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All publicity is good publicity, right? When all three newscasts assigned a correspondent to cover the annual Extreme Eating Awards from the Center for Science & the Public Interest, a total of five restaurant chains received free mentions for their high-calorie high-saturated-fat special menu items.
Five Guys scored the trifecta--mentioned by NBC's George Lewis and CBS' Richard Schlesinger and ABC's Yunji de Nies--because its bacon cheeseburger had the added news hook of being ordered and eaten by Barack Obama during a dining photo-op. Runners-up were Bob Evans' hot cakes (ABC and CBS), PF Chang's noodles (CBS and NBC), The Cheesecake Factory's pasta carbonara and truffle cake (CBS and NBC) and California Pizza Kitchen's steak tostada (ABC and NBC).
Kentucky Fried Chicken even qualified for inclusion by ABC's de Nies because of its Double Down no-bread sandwich--even though CSPI had not singled it out in the first place.
Now contrast that with NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman, who could barely bring herself to utter the brand names of a series of antacid pills that can weaken the bones of middle-aged heartburn sufferers if taken in excess. Norman Charles at The Nightly Daily reckons that Snyderman gagged on the names of Prevacid and Nexium--but not on Prilosec--because those two brands happen to advertise on NBC Nightly News.
Charles is right to be outraged. There is no reason for Snyderman not to help her viewers by naming names. In fact, where advertisers are concerned, she has an extra obligation to bend over backwards to do so.
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