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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. War Is For Children: Reading, Writing and Recruitment
2. Cosmetic Solutions: The Makeup Industry Gives Itself a Health Hazard Makeover
3. “Cause-Related Marketing”: Why Social Change and Corporate Profits Don’t Mix
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Why AOL Can’t Understand “Cancel the Account”
2. “Citizen” pharmaceutical: Petitioning the government to pick your pocket?
3. “Vets for Freedom,” the 2006 Version of Swift Boat Vets
4. Pickup Lines
5. PR Bloggers Aim to End Astroturfing
6. Bush Nominates Sitcom Producer For Corporation for Public Broadcasting
7. None Dare Call It Genocide
8. Some Friendly Advice from Dell
9. Government PR Dominates Washington Coverage, Says Veteran Reporter Pincus
10. Hot and Bored
11. Vietnam vs. Iraq
12. Putin PR Fest Surrounds G8 Summit
13. The Sins of Ralph Reed
14. Support Our Troops
15. Atlas Linked, Amy Shrugged
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. WAR IS FOR CHILDREN: READING, WRITING AND RECRUITMENT
by Judith Siers-Poisson
As a child I absolutely adored Cricket magazine, published by Carus Publishing. I now have a twelve-year old daughter who likewise enjoys their magazines for kids, but the May 2006 issue of Cobblestone Magazine floored me with its blatant pro-military marketing pitch to children.
Chances are, depending on your age, that either you or your children have read one of Carus’ publications at home, school, the library, or a doctor’s waiting room. For the smallest tykes—those under seven years old—they offer Ladybug, Babybug, and Click magazines. For six- to nine-year olds they put out Spider, Ask, and Appleseeds. And for the “tweens,” Calliope, Cobblestone, Cricket, Dig, Faces, Muse, Odyssey, and Cicada.
The Carus Corporation
Carus Publishing is part of the Carus Corporation, which also includes the Carus Chemical Company, specializing in “chemicals and services” for water and wastewater treatment, air purification and other environmental applications” according to its website. M. Blouke Carus is the Chairman and CEO of the Carus Corporation and serves, along with several family members, on the board of the Hegeler Carus Foundation, which, according to their IRS 990 filing, preserves the heritage of the Hegeler Carus mansion in La Salle, IL. This home belonged to the grandparents of Blouke Carus.
Blouke Carus has consistently kept conservative company. In 1982, Carus was appointed by then-President Ronald Reagan to the National Council on Education Research, which provides policy for the research areas of the U.S. Department of Education. Added to the Council at the same time were several prominent conservatives, including Onalee McGraw of the Heritage Foundation, and Penny Pullen of the American Legislative Exchange Council. In addition, George C. Roche was made chair of the Council at the same time. Roche was the President of conservative bastion Hillsdale College in Michigan, which according to its website “values the merit of each unique individual, rather than succumbing to the dehumanizing, discriminatory trend of so called ‘social justice’ and ‘multicultural diversity.’” It also does not accept federal student aid or loans of any kind, in order to avoid any federal control.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4986
2. COSMETIC SOLUTIONS: THE MAKEUP INDUSTRY GIVES ITSELF A HEALTH HAZARD MAKEOVER
by Diane Farsetta
Breast cancer. Genital abnormalities. Distortion and damage of genetic material.
Common ingredients in cosmetic products have been linked to these hazards. As further research is conducted into the long-term and cumulative effects on cosmetics users, their children and the water supply that products are washed off into, more questions arise. Not that you’d know it by listening to the cosmetics industry. An important underlying issue is that the industry is largely self-regulated. While interstate trade in “adulterated or misbranded cosmetics” is prohibited, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not review new cosmetics before they are marketed and cannot order recalls of hazardous cosmetics. “Cosmetic firms are responsible for substantiating the safety of their products and ingredients,” reads the FDA’s own explanation.
The industry’s trade group, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CTFA), likes this hands-off approach. CTFA has 600 member companies, including Aveda, Clairol, L’Oréal and Unilever, and standing committees on government relations, public affairs and international issues. Its website says CTFA promotes “industry self-regulation and reasonable governmental requirements.” But reasonable to who?
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4961
3. “CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING”: WHY SOCIAL CHANGE AND CORPORATE PROFITS DON’T MIX
by Inger Stole
In the 1980s, a new form of marketing was born: Cause-Related Marketing (CRM), a hybrid of product advertising and corporate public relations. CRM aims to link corporate identities with nonprofit organizations and good causes. As a tax-deductible expense for business, this form of brand leveraging seeks to connect with the consuming public beyond the traditional point of purchase and to form long-lasting and emotional ties with consumers. However, what might seem like a fair exchange between corporations in search of goodwill and non-profits in search of funds also raises a range of troubling social, political and ethical questions.
