Media

Sweeting Corn Syrup's Public Image

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

The Corn Refiners Association launched an 18-month, $20 to $30 million public relations and advertising campaign "to convince consumers that HFCS [high-fructose corn syrup] isn't the evil it has been made out to be." The industry group is running ads in major newspapers -- under the banner "time for a little food for thought" -- that say HFCS has the "same natural sweeteners as table sugar and honey." The campaign, which was created by the

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Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), June 23, 2008
Topics: 
Advertising
Internet
Obesity
Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
Children
Health
Public Relations
Women

Same Old Dog and No New Tricks: Update on Messaging on Iran

We know from Scott McClellan, the former White House Spokesman, in his recent book, What Happened, that President Bush insists on discipline in messaging. Although the publics on both sides of the Atlantic have gotten to the point of heavily discounting what he says, the President's desire for control can give us a sense of the thrust of policy. This is certainly true with respect to Iran.

Jeff Gannon, National Press Club member

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Jeff Gannon"If you ever wondered what happened to Jeff Gannon, the former conservative reporter whose questionable White House credentialing and ties to several sex Web sites forced him out of a job," he's an active member of the National Press Club.

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Main Source: 
Editor and Publisher, June 19, 2008
Topics: 
Right Wing
Crisis Management
Internet
Journalism
Ethics
Media
Secrecy
U.S. Government

China's Online Persuaders

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

China's webspace is infamous for censorship, but increasingly, public relations firms there are helping their clients "manage" online conversations. China-based firms such as Daqi, Chinese Web Union and CIC "charge $500 - $25,000 monthly to monitor postings and squelch negative information or to create positive buzz," reports BusinessWeek.

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Main Source: 
BusinessWeek, June 12, 2008
Topics: 
Internet
Corporations
International
Public Relations

French Flacks Want Their Information in First Place

Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on

The largest PR and communications firm in France is asserting that "Wikipedia cannibalizes the image" of the biggest French corporations and their CEOs. Euro RSCG 's complaint is that Wikipedia articles score exceptionally high in search engine rankings -- often ahead of the corporations' own websites.

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Main Source: 
ZDNet.fr, June 11, 2008
Topics: 
Citizen Journalism
Internet
Corporations
International
Public Relations

Weber Shandwick Bowls over the Army

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

From the Army's 2006 All-American BowlHow can you counter "daily stories and blog entries that portray the negative aspects of joining the military"? That was PR firm Weber Shandwick's job in the lead-up to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January 2008.

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Main Source: 
PR Week, June 3, 2008
Topics: 
Arts / Culture
Video News Releases
Children
Fake TV News
Media
Public Relations
U.S. Government
War / Peace

A Jolly Bright Line for British Broadcasters

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

In his first major speech on broadcasting, British culture secretary Andy Burnham minced few words. "I think there are some lines that we should not cross," Burnham told a media industry meeting. "One of which is that you can buy the space between the programmes on commercial channels, but not the space within them. ...

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Main Source: 
Financial Times (UK), June 11, 2008
Topics: 
Arts / Culture
Ethics
Lobbying
Marketing
Media
Politics

Pentagon Pundits, Media Reform and Talking Back to Bill O'Reilly

FCC Commissioner Jonathan AdelsteinAs Paul Schmelzer wrote on the Minnesota Independent website, "There were two National Conferences on Media Reform in Minneapolis over the weekend: the one I attended and the one Bill O'Reilly, Juan Williams and Fox News talking head Mary Catherine Ham didn't."

O'Reilly's show tried to manufacture controversy about the conference, which I and others from the Center for Media and Democracy attended. But before addressing that, how about some real news on a genuinely controversial issue?

During Sunday's closing plenary, FCC Commissioner and fake news foe Jonathan Adelstein pledged to push for multiple thorough investigations of the Pentagon military analyst program. So far, the Pentagon's Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, have launched inquiries into the Defense Department's secret cultivation of military pundits. But those investigations aren't enough.

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