As the season for summer blockbusters approaches, movie studios find themselves wedded to similar “blockbuster” marketing spends that rely heavily on TV advertising, the .

Despite a sharp decline in consumer spending and DVD sales that have long been the underpinning of the movie business, the studios are about to embark upon the costliest summer for movie marketing campaigns they have ever pursued. A dozen big-budget pictures are set to crowd into theaters over the short 16-week popcorn movie season, many with worldwide marketing budgets that will top $100 million each.

And much of that budget is going to pricey TV ads, say the executives. Jeff Blake, Sony’s worldwide marketing and distribution chief, told the paper: “Television is still the No. 1 medium to sell our product,” and added that although the Internet “is a rising medium,” it “doesn’t yet have the reach of TV.”

Might the PR industry have something to say?

Criticism of AIG’s hiring of PR firms just won’t die. Rachel Maddow and Breakingviews recently took critical looks at the company’s agency roster given its federal funding. This time, it comes in the form of an article from Time: “Is AIG spending too much on public relations?” The author points to recent comments from members of Congress that question “the firm’s p.r. payroll,” as well as a lawyer of former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg. AIG’s SVP of comms, Nick Ashooh - who made PRWeek’s people with the “toughest jobs in PR” 2008 list - broke down the responsibilities of its PR firms to Time.

AIG retained only one full-time p.r. firm when it ruled the insurance world. Today’s four firms, said Ashooh, have different missions: Sard Verbinnen & Co. helps to structure statements on the bailout, Kekst & Co. focuses on sales of assets to pay back federal loans, Burson-Marsteller handles controversial issues and Hill & Knowlton fields inquiries from Capitol Hill and prepares congressional testimony for company officials. “If the criticism was we were running image-advertising or doing sponsorships to make ourselves look better, I could see that,” Ashooh said. “But we’re doing a lot of information-processing. It’s really been just responding to inquiries” from Congress and the media.

A new report from the National Defense University offers some social media tips for government folks - ones “that actually makes sense,” writes Wired’s DangerRoom blog. The aptly named “Social Software and National Security,” report is expected out early next week, Wired says, but the blog provides a sneak peek at the four tenants the paper suggests:

• Inward sharing
• Outward sharing
• Inbound sharing
• Outward sharing

Hmm…

An excerpt under the “Outward sharing” headline reads:

The 2005 natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina is now a textbook example of the need for multi-agency, multi-government, multi-media engagement in an ad hoc and constantly evolving manner.  More recently, people using social software have been able to make useful contributions during real world events such as flooding in Bangladesh, the California wildfires, and Hurricane Gustav…

Who’s winning on Twitter in the political sphere? Left or right? One blogger on the right’s use of to build a conservative movement on the microblogging site.

Much of the chatter in the media has been that the left, via its awe-inspiring, marathon-length successful campaign for Barack Obama has spawned the first tech presidency. But Blog P.I.’s William Beutler of New Media Strategies argues the right is harnessing at least one channel better - Twitter.

These new conservative projects are often built around Twitter itself. Sometimes this results in really annoying tweets, but at this point the right is doing more interesting things in this space.

Thoughts from others? From TweetLeft?

Just stopped in for the Friday morning panels at the Arthur Page Society’s spring seminar, which took place over two days at the Jumeirah Essex House - a great spot that faces Central Park.

Saw lots of top agency CEOs, a number of academics, and plenty of the group’s corporate-side members as well. The membership group emphasizes recruiting senior-level PR pros that work in or on corporate communications.

The morning’s speaker that probably impressed me the most was Carlos Gutierrez whose resume includes stints as US Commerce Secretary and chief executive of Kellogg Company. In describing the value that communicators offer - whether distilling a 700-page new bill or a new product - Gutierrez remarked that “the real genius is in simplification.” He surmised that “people can’t agree with something they don’t understand,” nor can they “fall in love” with what they don’t understand. That really struck a chord.

He ended by telling the receptive audience that their jobs are “one of the most strategic roles” in a corporation.

