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

This time of year, most people are jingle belling rather than humming advertising jingles—but most people aren’t Mia Gentile, who can’t seem to shake the lyrics from the infamous Stanley Steamer earworm from her head. The tune, however, is another matter. Watch as the New York artist goes round for round with costume changes and musical genre transitions in what Adweek calls “an isolated and bewildering act of brand loyalty.”



Lay’s is a brand that may have its own devout following, but that doesn’t mean every flavor is going to be a home run with consumers. Case in point: Pepsi-Cola chicken. Surprisingly, it’s not a result of the company’s recent flavor contest, but a combined effort by Lay’s and Pepsi to appeal to consumers in China. Carbs and carbonation.



Hopefully, PepsiCo isn’t planning any bizarre snack food fusions involving Gatorade now that heightened awareness of an ingredient in the sport drink has put pressure on the beverage manufacturer to alter its product’s formula. Sarah Kavanagh, a 15-year-old from Hattiesburg, Miss., organized an online petition via Change.org after discovering “brominated vegetable oil” listed on the Gatorade label, an ingredient she’s learned can cause a number of potential side effects.

Another petition circulating on Change.org looks to give Rhonda Lee her job back at ABC affiliate KTBS-TV after the African-American meteorologist was fired for defending her natural hair from racial comments posted to Facebook.

Speaking of Facebook, baseball stadiums dominated the social network’s list of the top 10 places where members “checked-in” during 2012. Although Times Square and Disneyland were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, seven of the eight remaining sites were major league baseball venues. Universal Studios in Orlando was the other location on the list.

As for the top social media campaigns of 2012, iMedia Connection highlights its picks of the eight best.

The best way to sell anything is still word-of-mouth, or so says Kellyann Zuzulo, who makes her point by looking at how some of the year’s best-selling works of literature—including an originally self-published ebook—captivated audiences.

Audiences’ responses to Pope Benedict XVI’s first tweet were equally captivating, although not necessarily for reasons the Vatican might have hoped. According to Silicon Cloud blog’s Eoin Keenan, the real problem may be the manner in which leaders of the Catholic Church, as well as businesses, misuse social media to market their brands. “Social media is not a billboard,” writes Keenan, adding that “social media strategy shouldn’t just be to get a message out there. It should be to engage with your market.”

Social media marketers are also failing when it comes to YouTube. Just one day after NASA prematurely posted a video claiming that the world didn’t end on Dec. 21 as Mayans said it would, someone at Paramount released a promo a little too early touting Barbara Streisand’s Golden Globe nomination for the movie “Guilt Trip.” Not only was the promo posted before the nods were announced, but Babs failed to earn a bid.

Of course, other movies have also failed, and I’m not just talking about on social media or at the box office. From a communicator’s standpoint, American film producers might want take foreign translation into account before giving their movie a title. Michael Yo with Yahoo’s omg! blog took to the streets of Hollywood to see if people could guess the names of these popular movies based on their bizarre foreign titles.



Meanwhile, if that NASA video proves correct and the world doesn’t end next week, we still have the Zombie apocalypse to prepare for. The Huffington Post has just the gift guide for you.

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