So I open an email from Ad Age and click on a headline that reads: "Hey B-to-B Marketers: Lighten Up with the Business-Speak." As a professional marketer, I was naturally interested to see what Ad Age had to say. And then I read an "editorial" from Anelia Varela warning B2B marketers to get hip or get left behind.

Are you familiar with CenturyLink? It is a FORTUNE 500 company that calls itself "a leading provider of Internet, TV and voice." You've probably seen their television commercials with the tagline: "Your link to what's next." In fact, they may be the stupidest company on the planet.

Here's the thing about national media coverage being easy to get.  Anyone who knows anything about publicity and media relations knows that this is a big, fat lie. Unfortunately, there are way too many people who don't know anything about publicity and media relations.

So in case you  missed the big news, McDonald's is making changes. And it is taking the next 18 months to develop and roll them out. That's a lot of time, which would indicate the potential for some very serious changes.

Although created more than four years ago by the "PR" industry, the Barcelona Principles continue to be a topic of interest throughout the industry. I saw this misguided gem a few weeks ago: Why Measuring PR Shouldn't Include Sales. In case you didn't know (and count yourself lucky to be in that club) the BP outlines seven basic rules or principles for measuring public relations.

According to Food Product News, "a new report shows the risk associated with having an obese sibling is more than twice as great as that of having an obese parent, and that risk is even stronger among siblings of the same gender." I read this story with tremendous interest, because the issue of childhood obesity is truly important to me.

Despite all the chatter, the annual B2B Content Marketing Trends Report from CMI and Marketing Prof confirms that only 4 in 10 marketers actually have a content marketing strategy. And maybe – just maybe – that's because no one really knows what they are talking about.

Timing is everything. Back in 1981, I was hired as an account executive at Burson-Marsteller/Chicago. Harold Burson was still very active in the business, working out of our New York headquarters. But Bill Marsteller retired in 1979 (selling the ad business to Young and Rubicam) and was immediately inducted as a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame.

So Facebook is going to let us control the ads we see, huh? Meanwhile, inbound marketers and digital soothsayers are going to lead us to the promised land with content that is... wait, what did Michael Brenner call it? Oh yeah, "It's not advertising.  It's storytelling and human connection and funny." Just exactly how dumb do some marketers think the public is? Apparently pretty dumb.

I received two separate emails yesterday reporting on the "big news" about Michael Brenner. Wait! You say you don't know who that is? Well, you are not alone.  But Ad Age thinks anyone who works for a billion dollar company is ordained a genius.