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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. A Hard Sell
2. Roche Gets PR Help For Tamiflu
3. A Few Good Images
4. Quarterback Sneak
5. Halliburton’s New Head Flack
6. Chocolate as Health Food
7. Buzz Blog
8. American Cancer Society Silent on California Safe Cosmetics Act
9. Wal-Mart: A Study in Low Prices and Wages
10. U.S.-Funded Al Hurra Under Scrutiny
11. Something Fishy in the Paper
12. The Fake News Hydra Still Bites
13. Rolled Up Sleeves
14. Much Ado About Libby
15. Wolves in Corporate Social Responsibility Clothing
16. Sells Like Teen Spirit
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. A HARD SELL
newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=&docID=AFR051107F978Q76M8O8
In a scathing column, journalist Neil Shoebridge wrote that if marketers “knew how hard some [PR] firms work to pump up the billable hours they charge back to their clients … they would fire them and sue to get their money back.” In response the National president of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, Annabelle Warren, argued that the such practices would in breach the ethics code. “Media relations requires consultants with strong experience and high level skills. Good marketers know that handling the media needs specialist public relations practitioners,” she wrote. It is an argument that is unlikely to persuade Shoebridge, who suggested in his original column that PR firms are hired “because the PR industry has convinced the business world that dealing with the media is hard work. It is not: it requires honesty and responsiveness, qualities that are in short supply at most PR firms.”
SOURCE: Australian Financial Review (sub req’d), November 7 & 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4161
2. ROCHE GETS PR HELP FOR TAMIFLU
www.odwyerpr.com/members/1108fh_tamiflu.htm
“Fleishman-Hillard is counseling Roche, which now says it is doing everything possible to meet the demand for Tamiflu, according to Michael Rinaldo, head of F-H’s health group in New York,” O’Dwyer’s PR Daily reports. “Roche says it is ‘doing everything possible’ to meet demand for flu drug.” The company’s reputation took a hit last month when it appeared to be “more eager to protect its ‘monopoly’ on its Tamiflu – the vaccine most effective in fighting bird flu – than preventing a worldwide avian flu pandemic,” O’Dwyer’s writes.
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub req’d), November 8, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4160
3. A FEW GOOD IMAGES
bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/11/pentagon_pictur.html#more
“One thing that is really starting to bother me is the growing tendency to see news photos from Iraq which have been taken by the American military,” writes Michael Shaw, whose website BAGnewsNotes.com analyzes news photos. Shaw points out two recent photos of military operations in Iraq used by the Los Angeles Times. “With the exception of a paper like the [New York Times], however, which can afford to hire stringers or underwrite photojournalists, it seems that the military has been all too willing to fill in the visual shortfall itself,” Shaw writes. A reader comments on Shaw’s post, “The problem is that [corporate media] don’t choose to [hire photojournalists] because it doesn’t sell soap powder. As a country the US is very inward focussed. … The LA Times doesn’t have to use those propaganda photos supplied by the Pentagon. They chose to.”
SOURCE: BAGnewsNotes, November 7, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4159
4. QUARTERBACK SNEAK
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110600321.html
Ahmed Chalabi was once dubbed the “George Washington of Iraq” by neoconservatives, as his Iraqi National Congress provided much of the false intelligence information that led the United States into war. More recently, he has been accused of acting as a double agent for Iran and has denounced the U.S. Now he’s back in Washington in an official visit as Iraq’s deputy prime minister. His visit poses a dilemma for the Bush administration, which is meeting with Chalabi but also distancing itself from his past. “Think of him as a former football player – that was all then. That’s what he did in his other life,” said a senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity (and without indicating which team he’s playing for now).
SOURCE: Washington Post, November 6, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4157
5. HALLIBURTON’S NEW HEAD FLACK
www.prweek.com/us/news/article/526522
“Halliburton, one of the most politically charged and controversial corporate brands in the world, has a new head of communications,” reports PR Week. Wendy Hall, the company’s former director of communications, resigned in April. Her replacement is Cathy Mann, a graduate of Texas A&M University who has worked at Halliburton and its subsidiary, Brown & Root, since 1992.
SOURCE: PR Week, November 7, 2005 (sub req’d.)
