Ford Apologizes for being Gazopted – The Ford Figo India Ads By Karen Masullo, EVP Social Media Risk, Firestorm Executives at Ford were as shocked as the public when distasteful ad mockups featuring the Ford brand were posted on the Internet, and quickly went viral. According to a report by the AP, “The Indian unit of Ford Motor Co. has apologized for advertisements decried as demeaning to women, including one depicting Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a trio of bound women in the trunk of a car.” “A Ford India spokeswoman said Monday that the company is investigating whether anyone at the automaker ever saw the print ads, which were never used commercially but appeared over the March 24th weekend on a website showcasing creative advertising.” Ford’s India Ad agency, WPP Plc (WPP)’s JWT (J. Walter Thompson) India unit fired an undisclosed number of employees fo...

Why Monitoring is a Must My how the interwebs were abuzz on 11/26 when news broke via PRWeb, that Google was buying - for a whopping $400 million - penny stock, wi-fi company ICOA. The news was reported by AP and picked up by, well, everyone. Too bad the story wasn't true. On Monday 11/26, a press release posted via PRWeb.com stated that Google had acquired ICOA for $400 million in order to "further diversify it's already impressive portfolio of companies." The release listed contact information for ICOA and described ICOA's operations. The Warwick, R.I., company operates Wi-Fi hot spots in public areas such as airports, hotels and retail businesses. I read the release. I read it again.  It looked "hinky." It contained a typo (that happens), but it was what it did not contain that was odd; no PR contact information on the release, no company spokesperson official quotes, no fin...