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Keying on Facebook, he takes on all comers in burnishing image of GM’s birthplace.

Can you feel the tension between PR and advertising firms brought on by both the recession and the emergence of social media? “For decades, the division of labor was clear,” wrote Clifford M. Marks for the Miami Herald . “Madison Avenue types took care of the 30-second spots, the billboards and the full-page ad in Sunday’s paper. Their cousins in public relations drafted press releases, networked with reporters to land favorable coverage and helped handle crises that drew negative media…

Boston author Paul Harding earned a Pulitzer Prize in fiction this week for his book, Tinkers . It was the first Pulitzer from a small publisher in nearly three decades, The Boston Globe reported. “The author’s unlikely success story is rooted in a series of personal interactions between publishers, booksellers, and reviewers that launched a book the old-fashioned way,” according to The Globe . “There were no media campaigns, Twitter feeds, or 30-city tours. Instead, the success o…

This is one of those stories that make you shout: What were the PR people thinking?!? As part of German automaker Audi’s run-up to the Super Bowl, it launched a campaign based around the “Green Police,” which enforce ways to protect the environment. But here’s the thing: The Green Police was actually a Nazi organization that helped hunt and persecute Jewish people. And remember, Audi is a German company. “The implications of Audi’s choice of name for their campaign cou…

Still not sure about the real value of social media? Just look to the U.K. division of Domino’s Pizza. It “reported a 29 percent surge in pre-tax profits buoyed by a strong performance from e-commerce sales and attributed its link-up with Foursquare as key to its recent performance,” reported Marketing Magazine . Domino’s online efforts have helped not only drive pizza sales but also build customer loyalty, the company said. “In today’s financial results Domin…

Jim Farley, the group VP of global marketing at Ford, told attendees at Advertising Age ’s Digital Conference this week that the recession proved a good thing for digital marketers in Detroit. “If the economy hadn’t dropped the way it did, we would have been on auto pilot and not experimented the way we did,” Farley said. “Our production quality online is better than our broadcast.”

A PR executive allegedly helped Seattle securities lawyer David Otto conduct a “pump-and-dump” scheme that has brought charges for Otto, three other individuals and two companies—including the PR executive, Charles Bingham, and his company Wall Street PR, according to Dow Jones Newswire. “The agency said misleading press releases and Web profiles touting beverages and nutritional supplements pushed the stock price of Seattle-based MitoPharm Corp. up more than four times to above $…

“Hill & Knowlton, the public relations firm whose clients include American International Group Inc., said demand from companies getting government bailouts helped it win more business in 2009 than each of the two previous years,” Bloomberg reported. “Hill & Knowlton has seen ‘huge’ growth in so-called risk-protection services for the insurance, financial and automotive industries, where some companies have been perceived as failures or have received government funds, Paul Ta…

The “Fiesta Movement,” a social media campaign Ford launched to build hype around its upcoming 2010 Fiesta model, is ending. For the campaign, Ford loaned the new Fiestas, which were European models, to 100 YouTube personalities with an agreement that they would create videos about the cars. And they did—big time. “The videos attracted 3.5 million views and helped boost awareness of the car to 38 percent among 16- to 24-year-olds,” Michael Learmouth reported for Advertising …

This was another brutal week for the publishing industry, with layoffs striking the Associated Press and BusinessWeek . Editorial layoffs hit BusinessWeek Thursday and the list of axed marquee writers and editors has piled up. The list includes media columnist Jon Fine, tech writer Steve Baker, personal technology columnist Stephen Wildstrom, community editor Shirley Brady and many more. Reuters reported that 130 employees were let go. Bloomberg acquired BusinessWeek this fall. Related PRWeek A…