users with mobile devices sleep close to their devices to listen for incoming messages. Less shocking is that Americans are increasingly checking their e-mail from everywhere – including churches, cars and bathrooms.

The study also included a list of the most e-mail addicted cities, with Washington DC, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Houston making the top five.

And while e-mail is popular, AOL mail is not. The company hasn’t been able to hold its own against Yahoo, Hotmail and G-mail. So why did the company publish the study? Perhaps to make AOL relevant in the e-mail arena again.

Last week, I got a press release about a partnership between youth marketing agency Mr. Youth and Bandai America to promote three of the main characters from Bandai’s Tamagotchi brand through a touring experiential marketing effort. For those of you that weren’t kids or didn’t have them in 1997 when they were introduced, these little egg-shaped computerized toys were designed to be like the real eggs you had to take care of for a week in high school sex ed classes. You have to feed them and look after them like a living thing or they die. Forty million of the toys have been sold, but I haven’t heard much about them since middle school.

So, is it a little late to try and generate brand awareness? According to Colleen Sherfey, the director of marketing for Bandai, the toys were relaunched in 2004 to widen the appeal to boys. They also want to generate excitement from their 1990’s early adopter fans. When dealing with kids and tweens, what’s the expiration date on a rebranding effort? And what toy can compete with video games, the pastime of choice for most youth today? Experts, please weigh in.