PR Bloggers
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Blogs are exciting many people in the business world, including many PR practitioners," reports Keith O'Brien.
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Public Relations
High-Priced Friends in Need
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Russian oil company OAO Yukos has seen hard times since the arrest on tax evasion and fraud charges of its former chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The company "is trading at a fraction of its value at the time of Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest," and owes $3.4 billion in back taxes, according to the Russian government. "Company executives say Yukos could be driven out of business," writes the Wall Street Journal.
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PR Meltdown
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
As part of its restructuring, the debt-laden nuclear power generator British Energy hired American Roy Anderson as its chief nuclear officer, created a new technical director position, and switched PR firms.
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Super Surprise Me
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
IGN FilmForce, a movie review website, took a look at the PR battle against Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's documentary about the 30 days he spent eating nothing but meals from McDonald's. "Over the course of three days this week, IGN FilmForce came across three separate press releases, from three different organizations, all extolling the 'truth' about how the new documentary film Super Size Me distorts the fact," they report.
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Taking a Break from Message Discipline
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Message discipline" seems to be breaking down within the Bush administration, notes David Sanger: "For months now, the same administration whose members once prided themselves on never contradicting one another in public has been riven by conflicting pronouncements. Senior officials keep missing opportunities to keep their signals straight, prompting cases of vicious backbiting that one senior member of Mr. Bush's national security staff said with disgust the other day 'make us sound like Democrats.' Reporters who spent the first two-thirds of Mr.
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Mad Cow Flack Gets a Platinum Trumpet
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
The Publicity Club of Chicago, a PR industry trade association, has given its "Platinum Trumpet" award to Sarah Sarosi of the Burson-Marsteller PR firm, which worked on behalf of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in the U.S. and "responded immediately when a Canadian case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (or 'Mad Cow' disease) was diagnosed."
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Dying for a Bacon-Wrapped Cheeseburger
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Saying "he was seduced 'with a bacon-wrapped cheeseburger'," Florida millionaire Jody Gorran filed a lawsuit against Atkins Nutritionals and the estate of the late Dr. Atkins. Gorran required surgery to open a 99 percent blocked coronary artery after following the high-fat, high-protein Atkins diet for two years.
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It's a Small OneWorld, After All
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The Department of Agriculture ruled that the U.S. Forest Service did not violate federal law when it paid $90,000 to PR firm OneWorld Communications to promote increased logging in California's Sierra Nevada forests.
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Utterly Out of Favor
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"In dawn raids today, American troops surrounded Ahmed Chalabi's headquarters and home in Baghdad, put a gun to his head, arrested two of his aides, and seized documents," Andrew Cockburn writes. "Only five months ago, Chalabi was a guest of honor sitting right behind Laura Bush at the State of the Union.
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GAO Video "News" Rebuttal
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Congress' investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, determined that video news releases (VNRs) touting the new Medicare law, which ran as news reports on some 40 stations, violated a ban on government funded "publicity and propaganda." The Hill notes, "VNRs are standard practice in the public-relations industry and local news reports often rely on them. ...
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