No matter how you sugar-coat it, the truth is always the truth.  Chris Christie has always been obese and proud of it.  He once boasted to David Letterman that he is the healthiest fat person on the planet.  Likewise, Coca Cola Chief Executive Muhtar Kent has been promising for several years to create a healthier product line for the marketplace.But he has also been quoted as saying: "There is a place for all of our beverages in a healthy lifestyle." That's a lot of waffling...

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something about the new season of Mad Men that has left me totally disinterested. I am confident, based on past seasons that the show is headed somewhere, but after four hours of pandering and meandering, I have already bailed on the show.

Fleishman- Hillard has coined the phrase "authenticity gap" as the next step in the evolution of "reputation management" or something like that.  And their recent study shows there is an authenticity gap between what consumers expect and what they experience from brands.

Evolution takes time.  And it is generally a very unsettling, if not ugly process.  Ron Johnson was brought into JCP to remove the shackles of a stodgy old retailer and breathe new life into an all but dead brand.

Pick a canard, any canard. How about this:  The world is going to end on December 21, 2012... oh wait, that didn't happen.  Global warming is going to flood every continent... oh wait, we are not sure if that is happening.  North Korea is going to start a nuclear war...

In the words of Dr. Peter Venkman: "Have you been outside lately? Do you know how weird it is out there? We've taken our own head count. There seem to be six million completely miserable a**holes living in the tri-state area...

Every single day brings new hope for better health and a longer, pain-free life.  Or so it seems. This week, we learn the University of Colorado Cancer Center found there is a "a delicate balance of bioactive components in rice bran that together show anti-cancer activity, including the ability to inhibit cell proliferation, alter cell cycle progression and initiate the programmed cell death known as apoptosis in malignant cells.

Earlier this week, Joe Agozzino, 57, exited this world and moved on to the next.  Like his father (Charlie) before him, he left this world way too soon. It was a shock and a heartbreak to everyone who knew him.  And everyone, it would seem, knew him.

My niece hit me up on Facebook last night with a most excellent request: Uncle Jimmy- Was hoping I could pick your brain for a moment? What would you say are the major differences between PR & marketing/advertising? Not in a technical sense, but rather, your opinion, as someone in PR.

The Sterling-Rice Group tapped its Culinary Council to determine the top 10 Food trends for 2013.  And while some sound very exciting, others strike me as rather undesirable. On the "sounds good to me" side are sour foods and drinks influenced by the DIY pickling and brining trend (e.g., sauerkrauts, pickles and sour cherry beer).