CRM is, first and foremost, a market-driven system. Therefore, a non-profit organization’s chance of obtaining CRM funding hinges on its ability to complement sales messages. However, it is often the case that vital social issues are only — or are best — addressed by “edgy” groups or by using controversial tactics.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4965
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. WHY AOL CAN’T UNDERSTAND “CANCEL THE ACCOUNT”
consumerist.com/consumer/exclusive/aol-retention-manual-revealed-188005.php
Vincent Ferrari managed to make a recording of his hilarious phone conversation with a customer service representative at America Online, in which the service rep repeatedly stonewalled and ignored Ferrari’s request to cancel his AOL account. After the recording began circulating on the web, AOL fired the employee and said he had “violated our customer service guidelines and practices.” Shortly thereafter, the Consumerist website reports, “A plain manila envelope arrived on our desk. … Inside was the eighty-one paged ‘Enhanced Sales Training for AOL Retention Consultants’ manual which showed that in fact, “customer service John” was just following orders. The manual instructs employees that “every Member that calls in to cancel their account is a hot lead” and are instructed to “retain control by redirecting the Member if necessary.”
SOURCE: Consumerist, July 18, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4982
2. “CITIZEN” PHARMACEUTICAL: PETITIONING THE GOVERNMENT TO PICK YOUR POCKET?
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/02/AR2006070200840.html
A bipartisan Senate inquiry into Food and Drug Administration generic drug reviews suggests that Big Pharm’s abuse of so-called “citizen petitions” is costing consumers tens of millions of dollars each month. Not so, responds the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents brand-name drug makers. Their spin: citizen petitions “raise important regulatory, legal or scientific issues,” according to PhRMA VP Carolyn Loew. So why do generic drug makers call the “citizen” actions “blocking petitions”? Exhibit 1: Biovail Corp., maker of the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL, filed a citizen petition to challenge rivals’ formulations of the generic version. The FDA takes its time to examine the petitions (a process that the Clinton Administration began to streamline in 1999, but which the Bush Administration reversed after PhRMA’s firm protest), so consumers may be paying $37 million per month more for the name brand drug while the FDA considers the “citizen” input, according to Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D. Mich.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) The senators have introduced a bill to implement more efficient review.
SOURCE: Washington Post, July 4, 2006 (sub req’d)
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4981
3. “VETS FOR FREEDOM,” THE 2006 VERSION OF SWIFT BOAT VETS
newyorkmetro.com/news/intelligencer/17676/
Geoff Gray writes, “what looks to be a 2006 version of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has formed. The putatively grassroots organization called Vets for Freedom has been offering up decorated, interview-ready soldiers to, as its website puts it, “promote the unbiased, nonpartisan truth of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate the public and mobilize public support for the Global War on Terror.” Their offensive started in April, when former Bush press secretary Taylor Gross … tempted newspaper editors … with inexpensive war coverage—’unbiased perspectives’ that ‘would not be at any significant cost.’ Gross had no takers. Then, over Memorial Day, Owen West, a Goldman Sachs commodities trader, Marine reservist, and adventure-book author published an op-ed in the Times in which he lashed out against war opponents … . John Stauber, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, thought the Vets’ Website looked suspiciously un-grassroots. … The group’s Website is hosted by Campaign Solutions, a high-profile political consultancy that does Republican-campaign web work. Clients have included Bush-Cheney ’04 and the Swift Boat Vets. ‘Vets for Freedom are the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’ of the ’06 cycle, says Stauber.”
SOURCE: New York magazine, July 24, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4980
4. PICKUP LINES
www.prweek.com/us/news/article/568875
Sales of gas-guzzling pickup trucks are softening due to high gasoline prices, so PR Week reports that the Ford Motor Company has launched a series of PR stunts aimed at pumping up sales to country folk, including sponsoring a monster truck rally, NASCAR races, and a marketing arrangement with country singer Toby Keith to have a video play at the beginning of Keith’s concerts, showing him driving an F-series pickup. Meanwhile Toyota, “one of the few automakers currently doing very well,” is holding seminars to talk up the fuel efficiency of its hybrid pickups. Which strategy is working? Ford’s CEO has talked big about being an environmentalist for years, but has repeatedly reneged on its promises to build more fuel-efficient vehicles while his company loses money and market share. “Had Mr. Ford produced more fuel-efficient vehicles like hybrids sooner,” observes the New York Times, “he not only would have found his company keeping pace with nimble foreign competitors like Toyota when oil prices spiked, but he also would have been able to illustrate the bottom-line merit of his environmental values. Instead, Ford, is again in the all-too-familiar spot of playing corporate catch-up.”
