What better person to "Let's Move!" with other than Beyoncé?

Beyoncé has joined First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move Campaign which aims at fighting childhood obesity. To support this campaign, Beyoncé has re-written and re-recorded one of my absolute favorites, "Get Me Bodied."

The "Let's Move! Flash Workout" video, which is sponsored by The National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Middle School Association and the National School Boards Association, is now on YouTube and provides instruction demonstrating the dance/exercise routine.

Middle schools across the country have been called to participate in a pre-choreographed "Let's Move!" dance exercise routine at an identical time on Tuesday, May 3, at 1:42 p.m. Eastern Time. Beyoncé will be an exclusive performer for the event and will be visiting middle schools to dance with the students. "I am excited to be part of this effort that addresses a public health crisis," said Beyoncé. "First Lady Michelle Obama deserves credit for tackling this issue directly, and I applaud the NAB Education Foundation for trying to make a positive difference in the lives of our schoolchildren."

SN: How FIERCE does she look when she takes bite of that apple? Always fierce, always love her!

http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/11/beyonce-lends-star-power-to-michelle-obamas-lets-move/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfGRw-SnHlA&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ick6MZhYGSg&feature=player_embedded

RNC Chairman Creates Anti-Obama Video Contest

The Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus has launched a YouTube video contest for anti-Obama supporters. Priebus obviously understands how much power social media can have, so he started a video contest to encourage supporters to tell others why they can't afford two more years of Barack Obama as president. The video has to be 30 seconds or less and the winner will receive a $100 gift card to the GOP ("Grand Old Party") gift shop.

The $100 gift card could allow the winner to buy a few t-shirts, calendars or clocks from the gift shop, not adding up to a very great prize. There is no deadline to enter, so participants can take their time creating a video. Although the chairman has embraced the concept of social media, it seems a bit childish to have a contest on why our president shouldn't be elected again. Everyone has their own opinions, but will this immature video contest really sway voters to vote differently?

YouTube's New Copyright Video Class

YouTube launched a new campaign that will be requiring all copyright offenders on the site to watch a four-and-a-half minute video and answer a multiple-choice quiz afterwards.

The video features characters in the Happy Tree Friends video series, and it is an attempt to make a dull subject more interesting. It addresses YouTube's new policy for handing copyright infringement as well as addressing the current copyright laws, narrated by Russell the blue sea otter.

Watching this video will allow users to remove a "strike" from their record.

YouTube also released a Copyright Center, which has more information and an FAQ section about copyright law.

Here is the video of YouTube's Copyright School:

VH1 on the hunt for ladies

Stations across the board are struggling to keep ratings up as the years pass. 26-year-old VH1 decided to revap the network with the new target audience being females age 25-35. They hired research firm Sterling Brands and embarked on a six-month "listening tour," holding focus groups and casual conversations with more than 1,000 people in several cities about what they wanted to see on channel.

They are introducing a trio of reality shows on Sunday and kicked off with "Mob Wives." The show follows several women who were born into, or married into, reputed Mafia families. VH1 also plans to introduce a morning talk show about pop culture, and a comedy series from the production company of singer and actress Queen Latifah. The president of Viacom's MTV Networks Music & Logo Group, Van Toffler, said that males primarily take the point of view of comedy on television, so through these shows they are trying to reach out to the female voice.

"VH1 is in a continual state of reinvention, and part of choosing not to grow old with your audience is realizing when you have dined out on certain formats too long," said Mr. Toffler.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703648304576265413391174674.html

Kobe's PR Nightmare

The infamous, Kobe Bryant was fined on Tuesday $100k by the NBA commissioner for using a homosexual slur during a game.

If that wasn't bad enough his "apology" was:

"What I said last night should not be taken literally. My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period. The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings

towards the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone."

Did he take lessons from Tiger Woods? I'm not sure where is PR person was but they can't be happy. When a celebrity makes that kind of mistake and doesn't sincerely apologize, endorsement deals end and a whole city, country and demographic can turn on you. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as there are already Kobe fans taking to the web in his defense.

Frito Lay Launches Flavor Kitchen on Times Square Billboard

Frito Lay began their nationwide campaign by showing the public how they create new flavors for their all natural ingredient chips. The demonstrations take place in a recreated Flavor Kitchen based off of the Plano, Texas center.

The event runs April 11 through 15 and will be broadcast live on the billboard in New York City and Facebook.

