Los Angeles, CA, December 13, 2011 - Meghan McCain, MSNBC contributor, author, columnist and political junkie has re-launched her official online political magazine, mccainblogette.com, announced EQAL, the media company that builds influencer networks around celebrities and brands. The blogette, which Meghan will update daily, will feature politics 101, up-to-date election commentary, hot topics, and Meghan’s essentials for life. McCainBlogette.com is a community for politically charged women who are looking to talk politics and for women looking to learn more about our election process.

Meghan launches the site today with a call to blogettes. She says, “Anyone that is interested and active in this election cycle and would like a platform to voice your opinions and perspective on 2012, please apply! I am looking for the fun and fearless political junkies out there that can bring a fresh look.”

Users will also get a sneak peek into what makes Meghan tick. She’ll talk style, music choices and her latest obsessions. “We’ll cover it all, from the politics of dating to the absurdities of the 2012 election, and I hope you’ll share your honest opinions with me.”

Meghan welcomes her fans to her site by saying, “Welcome to the new McCainBlogette.com. For those of you that followed this site that started my love affair with the political process during the 2008 election, welcome back. For those of you that are visiting for the first time, thank you for checking out my newly revamped site.”

Later in the week, Cindy McCain will guest blog about the McCain family holiday traditions, her favorite ornaments (hint: one is of the USS John McCain), John’s flawless turkey techniques and celebrating with one of her sons deployed overseas. Check in on Thursday for this special blog.

“We wanted to help Meghan McCain re-launch McCain Blogette to offer her a way to build a robust community around ideas and to empower women to speak out about their views,” said Miles Beckett, Co-Founder and CEO of EQAL, “With the election ramping up, re-launching Meghan’s community is a great way to bring the election conversation online in a new way.”

About Meghan McCain: 

As the daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain, Meghan McCain was propelled into the national spotlight at an early age. Meghan’s unparalleled exposure to American politics gave her the opportunity to hear voters debate the most complex issues first-hand. Meghan’s time on the campaign trail with her father inspired her acclaimed memoir, Dirty Sexy Politics. The book chronicles her personal journey across the American political landscape. Campaigning with her father also inspired Meghan to publish My Dad, John McCain, an illustrated children’s book that brings her father’s heroic story to life. As a columnist for The Daily Beast, she passionately discusses women’s issues, social issues, marriage equality and her firm belief that there is room for all walks of life in the GOP. While in college, Meghan worked at Newsweek magazine and Saturday Night Live. She is a graduate of Columbia University and currently resides in New York City.

About EQAL:

EQAL is a media company that builds influencer networks around celebrities and brands. Their celebrity and brand networks include the official websites and social media accounts for celebrities including Tori Spelling, Lauren Conrad, Bethenny Frankel, Nick Cannon, Elle and Blair Fowler and the brand partnership with Philadelphia Cream Cheese that recently won a Gold Effie Award. Their celebrity networks generate more than 1.8 billion impressions and reach over 25 million people each month. EQAL’s “hub and spoke” strategy focuses on building an integrated media property by increasing social media numbers, driving traffic and engagement to the celebrity’s official website, and providing new revenue opportunities.

EQAL was founded by Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, creators of the online sensations lonelygirl15, KateModern (with Bebo) and Harpers Globe (with CBS television). The two are widely credited as being the first to create quality serial programming for the internet, for integrating products into online programming and for originating the first “online to on-air” programming with a network television show. Miles and Greg are frequent speakers on digital entertainment and brand integration in the online space as well as the future of entertainment on the internet and beyond. The company continues to evolve at the rapid speed of the medium as it combines quality content, celebrity influencers and technology.

Contact for McCainBlogette.com:

Melissa Kwechansky, EQAL

Melissa@EQAL.com

818.276.6319

Jill Siegel, EQAL

Jill@EQAL.com

917.214.1710

Deadline to apply for $5,000 scholarships and matching grants to students’ hunger charity of choice is December 5th

Sodexo in North America
Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Daily Life Solutions company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On Site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $15 million in grants to fight hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at www.sodexoUSA.com/blog.

Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Daily Life Solutions
Quality of Life plays an important role in the progress of individuals and the performance of organizations. Based on this conviction, Sodexo acts as the strategic partner for companies and institutions that place a premium on performance and employee well-being, as it has since Pierre Bellon founded the company in 1966. Sharing the same passion for service, Sodexo’s 380,000 employees in 80 countries design, manage and deliver an unrivaled array of On Site Service Solutions and Motivation Solutions. Sodexo has created a new form of service business that contributes to the fulfillment of its employees and the economic, social and environmental development of the communities, regions and countries in which it operates.

