PR Newswire Broadcast Minute for Tuesday, May 24, 2005

PR Newswire Broadcast Minute for Tuesday, May 24, 2005

AAA Projects Record-High Memorial Day Travel

The American Automobile Association says record numbers of Americans will travel this Memorial Day holiday despite the highest gas prices ever recorded for a holiday. Triple A estimates that 37 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday, a two percent increase from last year.

Holiday auto travelers will find national gas prices currently averaging two dollars-12 cents for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline, down ten cents from last month, but about nine cents higher than a year ago. Before being broken several times this year, the previous national average record- high price was two-oh-five recorded on May 26, 2004, coinciding with last year's Memorial Day weekend.

Full story at: http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=2954841

Explosive Response to Paris Hilton Ad Crashes Carl's Jr. Web Site

"Build it and they will come," may have originally referred to the creation of a baseball diamond, but Carl's Junior restaurants discovered Friday that it also applied to a swimsuit-clad, car-washing, burger-eating Paris Hilton web site.

On Thursday, Carl's Jr. launched a special "mini" site touting the Paris Hilton Spicy barbeque Six Dollar Burger ad that had created a buzz weeks ago. Rumors abounded that the spot was "too hot" for network television. In truth, the ad began airing last Thursday, and a hotter internet-only version was posted on the mini site, www.spicyparis.com. Visitors flooded the site, which was unequipped to handle the unexpected traffic volume, and the host servers crashed Friday afternoon.

Full story at: http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=2954715

Charity Care on the Rise as Uninsured Patients Flood Hospitals

Fueled by rising numbers of uninsured Americans, hospitals are absorbing higher levels of charity care and bad debt, forcing them to shift those costs to other patients and payers.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute survey shows hospitals may be providing far more in free care than the 25 billion dollars they report annually. The research also showed that the true value of charity care is unknown because of inconsistencies in the way it is provided, reported and paid for.

Full story at: http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=2954323

Estee Lauder Signs Oscar Winning Actress Gwyneth Paltrow for Fragrance and Makeup Campaigns

Estee Lauder has announced it has entered into a multi-year contract with Oscar winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow to represent the brand's fragrances and selected makeup collections in global advertising campaigns. The first campaign to feature Paltrow will be a new Estee Lauder pleasures print and television ad to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the iconic global fragrance. The new pleasures campaign will debut in the 2005 holiday season.

Full story at: http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=2954896

The PR Newswire Broadcast Minute is available by email at no charge to members of the media who sign up for PR Newswire for Journalists, ( http://www.prnewswire.com/media ). For more information, contact Rob Fisher at 408-365-8793 or email rob.fisher@prnewswire.com .

PRNewswire -- May 24

Source: PR Newswire

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