Public Relations

Greenwashing, or "Positioning Environmentalism"

FactoryIn public relations, "the most striking single thing is the rapid growth in which companies are positioning or repositioning their environmentalism," said Burson-Marsteller's managing director of corporate responsibility.

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Herr Stauber In Der Spiegel

John Stauber on State Street in 2004CMD Founder and Executive Director John Stauber has been in Germany, Austria and Belgium for the past two weeks speaking in major cities and discussing the publication of "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" in German. On May 16 Vienna's daily paper Der Standard ran an interview with Herr Stauber that can be read in German by searching his name on their website. He was previously interviewed by Nils Klawitter for the German magazine Der Spiegel, and a translated portion of the interview is below. (Thanks to Orange-Press, publishers of the German edition of Toxic Sludge Is Good for You, for the translation.) If you would like to read the German interview in its entirety, please go to: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,481658,00.html

Shell Drills for Support in Virginia

As part of its crisis management strategy, in response to public anger over high gas prices and record-breaking profits for the oil industry, Shell Oil president John Hofmeister recently spoke to a small invite-only group in Richmond, Virginia.

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Thailand Pays for a PR Coup

Thailand's unelected interim government, which was installed after a military coup in September 2006, is "increasingly unpopular at home" and "under attack abroad for overriding drug patents," reports Reuters. So, according to former army chief turned Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, Thailand will "spend $600,000 on a three-month public relations campaign" to improve the government's poor image. "The money isn't much, but we have to do what we have to do," said Chulanont.

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Government Contractors: Not Your Average Corporate Evildoers

"Fearing increased oversight from the newly elected Democratic-controlled Congress, the Coalition for Government Procurement (CGP), a trade group representing government product and service suppliers, is planning a PR and marketing campaign to promote its members as responsible companies and not stereotypical 'corporate evildoers,'" reports Ted McKenna. The CGP is also forming a new group, the Council on Responsible Contracting (CORC).

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New Participatory Project: Help Track PR Firms on SourceWatch

Exposing the activities and ethical shortcomings of public relations firms has been a focus of the Center for Media and Democracy's work since its founding in 1993. Now you can help, via our online collaborative encyclopedia, SourceWatch! The SourceWatch article on public relations firms links to entries on more than 200 PR firms. The trade publication O'Dwyer's maintains a list of the top-grossing U.S.

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