Contact
Samuel E. Wells
301 987 4893
samuel.wells@sodexo.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Rich Alapack, 773-322-6851, rich.alapack@studentdiscountsociety.com

Student Discount Society helps interns earn money and gain experience in sales, content creation and social media marketing to help get jobs after graduation.

November 29, 2011 – Students at more than 250 colleges and universities seeking jobs and internships in finance, consulting and related fields are discovering a new exam designed to showcase their abilities at no cost to major companies throughout the world.

The Bloomberg Assessment Test (BAT) is a comprehensive aptitude exam that measures a student’s strengths in 11 different areas ranging from economics and analytical reasoning to situational judgment and verbal skills.

The BAT (www.takethebat.com) was quietly launched less than one year ago and, so far, more than 20,000 students have taken the exam at such universities and colleges as Michigan State, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Mt. Holyoke, UC Santa Cruz, and Notre Dame.

The free, three-hour exam is open to undergraduate and graduate students, no matter what their major, if they are seeking internships or jobs in areas such as finance or consulting or just want to measure their competitive strengths or weaknesses in a range of subjects.

The exam results are available to the student and included in the BAT Talent Search database, which lists the scores anonymously. A number of major employers, including investment banks and consulting firms, in the Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States are using the BAT for recruitment purposes.

More than 500 test takers have already made connections with prospective employers.

The test results provide considerably more insights into a student’s skills and abilities than a resume. Recruiters can search the database to find students who have strengths in areas of particular interest to them.

The recruiter then invites the student, who remains anonymous, to connect with the company and learn about potential positions. Students interested in the company can accept the connection and then will be contacted by the recruiter.

The BAT was developed by the Bloomberg Institute, a subsidiary of Bloomberg LP, in partnership with a global team of senior executives from leading financial institutions and faculty from major universities.

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From the time he was 10 years old, Dan Rollman dreamed of being in The Guinness Book of World Records, but later he discovered that there was a lot of red tape to deal with before a record could be admitted. Disheartened, but determined, Dan and his friend Corey Henderson, two self-professed “world record junkies,” saw an opportunity to create a similar, but more accepting, model for recording human achievement. The duo spent years building RecordSetter.com with money out of their own pockets, finally launching the site at the end of 2008. Within days, submissions to the video-based site began trickling in. Soon, Dan and Corey were buried under a mound of records, making regular guest appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon , and selling out live world record events from coast to coast.

Today, RecordSetter.com has catalogued over 20,000 record setters from more than 50 different countries, with hundreds of new records submitted weekly. The site is used by summer camps, church groups, juggling clubs, professional skateboarders, ex-Olympians and even the folks who run National High Five Day. Led by a team of moderators, the RecordSetter community plays an active role in approving records.

And now, at last, there is a book to chronicle some of the most extraordinary and outlandish achievements! THE RECORDSETTER BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS (Workman) expands on the content of the website and features over 300 categorized records, with chapters including The Creative Arts, Food and Drink, Sports and Games, Science and Technology, Money and Style, Groups, Visionaries, Earth and Environment, and The Human Body. Each record features:

• A photo or illustration

• Related data (date, location, tools, etc.)

• A short description, including funny or offbeat trivia

• Criteria to complete the record

• Related records

• Ideas for other records to be set

The book also includes profiles of record setters and interviews, back stories on buzz worthy records, tips for setting records, failed attempts, and amazing tales like “The International Battle for Giraffe Tattoo Supremacy.” In addition, there is an examination of RecordSetter culture with unique lists of outrageous records, in-depth stories of RecordSetter rivalries, and details on how readers can host their own record setting events! All readers are encouraged to not only break records in the book, but also to invent bold, new feats worthy of inclusion.

Just a few of the captivating records featured are:

• Most People Hit in Face with Pies in 30 Seconds While on Roller Skates (PG 81)

Current record: 13 by Drew Barrymore (yes, that Drew Barrymore!)

