Quicky: Disney gives you the chance to pop Hannah Montana's cherry

Every large company needs to hire a person with a dirty mind (or figure out which one of their current employees already does) to keep things like this from happening.

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Adweek: A tale of two Tigers

Adweek has naturally devoted a lavish amount of coverage on Tiger, but can't seem to make up their minds on whether or not recent events will negatively impact his image and earning potential. Here's one Adweek article where they say Tiger won't lose image points or sponsors from the public debacle and here's another from Adweek that says cutting Tiger is generating positive buzz for brands. So Adweek, which is it?

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Just a little more expensive than expensive

Someone I know recently got a new (or at least new-looking) Honda Civic. As usual, the dealer put some badges and whatnot on the car to promote the dealership family. What words did this sage dealer choose to entice people to its lots full of gleaming new vehicular devices?

Just north of high prices

On a purely geographical level, this works. The dealership is in fact north of Houston in the suburbs. And if you consider the city inherently more expensive than the 'burbs, you're saying that the dealership is north of the expensive part of town. Kudos.

Unfortunately, the phrase doesn't work that way. Any time you deal with price, "costs just north of" translates to "is slightly more expensive than." If you're talking about a Civic that costs just north of $20,000, you're saying it's a Civic that is slightly more than $20,000.

So, translated, the slogan says that this dealer "is slightly more expensive than high prices."

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to any dealer that claims to have prices higher than high prices. It was a clever play on words with north, but the existing usage of north in reference to price puts this dealership in a tight spot. You could conceivably say "just south of high prices," but it's still not that enticing a claim economically and then you risk confusing folks as to where you dealership is located. All in all, it's a noble attempt that almost works, but ends up meaning exactly the opposite of what the dealership intended.

Too much of a good thing, Part 2- The tipping point

I was finally tipped over the edge when I saw that Target had jumped on the bland-wagon with a redesign of its store brands. Never mind the years and millions of dollars in brand equity and trust that Target has built behind that iconic red target. Never mind that at a minimum, their store-brand of home goods had interesting, comforting, rich colors and patterns that fit the products and made you think of the comfortable, relaxing home you could enjoy with them. Scrap all that.

April foolish

For better or worse, April 1 did not hold many surprises for me. A few sites had great April Fool's material deftly integrated into their sites like World of Warcraft's dance battle system and Gmail's CADIE auto responder system. However, a real life sighting topped them all for me.

It came in the form of a utility truck with a huge name scrawled across the side, "Big Johnson Plumbing." Unless they painted the truck just for the day, that was the genuine name of a company that had been doing business for some time. And if you don't see what's funny about a plumbing company named Big Johnson, it's time to loosen up.

Great advertising, terrible PR

Apple is regularly hailed as one of the pinnacles of advertising that other companies should strive for. I have to agree. However, it seems when it comes to PR, Apple seems to feel that outright lies are the way to go. After all, they have to defend the almighty stock price right? After lying about Steve Jobs health for months, saying he had a minor illness, which turned out to be a major and potentially crippling health condition, Apple has pulled another doosey.

Apple has denied denied denied rumors that it laid off staff recently. However, some of the very people laid off had a different story to tell. Apple did, in fact, lay off about 50 people. It's not a huge number, considering the size of the company. And considering they could make a case that the layoffs were inspired by a shift in corporate philosophy, rather than financial troubles, it begs the question why they decided to lie about it in the first place. I can only posit that it's the result of a very backward PR philosophy that's building growing distrust for the once pristine company. If Apple's not careful and doesn't change their approach to public relations, they could end up irrevocably marring the image that they've spent so many years and millions building.

Condoms on your butt

When it comes to media, placement is everything, and while CondomDepot.com’s sponsorship of various UFC fighters may hit the right audience, the specific placement of the company’s logo might raise an eyebrow or two. So where did they put it?

Right across a UFC fighter’s butt. I know there’s not much space on a fighter to put an ad- you essentially have use of his shorts, unless you’re going to tattoo him (not unheard of) . But I think there are certain implications to slapping “CondomDepot.com” across the backside of a sweaty man who’s wrestling another sweaty man while neither of them are wearing many clothes. Always carefully consider your sponsorships.