What are some newsworthy marketing-related stories I could use for a Radio Interview?

I'm conducting a radio Interview for my class and its going to be with a marketing professor. Topics might include marketing strategy or research, internet marketing, consumer behavior, new product development and management, brand or sales management, business to business marketing, e-business marketing strategy, international marketing, etc.


The problem is, how do I derive a story of significance from any of these as my assignment requires? E.g.: has there been anything in the news surrounding these topics that could keep an audience intrigued and of which I could formulate some great questions?


Thank u so much!

What are some newsworthy marketing-related stories I could use for a Radio Interview?
How about:





From a marketing perspective, what is the best strategy to help a company overcome well-publicized recalls (like recent Peter Pan recall) or actual illness from their product (like in Taco Bell e-coli)?





Was the guerilla marketing tactics used by the Cartoon Network (placing light boxes under overpasses, etc.) ethical? It certainly generated a lot of publicity thanks to Boston and Homeland Security? What did they do wrong and how could they have done it different?





Edit: The other answerer gave me another idea...Discuss the impact of advertising prescription drugs directly to the lay audience. Essentially it is driving people to the doctor to request medications they would never have dreamed of taking without the advertising. Is this practice contributing to rising health care costs and the growing trend for relying on pharmaceuticals for all our problems?
Reply:I don't know that it's been in the news, but I am repeatedly surprised by the way medicines and medical devices are now being marketed.





For example, the vaccine against the HPV virus, while it is being marketed directly to consumers, is also being "marketed" by efforts to have states make it mandatory.





There's a commercial now touting implanted defibrillation devices, and consumers are urged to approach their doctors to see if they should get one.





For that matter, I don't actually know that efforts to get schools and malls to buy automated external defibrillators are driven by the manufacturers of those devices, but I have my suspicions.





For companies in the medical field to push for sales by working on public policy-makers and suggesting to the general public that they should ask their doctors for specialized devices is new to me.





Don't know if this is helpful, but maybe you can use some of it.
Reply:Viral Marketing


Branding


Brand Awareness


New Age Marketing


Globalization


Multi-channel Marketing


Effective Marketing


Guerrilla Marketing
Reply:I think a good question would be regarding how far companies are going with "branding."





Examples:





Companies such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Coke %26amp; Pepsi buying exclusivity rights at high schools in America.





These companies know that the products are far from what the children needs (health-wise), but continues to buy these rights from schools because they know the schools are despirate for funding.





Another marketing issue would be the companies that are buy signage at local parks to advertise. Public parks across are beginning to be covered in ads... what is this teaching our children?
Reply:I recently read that USA Today.com unveiled a new website design and started incorporating more social media features. This is definitely a trend that would make for an interesting interview topic. More news sites are incorporating blogs and features related to tracking comments and opinions of readers.