Stories by Seth Arenstein

Just as compound interest can grow money quickly, Instagram posts bolster consumer actions, defined here as the sum of likes and comments. The most-engaged U.S. nonprofit on Instagram, PETA, saw Q1 2016 engagement jump 79% vs Q1 2015, although it increased posts just 17%, according to data provided exclusively to PR News by Shareablee. PETA knew what its audience wanted, posting photos of animal-loving celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio. Other posts that worked included salutes to Armani and SeaWorld for taking steps to end animal cruelty.

Brand communicators beware: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has declared open season on social media influencers who fail to disclose that they are paid for endorsing a brand’s products and services. Not only that, disclosures must take a specific form; they also should be ubiquitous in some cases.

Late last year the FTC issued a long-awaited policy statement regarding native advertising and influencers, which was a follow-up to an earlier FAQ on the topic. Not even three months after it issued the later document, it “put industry on notice,” says Allison Fitzpatrick, partner at Davis & Gilbert in its marketing, promotions and PR practice groups, by slapping a penalty on high-end retailer Lord & Taylor ( PRN, March 21).

We’re not being political—that’s not our role—but we got a good laugh from stories that surfaced late last week about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump allegedly posing as his own publicist. Since we write about the profession, we were amused.

Digital technology is wonderful, right? The digital world can be at your fingertips. Yes, but that digital world, in the form of a mobile phone or laptop, can be a tempting distraction to tune out a speaker during a meeting, a conference and especially a webinar.

In a May 2 jury verdict in Missouri, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay a plaintiff $55 million in a suit that alleges talc in the brand’s Baby Powder led to her contracting ovarian cancer. At the outset, it seems clear how J&J views the situation: an issue that requires action. The same day the jury returned its verdict, the J&J site published a blog post titled “4 Important Facts About the Safety of Talc.”

The Week In PR

Chick-fil-A wisely halted sales of its Chocolate Chunk Cookies when its supplier, CSM Bakery Solutions, informed it that the cookies contained a trace of peanuts in them. That’s in contrast to dietary information it supplies to customers at its restaurants and online that the cookies are peanut-free.

Twitter was abuzz on National Equal Pay Day. Top tweeters seemed to be politicians, political organizations, media brands and unions. A few brands touted their gender-neutral compensation bona fides today on social. On the other hand, many brands seemed to approach the day cautiously, preferring to remain silent on social rather than wade in on what could be seen as a controversial topic.

With April 18 looming, we certainly expected to be conversing about income tax this time of year. But who could have predicted the words “Panama Papers,” “Mossack Fonseca” and “tax inversions” would be rolling off our tongues during last weekend’s barbeque?

Very much in the Facebook style of rollouts, some brands had been provided the additional 45 seconds months earlier, allowing them to preview their Super Bowl ads on the platform and compete for television’s ad dollars. Although video might seem an afterthought on photo-dominated Instagram, Shareablee data, provided exclusively to PR News, argues otherwise.