Corporations

KFC Tries Silencing More Than The Chickens

Submitted by Bob Burton on

Two members of the animal welfare committee of Yum Brands Inc, KFC's parent company, resigned after being asked to sign a confidentiality agreement which would have required them to refer all media inquiries to KFC's corporate headquarters. Over the last three years Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University and Dr. Ian Duncan of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, have advised KFC on improving animal welfare standards. Both objected to the proposed agreement as amounting to censorship.

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Main Source: 
Reuters, May 6, 2005
Topics: 
Animal Rights
Corporations
Democracy
Public Relations

Oil and Rigorous Science Just Don't Mix

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

A National Cancer Institute study found that "workers exposed to average levels of benzene" were four times more likely to develop cancer. Benzene is a component of gasoline, so tighter regulations would have "an impact on gasoline production," said a former Mobil Oil toxicologist.

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Main Source: 
Houston Chronicle, April 29, 2005
Topics: 
Corporations
Health
Science

Rules Enforced; Marketers Unhappy

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Perhaps due to the Vioxx and teen antidepressant scandals, "the Food and Drug Administration is pelting drugmakers with letters warning that they have run afoul of promotional regulations." Advertising Age writes that the FDA's actions are "threatening to tip the $4 billion direct-to-consum

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Main Source: 
Advertising Age, April 25, 2005
Topics: 
Corporations
Health
Marketing

Firm Opens New Blogistan Embassy

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Following similar interest from media moguls and PR firms, the consulting firm Issue Dynamics, Inc. "has launched a formal Blogger Relations Practice and a companion website, http://www.bloggerrelations.com." According to its press release, IDI has already provided "blogger relations" services to "Fortune 50

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Main Source: 
Issue Dynamics, Inc. press release, April 26, 2005
Topics: 
Citizen Journalism
Corporations
Media

Travelobbying

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"A fast-growing trend in the business of influencing government is corporate-funded trips," reports the Wall Street Journal. "Because the trips are paid for by corporations and trade associations - and not the hired guns who lobby for them - such trips are permitted under House and Senate rules," unless the sponsors are registered lobbyists or foreign agents. The number of junkets increased from 1,400 in 2000 to 1,900 in 2004; their cost increased 50% over the same period, to $3 million in 2004.

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Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal (sub. req'd.), April 15, 2005
Topics: 
Corporations
Lobbying

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