"The U.S. Marine Corps is rolling out a new ad campaign this week in an effort to target teachers, coaches, clergy and other groups that tend to have influence on kids' career paths," reports the Wall Street Journal. The Marines "previously aimed its marketing directly at young adults," running ads on Walt Disney's ESPN or News Corporation's FX. But the new spots will run during Fox's "American Idol," which "has a broader audience that includes adults as well as kids." The WPP Group advertising firm JWT designed the Marines' new television spots; the campaign also includes print and online ads. One ad "features a line of Marines standing in formation in front of landmarks across the U.S. such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Independence Hall." The campaign's focus on "influencers" is consistent with the U.S. Army's recruiting efforts, which the Center for Media and Democracy previously reported on. Their slogan "Army strong" was chosen, in part, to appeal to influencers.

Cigarette pack-shaped books. (Photo from TankBooks.com)Capitalizing on the public's familiarity with cigarette brands, a publisher and design company in the United Kingdom has released a set of literary classics designed to look like cigarette packs. The company timed the appearance of the books, called "Tales to Take Your Breath Away," to coincide with a new ban on smoking in workplaces and public venues in the UK. The co-founder and creative director of Tank, the agency that produced the books, claims the cigarette-pack design has "introduced reading to people who don't take in much literature." The company's Web page about the books justifies the design by saying, "As one habit dies hard, another takes hold. ... Cigarette packs are iconic objects, familiar, tried and tested, and over time TankBooks will become iconic objects in their own right." British American Tobacco, however, claims that the book containing the Hemingway classics "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Undefeated" too closely resembles a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes. BAT believes the association could threaten the health of its brand.

TV coverage of the FEMA press conferenceIf the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had used his new company's "communications management systems, the ill-fated press conference about the California wildfires would not have happened," former FEMA public affairs director John "Pat" Philbin told O'Dwyer's. After an October 2007 press conference where FEMA staffers posed as reporters, asking questions of their boss, Philbin was denied a planned promotion to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He was recently hired by PIER Systems, as a senior vice president and head of their East Coast operations. In a statement, PIER (which stands for "public information emergency response") said of the FEMA fake news conference: "It was clear to us that Pat became aware of the planning errors while things were happening. ... He accepted responsibility ... and he has paid a very high price." PIER's clients include BP, Shell, Allstate and the Office of Homeland Security.

The British government's recent decision to encourage new nuclear power plants has attracted much scrutiny. Andy Rowell and Richard Cookson report that "the Government held at least nine secret meetings at Downing Street with the bosses of nuclear energy companies while it formulated controversial plans for a new generation of the power plants." Prime Minister Gordon Brown's energy adviser met with representatives from British Nuclear Fuels, British Energy, E.ON, EDF and the World Nuclear Association. But "there are no official records of the meetings," and officials "initially tried to block details of the meetings." The British government's own Sustainable Development Commission criticized the nuclear power decision as "the wrong option" and dismissive of "legitimate concerns expressed by the general public," reports the Financial Times. Lastly, an official inquiry may be launched into "two senior ex-ministers who will earn tens of thousands of pounds on top of their parliamentary salaries by working for the nuclear industry," according to The Times.