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

It seems a Prague-based photographer Kiril Rudenko has taken the term “floating an idea” a little too literally. Rudenko launched Canned Air, which is exactly what you think it is: cans of “100 percent organic” air from cities around the globe. From places such as New York, Paris, and Singapore, the air is “meant to relieve stress, cure homesickness and fight nostalgia.” Did I mention they each have their own distinct air formula? You can buy them via Etsy, though it sounds like a lot of hot air.

From one form of gas to another (yup, that transition just happened), BP is in trouble again, this time having to recall 50,000 barrels of tainted gasoline (roughly 2.1 million gallons) from its Whiting, Ind., refinery. Sure beats the estimated 4.9 million barrels (505.8 million gallons) of oil released in the Gulf of Mexico, though—eh, BP?

American Licorice Co. out of California has also issued a voluntary recall on one-pound packages of its Red Vines black licorice dated before Feb. 4, 2013. The company says the candy in question tested positive for high levels of lead.

Sure, kids like candy, but black licorice is the least of the Federal Trade Commission’s worries at the moment. The agency asserts that companies such as General Mills, McDonald’s, Doctor’s Associates, Viacom, and Turner Broadcasting are all in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act for collecting children’s data through their respective websites. Many of the marketers have expressed a misunderstanding of the law.

One place each of these companies, as well as your own, should be marketing is on Instagram. That’s according to a new report from global communications and media measurement firms M Booth and Simply Measured, which says “a brand's story is best framed online with photos and video.” See their findings presented in this infographic.

We’ve all seen our share of online images and media—some of us more than others. Take, for instance, this story of a Google contractor who has seen the worst of the Web, or as he was told before starting the job, the Web’s “sensitive content.” If someone used a Google product to look at, say, child porn or acts of necrophilia and bestiality, so did this contractor. Uh, forget technical support—someone get this guy some emotional support.

Kelly Ripa’s new support on “Live!” should be arriving any day now. And although her new cohost won’t be revealed officially until the show’s Sept. 4 season premiere, sources are reporting that Regis Philbin’s old seat will soon be filled by ex-NFL player Michael Strahan.

And while the IKEA catalog is typically a plethora of seats left to fill, building all of those furnished living quarters has left a whole that needed filling in the Swedish retailer’s marketing budget. That’s why, according to The Wall Street Journal, much of the furniture and settings found in the 324–page catalog is, in fact, computer-generated imagery.

It wasn’t about CGI or even baseball at Chase Field on Monday, where the Arizona Diamondbacks were hosting the Miami Marlins. Instead, it was about CPR, which veteran umpire Jim Joyce performed on a female employee at the stadium after she’d suffered a seizure about 90 minutes prior to the game.

I don’t want to think about all of the … let’s just call it “CPR” … that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has probably performed over the years. However, his sexual encounters aren’t the subject of his September issue editorial for the magazine. Rather, Hefner criticizes conservatives for continuing “to assault the right of gays.”

That could be one of the issues that decides our presidential candidates’ fates at the polls in November. If you can’t wait until Nov. 6 to strut your electoral stuff, perhaps this bipartisanship partnership of Comedy Central and Urban Outfitters on its “Indecision 2012” collection of T-shirts, buttons, and more will do the trick.

Even beef jerky maker Jack Link’s has gone political—with the help of PR agency Carmichael Lynch Spong and commissioned mosaic artist Jason Mecier.



Jerky might be tough, but not nearly as tough a spot as three members of Jordan’s Paralympic team. Currently out on bail, they have been charged with sexual assault of two girls and two women during a pre-Games training camp.

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