Saying "we believe the media whitewashed the candidate," the president of Regnery Publishing announced an August release for a book titled "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate." The PR firm Creative Response Concepts (CRC) is promoting the book. In August 2004, CRC publicized "Unfit for Command," an attack on then Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam War record. CRC also worked for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth; other clients include federal Republican Party committees, Concerned Women for America and the National Abstinence Education Association. David Freddoso, who authored the Obama book, is a former Ron Paul supporter who works at National Review Online. Regnery's president said the book will "look closely at Obama's relationships with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and onetime radical William Ayers, among other things."

The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is engaged in an effort to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant." The group has been gathering signatures at local festivals, events and city parks and has already collected 8,500 signatures, about 1,300 more than is needed to put the question on the city's ballot in November. If the measure passes, the new name will become effective starting next January, when the new president is sworn in. Supporters plan to engage in a "synchronized flush" during the inauguration as a way to send a "gift" to the newly-renamed plant, saying they believe this will be a "fitting monument to this president's work." The chair of the San Francisco Republican Party called the group's effort "loony bin direct democracy," and vowed to defeat it. A spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns the plant, says that while his agency understands the humorous intent of the endeavor, the award-winning facility has been efficient at keeping the streets and ocean clean, thus the plant should be "the last place" the group should use to make a negative statement about George Bush.

"Horrified directors of global marketing giant Young & Rubicam have begun a sell-off of their holdings in Zimbabwe, after learning the company's head was behind Robert Mugabe's election campaign image makeover," reports Rowan Philp. The head of the Zimbabwe firm, Imago Y&R, used "pop culture figures such as rapper Tupac Shakur and reggae icon Bob Marley to 'sex up' a campaign that Mugabe's own advisers called dismal." The firm also designed ads that labeled opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as being in "the losers club," claimed that Tsvangirai's party "has a reputation for violence," and mocked British and U.S. leaders. The UK Sunday Times reported that Imago's "benign images" of Mugabe "are a world apart from the cruel reality of Zimbabwe. Assaults with iron bars, clubs and guns were growing more frequent," and "more gruesome murders were recorded as a vicious crackdown against Mugabe's opponents intensified." The violence led the United Nations Security Council to declare it "impossible" for Zimbabwe to hold a fair election on June 27. Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party have been receiving PR assistance from Fleishman-Hillard since at least May, reports O'Dwyer's.

To promote its bottled water for children, Nestle has "signed on as a strategic partner" for the launch of "Active Life: Outdoor Challenge," a Namco video game for the Nintendo Wii that will be released in September. Nestle's "Aquapod" water comes in a rocket-shaped bottle, and is marketed to "families with kids aged 6 to 11." The increased scrutiny of the link between soft drinks and childhood obesity led to the creation of bottled water for kids. But, after spending "billions to get children to crave their sugary-sweet, colorful drinks," the beverage industry must now figure out "how do we get kids to prefer water," as Nestle Waters' director of youth marketing pointed out. The "Active Life" game may help insulate both "the video-game and beverage industries from criticism that they contribute to childhood obesity," notes Advertising Age. The Nestle / Namco deal includes one million bottles of Aquapod with branded packaging promoting "Active Life," and coupons for Aquapod water in the video game box. However, there won't be ads inserted into the game itself.

A new YouTube video raises the question of whether CNN's coverage of the clean coal debate has been biased by a multi-million dollar advertising campaign purchased on CNN by the coal industry through Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a coal front group since renamed the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. The ad campaign, which began a year ago, was created by Waylon Ad, a firm representing both ABEC and the National Mining Association. A coal industry website describes the purpose of the CNN ad campaign: "The St. Louis ad agency's spot, which follows a debut effort that broke in April, suggests coal use is economically efficient and environmentally friendly. In the latest spot, a panorama of people and faces, including a man in the middle of a field with an electric guitar, is shown as a voiceover touts coal use." The low budget video piece was posted on YouTube June 24. Watch it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKR-6Szlv0g