Corporations

Memos Cast Shadow on Drug's Promotion

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

A whistle-blower's lawsuit has unearthed documents showing that the Warner-Lambert pharmaceutical company circumvented the Food and Drug Administration's drug approval process through a PR and advertising campaign. The company's internal memoranda show that it avoided the large clinical trials needed to gain government approval of off-label uses for Neurontin, an epilepsy medicine. Instead, the company paid for small studies and had the results published in medical journals. "The company also hired advertising agencies to help write the medical journal articles," reports Melody Petersen.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, December 20, 2002
Topics: 
Corporations
Ethics
Health
Marketing

Who's the Real Fake?

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Oh what a tangled web: "Two giant companies are struggling to shut down parody websites that portray them unfavorably, interrupting internet use for thousands in the process, and filing a lawsuit that pits the formidable legal department of PR giant Burson-Marsteller against a freshman at Hampshire College," writes Paul Hardin (the freshman in question).

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Main Source: 
http://rtmark.com/dowpr.html
Topics: 
Activism
Internet
Corporations

BP Oil's $200 Million Greenwashing Campaign

Submitted by John Stauber on

The New York Times examines BP/Amoco, the world's second largest oil company, and its $200 million PR and advertising campaign to greenwash its image. It is an "enormous corporate rebranding exercise, shortening its name from British Petroleum to BP, coining the slogan "Beyond Petroleum" and redesigning its corporate insignia. ... in came a green, yellow and white sunburst that seemed to suggest a warm and fuzzy feeling about the earth. ... But ...

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Main Source: 
New York Times, December 8, 2002
Topics: 
Corporate Social Responsibility
Environment
Public Relations

The Dow of Satire

Submitted by Laura Miller on

During the past two days, PR Watch received emails alerting us of an unbelievable press release from Dow Chemical. "DOW ADDRESSES BHOPAL OUTRAGE, EXPLAINS POSITION," read the release headline. "Many individuals within Dow feel tremendous sorrow about the Bhopal disaster," the release read. However, Dow has "responsibilities to our shareholders and our industry colleagues that make action on Bhopal impossible." The release directs people to the website "www.dow-chemical.com" for Dow's statement on Bhopal.

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Topics: 
Activism
Internet
Corporations

The Fake Parade

Submitted by Laura Miller on

Outside the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in August in Johannesburg, there were poor street vendors and farmers holding signs and wearing t-shirts reading: "Save the Planet from Sustainable Development", "Say No To Eco-Imperialism", "Greens: Stop Hurting the Poor" and "Biotechnology for Africa." The problem, according to environmental reporter and activist Jonathan Matthews is that the anti-environmentalist demonstration was organized by the corporations that environmentalist wanted to be held accountable.

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Main Source: 
The Freezerbox, December 3, 2002
Topics: 
Front Groups
Corporations
Environment
International

Stock Exchange Mulls Forcing Media to Reveal Conflicts

Submitted by John Stauber on

"After the bubble burst, the [New York Stock Exchange] regulators decided that it was not nice for an analyst to tout a stock without mentioning that he owned the stock or that his employer was the company's investment banker. So they ruled that such conflicts had to be disclosed. Fair enough. But to whom? Many investors learn analysts' opinions not from reading brokerage reports but from news media reports. So the Big Board said that the firms had to make sure that broadcasters who quoted the analysts had to pass on the disclosure.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, November 22, 2002
Topics: 
Journalism
Corporations
Ethics

The Selling of Terrorism Insurance

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

By stating time and again that terrorism insurance is a jobs bill, the White House "delivered a big plum to the insurance industry," writes Steven Rosenfeld. Now taxpayers are obligated to cover the industry's back by paying up to $300 billion if another terrorism attack occurs -- even though there's no evidence that the legislation will protect a single worker's job. "It has nothing to do with reality," the former top federal insurance regulator said earlier this fall, when discussing his studies examining the issue. "It was hype back then and it's still hype."

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Main Source: 
TomPaine.com, November 20, 2002
Topics: 
Terrorism
Corporations

"Scientific" Journal's Industry Ties

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has joined a number of other health and science leaders in questioning the integrity of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (RTP), a "seemingly independent scientific journal" that hides "its authors' and editors' extensive financial ties to tobacco, chemical, pharmaceutical, and other industries. ... [M]any RTP papers are written by scientists from industry labs or by industry-paid lawyers and lobbyists.

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Main Source: 
CSPI News Release, November 19, 2002
Topics: 
Journalism
Corporations
Ethics
Science

That's Not Right Wing Bias, That's 'Fair & Balanced'!

Submitted by John Stauber on

Alessandra Stanley writes in today's New York Times: "The revelation that Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, the self-proclaimed fair and balanced news channel, secretly gave advice to the White House after the Sept. 11 attacks was less shocking than it was liberating -- a little like the moment in 1985 when an ailing Rock Hudson finally explained that he had AIDS. Ever since Mr. Ailes changed jobs from Republican strategist to news executive, he has demanded to be treated as an unbiased journalist, not a conservative spokesman.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, November 19, 2002
Topics: 
Right Wing
Corporations
Ethics
Media

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