• Most Pizza Slice Face Slaps in 15 Seconds (PG 69)

Current record: 210 by Mel Sampson from Canada

• Longest Office Chair Train Pulled by a Motorcycle (PG 186)

Current record: 19 people by members of Wieden + Kennedy’s Team Maroon from Oregon

• Fastest Time to Recite All 50 States in Alphabetical Order While Being Hit in the Head with Wooden Spoons (PG 216)

Current record: 16.75 seconds by Stefanie Ward from Pennsylvania

• Fastest Time to a Open Bag of Skittles and Sort Them by Color (PG 73)

Current record: 21.95 seconds by Caitie McMekin and Melanie Crampton from New Jersey

• Most Vertical Fist Pumps in 30 Seconds (PG 278)

Current record: 255 by Abraham Collins from New Jersey (of course!)

THE RECORDSETTER BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS will indulge readers of any age in the weird, wacky, and wild and perhaps inspire them to set a record of their own!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
DAN ROLLMAN is the president and co-founder of RecordSetter. Dan is a lifelong world-record fanatic who tried in college, unsuccessfully, to set a Guinness World Record for ravioli eating. He has set 12 RecordSetter world records, but all but two have been beaten. An Emmy Award-winning advertising copywriter, with two Super Bowl commercials to his credit, Dan lives in Brooklyn.

COREY HENDERSON is the CTO and co-founder of RecordSetter. A competitive marathoner, who hails from a family of entrepreneurs, he has been at the leading edge of web development since 1997. Corey is proud to hold the RecordSetter world record for Most Fiery Crashes in One Game of Pole Position, and dares anyone to try and beat it. He lives with his family in New York City.

ABOUT THE BOOK
THE RECORDSETTER BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS More than 300 Extraordinary Feats by Ordinary People
By Dan Rollman and Corey Henderson
Workman Publishing • November 2011 • ISBN: 9780761165774 • $12.95

For more information or to schedule an interview with Dan Rollman and Corey Henderson, please contact:
Lauren Reddy/lauren@workman.com /212.614.7597

Visit them on the Web at WWW.RECORDSETTER.COM

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., November 14, 2011 – Striving to become the go-to resource for college students to discover and make Boston their home, social question and answer platform TipnTag.com is looking for student ambassadors to join the site and help shape its future. Started by a Bentley University graduate Khalid Kassim, TipnTag.com is aimed at Boston newcomers and Boston natives, the curious and the experienced, where students can engage in a dialogue on everything from the best student-friendly restaurants and underground music scenes, to tips and specials offered to students by retailers, clubs and venues around town.

Based on a simple” Where can I…” question structure, TipnTag.com offers many ways for students to get the most out of Boston. Students can answer daily, curated questions, eligible for $50 gift cards to over 20 retailers of their choice such as Starbucks, GAP, Best Buy and Travelocity. Students are also encouraged to ask and answer questions of particular interest across popular categories, and discover new places and friends in the Boston area.

Students who engage on the site are automatically entered to win an iPhone 4S, which will be awarded during the beginning of December at a great location in Boston to be announced later on this month on TipnTag.com.

“I started TipnTag.com with a vision of creating a digital meetup place for students looking to make their college city feel like home,” shares TipnTag’s founder Khalid Kassim. “ We are starting with Boston and will be rolling out to more cities in 2012. We are looking to partner with students to help us shape TipnTag.com as their place to ask, answer and discover.”

Students are encouraged to visit TipnTag.com and sign up for a member account. They can leave tips for the daily Top Tip Giveaway, the daily curated question promotion, or choose from among 14 popular categories, including Dining and Nightlife and Entertainment. They can also visit the TipnTag blog, which features the best tips shared on the platform weekly. Members of TipnTag.com are welcomed and encouraged to share ideas for new site feature, suggestions for new questions and categories, and any general feedback that will make the platform more useful and fun for students. Students can also download the TipnTag iPhone app to search and get tips on the go.

Contact TipnTag.com:

www.tipntag.com

alex@tipntag.comTipnTag on Twitter

TipnTag on Facebook

Media Contacts:
The National Campaign, Bill Albert, 202-478-8150, balbert@thenc.org 
The Ad Council, Ellyn Fisher, 212-984-1964, efisher@adcouncil.org 
Euro RSCG, Jared Kreiner, 212-886-4269, jared.kreiner@eurorscg.com

WASHINGTON, DC, November 10, 2011 - The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy is joining the Ad Council to debut a groundbreaking, first-ever national multimedia public service campaign designed to reduce the rates of unplanned pregnancy among unmarried young adults in the U.S. The three-year campaign drives sexually active women ages 18-24 to Bedsider.org, a new comprehensive online and mobile program, to help them find the right birth control method for them and use it carefully and consistently in an effort to prevent unplanned pregnancy.