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4156
6. CHOCOLATE AS HEALTH FOOD
www.prweek.com/us/news/article/526521
Mars Inc., the candy company that makes Snickers bars, M&Ms and Dove chocolates, used to spend $1 million per year subsidizing a newsletter which claimed that eating chocolate could prevent cavities. Now it is funding research that says chocolate is good for your heart. According to PR Week, the company has hired the Weber Shandwick PR firm to help promote its new CocoaVia brand, with the slogan, “Be Good to Your Heart Everyday.” The New York Times reports that Mars is even placing its new CocoaVia bars in the health food aisles, near nutrition bars rather than candy, in retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. Noting that the new chocolate bars are still high in fat and calories, independent nutritionists remain skeptical, “saying that the effort seems less of a breakthrough than a sly way to scare up chocolate sales.”
SOURCE: PR Week, November 7, 2005 (Sub req’d.)
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4155
7. BUZZ BLOG
wom-study.blogspot.com
Walter Carl, a communications professor and advisor to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), has a weblog where he follows the scuttlebutt and media coverage relating to buzz and guerrilla marketing. Recent items include a link to last year’s 60 Minutes segment on “Undercover Marketing,” a piece by Seth Stevenson about a sneaky marketing campaign for Burger King, and a Boston Globe article about buzz marketing on college campuses.
SOURCE: Word-of-Mouth Communication Study blog
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4154
8. AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY SILENT ON CALIFORNIA SAFE COSMETICS ACT
www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2005-11-03/news.asp?Print=1
With the passage of the California Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005, cosmetics companies will have to tell California state health officials about the ingredients in their products that might cause cancer. It would seem that the American Cancer Society would be a natural supporter of this kind of legislation, but grassroots cancer-prevention organizers found this not to be the case. “The bill’s proponents said that one of the new law’s biggest obstacles was the silence of the ACS, the most powerful cancer-research and cancer-lobbying organization in the world. The ACS is now the second-largest charity in the world, with a net worth of over $1 billion and an average $1 billion in annual revenue,” journalist Mary Ann Swissler writes. ACS denies its silence on the cosmetics bill was due to industry influence. Nonetheless, the bill’s “chief opponent, the Cosmetics, Toiletries and Fragrances Association (CTFA) gives $10 million annually to ACS’s ‘Look Good, Feel Better’ makeup program for cancer patients,” Swissler reports.
SOURCE: Sacramento News & Review, November 3, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4153
9. WAL-MART: A STUDY IN LOW PRICES AND WAGES
msnbc.msn.com/id/9925188/
Wal-Mart “unveiled a new weapon … the most comprehensive study to date on the retailer’s impact on the U.S. economy.” The study, paid for by Wal-Mart and conducted by Global Insight, concluded the retailer saved the average American $2,329 and created 210,000 jobs in 2004. It also tied a 2.2 percent wage decrease to Wal-Mart, but claimed the “nominal” fall was offset by lower prices. The study didn’t address employee benefits or working conditions. The study was one of 10 papers presented at a Washington DC conference, with “five of them at least somewhat critical of Wal-Mart’s ruthlessly low-cost business model,” reported the Wall Street Journal. Wal-Mart’s Bob McAdam said that while “some conclusions might not be favorable … if everything was one-sided, it would not be credible.” Asked Tracy Sefl, of the activist group Wal-Mart Watch, “Will they act on any of the studies that show they have negative effects on a community?”
SOURCE: Financial Times, November 4, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4151
10. U.S.-FUNDED AL HURRA UNDER SCRUTINY
news.ft.com/cms/s/04b325be-4ce6-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html
The State Department’s Inspector General is investigating Al Hurra, the U.S.-funded, Arabic-language satellite TV network. According to the Financial Times, the Broadcasting Board of Governors asked for the investigation into “possible irregularities” with procurement and contracting as well as “concerns that viewing figures might be inflated.” The BBG oversees Al Hurra, which has a budget of $49 million for 2005. The House of Representatives Committee on International Relations subcommittee on oversight and investigations is also looking into the Virginia-based network, which broadcasts to 22 countries. The FT reports Kenneth Tomlinson — BBG chair and until very recently a member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — and Al Hurra news director Mouafac Harb will be called as witnesses for the November 10 hearing. According to the FT, Harb called the inspector general’s investigation a general review into whether al-Hurra was fulfilling its mission. “There’s a campaign against al-Hurra by some people in this city who don’t like our dedication to freedom and democracy,” he said.
