With all the hacking that has been hitting big-ticket brands over the past couple of weeks, it’s pretty easy to imagine that it is terror, and not holiday cheer, that has invaded the hearts and minds of blue chip PR professionals across the world.

On one hand, hackers compromised databases at Walgreens, McDonald’s and Gawker, stealing emails, log info and birthdates on an undisclosed level. On the other, hacktivists supporting the much-maligned or admired Julian Assange have flooded the sites of companies like Amazon, PayPal, Mastercard and Visa, who have refused to process payments for those supporting Wikileaks. With all the news going around lately about Wikileaks letting the skeletons out of so many high-profile closets, the David and Goliath game is clearly on.

With so many people’s accounts compromised, and so much personal information leaked, spin is in full effect. McDonald’s quickly issued a mass email alert to their compromised database, and even set up a hotline for any questions or concerns. Gawker, on the other hand, has only posted an advisory for their 1.5 million strong readership to change their usernames and passwords.

Bad reviews about customer service are a cake walk compared to an onslaught by cyber criminals bent on throwing a wrench into corporate works. The interesting question will be whether these companies answer with enhanced security measures, or a stepped-up level of transparency.

Remember the first time someone said “WHAT? You’re not on Foursquare?! LAME!” and you jumped on your mobile device and did a search for this wondrous thing only to ask yourself “is this it?”

After checking into a few places and gaining mayorship of your (cleverly named) home, the novelty of social-based check-in services probably wore off. Facebook was a late comer in the “check-in” game, but with over 100 million mobile Facebook users in North America alone, its Places platform already has a decent head start on a user base. When it opens up to the rest of the world, Facebook forecasts that Places will have 500 million active users. The only question that remains is how easily Facebook can get users to offer up even more personal information.

Right out of the gate I’ll tell you: I’m a Facebook Places advocate. They’re leveraging services other location-based aren’t: tagging friends who are with you, attaching photos and limiting your check-in to your actual location. This last point is a real game-maker for me, given that the first day I jumped on Foursquare I checked into Rodeo Drive just to see if I could (I could).

If basic functionality and common sense weren’t enough to position Places as a game changer, consider that they’re launching with 22 big-league starters in the U.S. Companies like The Gap, H&M, Starbucks and McDonalds have all agreed to throw down promotional gambits against Places’ success and reach.

With check-in promotions ranging from $1 donations to Ronald McDonald House to free pairs of jeans at The Gap to the first 10,000 check-ins at The Gap, Places is already a little sexier than Foursquare’s composite offer of a “Gym Rat” badge.

Though Places is only 2 months old, Facebook has yet to find a real method of tapping into revenue generation possibilities. That being said, the gears are already turning. With the ability to track peoples’ live spending habits, see where their friends are shopping and redeeming coupons, Facebook will not only able to establish predictions against our social lives, but our financial lives too.

How do you measure up to the models in the magazines?

If the question is increasingly on the mind of the public consciousness – and it seems to be – it’s also making its way onto the stages of public policy. And it may well have implications for the design industry.

Government and advertising standards groups are increasingly bringing up media’s role in shaping youth body image. They argue that children aren’t aware that most mainstream images of beauty have been “enhanced.” This creates unrealistic and unachievable ideals that they say lead kids to think if they starve themselves they can reach levels of thinness that equate to beauty.

French MPs are already fighting to have a law passed that requires warning labels to be added to retouched photos, much like the labels on Canadian cigarette packaging.

As if to fuel the zeitgeist, there’s been a recent uptick in leaked “unretouched” photos popping up on the Internet, one of the most famous being of Madonna. Celebrities from Britney Spears to Kim Kardashian are purposely leaking untouched photos of themselves. Why? Who knows. But perhaps they’re doing their bit to combat the harsh body image stereotypes they themselves have been so complicit in manufacturing.

Is it a brand’s responsibility to warn their consumers against the spectra of false body imagery? Or should it be a matter of regulation? Both?

Amid the music industry’s seemingly endless downward economic spiral, at least one rock band is embracing the new media landscape.

In an effort to promote their new greatest hits album, the Foo Fighters last Friday played a free concert for anyone who became a fan on their Facebook page. They played a two-and-a-half hour concert in their recording studio, taking requests and chatting with people in a live stream from Facebook. More than 20,000 people virtually attended the event.

The clever thing about the live chat was that everything their fans said to the band also got posted to their Facebook newsfeeds with a note that said they were watching the show, and encouraging their friends to become fans so they could watch too.

This promo was a win both by pushing the release of their new album and increasing their number of active fans.

Will the Foo Fighter’s Facebook promo boost album sales? Only time will tell. But at the very least, they’ve demonstrated that they’re at the cutting edge of social media brand best practices: They’ve created value (the free concert and intimate interaction), and they’ve provided it to their consumers via a credible opt-in (becoming a Facebook fan).

The Foo Fighters aren’t alone. A couple of weeks ago U2 performed a live concert in partnership with YouTube. More than 10 million people tuned in to see the show.

To get an exclusive viewing of the new Weezer music video, you have to tweet about it.

And then there was Radiohead’s pioneering efforts for the In Rainbows album: they streamed a live concert from their website on New Years Eve 2008.

With 95% of music being downloaded illegally, music makers and sellers are having to find more innovative ways to get fans out to buy their records and go to their shows. It’s becoming clear that those who create value and engage in real conversations are going to pull ahead.

Or, they could always do what artist Josh Freese did and sell their albums online for an outrageous prices and hope just a few people bite.