The U.S. has one of the highest rates of unplanned pregnancy in the entire developed world. Nearly one in ten unmarried young women (ages 20-29) has an unplanned pregnancy each year, according to new data developed by the Guttmacher Institute and released today by The National Campaign. That is approximately 1.3 million unplanned pregnancies annually—a 13 percent increase in this age group between 2001 and 2006.

According to public opinion data also being released today, the vast majority (84 percent) of unmarried young adults in their 20s believe it’s important to avoid getting pregnant or cause a pregnancy right now. Even so, previous research conducted by The National Campaign suggests that less than half of young women are using birth control consistently. Young adults who experience unplanned pregnancy and birth have fewer opportunities to complete their education or achieve other life goals, and their children experience more health risks and social risks as well.

Bedsider aims to help young women (ages 18-29) find a method of birth control that’s right for them and stick with it through a series of online, video and mobile components. At Bedsider, visitors can explore, compare, and contrast all available methods of contraception, set up birth control and appointment reminders, view videos of their peers discussing personal experiences, and view animated shorts that debunk myths about birth control. The strategy for Bedsider was developed by IDEO, an award-winning global innovation and design firm.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, M.D., a practicing physician, board certified in internal and addiction medicine, got an early look at Bedsider. Dr. Drew is also a relationship expert with a 28-year run as host of the nationally syndicated Loveline radio program.

“I’m excited about Bedsider,” said Pinsky. “It’s an exceedingly rare bird—an authoritative and engaging resource that young adults can trust. It’s not preachy; it’s fresh, funny, and easy to use. It also makes the difficult decisions about birth control easier to navigate and answer. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.”

The multimedia PSA campaign that is being launched in partnership with the Ad Council was created pro bono by ad agency Euro RSCG in New York and includes television, radio, print, web and non-traditional advertising, as well as an integrated social media program. The light-hearted ad campaign uses humor to communicate to young women about the importance of birth control. Featuring a montage of relatable and funny “sex mishaps,” the television ads conclude with the line “You didn’t give up on sex. Don’t give up on birth control either.”

“Bedsider and the accompanying PSA campaign are trying to ‘rebrand’ contraception as a positive part of life that promotes self-determination, education and achievement,” said Sarah Brown, CEO of The National Campaign. “Both bring fun and a light touch to an area that is too often hush-hush, serious and boring.”

The social media portion of the PSA effort will include outreach and engagement via the ad campaign’s Facebook and Twitter communities, including a new application launching later in November that will invite users to anonymously submit their funniest fails and most awkward romantic moments on both Facebook and Twitter. The Twitter program also includes the promotion of campaign-designated hashtags: #sexfail and #dontgiveup.

“Despite the public’s perception that unplanned pregnancy is largely confined to teens, new research reveals that this issue is a major problem among young adults and the consequences can be very serious,” said Peggy Conlon, president and CEO of the Ad Council. “This breakthrough ad campaign uses identifiable humor to empower young women to find the birth control method that is best for them. It’s a public health effort that has the potential to benefit many, many young women.”

“The Bedsider PSA Campaign has an important message that we wanted to communicate in a world full of important messages,” said Lee Garfinkel, Co-Chairman of Euro RSCG New York. “In order to get this cynical young woman to pay attention and break through the clutter, we had to do something that was relatable and would have a high impact.”

The Ad Council is distributing the new PSAs to more than 33,000 media outlets nationwide today. The ads will air and run in advertising time and space entirely donated by the media.

Several media companies have made early commitments to support the new PSAs in donated media, including Viacom, Demand Media, re:fuel (a former division of Alloy Media + Marketing) and long-standing National Campaign partner mun2.

The new research data is based on special tabulations conducted by the Guttmacher Institute (www.guttmacher.org ). Information on pregnancy intentions comes from the 2002 and 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) surveys conducted by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and a Guttmacher survey of abortion patients, and were combined with data on births from NCHS, induced abortions from a national survey of abortion providers, and estimates of miscarriages calculated from the NSFG surveys. Population denominators came from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The public opinion polling was conducted by telephone by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS), an independent research company. The survey is weighted to provide a nationally representative estimate of the unmarried populations ages 18-29. Telephone interviews (both landline and cell phone) were conducted by SSRS with 1,025 respondents from August 17-September 25, 2011.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy seeks to improve the lives and future prospects of children and families. Our specific strategy is to prevent teen pregnancy and unplanned pregnancy among single, young adults. We support a combination of responsible values and behavior by both men and women and responsible policies in both the public and private sectors. If we are successful, child and family well-being will improve. Please visit www.TheNationalCampaign.org to find out more.

