Here is a link to an article describing the lawsuit.

On April 30, 2009, the article “Becks and the Blonde Beauty” claimed that Beckham “got close” with the model after a game in Milan and was e-mailing her with private party invitations.

Beckham, who is 34 and currently married to Victoria Beckham, had his lawyer Gerrard Tyrell make a statement that the allegations were “serious, defamatory, and completely untrue”.

After the libel lawsuit hearing at London’s High Court on Tuesday, June 23, 2009, the newspaper accepted that the story was untrue, retracted the allegations, and apologized to Beckham and his family for the distress, embarrassment, and injury caused.

The Beckhams were also awarded substantial damages (though undisclosed) and legal costs.

According to www.dictionary.com, libel is defined as defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than spoken words or gestures. It includes anything that is defamatory (false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another) or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.

In this case, the claim that David Beckham had engaged in making a pass at this model and had been communicating with her through e-mail misrepresented him to be unfaithful in his marriage, which is damaging to a reputation.

ExpertLaw claims that the elements for cause of action include:

1. A false and defamatory statement concerning another;
2. The unprivileged publication of the statement to a third party (that is, somebody other than the person defamed by the statement);
3. If the defamatory matter is of public concern, fault amounting at least to negligence on the part of the publisher; and
4. Damage to the plaintiff.

In Beckham’s case:

1. The statement that he “made a play” at the model is both false and defamatory, since it was untrue and an injury to his good reputation.
2. The article was published in a London newspaper, so it was available to third parties.
3. The matter is of public concern because he is a celebrity and it was published in a public newspaper, who was careless about the effect it might have on his reputation, and
4. The article and false accusations caused distress, embarrassment, and injury.

I would agree with the court’s ruling because David Beckham has a wife and children who could be hurt by these statements, especially if they are untrue.

It is bad enough to be in the public eye and get busted for being unfaithful (cough, Tiger Woods…).  However, it is even worse to be accused of such adultery because it negatively impacts the individual’s reputation, as well as the family of the accused.

This lawsuit probably had an impact on the newspaper in that people may have been less likely to see it as credible source.  However, it was not a huge news story, and these types of lawsuits happen on a relatively regular basis due to the nature of the media.

I guess it was the previously squeaky clean image that sent Tiger Woods’ reputation down the toilet.  While Lohan hasn’t had much of a good reputation since, say, the release of “Freaky Friday” or “Mean Girls”, it seems to constantly get worse and worse.

This girl is in need of some serious PR recovery campaigning, if her image isn’t too far gone already.

The most current news is that she’s been booted off the movie “The Other Side” because they no longer see her as “bankable”.  Get the full story here.  Her roller coaster of a private life isn’t helping her career in the least bit: cocaine, excessive drinking, credit card debt, and the rumors of corrupting her 16-year-old sister Ali are just a few of the factors bringing her down.

Celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky, who has never met her, claims to be worried about Lohan and where she is headed.  This article is the starting point for my proposed public relations campaign.

This campaign involves a spinoff on the television show Intervention, except featuring Dr. Drew Pinsky and celebrities, with Lohan being the pilot episode.

In the first episode, Lindsay would be brought in unknowingly for an intervention including Dr. Drew and any family members wishing to partake.  There, everyone would express their concerns and eagerness to try to help.

After the emotional pleas and painful truths have been expressed, she will be given a choice to try and improve her life.  This will include an incentive of the show paying off her credit card debt (which now exceeds $60,000) in order for her to start over as a celebrity whose new niche is helping out other celebrities before they make the same mistakes she has made.

She will then appear on the show with Dr. Drew.

Of course, there are risks involved with this: there is the risk that she decides not to take the offer.  However, I believe the huge payment of her credit card debt would be a substantial enticement for her to make some changes.

There is also the potential of this strategy backfiring; say she accepts the offer to pay off the debt and then doesn’t hold up her end of the bargain.  I would have her sign a contract that somehow incorporated the only way the bills would be paid off is that she has to remain on the show for an allotted period of time.

