An article in this week’s Advertising Age profiles Isaiah Mustafa, the “man your man could smell like,” who appeared in a television spot for Old Spice.

Mustafa played for the NFL for four seasons, but didn’t realize fame until he teamed with Procter & Gamble on a campaign for the brand’s body wash. The spot debuted during the Super Bowl (see the irony?) and has become an Internet sensation, garnering more than 6 million views on YouTube.

I’ll admit I hadn’t seen the spot or heard of Mustafa prior to reading Advertising Age. The spot is hilarious and he’s certainly easy on the eyes. According to the article, the PR “bonanza” wasn’t planned. Mustafa has been on NBC’s “Today,” the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” and the “CBS Early Show.” He’s apparently scheduled to be on “Oprah” next week. The article’s author, Jack Neff, suggests the buzz is of “…Snuggie-esque, if perhaps not yet iPad-esque, proportions.”

The success of this campaign is clearly not just about Mustafa; he was a relative unknown. It’s about Mustafa’s appeal combined with super-clever creative and an ad slot that cost between $2 and $3 million. While the exposure is enviable to be sure, is Mustafa an iPad-in-the-making? Highly unlikely. But the investment is definitely paying off for P&G in the form of buzz.

(Note: P&G’s share of the body wash market was slightly down in the four weeks ended February 21, according to the article.)

One of our clients in the do-it-yourself business recently told us they’d been offered an opportunity to be featured on a “TLC show” about home design. The client outlined the package and asked us if we thought it was worth the “sponsorship fee.”

When a “media outlet” asks for more than a product contribution or an interview, we’re always skeptical. There are a number of pay-for-play production companies out there who produce programming that feeds out to networks and stations across the country. They guarantee a specific number of airings, but can’t guarantee where or when.

We’ve vetted these types of opportunities from a number of production companies as well as print publications. They usually call saying they’ve done extensive research and their editorial team selected the company after careful consideration. Typically, they have a B- or C-list celebrity as the host. It’s not until the end of the conversation that they reveal there’s a fee – to “cover production costs.” (The print outlets generally don’t ask for a fee, but they often demand a list of the company’s partners and suppliers. Then they hound those companies for advertising, i.e. “Company X, one of your biggest customers, is being featured in our magazine. It would be a good opportunity for you to show your gratitude by supporting the publication with advertising.”)

Another red flag:  These companies almost never call the client’s PR firm. Instead, they reach top executives directly to stroke their egos, hoping the person will feel honored to be selected and inclined to pay the fee for the exposure. When we call to get more information, they sometimes refuse to speak with us.

So just because a show like the one our client was considering gets picked up by TLC, it doesn’t mean your segment will air at a desirable time or at all.

When our client told us a producer from this particular show had called, the name sounded familiar. I recalled another client of ours participated in this show in the past without consulting us. I asked her to confirm my suspicion that the show was not much different than producing and distributing an infomercial.

The moral of the story:  If you’re not intimately familiar with how news stories are developed, you could be misled that these types of programs hold more PR value than they actually do. If you have a significant PR budget and are looking for video that tells your story (and some exposure you can try to merchandize to your key audiences), it may be worth your consideration. A video news release will accomplish the same goals with more credibility as they’re largely aired during newscasts.

Just remember that true third-party media coverage never requires you to cut a check to a production company. For example, the same client called on by the “TLC show” contributed product to a new HGTV-produced series called “Battle on the Block” in exchange for product exposure on air and as a sponsor. That was a real editorial opportunity we endorsed without reservation.

Having entered the workforce in the late 90s, I always thought the world of public relations presented endless opportunities.  My first “real” PR job was at Rubenstein & Associates, in New York City, the quintessential publicity shop, where weekly media placement reports were typed on carbon paper using massive silver Brother typewriters.  The reports were then distributed to all the head honchos, many of whom were female.

It’s hard to imagine a time when PR was not dominated by female professionals.  However, when Ruth Jacobson entered the field in the 50s, it was more common for women to stay at home than work in any office, let alone as a professional in the high-powered world of advertising, PR and marketing.  According to a news story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jacobson was the first female executive to work at Fleishman-Hillard and the first senior female partner at the firm.  She graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and worked on big brand accounts such as Anheuser-Busch.  I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see how she navigated that testosterone-heavy account team – having watched an episode or two of Mad Men, I can just imagine the condescending (and sometimes offensive) comments that got thrown her way.

