After writing the feature about how the Bahamas is working to attract the entertainment industry, I found this article interesting. It takes a specific look at Minnesota, which is also working to add incentives and get more movies to film there.

Valerie O’Neil, VP of global communications at Starbucks, told PRWeek via email that the company created brand messaging around the election following the Starbucks Leadership conference last week, where the company pledged support to such causes as community involvement.

“Joining with our US customers in celebrating the election is a logical extension of that commitment, and gave us a way to immediately support customers, who care about the same things we do and want to make a difference,” said O’Neil, who also noted the tie-in was “a popular idea” at MyStarbucksIdea.com

The company initially connected the brand with the election by advertising that anyone who voted would receive free coffee. This promotion briefly ran afoul of election laws that bars remuneration for voting, and was widened to include any customer who requested a tall brewed coffee on Election Day.

Ultimately, regardless of the brief messaging mishap, the promotion was seen as a success with “great buzz online and in the stores,” said O’Neil.

Fresh off the news that Kristin “Manhattan Madam” Davis hired Dalyn Miller PR (DMPR) as AOR, the former owner of several escort services announced she is writing a tell-all book. An e-book version of The Real Sex in the City: True Tales of the Manhattan Madamwill be released by Massachusetts-based Hollan Publishing.  Hollan is also a client of DMPR, but Dalyn Miller told PRWeek that the book deal was in the works before Davis signed on with the agency. The book will offer “intimate details” of Davis’ life in the sex industry, the New York Daily News reported.

Want to build some buzz for your neighborhood? Host a beauty pageant to find the best-looking folks around. Misha Calvert, creator of the “Mr. and Miss Williamsburg” Pageant is doing just that for the already-talked-about Brooklyn neighborhood. “Her hope is that such a contest will counter apathy and create a uniting force in the Williamsburg community,” according to FreeWilliamsburg.com.

There are pages on and Going for the event, which will take place on September 5, and blogs are already buzzing. Any PR pros live in the ‘hood?

In June, we reported that the Port of Los Angeles awarded two, three-year contracts to The Rogers Group, for $750,000, and Hill & Knowlton, for $600,000. The contracts were subject to the approval of LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, after former Mayor James Hahn banned city agencies from hiring private PR firms. The LA Daily News reported on July 31 that Mayor Villaraigosa has made a decision about the PR firms, telling the Port that it is only able to hire one PR firm. We’ll continue to update this story, so stay tuned.

It’s supposed to get up to 90 degrees today in New York, and up to 93 degrees in Salt Lake City, Utah, home of Richter7, an advertising and PR agency.  The 40-person agency issued a “No Pants Policy” for the 30 days between July 15 and Aug. 15, encouraging employees to wear shorts, capris, skorts, kilts, or anything but long pants, even in meetings with clients. Offenders will be fined a quarter for wearing long pants.

“We see this as a fun way to beat the heat,” said Dave Newbold, president of Richter7. “I don’t know of any other company that has actually insisted that all employees not wear long pants to cool down, but it’s in keeping with our motto to disrupt the status quo.” Additionally, the company is buying one pair of shorts for each employee, and will provide frozen snacks if the temperature tops 100 degrees.

A New Zealand pizza chain, Hell Pizza, lived up to its devilish name when it bought the soul of a 24-year-old man named Walter Scott. Scott put his soul up for auction on the site Trade Me, saying “I can’t see it, touch it or feel it, but I can sell it, so I’m going to palm it off to the highest bidder.”

The site eventually took down the post because of complaints that it was offensive, but Hell Pizza contacted Scott after the auction was removed and offered him $3,800 for his soul, according to the Associated Press.

“The soul belongs to Hell, there is simply no better place for it,” Rachael Allison, head of marketing for Hell Pizza, told the AP. “He was pretty delighted.”

My column this week was on Rickrolling - and the New York Times‘ poor decision to run an article on the meme. I now realize the article made it seem like I thought rickrolling was nonsense. Actually, I love it - I can’t stop rickrolling colleagues. Have you been a victim of it? Or are you perpetrating it on your fellow employees?

LOS ANGELES: The Strategic Public Relations Center at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication last week launched its fifth PR Generally Accepted Practices (GAP V) study, and is now asking senior-level communications execs to use their next solitaire or Blockbreaker break to log onto its e-questionnaire instead.

Since its introduction in 2002, USC’s GAP study has steadily become one of the communications industry’s most reliable sources for information about PR budgeting, staff size and organization, the use of agencies, and perceptions of the profession, says Jerry Swerling, director of the Strategic PR Center. With GAP V, Swerling says, “We’re doing a lot of things to maximize participation,” both online and off.

For the study to become an industry standard, however, participation is required from a strong representative sampling of Fortune 5000 companies — the backbone of the economy — as well as nonprofit organizations. “The more [that] participate, the better the data,” Swerling notes.

So if you’re a senior-level communicator — from a corporation, nonprofits, or government agency –- why not take 15-20 minutes and complete the online survey (access code E7777)? GAP V results will be announced in early March, then added to USC’s PR Management DataSource, which compiles analyzed information collected through all GAP studies in a single database.

Last week, ABC News online ran a story examining the financial impact of celebrity involvement with charitable causes. The article, “Celebrity Takes Up a Cause: Do Fans Follow?” questioned whether fans donate more generously to a philanthropic organization because their most beloved movie star, musician, or TV heartthrob supports it.

According to the ABC piece, it takes more than a famous-name affiliation to get people to write checks. But when high-profile celebrities do endorse charitable causes –- such as Angelina Jolie, who serves as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, and George Clooney, whose name is synonymous with ending genocide in Darfur –- that star power can equal massive media attention. And with that kind of media attention comes increased awareness among potential donors. (It can be a good PR move for the celebrity, too: Millions of mainstream American music fans are aware of Bob Geldof, for example, because of his famine-relief efforts.)

So doesn’t that work out to essentially the same thing? In a roundabout way, celebrities do, in fact, get people to write checks — and write them to specific charities, too.

Potential donors can’t send their money orders anywhere if they don’t know where to address the envelopes. But there are so many philanthropic organizations from which to choose, and they can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from one another.

Land-mine clearance, for example: Scores of land-mine clearing advocacy groups exist, but only Adopt-A-Minefield (AAM) is supported by Paul McCartney and his now ex-wife Heather Mills. That support has help draw more attention to its efforts, and made its name more familiar than other land-mine charities. Fair or not, donors may even consider AAM more “legitimate” than other mine-clearing organizations because of its celebrity affiliates. Similar cases can be made for charities calling for contributions on behalf of everything from AIDS research to animal rights — and let’s not forget the children. How many humanitarian nonprofits are there that dedicate resources to bettering the lives of underprivileged youngsters? Lots. But which one can most of us name in an instant, thanks to years of Sally Struthers’ teary-eyed endorsements?

You know the name. You can look it up. And then, you can send a contribution. The celebrity affiliation made a genuine financial difference.