Here are some ways that consumers can be involved:

• Culinary Web Series
  
• Zynga FarmVille Integration
• Quick-Response (QR) codes
• On-Package Bar Codes

Source

Lady Gaga to guest-edit London newspaper

Singer, dancer and now Lady Gaga can add journalist to her resume. On May 17, Lady Gaga is going to Metro's headquarters in London to help with production. She will edit, write and comment on stories in the issue.

Gaga attended NYU as a theater student and has proven she has plenty of creativity. She has strong vision in human rights issues and will address them in LGBT. Gaga is holding a human rights essay contest and the winner will serve as her Metro intern.

Lady Gaga loves her fans and this is a great way for fans to get involved.

http://www.prdaily.com/mediarelations/Articles/7865.aspx

Tweet your way to an internship

Startups are now asking potential interns to apply via social media in lieu of a formal cover letter. The story from Mashable stated that by using social media, you can easily find the creative ones in the bunch. Many of the startups using the new process are letting the potential interns choose which way they want to express themselves, as long as they link back to the application. I think this is a great way for startups, and really any company who is using, or wants to begin using social media as a part of their business. Anybody can say they are good at social media, or call themselves the annoying "social media guru," but until you actually see them at work, it would be hard to tell who is better than the others. It is also a good way for employers to seek out someone who already speaks in their voice,which would make for an easy transition.
Read the article

'Creepy' App Helps Stalkers Stalk

Yiannis Kakavas, a 26-year-old Greek graduate student at Germany's Technischen Universität Darmstadt has invented an app called 'Creepy' that allows users to be located through a process called geo-tagging.

Described by Kakavas as a "geolocation information aggregator", Creepy analyzes a user's tweets, Facebook posts, and Flickr stream, generating a map of where that person is, as well as the specific locations they frequent.

Kakavas said he created the app to try and raise awareness about privacy in social networking platforms. He wanted to show how 'easy' it is to put together all the seemingly small and innocent things that people are sharing into a 'larger picture' on social media that potentially gives away information that users wouldn't normally think of sharing. For example, where do they live, where do they work, where and at what times they are hanging out, when they are not at home ect. He also says it's the social media users fault if Creepy works, because they are sharing too much online.

I think that people should be more wary of what they put online, especially with people HELPING creepers stalk by creating applications.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/creepy-app-for-stalkers-social-networking_n_844791.html

Komen targets Latinas

Susan G. Komen for the Cure has spent $2 to $3 million securing Bromley Communications for its first ever Latina-based campaign this year. Although the company has always reached out to the Latino community through local affiliates, and have donated more than $76 million in grants for this community, this will be their first national campaign targeted to this demographic. Komen is hoping this campaign will help unite the Latino community and the breast cancer community. Bromley will be using public service campaigns and media relations to encourage this population to begin engaging in the Susan G. Komen activities and events. http://www.prweekus.com/bromley-tapped-for-komens-first-national-latina-marketing-initiative/article/200091/

Berman and receive a dozen Pollies

Berman and Company was awarded twelve Pollie Awards over the weekend for its work in issue advocacy advertising and creative public relations campaigns.

Each year the Pollie Awards recognize the top firms in political and public affairs communications. The Pollie Awards are administered by the American Association of Political Consultants, which is the world's largest organization of political and public policy professionals.

The Pollie awards have been called the Oscars of political advertising by Esquire Magazine. I think that this is great for the PR firm. BAC will benefit greatly from this sort of coverage.

http://www.prnewsonline.com/prnewswire/Berman-and-Company-Wins-12-Pollie-Awards-in-Advertising-and-Interactive-Communications_6080.html

Verizon Launches Educational Social Media Campaign for Sexaual Assult Awareness Month

Verizon Wireless announced today the launch of a social media campaign aimed at increasing awareness of sexual assault for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.The campaign "Know It Forward" is specifically aimed at college students and young adults.

During the month of April, Verizon Wireless will join colleges and universities across Georgia to educate students about sexual assault on college campuses and encourage them to visit www.KnowItForward.com to find out how to reduce the risk and ways to share the information through their personal social media channels.

"We feel this program provides a real opportunity to reach young people and help educate them on this important issue," said Jeff Mango, president of the Georgia/Alabama Region for Verizon Wireless.

I think this is a good example of using social media for good. It also is a great image move for Verizon.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Newsfeed/Article/129217769/201104041217/Verizon-Wireless-Launches-Know-It-Forward-in-Georgia-to-Raise-Awareness-of-Sexual-Assault-Among-Young-Adults.aspx