Now as a vice president at Rose Communications, a female-owned and -operated firm, I am a testament to how the roles have been reversed.  The X chromosome now dominates the PR profession.  I sometimes wonder what if a male colleague had to endure conversations about child rearing, breast feeding, PMS and various other female-orientated topics that make their way into our water cooler chatter?  According to a diversity tracking survey conducted by BPRI Group, 66 percent of employees at public relations agencies are female. I believe we have Ms. Jacobson to thank for that.

The industry lost a trailblazer last week when Jacobson died due to complications from congestive heart failure at the age of 84.  While she may be gone, her legacy will live on.  Thanks to her, PR executives in their mid-30s, such as me, are oblivious to the “glass ceiling.”  The opportunities for female public relations professionals remain endless.

A child of the ‘80s, I love a great music video. From U2, INXS, and Robert Palmer to Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Blind Melon – I enjoy watching and singing along. A few years back, I couldn’t get enough of OK Go’s video for “Here It Goes Again,” perhaps better known as the “treadmill video.”

Now it appears the band is well on its way to having a second viral success with its latest video for “This Too Shall Pass,” which features a ginormous Rube Goldberg machine.

I haven’t seen the video on MTV or VH1, just online. And apparently I’m not the only one. Since the video was released on March 1, it has received over seven million views. Its popularity is not an accident: The band had help promoting the video from PR firm Big Hassle.

According to the PRNewser blog on Mediabistro, Big Hassle sent out two pitches to promote the video – one of which was a rather long press release, the other a very brief reminder about the video’s debut. Traditional pitches for a music video? I admit, I was surprised to learn about the PR effort for the video. It was a reminder that even in a world filled to the brim with new media and fresh approaches, long-established communication methods are still valuable and not to be overlooked. The pitches led to media coverage that drove awareness. Plus, I learned about the video before my nearly 13-year-old stepson who practically lives on YouTube.

Check out the full press release here.

Watch the video here.

Clients and prospects often ask us how to create a viral campaign. It’s a tough question to answer because as soon as you start “trying” to be viral you’ve likely done just the opposite. Some of the best viral videos were never intended to be as big as they became. Think about the wedding entrance that made its way into the storyline of The Office or the Mentos and Diet Coke “experiments.”

There’s a new video making its way around the Web today from a company called Grasshopper, which markets virtual phone systems for entrepreneurs. I found out about it when a friend of mine (who’s also a reporter at Fast Company) posted it on Facebook. I subsequently saw that it’s been featured on The Huffington Post.

In one day, the video has garnered nearly 200,000 views on YouTube. It seems well on its way to going viral. Why does it work? A spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Key’s wildly popular “Empire State of Mind,” it pays tribute to the New Dork instead of New York. It’s well produced, clever and speaks directly to what makes entrepreneurs tick (in this case, I am their target audience).

This is the kind of “advertising” that people are responding to in 2010 – Grasshopper has shown through this video that they get the world I’m living in and they want to entertain me as much as they want to inform me. I may just give them a call.

In journalism school, I was taught to never use words that are subjective in an editorial context. As a PR person, I often counsel clients that terms like “state-of-the-art” and “best-in-class” should generally be reserved for sales pitches. Sure, you can put those words and phrases in news releases. Best-case scenario is a journalist cuts them from the story. Worst (and more likely) case, they write your story off as puffery.

I was reminded of the importance of word choice this week when my journalist husband sent me this video, which pokes fun at the word “revolutionary” and PR people who take themselves too seriously.

There is definitely a place for superlatives in public relations – as there is for embargoed news releases and exclusives. And I do believe you often need to shout from the proverbial mountaintop to be heard. But if engaging with third-party influencers (i.e. journalists and bloggers) is part of your strategy, it’s critical to remember that they cover news.

While (I hope) this video is intended to be a parody, I am afraid it’s not too far from reality. Several years ago, in one week’s time, I had three clients in three different businesses tell me they’d come up with the same positioning statement: “We get the right information to the right people at the right time.”