Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

Isabelle Dinoire, a 38-year-old Frenchwoman and mother of two, became the recipient of the world’s first face transplant during a 15-hour surgery in Amiens that took place on Nov. 27th of last year. On Monday, she revealed her new face to a room full of anxious reporters. I know how anxious I am before a big event, so I can only imagine her nerves before unveiling her new face.

Dinoire, who is still hospitalized for physical therapy, was chosen for the landmark procedure after being brutally attacked by a dog, a tragic accident that left her gums and teeth exposed and most of her nose missing. Thanks to the surgery, she now has a face where before there was only a gaping hole. The only reminder is a scar: a faint, circular line of buckled skin around her nose, lips and chin.

“Since the day of my operation, I have a face like everyone else,” reports Newsday. “Thanks to them [the donor’s family] a door to the future is opening for me and others.”

I think this is an exciting new frontier for reconstructive surgery. I’ve worked with surgeons for more than five years now, and I’m always happy to see medical advancements like this save, and in this case, radically improve a person’s life.

I hope this dosent mean that my favorite foods from Jenny Craig are going to stop being made. I will die without my chicken fajitas and chocolate cake! But just maybe this means that finally they can start to make some seriously good chocolates!

Jenny Craig Finds Buyer In Brabeck-Letmathe's Nestle A good omen? As far as we know, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is not in league with the devil. But he is the chairman and chief executive of Nestlé, whose announcement on Monday might have struck some as slightly diabolical: The Vaud, Switzerland, conglomerate announced it is buying Jenny Craig for $600 million. But we urge the trepidatious to read on: What you learn might drastically alter your beliefs--in a good way. Sure, the first thing you think of when you hear "Nestlé" is the dark goddess, chocolate: the sweet, irresistible temptress that elevates the mood--and expands the waistline. And of course, Jenny Craig is in the worldwide business of helping people carve off unwanted bulk. Led by CEO Patti Larchet, the "classroom" company offers education, prepared foods and phone support as part of a full way of life to health-seekers.

Smokey Sue demonstrates dramatically the quantity of tar which is collected in the lungs when a single cigarette is smoked. The tar normally inhaled directly into the lung is collected in a transparent tube, and thus shows very clearly the quantity of tar which reaches the lung with each cigarette.

You have to be retarded to smoke. I have said this over and over again. And yet still some of my team has cancer sticks in their mouths at lunch. It makes me so upset that I had to blog on this.

Curbing tobacco use and taking other steps to eliminate some of the most common risk factors for cancer could save millions of lives over the next few decades, health officials said Monday.

Tobacco alone is predicted to kill a billion people this century, 10 times the toll it took in the 20th century, if current trends hold.

with Dr. Stephen Greenberg

There's no doubt that plastic surgery has been given a lot of press coverage. In fact, outside of Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch and Jennifer and Brad's divorce, stories about plastic surgery lead the headlines last year. Recently, The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) presented the Top Plastic Surgery Hot Topics:

1. Only the rich and famous; think again—A groundbreaking study found 71 percent of people considering plastic surgery had annual household incomes of less than $60,000. Only 13 percent reported an
annual household income of over $90,000.

Nutrition researchers have made an amazing discovery about the link between eating and brain power. A 4-year study of more than 2,000 people published in the Annals of Neurology shows there is a specific diet that appears to significantly reduce your risk for Alzheimer's disease.

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When you practice yoga or Pilates, like many of us at Pierce Mattie do, be careful which mat you’re using. I hope it’s not a communal one!

In the last two years, there has been a 50 percent increase in patients with athlete’s foot and plantar warts, according to Greg E. Cohen, a podiatrist at Long Island College Hospital. The culprit - dirty exercise mats!

Even though there’s no “official” link between unclean yoga mats and fungal, bacterial and viral infections, dermatologists and podiatrists have noticed a rise in the number of skin infections in their patients who practice yoga and use public mats. Scary!

Although many gyms provide disinfectants so we can wipe down machinery, not all of them provide the same cleanliness with exercise mats. So, ask your gym if they provide antiseptic solutions for their communal mats or if they clean their mats daily, it will save you a trip to the doctor’s office!