In order to abide by PRSA’s Code of Ethics, I would, among many other things, be honest and accurate in all communications, act in the best interest of clients or employers, and safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of clients and employers.

And most importantly, this campaign would not only help Lindsay Lohan’s celebrity image, but also her overall well-being.

Where doesn’t this product advertise?  Everyone has seen the infomercials with celebrities like P. Diddy and Jessica Simpson sharing their stories and how they couldn’t have gotten anywhere without this product.  The company has enough money to be advertising ubiquitously, so they must be doing something right.

Proactiv is a 3-step treatment for acne, which may be one of the most common ailments that people have.  Everyone has had a pimple at least once in their life, and nobody wants that kind of negative attention drawn to their face.  Thus, this product is targeted at a vast target audience.

I think it’s safe to say that teenagers are the largest demographic to suffer from acne, so the campaign targets people ages 13 and up.  If fitting in and avoiding being picked on isn’t the most important thing to adolescents, being like celebrities just might be.

The biggest advertising method used by this company is the “Famous-Person Testimonial”.  They have used celebrities such as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Julianne Hough, and Katy Perry, just to name a few.

In fact, the website dedicates an entire page to famous people paying tribute to the wonders Proactiv has done to their skin.

If that isn’t enough to convince someone with less than perfect skin to purchase this product, here is a perfect example of both the “Plain Folks Pitch” and reaching any possible demographic.  On the website’s page entitled “Real Stories”, you simply enter an age group (13-18, 19-29, or 30-45+), a gender, and a skin tone to find plenty of testimonials from people “just like you”!

Like I said, infomercials on television probably amount for the biggest amount of advertising that is done.  However, the other mediums used include the radio, magazines, billboards, the Internet, and others.

According to this article, Proactiv will be spending another $200 million on television advertising alone this year.  Guthy-Renker, L.L.C., the corporate owner of Proactiv states that, “With so many options for consumers in our media-soaked culture, you need to create highly-targeted communications programs.”

As we can see, the company’s extensive advertising campaign is no coincidence.  They know exactly what they are doing and it is what has made them so successful.

Since teenagers are the biggest demographic, you can find the most amount of commercials on channels like MTV around prime-time into the night.  However, I would be hard pressed to find a channel that has never aired one of these ever so popular commercials:

Though the adult film industry is not exactly a profession that is usually revered, Jenna has become the most successful at it, and chose to share her fascinating journey.  The ups and downs, the failures and successes, the tears and laughter, the mistakes and regrets: there is no filter to this woman and the stories she tells.  That is exactly what I love about her and this book.

Deemed “a cautionary tale”, the front cover even displays the words “Uncut! Uncensored!”, inviting audiences to share in her experiences, both bad and good.

It’s funny that I should mention the front cover, considering I didn’t see it too often.  I was about 16 years old when I read this book, and would take it to school since I was so riveted that I never wanted to put it down.  The hardback book was simply black underneath so it was more subtle to read in my study hall – not to mention I couldn’t imagine the look on my father’s face had he seen it.

One of my girlfriends from high school had been reading the book when I asked her about it, and she recommended it highly.  I know this may sound odd, but Jenna Jameson has always been someone I’ve admired.  I respected the integrity she put into her career (no matter how taboo it may be), and how successful she is for no other reason than her own hard work and determination.

I guess it didn’t hurt that there was something so controversial about her, because of what she was known for, that also interested me about her life.  To me… she is reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe, the way she became a sex symbol in our culture and really just embraced it.  Coincidentally enough, the book cover feels as if it was meant to recreate a Marilyn Monroe character feel (at least in my opinion).

But let’s look past the cover; skip through the glossy pages also included in the book, and get to the content.  Let’s discover the reasons why the bindings on my copy of this book are actually broken from reading it start to finish so many times.  I could go on for hours about all the life lessons I took away from this story, but let’s just touch on a few.

Boys.

