NEW YORK: New Era Cap Co., the makers of baseball teams' official in-field caps, will set up a miniature stadium for kids in the trendy New York neighborhood of Soho in order to promote its All-Star Game Major League Baseball (MLB) merchandise ahead of the fray.

The FDA faces an uphill publicity battle, after admitting - 11 weeks into the tomato scare - that the agency is still unsure of the source of the salmonella outbreak and even whether tomatoes were involved.

FOREST HILLS, NY: JetBlue Airways selected MWW Group as its international crisis communications agency after a review underway since December.

Olympic sponsors are using a variety of creative tactics to maximize their investment.

NEW YORK: The Empire State Building (ESB) recently hired Edelman to support its brand repositioning and expansion into international tourism markets. The new consumer-focused PR and marketing campaigns come during the building's ongoing $500 million capital improvement program.

DEARBORN, MI: Ford Motor Co.'s communications team set up a series of experiential events to create buzz for its crossover SUV, Ford Flex, which is on its way to dealerships now.

Russ Berrie and Co. will introduce consumers to its new plush toy line, SeaPals, a part of its Applause brand, on July 2, at Ripley's Aquariums in Myrtle Beach, SC, and Gatlinburg, TN.

ROCHESTER, NY: Corporate image continues to slide in the eyes of the American public, but firms with an effective overall reputation management program climb ahead, according to the recently released Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient (RQ) survey.

OAKBROOK, IL: McDonald's plans to find an employee in the next seven weeks or so to helm the blog of its new internal Web site, Station M.

NEW YORK: Absolut was scheduled to initiate a lights out in Las Vegas June 21 as part of its "Global Cooling" campaign, launched in January, which aims to draw attention to the effects of global warming. With the support of AOR Ketchum, all the lights at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino were scheduled to go out for one minute at 9:30pm, including a momentary shut down of the Outernational Music Festival.