NEWPORT, OR: The Oregon Coast Visitors Association (OCVA) launched a PR campaign this week, incorporating media relations and social media, as a part of the association's overall rebranding effort.

BEIJING: Coca-Cola's PR and marketing efforts for the Beijing Olympics, called the Live Olympic campaign, began nearly two years ago and have focused on reaching out to Olympics fans, both at the Games and abroad.

NEW YORK: A review of nearly 400 Op-Eds penned by academics in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newark, NJ's Star-Ledger, found that the vast majority of the opinion pieces agreed with the editorial position of the paper in which they appeared.

NEW YORK: The municipal Board of Elections is working with Burson-Marsteller on a $6.5 million voter awareness campaign to educate New York residents about new voting machines.

CHICAGO: Results from Cision's Corporate Media Reputation Index for Q2 2008 show that technology and telecomm are faring best in media coverage.

MELROSE PARK, IL: Children's hair care brand Soft & Beautiful Just for Me! will launch the second phase of its national self-esteem program on August 4 with a new book and a six-city book tour.

LOS ANGELES: The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) launched its American Idol Truth Tour - to protest working conditions of reality-show writers and employees - with a July 16 kick-off event. Organizers say the tour targets both show producers, encouraging them to change their working conditions on the shows, and the public, educating them about the realities of working in reality TV.

DALLAS: Oilman T. Boone Pickens met this past week with both Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders as well as think tanks and environmental groups as part of a $58 million communications initiative he's bankrolling to win support for wind power and natural gas as energy alternatives in a bid to end US dependence on oil supplied by overseas sources.

PARIS: Publicis Groupe released its earnings for the first half of the year ended June 30, showing a slight decrease in revenues, but organic growth of 5.4%.

NEW YORK: Coca-Cola and McDonald's garnered the most media coverage (traditional and new media) between July 1 and July 14 of all the 12 global sponsors participating in the Beijing Olympic Games, according to the Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Olympics Media Pulse.