Public Relations

Tech Upstarts Avoid Scrutiny on the Web

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

The "new world of promoting start-ups in Silicon Valley," California, is "where the lines between journalists and everyone else are blurring and the number of followers a pundit has on Twitter is sometimes viewed as more important than old metrics like the circulation of a newspaper," observes the New York Times. Instead of angling for "mentions in print and on television," publicists for new tech companies "court influential voices on the social Web." This means that "P.R.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, July 4, 2009
Topics: 
Internet
Corporations
Public Relations

The Ultimate Irony: Health Care Industry Adopts Big Tobacco's PR Tactics

At first look, one might not think that the health insurance industry has much in common with the tobacco industry. After all, one sells a product that kills people and the other sells a product nominally aimed at putting people back together. But when it comes to deceitful public relations techniques, the health insurance industry has been learning well from Big Tobacco, which employed a panoply of shady but highly successful public relations tactics to fend off changes to its business for generations.

One of the things I said in my testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on June 24 is that the health insurance industry engages in duplicitous public relations campaigns to influence public opinion and the debate on health care reform. By that I mean there are campaigns they want you to you know about, and those they don't.

When you hear insurance company executives talk about how much they support health care reform and can be counted on by the President and Congress to be there for them, that's the campaign they want you to be aware of. I call it their PR charm offensive.

"Harry and Louise" Against Consumer Protection

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

The industry backlash against the Obama administration's financial reform plans -- especially the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency -- is taking shape. "A coalition of financial trade groups is brainstorming on how to sink the agency," reports Reuters.

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Main Source: 
Reuters, July 6, 2009
Topics: 
Economy
Lobbying
Public Relations

Timing Is Everything

Submitted by Bob Burton on

A British public relations executive is cautioning PR professionals not to release bad news in the wake of Michael Jackson's death. "No-one can ever trump Labour aide Jo Moore's debacle during the September 11 attacks, but there'll be cynics out there watching very carefully for companies releasing stuff under cover of global mourning," said Dougal Paver, Managing Director of Paver Smith.

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Main Source: 
PR Week (UK), June 29, 2009
Topics: 
Issue Management
International

Climate Change Bill a Rorschach for Special Interests

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

The same day that the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives, the oil industry examined the loopholes. The bill, which has yet to pass the Senate, would make refiners "buy allowances for carbon dioxide spewed from their plants and from vehicles when motorists burn their fuel. Imports would need permits only for the latter." So, oil companies "will probably cope ...

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Main Source: 
Bloomberg, June 26, 2009
Topics: 
Front Groups
Climate Change
U.S. Congress

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