• by John Gaffney , June 27, 2002

My favorite OPRs (Other People’s Riffs) of the week:

Does That Include That Christmas Tree Project Where My Kid Glue Gunned His Hands Together? While chopping cabbage for her weekly segment on the CBS Early Show, Martha Stewart addressed her alleged insider trading hassles, saying, "I will be exonerated of any ridiculousness."

Let’s Hope The Dog Doesn’t P**s On The Shoes: Kelly Osbourne signed the first of what is sure to be many future product endorsement deals, with Candie’s shoes. She will appear in print ads slated to begin in the fall. "Candie's past ads have been really cool, and you always remember them. I was honored to be part of the campaign," she said.

Objective, Authoritative, and Sponsored In The Fine Print: It is billed as “the medical community's most prestigious research journal.” In a “landmark” article, The Journal Of The American Medical Association (JAMA) this week announced that all adults should take vitamin supplements to help prevent chronic diseases. The article recommends that consumers visit a website operated by ImagiNutrition for more info. What does ImagiNutrition do? It’s a pharmaceutical development company. Says it right on the home page: “If your company is looking for that new blockbuster product, we have a dynamic menu of product and ingredient technologies, many offering intellectual property protection and clinical validation studies.” Guess they negotiate pretty effectively with the most prestigious medical journal, too.

You Know, I Didn’t Think That Guy From WorldCom Really Shot a 68: A new study by Starwood Hotels & Resorts to support its new Starwood Golf Vacations program finds that virtually all executives believe that golf is an essential business tool and most say that behavior on the golf course is typically indicative of behavior in business - which might be a bit scary considering that the “vast majority of execs” also admit to cheating on the links, according to Starwood.

Reader Feedback Of The Week: A lot of readers took issue (putting it politely) to my comments that media buyers should not be distracted by Martha Stewart’s stock troubles. Many comments attached my opinion to the word “ignorant.” The prize for the most intelligent and thoughtful way of highlighting my ignorance goes to John Pillsbury of Destiny Media Technologies. He wrote: “This matters because 1. It affects how she may be acting in Omnimedia management. 2. It tarnishes her image, which is the very basis of the "Martha Stewart" value. 3. Her seeking to save a $100,000 on a bad investment, has cost herself and Omnimedia shareholders $100's million in share value this week! All of this is very public and material! Thus, the value of Martha Stewart as an advertising icon, and value of an advertising page in her mag, and the share value of her stock is directly affected by her judgment. Reputation matters, and be sure that it crosses corporate walls from ImClone to Omnimedia. The integrity of leaders affects all areas of their lives, and many thousands of their followers, and shareholders, consumers. It even falls-out to society itself.”