The Ad Council
The Ad Council (www.AdCouncil.org ) is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshalling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. Having produced literally thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, the Ad Council has effected, and continues to effect, tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action and saving lives.

Euro RSCG Worldwide
Euro RSCG Worldwide is a leading integrated marketing communications agency and was the first agency to be named Global Agency of the Year by both Advertising Age and Campaign in the same year. Euro RSCG is made up of 233 offices in 75 countries and provides advertising, marketing, corporate communications and digital and social media solutions to clients including Air France, Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Danone Group, IBM, Kraft Foods, Lacoste, L’Oréal, Merck, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Reckitt Benckiser, sanofi-aventis and Volvo. Euro RSCG Worldwide is the largest unit of Havas, a world leader in communications (Euronext: HAV.PA) (Paris: HAV.PA).

Rhee Announces StudentsFirst Presence at Cornell, Morehouse, Ohio State and U. of San Diego

Proprietary Cash vs. Points® Recommendation Engine Gives Travelers Power to Easily Manage 200+ Rewards Programs, Book Travel, Maximize Point Redemption, and Prevent Point Loss

SANTA MONICA, Calif., October 17, 2011 – With a girlfriend on the west coast, and enrolled in college on the east coast, Justin Byers wanted to fly west regularly, but was frustrated by the time consuming process to book flights. So he created a solution. Justin, along with three other college friends, recently launched PointHub (www.pointhub.com/), a loyalty program shopping and management destination, with its breakthrough Cash vs. Points® Recommendation Engine that recommends qualified, real-time, side-by-side comparisons between purchase price and rewards points for airlines and hotels. PointHub provides value-conscious students with an easy process to book travel in the most cost-effective way. Safe and easy-to-use, PointHub eliminates the need to visit multiple sites and remember as many passwords when booking rewards travel and empowers students to make better use of their incentive programs, reducing the $16 billion lost annually in unused frequent flyer miles and rewards points.

PointHub goes beyond answering the question, “Can I use my rewards points when making travel plans?” with its patent-pending, proprietary Cash vs. Points® Recommendation Engine. After eliminating blackout periods and cross-referencing factors such as redemption fees, point expiration risk, and travel preferences, PointHub provides side-by-side “best value” travel recommendations that can actually be booked using cash or rewards points. Registered users simply click on the desired option and they are sent directly to the travel provider where they make their reservations without having to enter their personal information again.

“We created PointHub to help people take back the power of their points,” said Justin Byers, PointHub CEO. “When I was in college, my friends and I were so frustrated trying to use our frequent flyer miles, and never fully understood if it was a better value to buy or use points. So, I knew there had to be an easier way and that’s when I came up with the idea for PointHub. Once all the elements came together, including being able to track your points online, we began developing our proprietary Recommendation Engine. Once we’re firmly established in the travel space, we’re going to roll out loyalty shopping options for retailers and credit card programs,” concluded Byers.

PointHub simplifies rewards management for consumers, who average 18 loyalty programs per household, through its PointTracker and alert tools. Eliminating the need to visit multiple sites, PointTracker monitors rewards program balances, elite levels, tier-status progress, pending itineraries, and expiration dates. PointHub warns registered users when their frequent flyer miles, rewards points, flight credits, or airline vouchers are about to expire and provides recommendations on how best to use them.

Beyond shopping and rewards management, PointHub also offers useful features such as a guide to more than 200 loyalty programs with user ratings and reviews, and tips about ways to earn and redeem air miles and rewards points. PointHub uses the same security measures, such as 128-bit encryption and physical security, as used by the largest financial institutions; its site is monitored and verified by Verisign, TRUSTe and McAfee.

About PointHub:
Santa Monica, CA-based PointHub (www.pointhub.com) is a loyalty program shopping and management destination whose patent-pending Cash vs. Points® Recommendation Engine strengthens consumer decision-making through qualified, real-time, side-by-side comparisons between purchase price and rewards points. PointHub is the single best source for powerful point-redemption recommendations, point loss prevention, and rewards program management. Visit www.pointhub.com/press for more details. Follow us on Twitter (@PointHub). Like us on Facebook (facebook.com/pointhub). Read our blog (blog.pointhub.com/).

CONTACT:
Lisa McKendall
lisa@mckendall.com
310.641.1556