Keep healthy in more ways than just practicing yoga – use a disinfected mat! Try investing in your own mat or yoga wipes to avoid the risk of getting infections. There are so many yoga-mat wipes and disinfectants now available, so please exercise with caution!

A new report recently came out that Americans are too fat now to receive X-rays and other medical care that can be beneficial.

64 percent of the US population is now obese and of that 64 percent most are unable to receive full medical care because they are either too big to fit into scanners, or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sounds waves to penetrate.

It’s been almost a week of unbearable, triple-digit temperatures here in the city (and almost everywhere else in the country) and I can’t take it anymore! The brutal heat wave has left New York with record-breaking temperatures in different parts of the city, train slow downs, and thousands of Con Edison customers without power.

It has been so hard to do anything in the city for the last week since you can barely breathe walking down the street because of the thick air. So, to keep cool for the last few days I’'ve been trying to keep myself hydrated in different ways: drinking plenty of water, spritzing my face with jane iredale’'s D20 spray and of course, applying sunscreen –- even the short walk to the office can harm your skin without the right protection!

Fellow Pierce Mattians and I already started to feel a little cooler yesterday, even though it was temporary, with a nice afternoon treat - free iced café con leches that Starbucks was handing out. Despite the long lines going around the block, the efficient baristas kept the coffee coming and the lines moving quickly.

Hopefully, the cool down will continue this weekend - just in time for this Saturday’s launch party for Bond No. 9'’s newest summer scent, Fire Island. I’m excited about it...are you?

Can you believe that recent studies have shown that a toilet seat or the bottom of a shoe is cleaner than your cell phone? Our can’t-leave-the-house-without-one cell phones are absolutely FILTHY!

News broke this morning of research conducted in the United Kingdom finding that mobile phones are a “technological Petri dish for tens of thousands of germs.” – ABC News . But how you say? It’s just your face, right?! One thing about our face is that we clean it religiously (I won’t be caught dead without cleansing day and night with my Natura) but when’s the last time you took a cleanser-drenched cloth to your cellphone? And since our phones heat up after excessive text messaging, data services and phone use, it’s a breeding zone for that icky bacteria. Our filthy fingers dial digits, our mouths eject saliva and our phones heat it up for us, making it the DIRTIEST item we possess. UM, GROSS!

Click On Pink Tab To Download Registration Form

ISPA Knowledge Networks are a venue for spa professionals to openly discuss current circumstances and to create practical solutions for business. Expert speakers; Mary Bemis, Rona Berg & Pierce Mattie will address pertinent industry-related topics, while also providing time for in-depth group discussion. Regardless of your level of experience, the education offered at the ISPA Knowledge Networks will be invaluable. Each Knowledge Network includes a Marketplace on the first evening providing an opportunity to network and learn about the latest products.

The ultimate goal of the Knowledge Networks is to provide spa industry professionals with the opportunity to build relationships in a one-on-one environment with their peers. View Invite">We encourage you to join us for the final 2006 ISPA Knowledge Network & Marketplace.

We already use bacteria to inject under the skin to get rid of laff-lines. Why do we love these wrinkel creating viral videos so much? "Ugly" men get "hot chicks" when they have a good sense of humor. The message, subliminal or viral, does seem to go down easyer with humor as a chaser. Viral videos are everywhere. It’s hard to escape the swarm of links I get from friends, family and colleges. These free, interesting and sometimes amusing videos spread over the Internet in almost pandemic speed. I have to admit, I've been guilty of forwarding them on to others when the clip makes me giggle (like a school girl) or those I find clever enough. Not all videos are truly viral marketing. In fact, most clips are just creative expressions, which entertain. Obviosly where ever you have an audience and peer-to-peer networks your going to find marketers trying to relate and persuade and advertise.

Here are a few videos, can you spot which one is viral and which are just entertaining?

Treadmill Fitness Equiptment Viral Or Music Video?

This week, the TODAY show has been doing a series called Hidden Germs. Who knew Matt Lauer was such a germaphob? They did germ investigations in grocery stores, baby bags, and …makeup counters! Now, I was always squeamish when trying on different shades at counters (who knows who’s been touching those things!), but after watching Janice Lieberman’s report, never again will I try ANYTHING at these counters, no matter how pretty the colors look. Not that I have to anymore, but I’ll get to that later.

