Submitted by Laura Miller on
The British journalist George Monbiot warns the dangers of the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland are not that the public protests will be dangerous, "but that they will be far too polite. Let me be more precise.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
SpinWatch's Eveline Lubbers recently read Karen S. Miller's 1999 book The Voice of Business, Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations. While Hill & Knowlton's work for the tobacco industry in the fifties has been covered by PR Watch and others, the PR firm's earlier work for the steel industry is not as widely known.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Liu Xu, a staffer with Burson-Marsteller in China, told a reporter that in mid-April he only managed a few hours sleep a night while he helped Colgate reassure Chinese government agencies on the safety of using the suspected human carcinogen triclosan in toothpaste.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"In 1938, Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of 'The War of the Worlds' caused thousands of people to panic, believing they were listening to a genuine newscast of a Martian invasion of New Jersey," writes Katie Sweeney for Public Relations Tactics, the trade publication of the Public Relations Society of America.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"The U.S. Special Operations Command has hired three firms to produce newspaper stories, television broadcasts and Web sites to spread American propaganda overseas." The contract may run $100 million over the next five years.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's MediaWatch program has revealed that Estradot, an estrogen patch for women made by drug industry giant Novartis, has been promoted in Australia by a fake news package including a press release, a video news release (VNR) and an
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
GlaxoSmithKline is undertaking yet another effort to improve its reputation - "an extensive state-by-state media blitz." Michael Pucci, GSK's vice-president of "external advocacy," told PR Week that local reporters were easier for the drug company to deal with. "These folks are hungry for news," he said. "They'll print everything we say ...
Submitted by Bob Burton on
A former Fleishman-Hillard executive, Steven Sugerman, will plead guilty to participating in a plan to overbill the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
In the heart of Sydney's Ryde Valley - Australia's drug industry alley - fifty marketing managers and PR advisers from major drug companies, including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, pondered the industry's poor public standing.
The drug industry representatives – used to hustling everything from drugs for guys struggling with their love life to cancer cures – were seriously depressed. "I am appalled by our reputation," Group Vice-President Far East Region for Schering Plough, Rod Unsworth, told a panel of industry heavy-hitters discussing "reputation management" at the third Australian Pharma Marketing Congress.
Unsworth, who describes himself as a "passionate" supporter of the industry, bluntly told the mid-May gathering that the drug industry in Australia was way behind even the tobacco industry in its efforts to rebuild its political stocks.
Unsworth warned the panel of the potentially fatal consequences of the Australian industry's defensive posture. "If we say we are going to just look after the opinion leaders and we don't give a damn about the public, we are dead. And if we let the debate be about price, we are dead," he said.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
The final courtroom hearing in U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) long-running racketeering case against major tobacco companies - including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco - is scheduled for this Thursday.
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