Too bad I missed Thursday’s session. I hear CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino stirred up the strongest reaction.

The Special Olympics is hoping to eradicate the use of the word “retard” through a new campaign that asks the public to sign a pledge to “end the word.” It comes on the heels of President Obama’s late night gaffe where he equated his bowling score with that of one belonging to the Special Olympics while with Jay Leno.

In describing the community’s reaction to the president’s misstep, Timothy Shriver, chairman of the board of Special Olympics, wrote today that, “At Special Olympics, we had to deploy a round-the-clock team to monitor our website and remove offensive posts. Clearly, we’ve got a problem.”

His column for the Washington Post is here. Pledge drive is here.

When a company faces a crisis so bad that it believes its name is permanently sullied, in enters the rebrand and rename. Witness ValuJet to AirTran, Philip Morris to Altria, Anderson Consulting to Accenture, and Blackwater to Xe.

Now it seems it’s the beleaguered auto industry’s turn to get creative. General Motors’ asset management service unit, General Motors Asset Management, has dropped GM from its name, The Wall Street Journal reports. Instead, it will rebrand as Promark Global Advisors, as it looks to win more “external business.” GM currently accounts for 80% of its funds, WSJ writes.

The re-branding exercise represents a marketing about-face for GMAM, which had previously highlighted its relationship with the auto maker as a strength. Marketing material on its Web site noted: “The investment programs offered to our clients are the same ones in which GM’s benefit plans participate.” Some of GMAM’s senior executive team, including its CFO and chief operating officer, joined from GM or its GMAC financing arm.

I wonder who else will get a new name in ‘09?

In an internal memo by Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn, which PRWeek obtained last week, the agency’s top executive took issue with the way TV host Rachel Maddow characterized its past and current work. At one point in the letter, Penn writes, “Her commentary also significantly mischaracterized the nature of the firm’s past – for example, we never took a dime from Blackwater.”

However, as PRWeek has reported in the past, Burson subsidiary BKSH & Associates has worked for Blackwater. The agency has declined to comment.

Last night, Rachel Maddow returned to the subject. On her she pointed to the statement in the memo, and the seeming contradiction with a previous news report that showed BKSH had in fact worked for Blackwater. Maddow said:

Mr Penn also accused me of getting my facts wrong… If I’m wrong, I’m happy to do a correction… Is it possible that Burson-Marsteller could have worked for Blackwater but not been paid for it… Blackwater is their charity case? …I welcome any further opportunity to clear up the record.

Last night was my first time at the PRWeek Awards - and wow. What a show. I met so many great people:  the PR team at McDonald’s, Viacom, George Washington University, Pfizer, and a great agency leaders, as well as folks from PRNewswire, DS Simon, and KRC Research. While the reception was a whirlwind of meet-and-greets, dinner turned serious as folks waited to hear who took home the awards. Check ‘em out here.

My table included Rick French (FWV), Shannelle Armstrong from Sears, Lynn Hanessian (Zeno), Patrice Tanaka (CRT/Tanaka), and a number of other great folks. We cheered on everyone, though it was really unnecessary because we were seated next to that rowdy group of nine Coyne PR tables. Yes, nine! I saw Tom Coyne at the reception, and he told me about his nine tables. “Well, I told the staff if we were ever up for agency of the year, I’d bring them all,” - to paraphrase. Of course, a roar went up when the firm took home Midsize PR Agency of the Year. That was followed shortly by some wild screaming at the group of Edelman tables when it won first Large PR Agency of the Year, and then the top prize of Agency of the Year.

From job training to start-up money for entrepreneurs, New York’s mayor is looking to keep the city vibrant and poised for a rebound, despite the that Washington is the new financial heart of the country.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced a multifaceted effort last week to “help support New York City’s financial services sector and grow as a global center for business innovation and entrepreneurship,” according to the city’s Economic Development Corp. In his speech, Bloomberg said:

We are taking aggressive steps to put the City in the best position to capture growth, and we’re doing it by promoting one thing more than any other: innovation. Read more »

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