Liberman brought samples of the makeup testers from some unknown department store to researchers. They found germs in everything – lipstick, lip gloss, eye shadow, brushes and even the containers that hold the little spatulas! One of the germs found was staphylococcus aureus which causes pink eye and other infections.

Just by using the testers at the makeup counters, you can spread your germs and pick up someone else's. Even free makeovers can be harmful if the makeup artist that’s doing it is using the testers on display. The Consumer Product and Safety Commission reported that thousands of people can contract skin and eye irritations from shared testers every year.

Now, onto why I don’t have to be afraid of germs in my makeup – JANE IREDALE! Iredale Mineral Cosmetics has done extensive bacterial testing so every product in safe and healthy for the skin. Her line of mineral cosmetics is inert, meaning nothing can harbor bacteria. So, in a nutshell there’s no need to be afraid of germs in her testers!

Last week I was out for cocktails with a few other business owners in the service industry. One was a skin care manufacturer, the second was a clothing line designer and the third was the owner of a large fitness chain of health clubs.

We got into an in depth discussion about managing client relationships

We were discussing how to repair a client relationship where things have gone wrong, for example clients whose expectations are unrealistic, clients who are abusive towards the staff and those clients who for whatever reason have become dissatisfied with their service.

The Wall Street Journal had run an article on entrepreneurs a few years back where I was quoted by saying “My New Year’s resolution as a business owner is to only work with people, places and things I really care about and that respect my team, work and over-all business ethics.”

1. Choose clients carefully

4. Live Up To Your Own Standards. Give What You Expect, Set The Example.

If you have done all your work working with your clients and have defined what you can achieve and there are still insurmountable problems, then it is time to re-evaluate whether that client is appropriate to have.

About a month ago we had a client call the office and demand that I get on a conference call. The brand was new to the market, had very little distribution (only one salon in New York) and the consumer awareness was simply not there (she refused to do salon events with us). The owner had worked with two other PR firms before us (our biggest competitors) for about two years who both did not secure the regional and national glossy press that the client was looking for. We were given about 3 months to change her entire media platform and correct the damage that the other PR firms had done during the course of two years. Naturally I slipped off my dress shoes, undid my tie, sat back in my chair practiced my breathing exercises and then took her call.

David Dean, a former account executive for a breast implant manufacturer, witnessed his mother suffer at the hands of two unqualified plastic surgeons, including one who painfully misplaced an implant after her breast cancer reconstruction and another who severed a major facial nerve. After his mother’s tragic experience, David became inspired to create a web-based destination that would hold plastic surgeons to a higher standard, as well as act as an unbiased educational resource for women considering breast augmentation and reconstruction.

This is when he began www.Breastimplants411.com. Breastimplants411.com was designed to help consumers make informed decisions about plastic surgery as well as find and research only those plastic surgeons who have achieved the highest level of certification – Board Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Celebrities have long used their clout and visibility to promote products that they love just as marketers and publicists have leveraged star power to help promote their products. Suzanne Summers could be considered the ur-marketer of the stars from the Thigh Master to protein shakes. But her current project, a book about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy has more than a few people worried.

The book, though, has raised the hormone levels of at least seven medical doctors. The doctors — three of whom are quoted in the book — generally support the concept of bioidentical hormone therapies but say that too little research has been done to assure that they are safe.

Further, they are outraged that Ms. Somers endorses a treatment plan created by T. S. Wiley, a former actress with no formal medical training.

They continued, “The so-called ‘protocols’ endorsed and promulgated throughout the book may expose women to serious health dangers.”

This all raises plenty of medical questions certainly but more urgently it questions how we as consumers should trust and interact with celebrity spokespeople. While we can all agree that Ms Summers looks just as good as always do we attribute this to her "juice of youth" or to her new makeup artist? There are so many factors that go into our perception of celebrities from our thoughts on their most recent relationship to our idea how how one should conduct oneself in public that all ultimately influence whether or not we take their advice. And when this perception comes up against troubling medical evidence then it is worth questioning our motives indeed.