SOURCE: PR Week, July 16, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4979
5. PR BLOGGERS AIM TO END ASTROTURFING
www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=AntiAstroturfing.HomePage
Two Australian PR bloggers, Trevor Cook from the Sydney-based PR firm Jackson Wells Morris and Paull Young from the sports PR agency BAM Media, have launched an anti-astroturfing campaign. Cook bluntly states that “Astroturfing is evil. Astroturfing is always unethical and usually illegal. It corrodes democracy which relies on transparency.” Cook and Young want PR companies to publicly state their opposition to using front groups. The catalyst for the campaign was an article by Melbourne journalist Katherine Wilson, who documented the role of the Public Relations Institute of Australia in hosting events by Canadian PR adviser, Ross Irvine. Irvine’s tour of Australia was sponsored by the conservative think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs. More recently, the PRIA dismissed without explanation an ethics complaint over the Tasmanians for a Better Future front group, which was run by a Porter-Novelli affiliate.
SOURCE: The New PR Wiki, July 17, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4977
6. BUSH NOMINATES SITCOM PRODUCER FOR CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-bell14jul14,1,2782637.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews&track=crosspromo
In early June George W. Bush announced he was nominating sitcom producer, Warren Bell, to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The corporation funds public radio and television programming. Bell, who is an occasional contributor to the online edition of National Review, describes himself as a “not-so-secret conservative.” In one blog post, Bell complained about Disney executives wanting him to include more minorities in the series he produces, “According to Jim”. NPR spokeswoman, Andi Sporkin, is critical of Bell’s nomination. “So far as we can tell, Mr. Bell only brings a history of questionable comments about women, minorities and the media, and no discernible relevant achievement, involvement or commitment to public broadcasting,” she said. The Senate Commerce Committee, which vets nominees to the CPB, has yet to schedule a hearing on Bell’s nomination.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4974
7. NONE DARE CALL IT GENOCIDE
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-armenia16jul16,1,920143.story
“What happens when you refer to Turkey’s 1915-1923 genocide of Armenians, accurately, as ‘genocide’?” asks the Los Angeles Times. “In Turkey, you face a possible three-year jail term, even if it wasn’t you using the term but a character in your novel. In the United States, you just lose your job as ambassador to Armenia.”
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, July 16, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4973
8. SOME FRIENDLY ADVICE FROM DELL
www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2006/07/11/some-friendly-advice-from-dell/#comments
Dell recently hired the GCI Group to help the computer company with a PR campaign titled “Rebuilding Corporate Reputation Through Grassroots Efforts” — a fancy way of saying they are trying to repair the company’s reputation for poor customer service. They helped Dell set up one of those newfanged “blog” thingies, but couldn’t resist insulting Jeff Jarvis, a prominent blogger who has been complaining for years about his “Dell Hell.” After someone at GCI posted an anonymous comment calling Jarvis a “worm” who has “no life,” Jarvis fired back. The lesson, according to John Stodder, is that “there is no such thing as an anonymous blog comment,” and “there is just no telling how stupid some people can be.”
SOURCE: Buzzmachine, July 11, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4972
9. GOVERNMENT PR DOMINATES WASHINGTON COVERAGE, SAYS VETERAN REPORTER PINCUS
www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=00102
Reflecting on his 50 years of reporting Washington politics, Washington Post journalist, Walter Pincus, notes that media coverage has “become dominated by increasingly sophisticated public relations practitioners, primarily in the White House and other agencies of government.” Writing in an edition of the Nieman Reports on the theme of “journalistic courage”, Pincus argues that “journalistic courage should include the refusal to publish in a newspaper or carry on a TV or radio news show any statements made by the President or any other government official that are designed solely as a public relations tool, offering no new or valuable information to the public.”
