Archive for June 2005

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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, June 8, 2005

Wed Jun 08 17:23:20 GMT 2005


>
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, June 8, 2005
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>1. Crashing the USDA's Dog-and-Pony Show
>2. The Drug Industry Gets a Dose of The Blues
>3. Pfizer's Fickle Philanthropy
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>1. An Agency of One
>2. Last Gasp For Racketeering Case Against Big Tobacco
>3. Another Company that Just Needs to Tell Its Story Better
>4. Above the Law & Order
>5. How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Perchlorate
>6. The Campaign For The Bush Agenda
>7. Industry Trade Groups Forced to Cut Costs
>8. Have You Herd?
>9. Something Phony About Fake News
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. CRASHING THE USDA'S DOG-AND-PONY SHOW
>by John Stauber
>   The online free encyclopedia Wikipedia defines "dog-and-pony show"
>   as a public "display that is somewhat pathetically contrived."
>   That's what the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, is
>   convening this Thursday, June 9, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
>        Secretary Johanns will lead a roundtable discussion dominated
>   by the most powerful agricultural lobby organizations in the United
>   States to spread the good news that mad cow disease is no longer a
>   problem in North America. The invited participants include the
>   American Farm Bureau, the American Meat Institute, the National
>   Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Meat Association, the
>   National Milk Producers and the National Renderers Association. Not
>   a single consumer, human health or public interest group was invited
>   to speak, nor were any scientists who research mad cow and related
>   diseases, such as Nobel laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner. The USDA
>   hopes to convince the assembled news media that it's time to open
>   the U.S. border to Canadian cattle and time for Japan and Korea to
>   accept U.S. beef and cattle.
>        There's just one problem with this rosy picture of mad cow
>   disease in North America: it has little or no basis in fact.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3745
>
>2. THE DRUG INDUSTRY GETS A DOSE OF THE BLUES
>by Bob Burton
>   In the heart of Sydney's Ryde Valley - Australia's drug industry
>   alley - fifty marketing managers and PR advisers from major drug
>   companies, including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and
>   GlaxoSmithKline, pondered the industry's poor public standing.
>        The drug industry representatives ⬠used to hustling
>   everything from drugs for guys struggling with their love life to
>   cancer cures ⬠were seriously depressed. "I am appalled by our
>   reputation," Group Vice-President Far East Region for Schering
>   Plough, Rod Unsworth, told a panel of industry heavy-hitters
>   discussing "reputation management" at the third Australian Pharma
>   Marketing Congress.
>        Unsworth, who describes himself as a "passionate" supporter of
>   the industry, bluntly told the mid-May gathering that the drug
>   industry in Australia was way behind even the tobacco industry in
>   its efforts to rebuild its political stocks.
>        Unsworth warned the panel of the potentially fatal consequences
>   of the Australian industry's defensive posture. "If we say we are
>   going to just look after the opinion leaders and we don't give a
>   damn about the public, we are dead. And if we let the debate be
>   about price, we are dead," he said.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3726
>
>3. PFIZER'S FICKLE PHILANTHROPY
>by Bob Burton
>   In a series of announcements in the aftermath of the tsunami that
>   swept that swept through East Asia and parts of Africa on December
>   26, 2004, Pfizer committed itself to contribute a total of $20
>   million in cash and $60 million worth of medicines. Pfizer's staff
>   chipped in a further $2 million.
>        On its U.S. website, Pfizer listed its tsunami response as an
>   example of its commitment to corporate social responsibility.
>        However, at a recent drug industry marketing conference in
>   Sydney, Pfizer Australia's Manager of Government Affairs, David
>   Miles, said that the company would have been better off being less
>   generous. "We would be better off giving five million and shutting
>   up," Miles said, only a little jokingly. "As soon as you get into
>   big numbers people think you can double or triple it."
