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Why Facts No Longer Matter

nothinkingA recent PRWatch story discussed how corporations are increasingly turning to cause marketing to get around people's ability to tune out their daily deluge of advertising. Cause marketing, or "affinity marketing," is a sophisticated public relations strategy in which a corporation allies itself with a cause that evokes strong emotions in targeted consumers, like curing cancer, alleviating poverty, feeding the hungry, helping the environment or saving helpless animals. The relationship avails the company of a more effective way to grab the attention of their audience, by telling them compelling stories linked to the cause, for example tales of survival, loss, strength, good works, etc. Once the company gets your attention, it links its name and brands to the positive emotions generates by the cause. The company then leverages that emotion to get you to buy the stuff they've linked to the cause -- and improve its corporate image.

Cause marketing works, which is why its use is spreading like wildfire. The operative word that the whole idea turns on is "emotion," because the ability to manipulate people depends completely on generating an emotional connection that the company can exploit.

Will the Fabulous Fab Push the Bank Reform Bill Over the Top?

On Monday night, Senate Republicans lined up like lemurs and voted “no” on a motion to bring the Senate bank reform bill to the floor for a debate. Forty Republicans and one Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson (D-Kansas), stood shoulder to shoulder with 1,500 bank lobbyists and said “no” to Wall Street financial reform. (Evidently, Nelson was displeased that his friend Warren Buffett did not get special treatment in the bill.)

Before gloom sets in, it is worth noting that on Tuesday, all eyes will be on the “Fabulous Fab,” the Goldman Sachs trader at the heart of the SEC’s recent charges against the firm. Some of us are rooting for the Fab, hoping that his testimony will put financial reform back on the floor and put us on the path to reform.

You and the Supremes Call to Be Rescheduled

U.S. Supreme Court spiral staircaseThe Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch is launching a free seminar series for spin-watchers like you. Our first one was scheduled for this week, and was going to focus on the new vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court and what it means for everyday people who are concerned about the Citizens United decision and its aftermath.

This audio seminar was canceled due to unforeseen technical/logistical problems.

In the future, we plan to provide an opportunity to:

  • Find out insider details about choosing and confirming a lifetime appointee to the Court.
  • Learn about how the next justice may influence legal policies you care about.
  • Ask Lisa your questions about the Supreme Court and Citizens United.
  • Hear about ways to join the fight against corporations controlling our democracy.

CMD's new Executive Director, Lisa Graves, previously served as the Chief Counsel for Nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, working with the White House on judicial selection in the Clinton Administration. Her plain-spoken but deeply researched analysis of public policy issues has been featured on CNN, Free Speech TV, and Democracy Now! and credited in the New York Times, The Nation, The Progressive, and Vanity Fair and by numerous journalists over the past decade.

The Best Solution to Vampire Squid? Calamari

The great test for the financial services reform bill, if and when it ever gets debated in the Senate, will be what it does to rein in Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street institution famously described by Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi as “a vampire squid jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

The bill is being taken up just a week after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued civil fraud charges against Goldman for creating mortgage-backed investment vehicles deliberately designed to fail in order to benefit preferred clients. Everyone knows it’s tough to handcuff a squid. So some are advocating for a simpler solution.

Join the Showdown on Wall Street April 29th!

The same financial institutions that put 8 million in the unemployment line, drove a record foreclosure crisis, sent our economy into a tailspin, and sucked up trillions in taxpayer bailouts, are back to raking in the profits and bonuses. They are also spending millions to defeat financial reform in the Senate.

It's time to say converge in the belly of the beast, Wall Street, on April 29th at 3:30PM and tell the Banksters that enough is enough. The rocking campaigners at National Peoples Action, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO are asking you to join them in their call to break up the "too big to fail banks" and protect American consumers. Find out more at Show Down in America. And keep an eye on BanksterUSA.org for the latest on the financial reform bill which will be on the Senate floor next week.

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