Would you buy a toothpaste you’ve never heard of if it had Ryan Seacrest’s gleaming smile on the box?  If you knew 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) had stake in VitaminWater, would Focus (kiwi-strawberry flavored, by the way) become your new go-to drink?  Would you go so far as to purchase a Buick car because Tiger Woods is your rolemodel?

Okay, maybe not. But reports are showing that celebrity faces now have more of an impact than ever on the likelihood of a consumer choosing one brand over another.  An article in today’s Wall Street Journal introduces Ellen Degeneres as the newest face of Halo, a high-end food and pet product line for both cats and dogs.  Degeneres, who is also the spokesperson for American Express, recently bought roughly 15 percent stake in Halo.

 While Halo and Degeneres both hope her new face will grow sales, there’s been a recent slew of celebrity endorsements gone awry.  Remember when Oprah endorsed author James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces by placing it a must-read on her book club?  The book skyrocketed to a #1 bestseller, only to be blasted later by critics and readers alike as being a fake account of the author’s life.  Or what about the Olsen twins’ “Got Milk” endorsement promoting the dairy industry?  Ads had to be taken down after rumors (and a later confirmation) of MK’s eating disorder surfaced – not so health conscious there.   And how can we forget the notorious OJ/Hertz partnership?  For 20 years, OJ stood as the face of Hertz.  With the arrest of his murder in ’94, the #1 rental car company had to reconsider and revamp its campaign altogether.

Whether good or bad, celebrity and brand partnerships are a tricky area for advertisers and marketers alike.  It begs the question: what does the company stand for?  A famous face – or a strong brand?  Regardless of the face on the billboard, box or bag, what’s most important is that a company stand by their mission and messages.  The face needs to match the product.

For Halo, it seems like Ellen is a good match.  She’s not only an avid dog-lover, but she’s equally invested in organic, locally sourced foods;  Halo has zero byproducts or rendered meats.  Degeneres claims that her being “famous” is going to boost sales.  While only time will tell, one recommendation, Ellen: try not to lose it on national television next time a pup loses its home.

As the steroid controversy plays out in baseball following the release of the Mitchell Report, various players have taken different approaches to answering accusations and addressing the public in general. Two players who are very closely linked and who have taken virtually opposite communications strategies are former Yankee teammates Andy Pettite and Roger Clemens.

Clemens’ vigorous denials have been widely panned, making him the subject of ridicule, controversy and widespread media coverage. Ultimately, his denials may make him the subject of an indictment as well.

Pettite, on the other hand, came out early and admitted he had used Human Growth Hormone (HGH) one time to help him recover from an elbow injury. Even when he later admitted he’d used it a second time, he was treated much more favorably by media and fans. He has even been lauded as a hero by many for stepping up and taking responsibility for his actions.

Two men who are essentially accused of the exact same offense.  One claims he’s innocent and yet he’s the one who’s getting the brunt of the scrutiny. So what gives?

It comes down to the most basic rule of crisis communications – “show them that you care.” People in general are willing to forgive indiscretions or mistakes if the person or organization that committed them is willing to take responsibility for their actions. That means admitting it, apologizing for it and telling what will be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Pettite took that tactic, and it’s paying big dividends for him. Clemens continues to maintain his innocence, and he’s still caught in the eye of the storm. People see him as arrogant, dishonest and out of touch. If he’s proven innocent in a court of law he will have the last laugh. Unfortunately, he already been tried in the court of public opinion and the verdict is a resounding guilty.

But never fear, Roger – it’s not too late. Recant on your innocent stance and face the media music. The truth will set you free.

What’s your favorite ad?  Why do you like it? Don’t know?  There’s just something about it, you say.

For years, marketing and advertising agencies have worked to determine what truly ignites emotion and more importantly, desire, among consumers.  In fact, the marketing and advertising campaigns that prevail aren’t necessarily those with the largest budgets or most high tech graphics, but rather the ones that can uncover what truly makes us tick as human beings, and which successfully ignite emotion in the human brain, creating an unforgettable product in the minds of consumer.

So I was intrigued to learn that over the last year, several high-tech firms, including EmSense, NeuroFocus, OTX Research and Innerscope are using neuroscience and biometric research to help craft better ads.  Sure, this type of testing has been existence for years, but in the past it has meant relying on MRI machines and electrodes, and the cost and complexity that went along with these techniques made their use and effectiveness slim.

But today, these companies have introduced portable, only mildly intrusive measurement devices to track and quantify brain waves and biologic data and these devices have a much smaller price tag than they used to.

Predictably, the prospect of having this kind of scientific proof behind their ad choices is intriguing marketers around the world.

So how does it work you may ask?  Let’s ask Coca-Cola, who became a client of EmSense late last year when they needed help deciding which two TV ads to place in the Super Bowl.  Coke threw over a dozen ads at the EmSense device to help make their decision easier.  The device, in turn, monitored a variety of components of the consumers previewing the ads, including brain waves, breathing, heart rate, blinking and skin temperature.

And according to Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America, “the device not only helped whittle down the list of spots, but also aided in editing the two ads chosen to air.

