Corporations

Fake News Increasingly Posted Online

Video news releases (VNRs) aren't just for television anymore. "Hurt by public criticism of VNRs, possible Federal Communications Commission oversight, and a shrunken news hole," broadcast PR firms "are looking for ways to survive -- and making the Internet a bigger part of their offerings could be the answer," writes PR Week.

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A Cause (-Related Marketing) for Joy?

"Large American nonprofits spend at least $7.6 billion per year on marketing and public relations," according to a consulting firm's analysis of U.S. tax data. "$7.6 billion annually in spending for advertising, communications, public relations and branding ... is not an insignificant business sector," writes Tom Watson. "Total spending on public relations in the U.S. reached some $3.7 billion last year. ...

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Front Groups Lobbying Spurs Thoughts of Non-Profit Reform

Citing instances where groups like Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Tax Reform have accepted corporate funding to lobby for their donors' causes, journalist Bill Adair explores whether greater disclosure by non-profit groups is warranted.

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Buzz Marketers Told to Disclose

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission directed "companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers," to "disclose those relationships." Otherwise, it could be deceptive marketing, as people are more likely to trust product endorsers "based on their assumed independence from the marketer," according to the FTC.

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Was Epidemiologist Doll a Monsanto Puppet?

"Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist who established that smoking causes lung cancer, was receiving a consultancy fee of $1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto," reports The Guardian. "While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the US in the Vietnam war.

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Detailed Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Rare, Publicity-Driven

Only a small proportion of annual corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports -- perhaps 15 to 20 percent -- provide "very thorough" accounts of real ethical problems faced by companies. Even that measure comes from within the CSR report industry, in interviews with writers Andrew Brengle of KLD Research & Analytics and Jeff Erikson of SustainAbility Inc.

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