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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Wed Sep 15 06:29:43 GMT 2004
At 07:00 15/09/2004, you wrote:
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, September 15, 2004
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
>further information about current public relations campaigns.
>It is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers.
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Vote Weekly Spin: Your Input Needed!
>2. NY Times Says Wal-Mart Needs Better Story, Not More Spin
>3. Former Clinton Press Secretary Joins Kerry-Edwards Campaign
>4. The Additive Effect of Ad Agencies
>5. I'm Responsible, if I Do Say So Myself
>6. Foyled Again, by Big Tobacco
>7. Who's Driving the SUV Owners of America?
>8. Dusty Deception
>9. E-Voting: Follow the Money
>10. Marketplace of Campaign Ideas
>11. Freedom of the Press, to Obey
>12. Former Foreign Friends
>13. Greening ExxonMobil
>14. Nutri-washing Junk Food
>15. Super Sue Me
>16. Lobby, Lobby, Lobby, I'm a Liberal
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. VOTE WEEKLY SPIN: YOUR INPUT NEEDED!
>http://www.prwatch.org/survey/public/survey.php?name=weekly
> We need your help - to make our website and our Weekly Spin
> mailings more interesting and useful to you! Please take a few
> minutes to fill out a brief survey for the Center for Media and
> Democracy, at the above link. We need your responses by Wednesday,
> September 29. As a small thank-you for your time, everyone who
> fills out the survey before the deadline will be entered in a
> raffle to win one of ten free copies of the Center's latest book,
> Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America Into a
> One-Party State. If you have any questions, feel free to contact
> Diane at 608-260-9713 or diane AT prwatch.org. Thank you!
>SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, September 15, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095220800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095220800
>
>2. NY TIMES SAYS WAL-MART NEEDS BETTER STORY, NOT MORE SPIN
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/opinion/14tue4.html
> Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott recently said, "We have not gotten our
> story out to the extent that we need to." The head of the global
> super store told a retailing conference that Wal-Mart's bad
> reputation came from newspapers and television. But a New York
> Times editorial responded that "if Wal-Mart wants to improve its
> image, it should focus less on shaping its message and more on
> changing the way it does business. ... These damaging news stories
> are not a product of bad spin, but bad facts. If Wal-Mart wants to
> do a better job in telling its story, it needs to work on having a
> better story to tell." PR Week reports that Wal-Mart is expanding
> its media relations team. "There's an acknowledgement throughout
> the company of the importance of using the media to tell our
> story," a company spokesperson said. "We're now putting more
> resources behind doing that." Trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily
> call Wal-Mart's media department, asking for comment on the Times
> editorial. But the company said it had not decided whether or not
> to respond. PR giant Fleishman-Hillard is helping Wal-Mart with its
> image makeover.
>SOURCE: New York Times, September 14, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095134403
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095134403
>
>3. FORMER CLINTON PRESS SECRETARY JOINS KERRY-EDWARDS CAMPAIGN
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-09-14-kerry-mccurry_x.htm
> Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry joins the
> Kerry-Edwards campaign as a senior media advisor this week. The
> Associated Press writes that "the hiring is an acknowledgment that
> Kerry and his team have failed to communicate a concise, persuasive
> argument." McCurry served as press secretary from 1995 to 1998,
> helping former President Bill Clinton through the Monica Lewinsky
> scandal. Currently he is chairman of Grassroots Enterprises, which
> specializes in online PR, and a principal at Public Strategies
> Washington, a lobbying firm that counts as clients Bristol-Myers
> Squibb, Edison Electric, Lockheed Martin, and the United States
> Chamber of Commerce. (Ironically, PR Week reports, "The US Chamber
> of Commerce is helping to launch a 527 group assailing vice
> presidential candidate John Edwards for his former career as a
> trial lawyer. The effort will be led by Burson-Marsteller COO Ken
> Rietz.") Also joining the Kerry campaign are two other Clinton
> alumni - former press secretary Joe Lockhart, a partner at the
> Glover Park Group, and former legislative strategist Joel Johnson,
> who's co-founder and managing director of The Harbour Group, a PR
> and crisis communications firm, PR Week reports.
>SOURCE: USA Today, September 14, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095134402
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095134402
>
>4. THE ADDITIVE EFFECT OF AD AGENCIES
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109511119153916631,00.html?mod=mm%5Fhs%5Fadvertising
> "WPP Group's agreement to buy Grey Global Group solidifies ad
> industry power in the hands of four big firms," reports the Wall
> Street Journal. "The takeover also will give WPP access to Grey's
> long relationships with such clients as Procter & Gamble, one of
> the world's biggest advertising spenders. ... During the past
> decade, ad holding companies rushed to gobble up agencies to serve
> more clients. ... As a result of the buying binges, the big four ad
> holding companies are WPP [of Britain]; Omnicom and Interpublic
> Group, both of New York; and France's Publicis Groupe" - all of
> which, except for Publicis, have their own PR firms.