SOURCE: Nieman Reports, July 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4971
10. HOT AND BORED
www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11676
For the past couple of years, global warming skeptics have been bashing climate researcher Michael Mann, claiming that fraud or errors created his so-called “hockey stick” graph showing dramatic increases in the temperature of the earth in the last decade. Now a panel of top climate scientists convened by the National Academies of Science (the leading scientific association in the United States) has vindicated Mann’s conclusions in a new, 155-page report which finds that the Earth was hotter in the last few decades of the 20th century than it has been over the last 400 years and possibly longer. Of course, that’s not good enough for PR industry eco-basher Al Caruba, who responds that he is “bored with global warming.” Caruba’s column, which provides ample evidence that he has not bothered to read the NAS report, trots out the usual skeptic rhetoric and concludes by reiterating his “utter boredom” with the subject. (If he’s that bored, why does he keep ranting about it?)
SOURCE: National Academies of Sciences, June 22, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4970
11. VIETNAM VS. IRAQ
poll.gallup.com/videoArchive/?CI=23608
“A lot of people talk about comparisons between the Iraq war and the Vietnam war,” says the Gallup polling organization’s Frank Newport. Since Gallup has been taking opinion polls throughout both wars, it is able to make some meaningful statistical comparisons between the two. Newport reviews the data and points out that in the case of Vietnam, it took three years for the majority of Americans to decide that the war was a mistake, whereas that point was reached in Iraq within less than a year and a half. “When we compare the two wars,” he says, “it took longer for Americans to sour on the Vietnam war than it took for Americans to sour on the war in which the country is involved now.”
SOURCE: Gallup, July 10, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4968
12. PUTIN PR FEST SURROUNDS G8 SUMMIT
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2267284,00.html
The St. Petersburg G8 summit is at the center of a public relations maelstrom, reports The Times. “While the Russian Federation has hired the big American PR firm Ketchum to soften President Putin’s image at home and abroad, British PR companies are hard at work to counter its efforts.” The Bell Pottinger firm tried to purchase ad space in the G8 program on behalf of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky’s Civil Liberties Foundation. The ads, which were critical of Putin, were rejected. APCO Worldwide is using the G8 to criticize Putin for jailing prominent Russian “oligarchs” Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, with help from the London firm Luther Pendragon. Lastly, the firm Portland is providing “media advice” to the G8 organizing committee. Portland will represent the Kremlin throughout its year-long presidency of the G8.
SOURCE: The Times (UK), July 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4967
13. THE SINS OF RALPH REED
men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_4608
Why won’t Ralph Reed talk to reporters, even though he’s running for public office? “He can’t afford to,” writes Sean Flynn in a lengthy profile of the scandal-dogged former Christian Coalition organizer. “If he does, they’ll just start asking him all those uncomfortable questions that have nothing to do with being lieutenant governor. Mostly, they’ll ask about his relationship—his multimillion-dollar relationship—with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And that’s if they’re only skimming the surface. Give them some time and they’ll ask about his work for eLottery or Enron or Microsoft; or his shilling for China; or his close call with the statute of limitations in Texas; or the way John McCain got slimed in the 2000 South Carolina primary; or something called the Black Churches Insurance Program. Maybe they’d even ask how he squares up his professed salvation through his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with…well, with everything else.”
SOURCE: GQ, July 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4966
14. SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5553746
“The U.S. military doesn’t do all its public relations work overseas — it’s also investing in grass-roots efforts here at home,” reports NPR’s Martin Kaste. “The Pentagon’s ‘America Supports You’ program employs Pentagon staff and private PR contractors to coordinate activities that support the armed forces. ‘Freedom Walk’ marches, letter-writing campaigns, even supplements in kids’ Weekly Reader, are all paid for by the Pentagon itself. One recent effort is a campaign to get people at major league baseball games to ‘text-message’ their support to the troops on their cell phones… even though those messages aren’t actually sent to the troops. … Much of the publicity work has been farmed out to a private firm, Susan Davis International. For the first year of America Supports You, the firm signed Pentagon contracts for at least $2.7 million.” To keep a closer eye on all this, we’ve begun a SourceWatch article that you can go to by clicking here: America Supports You. Join our volunteer collaborative research community in buidling a fair, accurate and well-documented article on this Pentagon PR campaign.
SOURCE: National Public Radio, July 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4960
15. ATLAS LINKED, AMY SHRUGGED
It is nice to see that The Clarion Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi, added a link to the SourceWatch page on the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. This enables readers of a column by the foundation’s Executive Director, Alejandro Chafuen to see who has funded them. Atlas’ funders have included the tobacco company, Phillip Morris, and oil behemoth, Exxon. In another SourceWatch mention, right wing activist and fundraiser Amy Moritz Ridenour refers her readers to SourceWatch in what appears to be some sort of back-handed compliment — at least that’s how we interpret it!
SOURCE:
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4959
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