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3733
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>
>1. AN AGENCY OF ONE
>
>   The Army is looking for full-service marketing and PR agencies to
>   submit proposals for an $800 million, five-year recruitment push. PR
>   Week reports the contract would include "everything from advertising
>   to promotional and publicity programs, internet campaigns, event
>   marketing, and media relations." Leo Burnett Worldwide has overseen
>   earlier the Army recruitment efforts. in May, the Army's recruiting
>   commander Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle said the the advertising
>   campaign would be geared to potential recruits, as well as to
>   influencers. Meanwhile, the Army faces a recruiting crisis, falling
>   short of it's goals. Conservative columnist Robert Novak noted,
>   "[T]he focus at the Defense Department has been on the excesses of
>   desperate recruiters, 37 of whom reflected their frustration in
>   trying to meet quotas by going AWOL over the last 2-1/2 years."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd), June 6, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3744
>
>2. LAST GASP FOR RACKETEERING CASE AGAINST BIG TOBACCO
>http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tobacco7jun07,0,2585839.story?coll=la-home-headlines
>   The final courtroom hearing in U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ)
>   long-running racketeering case against major tobacco companies -
>   including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco - is scheduled
>   for this Thursday. "Despite the industry's dismal reputation, it is
>   eager to avoid the stigma of a racketeering verdict ⬠which would
>   be the first such judicial finding against a major industry," the
>   Los Angeles Times reports. When Bill Clinton gave the go-ahead for
>   the DOJ case in 1999 BSMG WorldWide was hired by Philip Morris to
>   hose down potentially adverse reporting. Across the Atlantic, the
>   Independent reports that four top German public health experts were
>   "funded for years by the German Association of Cigarette
>   Manufacturers, mainly via innocuous-sounding medical foundations in
>   an attempt by the industry to play down the dangers of smoking."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2005.
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3743
>
>3. ANOTHER COMPANY THAT JUST NEEDS TO TELL ITS STORY BETTER
>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/business/media/02adco.html?
>   The drug company Merck is launching a $20 million, 6-month
>   advertising campaign with the slogan "Merck. Where patients come
>   first." The campaign, which was created by Ogilvy & Mather
>   Worldwide, will include television ads showing "cute children
>   reacting in charming confusion to requests to define 'measles,'
>   'mumps' and 'chicken pox.' 'Most kids today don't have a clue about
>   diseases adults remember, thanks to Merck's scientists,' a female
>   announcer says." Other ads will tout Merck programs offering
>   reduced-price or free drugs to some people. Ogilvy & Mather's
>   Michael Guarini said it's "simply not the case" that Merck's
>   campaign is a response to the Vioxx scandal. In fact, work on the
>   campaign began two years ago. While acknowledging Merck's and other
>   drug companies' image problems, Guarini said, "it's always good to
>   engage in dialogue, to make sure the public has true, balanced
>   accurate information."
>SOURCE: New York Times, June 2, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3742
>
>4. ABOVE THE LAW & ORDER
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0603sb.htm
>   On a recent episode, a character on NBC's "Law & Order" who was
>   investigating the murder of a federal judge said, "Maybe we should
>   put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." In response,
>   the Free Enterprise Fund (which "advocates limited government and
>   'pro-growth' economic policies") worked with their PR firm, Shirley
>   & Banister Public Affairs, to challenge the "witch-hunt to discredit
>   Tom DeLay and the agenda he represents," in the words of FEF
>   vice-president Lawrence Hunter. They had 450 T-shirts made, with
>   DeLay's picture on the front and the words "Who's afraid of ['Law &
>   Order' executive producer] Dick Wolf?" on the back. Shirley &
>   Banister then organized a June 2 rally of T-shirt-clad DeLay
>   supporters on Washington DC's Capitol Hill and promoted it to the
>   media. Fox News, CNN and Roll Call covered the rally.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), June 3, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3741
>
>5. HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE PERCHLORATE
>http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_D_perch03.eac43.html
>   A study used to determine "safe" levels of the rocket-fuel chemical
>   perchlorate in drinking water is coming under increasing scrutiny.
>   Perchlorate "can impair thyroid function and result in neurological
>   impairment of fetuses and babies, metabolic disorders and other
>   problems." The study - funded with $310,250 from perchlorate
>   manufacturers and users Lockheed Martin, Kerr-McGee, Aerojet and
>   Boeing, and submitted on behalf of the Perchlorate Study Group - was
>   used to support Defense Department arguments for a 200 parts per
>   billion limit. But independent analyses of the study's data by the
>   Environmental Protection Agency and health officials in California,
>   Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine suggest that perchlorate
>   affects thyroid function at lower levels, especially in "fetuses,
>   infants and people with impaired thyroids." The study, as originally
>   published, did not disclose that three of seven people exposed to
>   "safe" perchlorate levels for two weeks exhibited significant
>   changes in thyroid function.