Though put juvenilely, this may have been the biggest factor on why I kept reading this book.  Like me, Jenna was always boy-crazy as a little girl, and she had many stories to share and insights to provide.  As a sixteen-year-old girl, I was entering the world of high school boys, dealing with all the fun that entails, and just beginning to learn about relationships in general.  She seemed like someone who had been through all the immaturity, heartaches, breakups, and bad boyfriends.  And she lived to tell about it.

So I read.

I learned, vicariously through Jenna, an awful lot about the male population.  And it’s funny because, to be honest, I feel as though they are so much simpler than the female population.  So many girls make the mistake of overanalyzing every little thing guys do and say.  They look for hidden messages and signs that we ourselves use to communicate.  The majority of the times, these messages do not even exist.  Especially at our age.  Most men are generally very straightforward.  I have used insights that I learned from Jenna’s book in my own personal experiences and feel as though I have gained some perspective into romantic relationships.

A particular quote I liked was: “Relationships are funny, because they are not logical. Instead of judging them by the facts, we assess them by our expectations.” Book 2, Chapter 5, Pg 122

That being said, I learned that relationships are not the only thing in life.  I learned that a woman shouldn’t always need a man to feel loved, acceptable, or complete.  Those should all come from within first.  My mom always used to tell me that, “you have to love yourself before anyone else can love you”, and it’s something I’ve always considered.  Before anyone or anything else, you should be content with the person you are.  If you’re not happy with yourself, how can you expect someone else to be?  Other people can let you down, but if you’re happy with who you are, you will never feel alone.  Besides, you have to spend eternity with yourself, so you might as well like that person!

I also learned that, as a female, body image is always going to be prevalent.  There are always going to be expectations of what women should look like, and they are often unattainable.  I have learned that instead of killing myself trying to meet those standards, or wasting time feeling unattractive and subpar, I should embrace what I have been given.  Loving your body is sexy.  Confidence is sexy.

I have learned that knowing who you are, and not being afraid of it, is sexy.

I have learned that independence is sexy.

I have learned that knowing what you want, and not being afraid to go after it, is sexy.

I would recommend cross-promoting this radio station by advertising on buses throughout Baltimore.  The DC/Baltimore area is made up of 27 cities and counties throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia so this would really broaden the radio station’s audience.

There are various sizes of bus advertisements, so the possibilities are extensive.  Since buses run so often and cover significant ground, the ad is basically a billboard on wheels.  The ads could catch people’s attention by displaying concerts sponsored by the radio station that are coming to the area soon.  That way, people would notice an upcoming show that they are interested in and then realize the radio station that is sponsoring it.  This could provoke them to turn on the radio station and hear more of artists that they like.

Let’s say you were in your car driving home from work, and you are a big fan of the new rapper, Drake.  You pass a bus with an advertisement on it for a concert soon with Drake headlining it, which intrigues you.  After taking another look at the bus, you notice a big logo that reads “Z104.3”, so you decide to turn it on to hear more details about the concert, or hear more songs by Drake or other artists.  Just like that, cross-promotion has worked effectively.

I think that this cross-promotion campaign would prove effective because buses are out on the road, and there is a radio in almost every vehicle.  Therefore, someone in their car might see a bus drive by and decide to check out the radio station.  Thus, Clear Channel has used its bus advertising market to promote its radio station market.

I expected to find plenty of information about the correlation between my generation and digital technologies such as social networking sites; but I wasn’t exactly expecting it to be one of the very first sentences I read.

I found a really interesting article listing the top 10 social networking sites.  I’ve got to be honest though: I hadn’t even heard of any of these.  I guess it just goes to show how much is really out there.

Instead, I chose to analyze an article about a website I am more familiar with, Facebook.  The title reads, “Facebook generation ‘form flimsy friendships and are bored by reality’”.  Included are some issues I have increasingly become aware of among my friends and peers.  I have noticed that there have been times in which a group of my friends and I have been hanging out, and a substantial period of time will go by when no one actually speaks.