Spa-nyc.com is celebrating their 4th year online this November. Instead of receiving gifts, they are giving a gift to you. Spa-nyc.com and many New York City spa's are offering Spa Services at 50% off all November long.

As I am sure you know, a relaxing massage or just pampering yourself in general is great for your overall well being. So why not take advantage of some wonderful Spa Treatments while they are 50% off?

Spa-nyc.com has a calendar on their promotional page listing all of the Spa's participating and which treatments they are offering each day at 50% off. Why not get pamper yourself a little? You'll surely need to be rejuvenated in time for the Holidays (and maybe even after).

For our readers who cant get to New York to take part in this offer, punch up Spa Finder or if your a Mac user download the Spa Finder Widget to find great deals at spas near you!

Here are some of the issues I have that I continually have to work on everyday:

* My hair—It can dry out easily or become overly moisturized, it is always a fine line of balancing. When the balance is out of wack, it contributes to its frizziness, and frizz is always an issue with me.

* My face—During the winter my forehead and between my eyebrows tend to get dry and need extra attention, otherwise all year round I have a t-zone that won’t let up. Ever since I can remember, I have always only gotten acne on my chin and being pregnant just makes it worse.

* My skin—I have Keratosis Pilaris on my arms and legs. It is a skin problem that was passed down to me through genetics and which seems to worsen being pregnant, but also if my skin gets dry. Winter is obviously the worst months for my skin, summer is not so bad since I am always slapping on my sunscreen.

* My body—My chest is a big issue with me, both size and their appearance. Now being pregnant with baby #4, stretchmarks are another issue I have to contend with.

It sounds very cliche, but while all of these are truly issues that I have to work on everyday, I don’t let it get me down. I absolutely believe 100% that my beauty is not only on the outside, but that once people get to know me, they will see it radiates from the inside out.

On a weekly basis, I will share my reviews with you of products I have been using or have tried out to resolve some of the above issues. Hopefully you may find a solution to your problem too.

What’s lurking in your bathroom? Besides the fabulous products you have going on in your cabinets for your friends to snoop, do you really know what lurks around your bathroom?

Lipstick—check
Toothpaste—check
Bacteria—check

All sorts of bacteria lurk in our bathrooms, from moist wet areas to products gone bad in our medicine cabinets. So what can you do to minimize your risk from your bathroom making you sick?

The Pet Care industry has been growing rapidly in recent years. The way we treat our pets is mirrored through celebrities such as Paris Hilton, among others, who clothe and pamper their precious pets. No more sleeping on the floor, it’s a posh doggie bed for Fido.

Pets are beginning to be treated more like people then ever before, bringing true meaning to “Man’s best friend.” It seems as we change over to a more healthy lifestyle with better diet and eating habits, so has the way we feed our pets changed. Simple dog food like Pedigree is no longer the only way, but instead it is being replaced with healthier nutritious brands like Beneful or Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance. My two Parson Russell’s (formerly called Jack Russell’s), it’s the Raw Food Diet.

It doesn't stop at dog food. Whiskers, a holistic pet care retail store makes deliveries of formaldehyde free rawhide chews, toys, bedding and vitamins. That's just the beginning. As you want to look your best each day, you also want to take pride in your pet’s appearance. Trips to Petco for your pet’s grooming is no longer just considered a luxury, but now a lifestyle.

How many of you have purchased something that was a knock off? I admit it, I purchased knock off Chanel sunglasses this past summer from a vendor next to me at a local fair. Imagine my surprise when I came across this blog and the video it shows.

The buying and selling of counterfeit products is costing American businesses $200-$250 Billion dollars a year and the loss of 750,000 jobs according to The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This is not only the knock off of sunglasses, purses and watches you can find on any New York City street corner, but it also carries over into cosmetics, movies, music and even clothing and footwear like Air Jordans.

In a previous post, I mentioned being all for the healthy kids initiatives being launched into schools. However, I also think that sometimes good intentions can turn into scaring parents.