>SOURCE: The Press-Enterprise (California), June 3, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3740
>
>6. THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE BUSH AGENDA
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701736.html
>   Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman recently told NBC
>   News' Elizabeth Wilner his assessment of the media's coverage of the
>   White House. She writes, "He ventured that we were treating
>   President Bush's Social Security proposal like a political campaign
>   rather than what it really is: a legislative effort." But "it's no
>   accident" says Wilner. "The techniques of the campaign trail have
>   become a staple of the Bush White House's approach to pushing its
>   legislative agenda." The group Progress for America may best
>   exemplify the synthesis between electoral work and legislative
>   advocacy. The group has recently been in the news pushing Bush's
>   judicial appointments, opposing judicial filibusters, attacking
>   Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid, and promoting Social Security
>   privatization. The Progress for America Voter Fund, a 527 group,
>   spent $35,631,378 in support of Bush's reelection, making it the
>   eighth largest spending 527 group of 2004. Democratic strategist Jim
>   Jordan called the efforts, "supersized versions of the fights by
>   business interests," Wilner writes.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 29, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3738
>
>7. INDUSTRY TRADE GROUPS FORCED TO CUT COSTS
>http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/060105/associations.html
>   Industry trade associations are having to "tighten their belts," The
>   Hill reports. Member companies responding to "new competitive
>   pressures in a global marketplace" are insisting their
>   representatives in Washington keep their costs down - a demand that
>   "continues to reshape trade groups in town." For example, the
>   American Chemistry Council lost member companies and saw its head
>   fired because chemical industry executives were "frustrated by what
>   they saw as the slow pace of the cost cutting" at ACC. Trade
>   associations are adopting a "value-based dues system," focusing more
>   heavily on lobbying, and looking for ways to generate non-dues
>   revenue, like charging for white papers, conventions and membership
>   in special consortia. "Though not necessarily a revenue raiser for
>   trade associations, spin-off coalitions are an increasingly popular
>   lobbying device," The Hill reports.
>SOURCE: The Hill, June 1, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3737
>
>8. HAVE YOU HERD?
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111755564979447168,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
>   The Wall Street Journal obtained a memo showing that, "five months
>   after Canada disclosed its first case of mad-cow disease in May
>   2003, a U.S. Agriculture Department agency made unpublicized policy
>   changes that helped the U.S. meat industry gain access to more beef
>   products from Canada, despite safety concerns." Then-deputy
>   administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
>   (and current administrator) Ron DeHaven sent the memo, which warned
>   that the "significant change" would increase "the possibility that
>   higher risk product may be imported." In related news, the World
>   Organization of Animal Health relaxed its standards for countries'
>   mad cow disease status, "allowing for a lifting of bans on U.S. and
>   European Union meat." And in Britain, three young mad cows represent
>   "the first time three cases born after 1996 have been linked to one
>   farm." The cases are significant, since Britain banned all mammalian
>   protein from cattle feed in 1996.
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub. req'd.), May 31, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3736
>
>9. SOMETHING PHONY ABOUT FAKE NEWS
>http://prweek.com/thisweek/index.cfm?ID=238459&site=3
>   During a video news release (VNR) producers' roundtable discussion,
>   Medialink's Larry Moskowitz suggested that "what The New York Times"
>   and members of Congress "found venal" were VNR voice-overs, the
>   scripted audio mimicking reporters' narration. So Medialink is
>   "formulating a plan to advise government to not use a voice-over."
>   Roundtable participants opposed on-screen disclosure, which the
>   Truth in Broadcasting Act would require for government VNRs. "It's
>   meant to create a question that it's not reporting," complained West
>   Glen Communications' Stan Zeitlin. "It says that there's something
>   phony about it, something that's not quite right." Alan Weiss
>   Productions' Alan Weiss said "another production company" had used
>   actors for supposedly unsolicited "people on the street" interviews.
>   Weiss decried such "slanted" VNRs, satellite media tours and B-roll
>   video footage, but added, "What's neat about our country is that
>   there's no censorship. ... We are journalists if we're supplying
>   videos to a journalistic organization."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 30, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3735
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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