Why would such a thing happen?

There are a couple of factors contributing to this phenomenon, and they all include social networking, or at least the internet.  I took a look around the room, and noticed everyone was either on a cell phone, Blackberry, or laptop.  I realized that we all could instantaneously get in touch with each other, and not because we were all in the same room.  It was then I decided that our constant need to be connected to sites like Facebook and Twitter has overpowered our ability to simply enjoy each other’s physical company.  Kind of sad, isn’t it?

The article quotes that “The new generation raised alongside the internet is attaching an entirely different meaning to friendship and relations, something we are largely failing to notice”, which I agree with.  Simply the word “friend” has taken on a new meaning.  All it takes to add someone as a friend on Facebook is simply the click of a button.  People have thousands of “friends” on these websites and, in reality, don’t even talk to more than half of them.  I couldn’t tell you the last time I’ve seen, let alone talked to, some of my Facebook “friends”.

Here is a video parody of this aspect of Facebook that I found entertaining:

It feels as though the quality of friendships is diminishing due to the nature of relationships on the internet.  We spend less time actually having face-to-face conversations.  When one does occur, it is rare that it’s not interrupted by some form of technology.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to repeat myself to people because they were texting mid-discussion.  It may not seem like a big deal, but the social acceptance of occurrences like this is allowing our generation to appear preoccupied and downright rude.

The last paragraph of the article really struck me as kind of ironic.  Graham Jones, a psychologist specializing in the impact of the internet said that “The notion that there are lots of teenagers ensconced in their bedrooms huddled over their computers is far from reality.”  I had to stop and read this sentence a few times because I have to disagree.  No matter how sociable our generation is in real life, I would think it’s safe to say that the notion of teenagers huddled over their computers in their bedrooms is actually a pretty accurate one.  In fact, it’s exactly what I’m doing right now…

Technology is constantly evolving, expanding, and changing the way we do things.  On one hand, it is improving our society and allowing us to communicate, work, and play more efficiently.  However, it may not always be impacting us positively.  Let’s take a look at two different scenarios in the year 2035: one in which these information technologies allow our civilization to flourish, and another that allows technology to destroy the world as we know it.

I now invite you to come with me on a journey exploring an optimistic vision of the future, where humanity embraces technological advances and allows it to improve the way the world works.

You wake up in the morning and use a single device that resembles a remote control to check your video-mail (cell phones, video chatting, and e-mail are all now combined into a single portal).  Thus, there is no longer a need for a cell phone, Blackberry, laptop, webcam, digital camera, or iPod because they have all been combined into one instrument.  You dial into your boss to see what he has in store for you today.  Using webcam special effects, you transform your bedhead and PJ’s into a business suit and a more polished hairstyle.  Your boss holds up a memo with the items he needs you to accomplish today, as well as an itinerary for scheduled meetings.  All of these calendar appointments and tasks are automatically imported to your digital device.

Once you have been given your work for the day, you step into the shower and begin pressing buttons on a touchpad, which controls the water temperature and dispenses the perfect amount of shampoo, conditioner, and soap.  While doing so, a device in the kitchen is defrosting a frozen breakfast meal and then cooking it.  You spend the rest of the day meeting with clients all over the world, accomplishing all of your work with simple clicks, and never leaving the comfort of your own home.

Life is ergonomic and convenient.

Scratch that.

The year is still 2035, but this time the communication device that was implanted into your body when you were born will not stop going off.  You attempted to take a day off from work; when you called in sick and your boss tracked your GPS device (also included in the mechanism in your system) to find out you were at the beach, he is not happy.

Your friends keep trying to get in touch with you, and become angry with you when you do not answer because they know exactly where you are and that you received their messages.  All you wanted was a day to yourself.  To relax, to unwind, to take a step away from reality for a couple hours and have some peace and quiet.  Sadly, the world you now live in does not allow this to happen.  The absolutely constant connection to the rest of the world is invasive and tiring; no one has any privacy left since the government decided to pass the legislation allowing (and requiring) the surgical implantation of cell phones and GPS devices.  Whatever happened to having some time to yourself?