Take this new ad from Birdseye, for example, that I found on Adrants. The ad documents a child growing in waist size each year instead of height. Their point is taken and in the fine print they let you know what they have been doing to make their microwavable dinners more “healthy.”

Instead of more positive ads, like showing healthy kids exercising or eating healthy as a model for children to mimic, it seems to becoming more the trend to scare parents into getting their kids “healthy.”

Still warming up to Second Life? I am asked about it almost daily and wanted to get some basic info posted for those friends who read our blog consistently. Backstory is here. Follow the links.

New World Notes

From April 2003 to February 2006, I was a contract writer for Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, primarily hired by the company to cover SL as an embedded journalist in an emerging society-- its controversies, its personalities, its innovations and ambitions, along with larger themes of identity, social norms and organization, and cultural expression important to online worlds in general.

That contractual relationship has ended, but the story continues here. -Wagner James Au

Second Thoughts Do's and Dont's for Big Business.

"Every human being is interested in two kinds of worlds: the Primary, everyday world which he knows through his senses, and a Secondary world or worlds which he not only can create in his imagination, but which he cannot stop himself creating." W.H. Auden

Second Life Herald The Second Life Herald was founded on October 23, 2003, by philosophy professor Peter Ludlow. Its mission, as described the next day, was to observe, record and study "the legal, social, and economic implications" of life in the virtual world. Originally established as the Alphaville Herald and reporting for the most part on life on the Alphaville server of The Sims Online, the Herald soon branched out into coverage of other massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds -- helped along by the murder of Herald publisher Urizenus (Ludlow's avatar) after Electronic Arts got wind of the stories the newspaper was printing about the scams and cyber-prostitution that were taking place within its game, and the company's indifference to reports of real-world violence.

As evidenced by the men in the Wonderbra ad below and the prevalence of super-sized products in the US, Americans often believe that bigger is better. I think at some point all women have thought about breast augmentation, even it was a momentary thought. There are many different breast procedures. Some women only want breast implants while others are looking for a reduction or a breast lift that will create a youthful appearance. Some women consider breast implants to be a necessity and not a matter of enhancing natural given assets.

Back when I was in high school, I toyed with the idea of a breast reduction. Kids often made fun of me in high school, which lowered my self-esteem. A few seniors called me out by one of my nicknames, “Twin Peaks,” in my high school yearbook. Funny how something that happened 14 years ago can still affect you.

While I never went through with a breast reduction, a few women in my family did. They were inherently unhappy with the way they looked and it affected them emotionally for years. Once they had their augmentation, it was as if their real self was revealed. They no longer lived in the shadow of their chest size. Their burden was lifted once and for all.

No matter the reason for a reduction or implant, you hear stories from women far and wide about their experience with their surgeons. While there are success stories, it is the disastrous, life-altering surgeries gone wrong that seem to have the greatest impact.

David Dean began BreastImplants411.com (you can read more about David’s story here) because of two unsuccessful breast augmentation procedures performed on his mother. He started his site to help women find qualified surgeons and make informed decisions about their breast surgery. This site has now become the #1 source for women looking to learn more about breast augmentation.

This year about 564,830 people are expected to die from cancer. That is 1500 people per day. I can confidently say that I am sure anyone reading this has been affected by cancer in some way, shape or form. Cancer has been a destructive force in my and my husband’s family. My husband lost his sister to Liver Cancer 6 weeks after being diagnosed in her senior year in high school. Recently his aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. For me, it was my Great Grandfather passing away from Lung Cancer and my friend Maureen from Sarcoma. There are many other people between the two of us who have either battled or passed away from cancer, but it’s just too many to list.

I was recently able to speak with Kim Erikson, President of the Board of Directors for the Wayne County unit of the American Cancer Society for whom I am coordinating Shop for a Cure with. Ms. Erikson, whose mother is a volunteer for the Look Good, Feel Better Program for the ACS in Wayne County, shocked me when she told me that my local area of Northeast Pennsylvania was in the top ten for the highest cancer rates in the country. In fact, when I looked up the information on the American Cancer Society’s website, it appears that PA is in the top 5, with a projection of 73,630 new cancer cases for 2006. Other states in this top 5 are California, who ranked the highest for projected cancer rates, followed by Florida, New York and Texas.

