PR Watch, First Quarter 2001, Volume 8, No. 1

Download PR Watch, First Quarter 2001, Volume 8, No. 1

Flack Attack

Public relations people who are offended by the exposés
that appear in PR Watch sometimes complain that we offer a one-sided
view of the industry, and they're right. We cover the dark side of PR--the
coverups and outright lies used by powerful groups to influence public opinion
and public policy.

align="BOTTOM">Not all PR is this sinister, of course. Some
public relations consists of relatively innocuous marketing efforts, and
PR is even used to promote worthy causes, such as fundraising drives for
charities.

Berman & Co.: "Nonprofit" Hustlers for the Food & Booze Biz

by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

Restaurant-industry lobbyist Rick Berman says there are two things that set his firm, Berman & Co., apart from others in the trade. The first is that "we always have a knife in our teeth." The other is that "we don't chase the smaller issues. . . . Our work is restricted to and focused on issues that affect shareholder value. These big issues include labor costs as they relate to health insurance and the minimum wage, achieving operator sales increases, and tax rates as they are affected in particular by payroll and excise taxes."

The Legend of the Salad Bar

Notwithstanding the obvious contradictions and transparently
self-serving nature of the arguments that Berman serves up, he has been
successful in influencing Congress thanks largely to the ties he has built
up with conservative politicians such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

align="BOTTOM">In 1995, those ties prompted a House Ethics
Committee investigation into allegations that Gingrich allowed Berman
inside access in exchange for money.

align="BOTTOM">In 1993, Berman's Employment Policies Institute
Foundation gave a tax-deductible gift of $25,000 to support a college
course titled "Renewing Civilization" taught by Gingrich.

Save the Whalers

By Bob Burton

When the International Whaling Commission (IWC)
came together for its annual meeting in July 2000, Alan Macnow swung into
action.

align="BOTTOM">Macnow's New York-based PR firm, Tele-Press
Associates (TPA), has defended the Japanese whaling and fishing industry
for more than two decades, but his vigorous campaign against an initiative
to create a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific may have reached new
lows of unethical behavior.

Tele-Press Associates: Flacking for Whalers for 21 Years

Alan Macnow, president of the New York-based Tele-Press Associates (TPA), has been defending the Japanese whaling and fishing industry for 21 years. A former stringer for Time-Life in Korea, Macnow founded TPA in 1959. The current O'Dwyer's Directory of Public Relations Executives says Macnow was a PR writer for the American Heritage Foundation prior to starting his own public relations company.

Reports filed by TPA with the U.S. Department of Justice, as required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, reveal that in the 18 months prior to mid-June 1999, TPA earned more than $180,000 for advising and representing the Japanese Whaling Association (JWA) in the United States.

Science With a Bloody Harpoon

by Bob Burton

In 1986, the International Whaling Commission
declared a moratorium on commercial whaling. By that time, large-scale
hunting had driven many whale species to near extinction. The moratorium,
and the creation of sanctuaries in the Southern and Indian Oceans, have
helped some whale numbers to rebound, but this progress is threatened
by the refusal of Japan and Norway to honor the moratorium.

align="BOTTOM">Japan's response to the 1986 moratorium was

Shandwick Works to Save the Fox, Kill the Whale

by Bob Burton

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
is one of the leading critics worldwide of Japan's whaling activities.
It also works on behalf of other animal welfare issues, such as a campaign
to ban fox hunting in England, for which purpose it retained one of the
world's fourth PR firms, Shandwick International. During the July 2000
meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Australia, however,
IFAW representatives were dismayed to discover that Shandwick was also
working for the Japanese Whaling Association.

Kicking APCO's Habit

To the Editor, PR Watch:

align="BOTTOM">I am amused to see that I have been included
as the "media contact person" for APCO/TASSC during the early 1990s, according
to "How Big Tobacco Helped Create the
Junkman" (PR Watch, vol. 7, no. 3).

align="BOTTOM">While it is true that I served this role for
all of two months, I did so for one reason only: to attempt to prove to
other APCO employees that company management gives larger bonuses to employees
who work on tobacco issues -- not exactly the employee incentive program
that business schools write about.

Tough Issues, Tough World

by Laura Miller

The PR World Congress 2000 drew more than 3,500
public relations professionals, students, vendors, and trade journalists
to the Chicago Hyatt Regency Hotel in late October. The Public
Relations Society of America and the International Public Relations
Association sponsored the PR conference. This year's theme was "Building
Our Talent in a World of Tough Issues." Keynote speakers, panelists, and
PR dignitaries attempted to instruct and inspire those in attendance to
think about how, as communications professionals, they will be resolving
the global issues that "we care about."

align="BOTTOM">Corporate philanthropy has regained legitimacy
as a way of demonstrating "caring." Reynold Levy delivered a keynote talk
titled, "This Business of Giving--and Taking." Levy, who wears multiple
hats--president and CEO of International Rescue Committee, professor of
at Harvard Business School and Columbia School of Business, trustee of
the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and author of Give and Take: A Candid
Account of Corporate Philanthropy--spoke to an audience of well over a
thousand on the virtues of corporate giving.