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’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a man jet-packing around the world’s most expensive billboard. Constructed in Dubai as part of a joint venture between Skydive Dubai and Denver-based Go Fast, the pricey billboard would cost $1.3 billion a month if was operated around the clock, largely due to the sign’s steepest component: A man that flies around the billboard on a jet pack approximately 20 to 30 seconds at a time at the rate of $500 per second.



That’s far more than the partners of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would have dreamt about spending on a client’s behalf in the 1960s, but Don’s still breaking records. AMC’s “Mad Men” raked in its highest-rated season finale ever last Sunday, drawing an audience of 2.7 million viewers.

[Read: The Roger Sterling guide to agency life]

MTV, meanwhile, banks on its “guidos” and “guidettes” of “Jersey Shore” to bring in its high ratings, and the network seems more than willing to fork over the dough to ensure the cast remains filthy rich perfectly happy. According to Radar, Seaside Heights royalty Snooki, The Situation, and Pauly D will each take home a reported $2.55 million for their latest season at the Shore.

I’m not sure how much Apple spent when it sold its soul to Zooey Deschanel as part of the tech titan’s recent iPhone campaign, but Siri apparently had enough of the actress’ quirkiness on the shoot judging by these outtakes from Conan O’Brien that didn’t make the spot’s final cut.


Speaking of Apple, a recently released ‘80s-era file from the Pentagon on the company’s late cofounder, Steve Jobs, provides quite the revealing glimpse of the former CEO, including details on the extent of Jobs’ past drug use as well as his previously unreported arrest as a minor.

Also recently released: IKEA’s party proof kitchen. With the help of ad firm Mother, the Swedish home furnisher created this interactive quality test to demonstrate that not even the Lindsay Lohan of pugnacious party guests could rival its durable kitchens and appliances.

Perhaps IKEA and Mother’s creative kitchen effort will land them a spot on Cannes favorites come 2013. As for this year’s festival, Advertising Age asked agency bigwigs which campaigns they think will take home the prized Lions.

A warning to whoever attends this year’s Cannes festival: Watch your back for France’s new first lady. According to a story from The Guardian, she can be quite vindictive. French President Francois Hollande’s current partner, Valérie Trierweiler, took a swipe on Twitter at her lover’s former flame and baby mama, Ségolène Royal.

As a PR firm, however, I’d recommend using your social media channels for good. OPEN Forum would also add these five PR rules to follow in the age of digital media.

Abiding by one of those rules to make every contact worthwhile, comScore and Facebook have teamed up on a report titled “The Power of Like 2“ that shows companies such as McDonald’s and Disney using “brand amplification” to boost their number of online friends.