by John C. Stauber

Fifteen thousand PR practioners belong to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and pledge to abide by its seventeen-point "Code of Professional Standards." The code states that a PRSA member "will only conduct his or her professional life in accord with the public interest."

Does anyone really believe that pushing tobacco products is "in accord with the public interest"? If the PRSA code were taken seriously, how could scores of PRSA members justify their continued work for cigarette companies? Yet a quick survey of PR firms by PR Watch could only find nine firms that refuse to represent tobacco interests.

by John C. Stauber

Recent news coverage might lead you to believe
that tobacco is on its last legs, as its opponents lobby for aggressive
public education and strict new regulations to prevent youthful addiction
and to protect the public's right to a smoke-free environment.

align="BOTTOM">If you believe this, you're dead wrong, according to the chief
PR lobbyist for the tobacco industry. Although tobacco's addicts are
dying by the millions each year, sales are growing world-wide, says Tom
Lauria of the Tobacco Institute.

align="BOTTOM">At a PR seminar in May, Lauria dismissed tobacco critics as simply
the latest "political correctness craze." He ridiculed predictions of
tobacco's demise, saying that the media has been preparing smoking's
obituary for decades.

align="BOTTOM">Despite the bad press tobacco has been receiving, industry profits
are soaring, and the industry is opening new, unregulated mega-markets
in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Third World.

Polling and research by PR Watch shows
that three out of four prominent PR firms have no qualms about pushing
tobacco addiction.

align="BOTTOM">Of 38 companies surveyed or researched, only 9 said they would
decline a contract to represent the tobacco industry.

align="BOTTOM">The firms that "just said no" were: Cone/Coughlin Communications;
Corbett Associates, Inc.; Cunningham Communication Inc.; Edward Howard & Company;
Lukaszewski Group; MWW/Strategic Communications, Inc.; Padilla Speer
Beardsley Inc.; The Pires Group, Inc.; and G.K.

A June 20 conference on "Smart Environmentalism" featured a scathing attack on environmentalism by right-wing libertarian Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute. Some PR advisors advocate corporate co-optation of the greens, but Taylor calls for all-out corporate war. Ridiculing the capitol's environmental lobbyists as a bunch of ineffectual "creampuffs," Taylor called on the assembled PR practioners to stand up and fight for their companies, not capitulate.

Thank You For Smoking, by Christopher Buckley (New
York, NY: Random House, 1994)

The current travails of the tobacco industry
are hitting the front pages at an opportune moment for ex-smoker Christopher
Buckley, the author of a wickedly funny new novel titled Thank You
For Smoking.

align="BOTTOM">Christopher is the forty-two year-old only child of right-wing
icon William F. Buckley Jr. He's also a former Bush speechwriter and
a regular columnist in Forbes magazine.

by John C. Stauber

The recent public controversy over tobacco companies and their role in misleading the public about the effects of smoking looks remarkably similar to the controversies of 40 years ago.

The first scientific studies documenting tobacco's role in cancer and other fatal illness began to appear in the early 1950s. Internal memos from the industry-funded Tobacco Institute refer to the PR fallout from this discovery as the "1954 emergency."

by Sheldon Rampton, PR Watch Associate Editor

On December 16, 1990, Haiti held the first democratic elections in the
country's history. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a radical Catholic priest,
received 67 percent of the vote in a field of 23 candidates, and assumed
office on February 7, 1991.

align="BOTTOM">Eight months later, on September 29, soldiers led by Lieutenant-General
Raoul Cédras and Colonel Michel François surrounded the
presidential palace, seized Aristide and sent him into exile.

The Safe Food Coalition calls itself "an alliance
of consumer advocacy, senior citizen, whistleblower protection and labor
organizations." Formed in 1987, its members include such public interest
heavy-weights as Michael Jacobson's Center for Science in the Public
Interest, Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, and Public Voice for Food and
Health Policy, which was begun by now Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
Ellen Haas.

align="BOTTOM">Another former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Carol Tucker
Foreman, is the coordinator, spokesperson and lobbyist for the Safe Food
Coalition, and therein lies the rub.

The thinning ozone layer leaves us exposed to
increasing Ultra Violet (UV) radiation, increasing skin cancer deaths,
cataracts and damaged immune systems. Bad news? Not if you are the drug
transnational Schering-Plough, or its PR firm, Hill & Knowlton.

align="BOTTOM">Thinning atmospheric ozone is an opportunity to sell more sunscreen,
and no one peddles more than Schering-Plough the drug transnational best
know for Coppertone™. Now Schering-Plough, through Hill & Knowlton
PR, has established "Partners for Sun Protection Awareness," a multi-year
PR campaign advocating that people "liberally apply a sunscreen ...
to all exposed parts of the body before going outdoors."

align="BOTTOM">Hill & Knowlton's Nina Oligino has persuaded some national
environmental groups to add their names to the "Partner" letterhead,
including Friends of the Earth, National Resources Defense Council, and
the Sierra Club.

Roger Ailes, the PR genius behind Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh, now
runs America's Talking, the all-talk cable channel which premiered July
4 in more than 10 million homes. Ailes has his own nightly talk hour
on the network.

The World Bank, under increasing pressure from activists for its role
in worsening third world poverty, economic exploitation and ecological
devastation, has hired the PR firm of Herb Schmertz to bolster its image
during its 50th anniversary events this year.

align="BOTTOM">Schmertz, a former VP for PR at Mobil Oil, is reknowned for developing
in-your-face 'advertorials,' paid opinion advertisements that's run on
the editorial page of major papers.