I know this isn't exactly breaking news for everyone. However, for those who have lives and don't live and shop online exclusively, this may be news to you, it was to me. Many "recommendation" sites are popping up all over the Internet, yesterday a Fashion blogger referred me to one that is getting kudos in the New York Times; ThisNext.com. I was impressed just how organized this site was and even more impressed to find fashion and beauty bloggers I know doing Shopcasts there, such as Kristopher Dukes, The Jewelry Weblog, and Lola is Beauty.

What's a Shopcast? It's basically shopping and broadcasting combined. It's a playlist of products you recommend and you run them on a badge on your site and they also run on the ThisNext site, as well. You can create wishlists and also make recommendations by downloading a few buttons for your browser.

There are some really great recommendations just waiting for you to discover them, or if you feel so inclined, for you to make them at ThisNext.com

I'm currently reading The Ten Faces Of Innovation (Tom Kelly) and thought Trekinetic’s K-2 All Terrain Wheelchair must have come from the cross-pollinator (a face of innovation identified in Kelly's book). It's part dirt bike and wheelchair, Makes me want to take it for a spin. It offers a design and beauty inspired departure from conventional manual wheelchairs.

• Front wheel driven with a singular rear trailing castor for stability
• The seat is of carbon fiber,
• A dynamic braking system for slowing down and steering
• Weather equipment is in the form of an attachable automatic umbrella

Professional trendwatchers are saying this falls under the Beauvalanche trend or could have easily been filed under Innovation Overload as well. Regardless, it does prove that everything can be beautified and reinvented! FYI, Trendwatching.com just released the Transumers briefing which is free to everyone.

"Because there are things women need to know about breast implants and augmentation." For more information, please visit www.Breastimplants411.com

Cast Your Vote
(1). Size: 32 A
(2). Size: 32 B
(3). Size: 34 B
(4). Size: 34 C
(5). Size: 36 C
(6). Size: 36 D

Do you seem to be losing customers lately? Is your customer base and sales simply not increasing? Consumers are telling you all of the time what they want, but are you paying attention? Do you genuinely listen to what they want? Or do you feel comfortable with the way things are?

Here are five things that consumers want from a business both online and offline:

Any woman can tell you the color and scent of a Victoria’s Secret store. Branding a business by color has been around forever, branding a business by scent deliberately is a rather new practice.

We have become inundated with never ending commercials, advertisements, pop-ups and infomercials, smart, progressive businesses realize that the use of scent is another way to make their business or brand not only stand out, but be remembered and associated with a certain positive experience or product.

While color may be an easy branding tool and will surely distinguish you from your competitors, such as that yummy, chocolate brown trademarked as "UPS Brown", scent can be a little touchier. Scent can either turn someone away or reel them in. It's a scientific fact that women are attracted to an ever so slight smell of skunk. Too much, and they are repulsed. Repulsion can be a good thing if your an international airport and you need to clear a building fast. Scents of danger need no interpretation. The scent of coffee can calm people, the new car smell increases sales of vehicles, Victoria’s Secret puts you in the mood the minute you walk into their store with the scent of a woman (or a man in drag) that remind you of romance and desire. Pierce Mattie's Media Oasis has a branded scent, complete with a high tech scent delivery system. Scents that relax you and put you in the mood to shop can increase a businesses bottom line.

I am a dark chocolate eater. It’s something I have had quite the addiction to for as long back as I can remember. So today’s news from John’s Hopkins University that dark chocolate may aid in heart health, made me jump for joy. You mean all those Godiva dark chocolates I have been consuming over the years were actually good for me?

John’s Hopkins study showed that study participants who ate dark chocolate as part of their daily diet, showed similar effects in blood clotting to that of people who take aspirin on a daily basis.

Professor Diane Becker is quoted as saying,

“Eating a little bit of chocolate or having a drink of hot cocoa as part of a regular diet is probably good for personal health.”

So no longer do I have to make excuses to my husband like, “The baby is making crave Hershey’s Special Dark,” I can simply say, “I need it because it is good for me, it’s clinically proven.” Gertrude Hawk, here I come.