Every weekday, PR Daily associate editor Alan Pearcy highlights the day’s most compelling stories and amusing marginalia on the Web in this, #TheDailySpin.

Back in May, everyone was talking about Facebook’s IPO and what it meant for the future of the social network and its stakeholders. If we couldn’t afford shares of our own, we at least wanted to know everything about those who would be snatching up the coveted stock. Four months later, the company faces a PR crisis due to its disastrous filing: Shares in the site have plunged to nearly half their value. As investors try to unload their devalued investment, Wired couldn’t help but pour salt into the wound. It notes that had you bought shares in organic mac ‘n’ cheese maker Annie’s the same day Facebook went public, your stock would actually be up one-third rather than down 40 percent.

Incidentally, Facebook shares are up nearly 1 percent in trading today.

Maybe hold out on buying stock in any rice makers for the moment. Days after we quipped about the family and child medicine ads of yore that pushed the healing powers of cocaine and heroin comes news that the dietary staple—including short and long-grain rice, cereals, drinks, and even rice cakes—has been found to contain alarming traces of arsenic.

Better not chance it, especially when you can go into Krispy Kreme and get a free glazed doughnut on Wednesday in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Probably won’t catch many TV starlets snagging their free doughnut. They’ve got to get themselves in tip-top shape for Sunday’s Emmys. While a personal trainer might help them fit into those snug dresses, actress Parker Posey—a sort of unofficial media trainer—will assist them on their acceptance speeches.



In preparation for the release of their online meme turned new book, “Sh*t Girls Say” creators Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard released a fourth episode of their viral sensation to mark the occasion.



Humphrey and Sheppard’s videos might not need any help coaxing a response on the Web, but when it comes to selling their book on Amazon (or any product for that matter), they might want to see these tricks for ramping up the number of reviews.

Speaking of Amazon, did you know that its founder, Jeff Bezos, once worked at McDonald’s? So did Jay Leno and Andie MacDowell. Guess that’s not so surprising when you take into account that 20 million Americans have earned their first paychecks working alongside Ronald and company. That’s according to Cody Teets, a 32-year McDonald's veteran and author of the new book "Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers that Began at McDonald's.” Teets shares with LiveScience five life lessons learned while working under the Golden Arches.

If there’s one lesson I learned this week, it’s that Obama can rap (sort of). No wonder the president feels he and Jay-Z have much in common. The commander-in-chief shared his rumination while attending a fundraiser in New York on Tuesday hosted by the rapper and his wife Beyonce.

Samsung and Apple also have a lot in common. Given the outcome of their recent patent infringement case, perhaps it’s a little too much in common. Now the fight has carried over into their marketing—or at least Samsung’s—bringing us perhaps the biggest advertising feud since Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

All this over smartphones? Makes us long for a time when mobile devices were simpler bigger. Apparently, we’re not the only ones. Have a look at this video from 1989 that Advertising Age pulled from the vault. It’s a Radio Shack ad, in which the electronic retailer hawks a $799 brick phone. Somewhere, Zack Morris is smiling.



Is there something you think we should include in our next edition of #TheDailySpin? Tweet me @iquotesometimes with your suggestions. Thanks in advance.