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095134401
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095134401
>
>5. I'M RESPONSIBLE, IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF
>http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=2156
> The environmental group Friends of the Earth will hold "a mock
> awards ceremony aimed at exposing the green spin and corporate
> social responsibility failings of UK companies." CSR is big
> business; a recent APCO Worldwide survey of more than 400 people in
> 10 countries found that "corporate social responsibility
> initiatives are influential on consumer purchase habits." CSR
> efforts caused more than 70% of respondents to buy a company's
> products or services, while negative reports led 60% to boycott
> companies. APCO suggests companies "shape the opinion environment
> through their own communications, as opposed to fearing the impact
> of information from external [independent] organizations."
>SOURCE: Green Consumer Guide, September 14, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095134400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095134400
>
>6. FOYLED AGAIN, BY BIG TOBACCO
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109503368828415904,00.html?mod=us_business_whats_news
> In 1990, British lawyer Andrew Foyle wrote a memorandum to British
> American Tobacco regarding the company's "document retention
> policy." U.S. government lawyers contend the Foyle memo provides
> information on tobacco companies' actions "to destroy, suppress or
> otherwise shield from discovery ... internal research documents
> concerning smoking and health." The U.S. is seeking release of the
> memo for use in its $280 billion lawsuit against big tobacco; BAT
> is claiming attorney-client privilege. A federal district court has
> ordered BAT to release the memo at least three times, but the
> company's challenges will delay the memo's potential release until
> after the U.S. lawsuit.
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095048001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095048001
>
>7. WHO'S DRIVING THE SUV OWNERS OF AMERICA?
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=222004&site=3
> "It's hard to believe that there isn't an attempt to deceive here,"
> writes PR commentator Paul Holmes, considering the industry group
> SUV Owners of America's self-description, on its website, as "a
> nonprofit consumer organization dedicated to supporting the rights
> and serving the interests of SUV owners," providing a "voice and
> advocate for SUV owners." But Holmes notes that "its board of
> directors consists largely of industry reps and public affairs
> execs with ties to the industry." Moreover, "the group's funding is
> opaque: It's certainly not explained on SUVOA's website or in its
> press releases. And that's my problem with front groups."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), September 13, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095048000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095048000
>
>8. DUSTY DECEPTION
>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=560842
> "Up to 400,000 New Yorkers breathed in the most toxic polluting
> cloud ever recorded after the twin towers were brought down three
> years ago, but no proper effort has been made to find out how their
> health has been affected. [A] US government study provides the
> latest evidence of a systematic cover-up of the health toll from
> pollution after the 9/11 disaster, which doctors fear will cause
> more deaths than the attacks themselves," the Independent writes.
> The Government Accountability Office report "September 11: Health
> Effects in the Aftermath of the World Trade Center Attack"
> concludes that programs monitoring the long-term health effects of
> the attacks may not be "in operation long enough to adequately
> capture information about new conditions, chronic conditions, and
> diseases whose onset may occur decades after exposure to a harmful
> agent, such as many cancers."
>SOURCE: The Independent, September 12, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094961601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094961601
>
>9. E-VOTING: FOLLOW THE MONEY
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-09-12-electronic-ballots_x.htm
> "In Nye County, Nevada, last week, one of the new, highly touted
> electronic-voting devices ... malfunctioned. When the polls closed
> in the state primary election, it refused to display the results,
> threatening to disenfranchise everyone who'd used it," reports USA
> Today. The head of the industry group Information Technology
> Association of America, writing for ITAA's Election Technology
> Council, counters, "Critics have yet to document a single
> real-world security breach," and calls the Nevada election
> "well-run" and "incident-free." The New York Times warns that many
> state and local election officials "have financial ties to voting
> machine companies," an issue we covered in our last PR Watch
> journal.
>SOURCE: USA Today, September 12, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094961600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094961600
>
>10. MARKETPLACE OF CAMPAIGN IDEAS
>http://www.boston.com/news/politics/advertising/articles/2004/09/10/more_smaller_groups_airing_political_ads/
> "If you're some group with an agenda, an ax to grind or an issue to
> promote, now's the time," said the Campaign Media Analysis Group's
> president. "Political advertising by smaller groups, and
> individuals in some cases, is popping up across the country,"
> reports Associated Press, "on top of the millions of dollars that
> larger, partisan groups have spent" on ads. Conservative groups
> West Virginians for Life, the American Defense Council and
> MoveOnForAmerica.org, and liberal groups Save Our Environment,
> Mothers Opposing Bush and Texans for Truth are running TV and/or
> radio ads.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, September 10, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094788801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094788801
>
>11. FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, TO OBEY
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9703-2004Sep9.html
> After seven AIDS activists disrupted a Pennsylvania campaign
> appearance by President Bush, "Secret Service agents ... supervised
> the arrests and detention of the activists and blocked the news
> media from access to the hecklers. ... Journalists were told that
> if they sought to approach the demonstrators, they would not be
> allowed to return to the event site - even though their colleagues
> were free to come and go. ... One journalist who was blocked from
> returning to the speech [was told by an agent] that this was
> punishment for approaching the demonstrators."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, September 10, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094788800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094788800
>
>12. FORMER FOREIGN FRIENDS
>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=559672
> "Seven out of 10 Americans are worried about the worsening of their
> country's image around the world," according to a new poll by the
> University of Maryland and Globescan, "although almost
> three-quarters said world opinion would have no impact on their
> vote" for president. A German Marshall Fund transatlantic poll
> found that "76 percent of Europeans disapprove of current U.S.
