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

The TV timeout to any live sporting event; pop-up ads to the Internet; commercials to classic rock; extended-store hours to the holidays. Few things are left untainted by the hands of marketers. Let’s just hope that after their latest venture, they wash their dirty mitts.

A new Tumblr called “Peevertising” demonstrates this complete commercialization of society, and with it, one of man’s exclusive and most sacred of simple pleasures as brand logos get the yellow snow treatment. I must admit, that’s some fine “peemanship.” (via AgencySpy)

Meanwhile, another new site chronicles the communicative powers of a cup of coffee. The brainchild of Illy coffee and espresso, “Coffee Surfing”—tagged as a “search of sips of happiness”—takes us along with photographer Gabriele Galimberti as he travels the world meeting various people who have invited him to share their stories over a cup of morning mud. (via Adverblog)

Make that 2.2 cups. According to results from the first-ever coffee survey by Zagat, that’s the norm for most java drinkers, with 83 percent of the 1,700 caffeine fiends polled admitting they consume their choice brews every day.

If that brew happens to come from Starbucks, your daily latte or Frappuccino habit could fuel your way around The New York Times paywall. Reports The Next Web, a deal between the newspaper and café giant would allow anyone connecting to the Internet by means of the Starbucks Digital Network to read up to three daily articles from each of five different NYT sections (15 articles in total).

RELATED: Newspaper delivers headlines to your coffee sleeve

Coffee or no coffee, the paywall for Variety is coming down entirely once the magazine launches its new website at the beginning of March. It will also mark the end of the publication’s daily print edition. In a statement reported by Folio.com, CEO Jay Penske said: "It was an interesting experiment that didn't work."

An experiment that did work is the most overly complicated, yet awesomely ridiculous new Oreo cookie separator created by physicist David Neevel:



Like Oreo’s tweet during the Super Bowl power outage, Taco Bell’s “Viva Young” ad was a hit with audiences on sport’s greatest stage. And now the chain is back with yet another Spanglish-inspired spot, this time calling upon a highly recognizable Lionel Richie ballad to tease its new Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco. Taco Bell CMO Brain Niccol told Advertising Age:

"This is one of those [songs] you get without having to understand Spanish. It adds another level of context to the brand around the experience we're providing. It's blending cultures. We're a Mexican-inspired brand and we continue to push the boundaries of what that means."

RELATED: Taco Bell’s ‘speakeasy’ offers a first taste of new Locos Taco

It was Mexican-inspired brand rival Chipotle that had its buttons rather than its boundaries pushed recently. Without explicitly calling out the chain, Eater reports a new ad from Hooters clearly takes a shot at the restaurant and its burrito assembly line, although you can judge for yourself:



Any and all advertisers have to watch out for the wrath of Google. Violate its terms, says Kristen Yerardi of The WordStrem Blog, and risk being “Google Slapped.”

Slap fights are mere child’s play when compared to any one of the nine most memorable literary fight scenes , according to The Huffington Post‘s Joseph Brassey.

Speaking of literature, have you ever wondered what “The Great Gatsby” would be like as a video game or what “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” would be like if Ernest Hemingway wrote it? BuzzFeed collects those literary curiosities and more.

RELATED: If the Internet had penned classic literature

The rest of us are curious whether this news reporter interviewing famed Somali-born runner and Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah had any idea who she was talking to, especially after she asks if he’d ever run before: (via Deadspin)



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