With growing concern over the negative impacts of our highly industrialized and overly processed food system, the food industry has a serious public relations problem on its hands. Instead of cleaning up its act, corporate lobbyists are trying to control the public discourse.

Despite the criticism the line has received, Carnival has the opportunity to show great leadership in how it responds going forward. Here are five steps Carnival should take to improve its media problems.

Similar to social media, PR can't be solely valued based upon immediate ROI. Effective PR builds on itself and drives longer-term impact.

Showing support on your sleeve -- while fairly trite since you're only updating your status -- makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense to me are the brands that feel the need to insert themselves into the conversation surrounding a tragedy.

They hold the keys to the creative kingdom, can make even crappy ideas sound like poetry in a pitch, and always have cool shoes. But with digital taking increasingly larger portions of client budgets, has the creative director's time as the exalted leader of creativity island come to a close?

While many great options exist to choose from, to save time, we've narrowed the list down to seven of our favorite tools that any corporate enterprise should be using.

Inbound marketing is one of the most powerful tools for generating sales today. However this technique - also closely-associated with related forms of promotion such as content marketing and permission marketing - is only as effective as how well it is strategized and performed.

Aside from offering an outlet for professional and amateur comedy writers to try new material, social media plays an increasing role in how we learn about crises and disasters -- and also how communications and PR pros must respond to the same mishaps.

PR companies are creating 30-second spots, advertising agencies are running community management programs and digital agencies are managing large-scale marketing campaigns. What do these changes mean for our industry?

Too few young people eager to begin a career in communications, however, have a genuine appreciation for language or story. If there is anything that unites my eclectic mix of colleagues, it is that we're generalists who believe in the primacy of good writing.

As a result of recent successful multimillion-dollar online fundraising campaigns for products such as the Ouya, Pebble E-Paper Watch and Amanda Palmer's Theater is Evil album/tour, which have captivated audiences worldwide, crowdfunding is quickly becoming a business staple.

There are many, many articles on content marketing and social media with tips and steps and plenty of generalities. Very few seem to offer any real concrete ideas or practical examples. In this series of articles, we are publishing an actual case study for a very real company.