SOURCE: Financial Times, November 4, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4150
11. SOMETHING FISHY IN THE PAPER
mrzine.monthlyreview.org/clausen031105.html
“Industrial salmon farming corporations have learned an important lesson … about what to do with their tarnished images of ecological and social injustice,” writes Rebecca Clausen. “Simply pour money into a public relations campaign and overwhelm dissent.” She points to half-page ads that the industry group Salmon of the Americas (SOTA) ran last month in major U.S. newspapers. The ads touted ocean-farmed salmon as “good for you” and “good for the oceans.” Never mind that “the salmon farming industry is based on the ‘stripping of the seas’ through its reliance on fish-based feeds such as anchovy, sardines, and other lower-food-chain species,” adds Clausen. SOTA uses the PR firm MarketShare, but its new push draws from Hill & Knowlton’s work for the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association. The Canadian industry group’s executive director once bragged, “It’s the stories that don’t appear in the newspaper that mean we’ve done our job.”
SOURCE: Monthly Review Zine, November 3, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4148
12. THE FAKE NEWS HYDRA STILL BITES
“Reports of paid video’s demise are clearly premature,” writes O’Dwyer’s, in a magazine piece on how the PR industry is weathering increased scrutiny over video news releases (VNRs). “An informal survey by one VNR distributor found a majority of stations are still willing to consider video from outside sources.” The firm AKA Media “had three blockbuster stories this summer” where their video was seen by more than 57 million people. Reflecting on their success with video for Burger King’s Star Wars promotion, Edelman’s Kim Metcalfe says, “Ironically, topics that are overtly commercial – where there’s no hidden message – still do very well.” Hill & Knowlton’s Sallie Gaines claims “satellite media tours are more appealing to stations now.” And Edelman’s Metcalfe adds, “Radio is huge. … We can easily count on an audio news release, even without paid placement, to generate more than 10 million listener impressions.”
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, October 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4147
13. ROLLED UP SLEEVES
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/11/04/BL2005110400510.html
Email correspondence from the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the peak of the Hurricane Katrina crisis reads like a skit from “Saturday Night Live,” according to Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz. Highlights include notes from FEMA director Michael Brown’s press secretary, fretting that he needed more time for dinner before a TV appearance, and advice to Brown on how to pose for cameras: “Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working.”
SOURCE: Washington Post, November 4, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4146
14. MUCH ADO ABOUT LIBBY
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001433090 Conservative pundits have been spinning the perjury indictment of Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby as “Nadagate,” a “mountain that’s been made out of a molehill” based on an “investigation about nothing.” The latest CBS opinion poll, however, shows that the public is taking the scandal seriously. Of the people polled, 51% consider the White House role in outing covert CIA agent Valerie Plame a matter of “great importance” – giving it a higher ranking than the Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater and Iran/Contra scandals, and almost as high as Watergate. The scandal has helped Bush’s ever-sinking popularity reach new lows, and “on issues of personal trust, honesty and values, Bush has suffered some of his most notable declines.”
SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, November 3, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4143
15. WOLVES IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CLOTHING
www.corporatecrimereporter.com/bsr110305.htm
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman found the Business for Social Responsibility’s 2005 conference a sobering experience. The conference was sponsored by companies including ExxonMobil, Pfizer, Philip Morris, McDonald’s and Monsanto. “The news — what these giant multinationals don’t want you to know — is that they hijacked Business for Social Responsibility from its founders,” they wrote in Corporate Crime Reporter. However, some in the conservative think tank scene aren’t at all enamored with the idea of corporate social responsibility. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) organised a “counter conference” to challenge what they described as the “leftist dominated” BSR meeting. Amongst the speakers at the counter-conference were James Glassman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Paul Driessen from the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.
SOURCE: Corporate Crime Reporter, November 3, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4142
16. SELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT
www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/columnists/jeff_gelles/13039668.htm
“There’s something truly creepy about the notion of marketers manipulating what ordinary people say to one another,” writes Jeff Gelles. “As a parent, I’m especially concerned when the targets are teenagers like my daughters – which is why I decided to take a look inside Tremor,” a Procter & Gamble Web site that has enlisted a quarter-million teenagers as “word-of-mouth” marketers. Tremor uses coupons, discounts, free downloads and product samples combined with “the usual online smarminess” to hook kids into spreading the word about their clients’ products.
SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, October 31, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4141
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