According to a Global Language Network TrendTopper study, Lenovo surged from the back of the brand pack to win the gold in Olympic sponsorship. The huge Beijing PC maker and IT company popped J&J and McDonalds for the win.

Lurking in the pack were unofficial "ambush marketers" including Nike, Amex, and Pepsi, as well as the Kung Fu Panda.

Lenovo did it with the help of a long time relationship with the Ketchum Global Sports Network, and a few platform publicity dives.

Details on Ketchum's web, Internet lounge, and party strategy after the jump:

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Today marks the first official day of New York Fashion Week, and while most people are interested in the new Spring lines and beautiful models, here at PRNewser we are interested in the publicists, namely which designers and shows they are promoting. (Ok, so maybe we're also interested in the beautiful models.)

In that spirit, we've compiled the comprehensive list of publicists and agencies who are behind each and every designer. Read on for all the details - your thoughts and tips are welcome in the comments.

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PRSA is hosting the T3 tech PR conference in New York next Thursday, and this blogger finds himself on a panel titled, "Hot Topics: Prominent PR Bloggers Speak Out," with some people who have been in the game way longer than him, including Phil Gomes, Jeremy Pepper, and Colin McKay.

They've also assembled quite a lineup of real journalists as well, including reporters from USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and TechCrunch, among others.

There is another aspect to the conference that we will be watching with interest. Help-A-Reporter.com founder and overall vocal flack Peter Shankman is presenting one of the keynotes. ProfNet, which competes - and sometimes feuds - with Shankman's service (background here, and here), is a sponsor of the conference, and can't be all that thrilled to have their name on an event where he is keynoting. Shankman himself doesn't feel shy talking about the matter, as he mentioned to his 25k strong email list, "Come to the PRSA T3 PR Conference on Sept 11th in NYC. It'll be worth it for the potential of fireworks alone. :)"

[Image: Peter Shankman]

Romenesko: Redesigned WSJ.com will have "lots of wonderful gizmos"

PRWeek: On-air battles display MSNBC's pivot left

TVNewser: CNBC Gets Linked In

MediaPost: Carat Hit By PR Blunder, Confirms Layoffs, Relocation

ZDNet: Has IT public relations arrived?

PRNewser is no stranger to innovative swag, and neither are our friends and fellow mediabistro bloggers over at FishbowlNY.

Editor Noah Davis writes:

Since we work in media and can't afford anything, we love freebies. But sometimes, promoters and marketers go overboard (Sporting News, anyone?) We've taken it upon ourselves to point out these gratuitous displays of cash-wasting in what we're dubbing the Media Money Pit.

Check out their first example, from TV Guide, promoting the Emmy Awards, here.

[image cred]

With September upon us, so comes with it another New York Fashion Week. While the tents in Bryant Park have yet to fill up with models, designers, media and special guests, there are already events taking place before tomorrow's official start.

However, the real question here, from any fashion publicist's perspective is how to manage an event to get most positive media coverage for your client, while dealing with those pesky bloggers.

Gillian Reagan's story, "Oh, Lowly Blogger? Your Seat's in the Back," which appeared Tuesday's New York Observer, tackles the issue of the publicist's dilemma as to who "counts" when doling out media passes for events.

Reagan gives one example here:

Even trusted fashion-industry darlings, like Scott Schuman, who left his job as director of the men's fashion department at Bergdorf Goodman in 2005 to nurse his sick daughter and take digital pictures for his Web site, TheSartorialist.com, and Style.com, has found that PR companies "look down their noses" at him..."you could see them kind of looking at me like, 'Whatever'...There's such a class system.

Kelly Cutrone, head of fashion PR firm People's Revolution and well known for her cameos on MTV's The Hills, discussed new media when we interviewed her this past June, and told the Observer, "...at this point in time, the blogging world is the Wild West. Once something has been said, it's like taking a nail and putting it in a piece of wood. You can take the nail out, but the hole is still there. Once it's up on the Internet, you can't get it off; it's just there forever."

Blogger Shannon Nelson of Pierce Mattie PR tells PRNewser, "many bloggers are part of a site called Inside the Tents, where a bunch of bloggers who will be at Fashion Week will have their hash tagged tweets, Flickr pics and blog posts feed to the site."

So far, this blogger hasn't had any trouble getting RSVP'd for events. In fact, PRNewser was in attendance at last night's showing by Keith Lissner, a People's Revolution client, where we were treated more than kindly. Then again, we didn't try and bum rush anyone for an impromptu video shoot.