The key to these devices is that they can decipher consumers’ emotions by measuring physical and emotional responses as they are actually happening, rather than having people recall or interpret their feelings after the fact through surveys and focus groups.

Virgin Mobile decided to join the boat, hiring EmSense right after it launched its new “You rule” ad campaign for contract-free cell phone service.  According to Joel Kades, Vice President of Virgin’s strategic planning and consumer insights, the results showed them that they needed to “build suspense and grab people at the beginning [of a spot] and keep them in to deliver the product message.”

These kinds of findings are validated in the book Neuromarketing by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin.  The book asks readers to think about why most people only remember the beginning and ends of movies.  It explains that “the brain is constantly looking to conserve vital energy and drop excess information in the process.”  Therefore, if the brain can anchor its energy in strong beginning and ending points, it will tend to lose the information in the middle.  So the idea that an ad needs to catch a viewer’s attention right up front certainly makes a lot of sense.

So it seems that this new technical application really does hold water.  And more and more it seems that technology is entering new realms of emotional responses and responses correlated with personal choices.  In fact just this week I read that scientists at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, are reporting success in developing a system to judge the perfect cup of espresso. Seems they use a “proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometer, which ionizes and analyzes the hot gases wafting above the coffee surface, predicting what trained human tasters will say about it.”

I think I’ll stick with my Folgers in the morning.  But one thing can’t be denied.  Technology keeps pushing the envelope of where human beings are needed and where machines can take over.

If you were listening closely to the PR world this year, you might have heard the PR equivalent of Ty Pennington, yelling, “Move that bus!”  What was revealed was not a new home for the Bardelo family in Ohio, but a brand new makeover for the lowly press release.

It is being called the Social Media Release or (SMR).  It replaces the century old format of the journalistic inverted pyramid style of news writing with one that makes it easier to enhance or interact with a story via video clips, quotes, blog posts, RSS feeds, or links to other relevant articles, websites.  As one journalist we know said, “The social media press release ties together various multimedia elements in one place, enabling the journalist to view and/or “re-mix” media elements.”

Before we throw the traditional release under the bus – a note of caution:  It does not replace a well-crafted, customized pitch or the need to provide basic, factual news to the media.  It does open the door to giving media more tools and more ways to cover a particular story.  It also recognizes end users as the new consumers of press releases.

The SMRs are just starting to catch on.  Here is a recent example from CISCO.

A number of firms are claiming credit for this including Shift Communications and Edelman, but there are a few key driving trends.  The first is the shrinking news room. Editorial resources at many publications are running thinner than ever and staffers are expected to do more with less. Social media press releases provide links to additional resources that are helpful for story research and they also package information into formats that are easy to use for quotes and citing references/statistics. Images, audio and video also add impact to the release.

The second is the rise of the new media.  Media savvy Internet journalists (that includes you and me) crave information in a format that is familiar and more functional than a traditional press release. Encouraging the sharing of news via social bookmarks, social news, image and video provides the new media publisher multiple options meets the news information consumption needs of consumers as well as the media.

The third is the insatiable appetite for search relevance.  The SMR is tailor-made for optimizing your releases.  More links equals more relevance.

Don’t get me wrong.  The standard release isn’t going away any time soon, but it’s nice to see new tools and techniques keeping PR in the driver seat.

Sure, green is cool… but how do you transform all that positive buzz into action by Joe and Joan Average?

Remember when NBC decided to go green for a week? If you’re like most of us, the answer is, well, sort of. Sure, it was remarkable that the network “inspired” a group of producers and pre-strike writers to develop green themed plots and sub-plots, recruited a host of big-budget advertisers to run their eco-friendly ads, and developed a “Green is Universal” campaign and peacock logo for November sweeps. But did the initiative really make a difference? Did those messages touch an eco-nerve? Were you encouraged to live green because “Greenzo” (aka David Schwimmer) told you so? Probably not.

Again, if you’re like most of us, maybe it’s because you’ve blocked out all things David Schwimmer. But it’s also possible you don’t remember because you never really connected with the messages NBC was sending. You couldn’t envision how eco-friendly living would directly affect your life. Kudos to NBC for its intentions, but for an abstract concept or message – like a green campaign – to make an impact, its audiences need a context in which they can visualize or experience it for themselves.

And that’s what Leo Burnett Chicago’s trying to do. Last year, the agency orchestrated the first-ever “Earth Hour,” an hour during which the entire city of Sydney, Australia turned its lights out to promote awareness of its client, the World Wildlife Fund. Now this year they’re expanding the initiative to more cities around the world – including Bangkok, Copenhagen, Manila, Tel Aviv, Toronto, and of course, Chicago, where more than $1 million in free media has been donated to promote the event.

On the evening of March 29, cities around the world will turn out all nonessential lights for an hour in the name of the World Wildlife Fund, as well as all things eco-friendly. The campaign includes an Earth Hour website, which features a live countdown, running tally of participants and ways to live green every day.  While we’re constantly bombarded with campaigns to raise awareness, this is a great example of how to raise awareness, and create a real, memorable experience for audiences. My guess is, Earth Hour participants will remember what they were doing when the lights went out in their cities. Not so sure David Schwimmer will stand out quite as much.