These two scenarios may be incredibly far-fetched, or not at all.  Only time will tell.

Realistically, I believe life will, in fact, be a lot different in 25 years.  The amount of recent developments over the past 25 years has surpassed most people’s expectations.  Simply the invention of the internet shocked a lot of people; since then, more and more improvements and additions have gotten us to where we are today.

I found this “Did You Know?” video to be really interesting and was surprised at a lot of the statistics.  Especially that by 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain.  This is just three years away.

It has been predicted that a computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species by 2049.  I don’t know about you, but this really surprised me, even though it really shouldn’t have at the rate that the world is growing and changing.

That being said, I think 2035 will definitely have a device similar to that of the utopian society I described previously.  We are not that far off from that right now, considering an iPhone can do almost anything a computer can.

I will be 45 years old, probably reminiscing on the days that we had to take out the video games from the SuperNintendo and blow on them to make them work.  I will probably be looking back on the times when I thought I was up to date with technology, when things were simpler, and when my kids didn’t know more about it all than I did.  However, I’m sure there will be plenty of conveniences and advancements that I couldn’t imagine ever living without.

Addiction: noun; the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.  For most people, when we hear this word, we think drugs.  However, it is not limited to that.  We can be addicted to anything.  Say, for example… the media.

For two days, I logged the amount of time I spent consuming media, both voluntarily and involuntarily.  Though I was aware how much time people, especially our generation, spend seeing, hearing, and using the media, it was still quite an eye-opening experience to see it down on paper.  I figured the majority of media I was exposed to was voluntary; this was not exactly the case in my situation.  In fact, my observations were pretty interesting.

The first day I logged my media consumption, I was awake for approximately fifteen hours.  Of those, at least twelve hours were spent with the interruption of media into my life somehow.  Whether it was checking my Facebook, or passing ads while walking to class, I realized how constantly devoted my life is to observing mass media.  This means 80% of my waking hours were spent being a consumer to our world.  It was also Monday, a school day, where I spent a substantial amount of time in classes.  Had it been a weekend, or a day without classes, I could foresee that percentage being even greater.

I am going to be honest, the two days I spent trying to avoid media at all costs was definitely not an easy task.  Of course, not all media can be avoided, teaching us the lesson that media are pervasive, intruding in all areas of our lives.  Music is a big part of my life, so it was difficult not listening to my iPod walking to class, or in the car, or just hanging out.  I could hear myself think instead of what other people had to say through music.  I realized how many thoughts fly in and out of my head, and I actually think I was more productive than usual.  However, I should probably give most of the credit to the fact that I didn’t log onto my Facebook.

In fact, a few weeks ago, I tried to deactivate my Facebook account.  My best friend from home had done it and was raving to me about how much more free time she has, and that she uses her time more wisely and efficiently.  She also noted not feeling subject to inform her entire friends list what she was up to every hour of the day.  It sounded like a good idea to me, so I followed suit.  Three days later, however, I could not take it anymore and reactivated it.  I guess this is a pretty good example of how big of an impact media really has on me.

I think most of my association to media comes from the internet.  However, messages, advertisements, and publications literally are everywhere.  Media is ubiquitous.  There are flyers all over the union to join this club, or attend this event, or buy this product.  There are advertisements for the most random items and companies on the sides of buses.  The textbooks we read are attempting to inform and educate us.  Commercials on the television are trying to persuade us.  Listening to music on our computers, iPods, phones, or online serve to entertain us.  Our cell phones help to keep us updated and relentlessly in touch.

Currently, the entire world is constantly connected via various technological portals.  It is nonstop.  Going without these links to each other causes us to suffer withdrawal symptoms.  Whether it is e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or simply reading the newspaper online, there is literally something for everyone to connect with.  Though technology and the internet have provided many positive advancements for our society as a whole, I can’t help but think we have all become addicted in one way or another.