> foreign policy, and 58 percent of them want Europe to take a more
> independent approach to foreign affairs," which is "bad news for
> the 60 percent of Americans who say they would like the U.S. to
> strengthen its partnership with the European Union."
>SOURCE: Independent (UK), September 9, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094702400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094702400
>
>13. GREENING EXXONMOBIL
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0908exxon.htm
> "Weber Shandwick is handling the 'greening' of ExxonMobil Corp. by
> promoting an alliance forged between the energy giant and Earth
> 911, a government/private sector entity with the motto of 'making
> every day Earth Day,'" O'Dwyer's PR Daily writes. "The partnership
> aims to educate consumers about the importance of recycling used
> motor oil. ExxonMobil will provide funding for Earth 911 in return
> for the right to slap the group's logo on its Exxon- and
> Mobil-branded products. Earth 911's public service announcements
> will feature the Mobil 1 logo and the location of used motor oil
> collection sites. Earth 911's corporate partners include
> Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Aluminum Assn. of America and Vertex
> Energy, a company that recycles petroleum products. The
> ExxonMobil/Earth 911 partnership comes 15 years after the Exxon
> Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince
> William Sound."
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), September 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094616005
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094616005
>
>14. NUTRI-WASHING JUNK FOOD
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/08/EDGLE8JMHR1.DTL
> "Years ago, the environmental movement coined the term
> "greenwashing" to describe how corporations use public relations to
> make themselves appear environmentally friendly. Now, nutrition
> advocates need their own moniker for a similar trend among major
> food companies - call it 'nutri-washing,'" writes Michele Simon, a
> public health lawyer and director of the Center for Informed Food
> Choices. "Some nutrition advocates have applauded such efforts as
> an attempt by industry to make improvements, however minor. But to
> praise companies for such 'reforms' too easily rewards them with
> the positive public-relations spin they seek. Also, these voluntary
> actions deliberately attempt to deflect any mandatory government
> regulations - for, as we are starting to learn, voluntary acts can
> easily be rescinded. ... Moreover, these PR efforts don't tell the
> whole story. Behind the scenes, industry is lobbying hard to
> undermine public-health advocacy, especially that aimed at
> improving the nutrition environment of public schools."
>SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094616003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094616003
>
>15. SUPER SUE ME
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1299208,00.html
> British environmental activists David Morris and Helen Steel, found
> guilty of defaming McDonald's in 1997, are challenging English
> libel law before the European Court of Human Rights. They call the
> law "patently unfair" for not addressing "the stark inequality
> between ordinary individuals and a massive corporation." McDonald's
> global sales rose from $19 to $30 billion during the McLibel trial.
> "During the same period," said the activists' lawyer, "Ms. Steel's
> maximum income was 65 Pounds ($116 US) a week ... and Mr. Morris, a
> single parent, was unwaged and entirely dependent on income
> support." The British government's lawyer warned of "one-sided
> campaigns of vilification."
>SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), September 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094616002
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094616002
>
>16. LOBBY, LOBBY, LOBBY, I'M A LIBERAL
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3731-2004Sep7.html
> Further illustrating "the revolving door that exists between those
> who run campaigns and those who lobby," the Kerry campaign's recent
> hires -- Joel Johnson, Joe Lockhart, Howard Wolfson and Michael
> Whouley -- are all lobbyists, as well as Democratic strategists.
> Johnson directs the Harbour Group, a frequent Alexander Strategy
> Group partner whose clients include the oil and pharmaceutical
> industries. Johnson also represented the Asbestos Study Group
> industry coalition. Whouley's Dewey Square Group, "one of the
> country's foremost experts in so-called grass-roots and grass-tops
> lobbying," often works with the DCI Group. Lockhart and Wolfson are
> partners at the Glover Park Group. Doug Ireland notes that "on
> CNN's Inside Politics, Jesse Jackson delivered a blistering attack
> on the Kerry campaign for running away from the Democratic base and
> the issues it cares about."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, September 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094616001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094616001
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at the
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