NEW YORK: With the holiday shopping season in full swing, the Toy Industry Association (TIA) has instituted a more aggressive communications program to combat the ongoing negative media coverage related to toy safety issues.

As the Writer's Guild of America strike continues to drag TV viewers toward a world full of more reruns, reality shows, and wannabe celebrities, it's slowly starting to affect a number of other industries - including PR.

PRAIRIE DU SAC, WI: Culver's has selected Marc USA as its new marketing AOR. Barbara Behling, PR director at Culver's, said the account is valued at $15 million and includes PR, advertising, and media buying services.

Southwest Airlines has long been entrenched in the blogosphere. Close to 30 pilots, flight attendants, customer-service agents, and other frontline and behind-the-scenes employees frequently write on its company blog, Nuts About Southwest.

It's been about a year since the highly anticipated launches of the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation3 (PS3) video game consoles.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC: Consumer and media outreach is playing a key part as Champion executes a major PR effort in support of the sports apparel maker's largest marketing campaign in a decade.

This past week Google put everyone connected to the cell phone industry on notice. The search engine giant let everyone know it would soon be making its presence felt within the space in the second half of 2008 with the arrival of Android, which isn't even actually a phone.

AUBURN HILLS, MI: Audi has chosen BNC (Bragman Nyman Cafarelli) and SS&K (Shepardson Stern & Kaminsky) as its agency partners after a competitive review involving four firms.

More think tanks are starting to use online video as a way to generate interest in their efforts among a broader audience.

Like many people, Brian Hardwick, director of communications and development for the Alliance of Climate Protection, woke up last month to find that former Vice President Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for working to raise awareness about global warming.