Yesterday, at “Global PR Blog Week” I presented a view on ‘Brand Stories” and wrapped it up with my take on the controversial idea of McDonald’s, called ‘Brand Journalism.’

The concept of Brand Journalism is so new that few have absorbed it yet. Some dismiss it as yet another tactic of the big food giant. But I don’t think so. McDonald’s is on the rebound, and it has probably given this a lot of thought. The fact that the chief marketing officer has specifically attacked ‘positioning’ means that they have some serious numbers to justify their departure from it. A mass marketer attacking Positioning theory, is like saying the world is not flat. Many grew up on the Al Reis and Jack Trout book “Positioning: The Battle for your Mind” from the eighties.

Mr. Light proposed that Brand Journalism was the new way to market a multi-faceted brand, with culturally and geographically diverse customers. While critiquing global branding, and mass marketing he issued a stern warning against “positionistas” who would tell you otherwise.

An interesting sidebar to my topic yesterday would have been to feature what Laura Reis, daughter of Al Reis (and keeper of the flame of Positioning) is saying. Laura and Al recently published another book making the point that PR was making advertising obsolete. It holds that: “an ad is a butterfly. It lives for brief moments and then it dies…Not so with publicity. A good story will live forever.” I expected Laura Reis’ own blog, to react to the McDonald’s approach, but find that she’s making a strange argument for PR; how even ad agencies value PR more than advertising! She cites McCann-Erickson advertising running an ad for itself – a rare practice, she says, holding it as evidence that the ad industry is the only industry that does NOT believe in advertising. There’s something odd about this argument. If a doctor holds back from taking antibiotics, is that proof that he does not believe in medicine? Maybe we should all be wary of these ‘positionistas’ after all.