Corporations

Yahoo Serious Trouble

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

After notifying "foreign Web sites that his newspaper colleagues had been instructed not to commemorate the then-pending 15th anniversary of China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists," Chinese journalist Shi Tao received a 10-year prison sentence. According to Reporters Without Borders, the court that sentenced Mr. Shi "relied partly on evidence provided by a Hong Kong subsidiary of Internet company Yahoo Inc." The government of President Hu Jintao has repeatedly targeted the media.

No
Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal (sub. req'd.), September 7, 2005
Topics: 
Journalism
Corporations
Democracy

The Cows Have Come Home

Note: This article was written for CorpWatch, and also appears on their website.

Earlier this summer in Minnesota, the well-dressed woman walked briskly across the front of the red brick classroom and up to the microphone. The moderator smiled and nodded in her direction. Looking down at her notes, she began. "Good afternoon. Thanks for holding this session. And while we are here in this room discussing this important issue, 200 people in Gering, Nebraska, are looking for new jobs. Their packing plant closed this week because they could not source enough cattle due to the embargo."

Clarke Under Pressure to Quit British American Tobacco

Submitted by Bob Burton on

Kenneth Clarke, a British Conservative Party leadership aspirant, is resisting calls to resign as non-executive deputy chairman of British American Tobacco (BAT) and chair of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee. Clarke's supporters have suggested he would resign the roles only if elected leader.

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Main Source: 
The Guardian, August 23, 2005
Topics: 
Corporate Social Responsibility
Politics
Tobacco

Transparency Haunts PR Firms Selling Corporate Social Responsibility

Submitted by Bob Burton on

In a review of the role of PR firms in corporate social responsibility programs, Lisa Roner writes that "many early efforts to communicate on corporate responsibility have been high on production value and low on substance." Citing examples such as Hill & Knowlton's role

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Main Source: 
Ethical Corporation, August 24, 2005
Topics: 
Corporate Social Responsibility
Ethics
Public Relations

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"When Sears Portrait Studios wanted to lure new mothers, it didn't just order more ads of smiling babies or mail out big coupons," writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Instead, the company hired the Vandiver Group "to create a word-of-mouth marketing campaign in mid-2003." First, Vandiver identified "influentials" - people others look to for information or advice - who are mothers, using phone surveys.

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Main Source: 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 18, 2005
Topics: 
Corporations
Marketing

The Wal-Mart Thought Police

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer, prides itself on being a 'family-friendly' store, with smiley faces guiding stressed-out breadwinners to a land of low-cost, guilt-free consumption," writes Amy Schiller. But it has become "the self-appointed culture police by screening the music, books and magazines that many Americans will be able to access. ...

No
Main Source: 
AlterNet, August 16, 2005
Topics: 
Corporations

Voluntary Soda Jerks as PR

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"The first salvo in a broader public-relations counterattack by beverage companies to help the industry reverse its tarnished image" is voluntary restrictions on drink sales in schools. The guidelines, which will be touted "in full-page ads in several national newspapers," suggest that new school contracts remove carbonated soft drinks from elementary schools and remove sugary drinks from middle schools during school hours. All beverages will continue to be sold in high schools.

No
Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal (sub. req'd.), August 17, 2005
Topics: 
Children
Corporations
Health
Public Relations

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