Public Relations

Mad Cow Flack Gets a Platinum Trumpet

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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Greenwashing, G8-Style

Next month, the U.S. will host the thirtieth G8 Summit, a meeting of the "leaders of the world's major industrial democracies," in Sea Island, Georgia. The setting is "in keeping with President Bush's emphasis on environmental quality" and "will showcase the complementary benefits of environmental stewardship and a strong economy," according to the Summit website.

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Private Sector Diplomacy

In response to a study finding "diminishing foreign regard for American culture and politics, a new organization of marketing and advertising corporations is preparing to raise an initial $1 million to combat anti-Americanism abroad." The Business for Diplomatic Action nonprofit organization plans to launch a website "where corporations could exchange information to 'help them be good citizens of a country vs.

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DuPont's Public Filibuster

As area residents and activists prepared to participate in a public hearing on DuPont Titanium Technologies' request to increase polluting activities at its plant outside Pass Christian, Mississippi, they had no idea they'd have a long wait before getting a turn to speak. "When they realized a handful of prominent supporters - including economic development directors, chamber boosters, bankers and several plant employees - had reserved the first hour and a half of floor time, the hundreds of concerned residents grew livid," reports Greg Harman.

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Identity Crisis at SBC

San Francisco Chronicle reporter David Lazarus is questioning whether Marc Bien, who he interviewed as telecommunications giant SBC's vice-president of corporate communications (as Bien's business cards indicate) broke ethical guidelines when he neglected to tell Lazarus that he's actually an employee of major PR firm Fleishman-Hillard.

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Inside Bechtel's Spin Machine

As a top engineering and construction contractor, the Bechtel Group has had a leading role in a number of controversial public works projects, including Boston's "Big Dig," the failed privatization of Bolivia's water system, and the rebuilding of Iraq. "The bad public relations from just one these projects could sink a lesser firm, but somehow the well-connected, privately held corporation always seems to emerge unscathed and ready to score more big-ticket public works jobs," A.C. Thompson writes.

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Greenwashing Koch Industries

"Flanked by 'Survivor' champions Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca and two Washington Redskins cheerleaders, a leading D.C. environmentalist took time on Earth Day to thank Wichita-based Koch Industries," reports Alan Bjerga. Doug Siglin, head of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Anacostia River Initiative, praised Koch for helping pick trash out of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. But while Koch colleagues heaped praise on the company, critics wondered whether the event wasn't designed to clean up Koch's image as much as the river.

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