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• CRT/tanaka picks up community college account
• Prime Outlets to open early on Black Friday
• ESPN NBA tour coming to Washington
• Style sells, VCU profs say
• Free chicken at KFC Monday

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Richmond-based public-relations firm CRT/tanaka will handle public-relations work for The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education’s Great Expectations program.
The firm will handle branding and donor awareness and help develop an online resource center.
Great Expectations is a program that helps teens in foster care transition from high school and their foster homes to college. The program stresses the value of a college education as the best way to find work and live independently.

Prime Outlets in Williamsburg will kick off its holiday shopping season at 12:01 a.m. on Black Friday.
The outlet mall will for its Midnight Madness Pajama Jam. The center’s retailers will offer special sales, and the first 500 people to show up in their pajamas at the center’s promenade will get a gift bag with coupons and merchandise.
The 115,000-square-foot center is on U.S. 60 and has about 120 stores. 

ESPN’s NBA RV bus tour will hit Washington on Wednesday for the Wizards game against the Miami Heat. 
The RV is part of a marketing campaign by the sports network and sister network ABC. 
It was created to draw attention to the NBA coverage on the two networks. ESPN personalities travel to games on the RV and then do on-air promotions. 
Besides Washington, the RV will stop at 19 other cities and cover more than 40,000 miles. 
Fans will be able to tour the RV and enter contests. ESPN will give away branded merchandise at the stops.

What’s ailing the U.S. auto industry could be that it’s not redesigning its products nearly enough, according to a study by three economic professors at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The study, titled “Non-Price Determinants of Automotive Demand: Restyling Matters Most,” found that U.S automakers saw their market share drop from 72.9 percent in 1996 to 47.4 percent in 2008. Between 1995 and 2006, Japanese manufacturers restyled their vehicles every third year, while the U.S. manufacturers restyled every four years.
The study found that restyling “represents the dominant determinant of demand in the auto industry.”
A carmaker would have to double its advertising spending to match the impact of restyling, according to Oleg Korenok, the lead author of the study. Professors George Hoffer and Edward Millner were co-authors. The study will be published by the Journal of Business Research.

Swing by the nearest KFC Monday for a free piece of grilled chicken.

The restaurant chain, which made its name by frying is poultry, is giving away the chicken as part of its Grilled Nation campaign.

Kentucky Fried Chicken set up branded vendor carts outside the United Nations building in New York yesterday to “expand the population of Grilled Nation” by feeding UN delegates, employees and visitors.

It’s taking the product to the rest of America Monday for what it’s calling UNFry Day.

There are 22 KFC restaurants in the Richmond area.

The chain says Grilled Nation is 60 million people strong. It’s set up a Web site “to help recruit new citizens.

A digital billboard in New York’s Times Square will track its population growth.