[Stay tuned for more PRNewser coverage of New York Fashion Week]

Citing faster moving news cycles, the needs of the international press corps, and her constant availability, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino ended the tradition of the "press gaggle"--the daily, informal off-camera briefings--preferring to collapse the gaggle and briefing in to one event, or "griefing" as one reporter already dubbed it.

Related: Shoot the Messenger; Dana Perino Shoots Back at Barbara Boxer, and the Don't I Look Hot music video

[via Fishbowl D.C]

Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and Wall Street Journal columnist was overheard on a hot mic bantering about Sarah Palin with GOP strategist Mike Murphy and MSNBC Political Director Chuck Todd:

Chuck Todd, MSNBC: I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I would think they went for the, excuse me, political bulls**t about narratives...

Noonan: Every time Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

Unlike the Bush/Cheney's "major league asshole / bigtime" banter of 2000, or the John Kerry "crooked" remark of 2004, this particular microphone gaffe looks like genuine dialog.

[via ABC's Poliical Radar; YouTube clip available here]

Critics generally praised the Democratic convention last week, and speech by Barack Obama--with the exception of Chuck Babington from the Associated Press. Babington's column drew the ire of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann in the late hours of cable coverage, and re-opened blogospheric displeasure with the venerable news organization's political team headed by Ron Fournier in Washington.

This week, Politico.com got a hold of the talking points memo penned by Ellen Hale in AP's corporate communications department. It deals with the timeline of Fournier's departure and return to the AP, including an offer to join John McCain's campaign, as well as explanation of state vs. national wire stories and how they're distributed.

The text of Hale's memo is after the jump:

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Rubenstein Public Relations is looking for a VP Level Business Publicist

Glam Media is looking for a PR Director

Columbia Law School is looking for a Director of Public Affairs

Andrew Freeman & Co. is looking for an Account Manager

Krupp Kommunications is looking for a Senior Account Executive

Perhaps one of the most well known non-profits in New York City, City Harvest, a 26-year-old organization that delivers food rescued from local restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, farms, wholesalers and manufacturers to more than 260,000 people in need, has hired Rubenstein Public Relations (RPR) to provide media outreach for its yearly events.

Part of the agency's duties will be to secure pre-event interviews for world-renown chefs who support City Harvest and prepare food for the organization's events.

"We are pleased to partner with an organization committed to helping New Yorkers put food on the table, especially as more and more families struggle to afford the rising costs of food,"
said RPR President Richard Rubenstein in a statement.

This year, City Harvest will rescue 20 million pounds of excess food from all segments of the food industry and deliver it to more than 600 community food programs throughout the five boroughs using a fleet of 16 trucks and volunteers on foot.

[Image: City Harvest volunteers]

Today's Bulldog Reporter has an interview with BusinessWeek senior business correspondent David Kiley. Kiley also edits the publication's "Brand New Day" and "AutoBeat" blogs. A former head of PR for an ad agency, Kiley says he can "see things from both sides..."

"My number one tip based on that background is to put yourself in the mindset of what the journalist needs, versus the knee-jerk reaction of what the client wants. If you serve the press first, then you also serve the client," he told Bulldog Reporter's Brian Pittman.

However, don't just jump on the trend band wagon, pitching a reporter because he or she recently wrote about something relevant to your client. Says Kiley, "Google alerts are a great was to stay on top of what people are saying about your company or companies in your space, but you really don't want to use them as a reason to email or pitch a blogger - or any reporter, for that matter. It makes me crazy when I just blogged on something and somebody sees my post because they subscribed to Google alerts on that category - and they immediately contact me about a pitch about how they fit into that same story. I get 387 emails a day and a lot of them are like this."

Read the full interview here.

Over drinks with some PR pros at our last mediabistro PR party, we ended up chatting about how a few in attendance could've used some pointers on how to "work a room."

Katie Retelle, an Account Executive at CommCore Consulting Group offered to send us networking tips from Andrew Gilman, CommCore's President and CEO.

So, after the jump, five tips on how to better "work the room" at the next event you find yourself at.

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Congrats to Michelle Koehn of Burson-Marsteller's San Francisco office, whose wedding announcement to James Peng made it into The New York Times.

Read Write Web: Why and How Embargoes Work in Tech Blogging

Reuters: Kremlin fights back in PR battle over Georgia

NYTimes: In Denver, a Thousand Little Pieces

ClickZ: How Video Fits Into a PR Strategy

PRWeek: Tivo's PR Budget Holds Steady