Your PR Architect

Burger King earned itself a moment of PR limelight with its recent invitation to McDonald's -- yes, that McDonald's -- to collaborate on a joint sandwich, later this month on Peace Day (Sept. 21). McDonald's' response? "No, thank you." McWhopper, as seen on NBC's Today Show. Full segment: http://tinyurl.com/plwa5kx From one perspective, Burger King's armistice in the "burger wars" helped it gain some visibility, albeit at the cost of full-page newspaper ads, a Twitter account (#McWhopper) and a clever-ish website . The strategy borrows a little of McDonalds' luster to portray Burger King as a near-equal. The reality is different, however. According to QSR magazine, McDonald's is still the reigning champ, with annual sales around $35 billion. Burger King clocks in at No. 5 -- $8.5 billion -- behind Subway, Starbucks, and Wendy's. McDonald's is shuttering restaurants, paring back its menu choices, and experimenting w...

In my favorite film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there's a scene where the heroes step off a train at a rural town in Bolivia. Sundance takes a few steps into the plaza, and promptly steps into cow dung -- while Butch extols how much more they can buy with their stolen dollars and pesos. Sundance surveys the run-down plaza, looks at Butch, and says: "What could they have here that you'd possibly want to buy?" The scene comes to mind (minus the cow dung) every time I get an email from AmazonLocal, Groupon, or LivingSocial. Each of these online deal aggregators uses the power of social networking and deal-making with retailers to offer half-price deals to members. Call it social couponing. Ninety percent of these deals are things I would never, ever buy. Even after I've customized my Groupon settings. I've purchased one or two of these offers. The majority, however, are for goods or services I don't find valuable. Is this a $20 burger? O...