PR Watch, Fourth Quarter 2002, Volume 9, No. 4

Flack Attack

Since its founding nine years ago, the Center for Media & Democracy remains the world's only organization dedicated to investigating and exposing special interest propaganda. In those nine years, we've published 37 issues of PR Watch, our award-winning flagship publication. CMD staff members have written three acclaimed books and spoken to thousands of people in most states and many countries. We've conducted hundreds of interviews, from the smallest radio stations to the largest TV networks, and with newspapers including the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

War Is Sell

by Laura Miller

"From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce
new products in August," White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.
told the New York Times in September. Card was explaining what
the Times characterized as a "meticulously planned strategy to
persuade the public, the Congress, and the allies of the need to confront
the threat from Saddam Hussein."

align="BOTTOM">Officially, President George W.

British American Tobacco's Socially Responsible Smoke Screen

by Bob Burton and Andy Rowell

"This is a serious piece of work; it is not a
'PR' document ... Social reporting is about squarely addressing the issues
surrounding our products," said Martin Broughton, the Chairman of British
American Tobacco (BAT). Broughton's speech, in July 2002, accompanied
the launch of BAT's first "social responsibility report."

align="BOTTOM">BAT is the world's second largest tobacco corporation. It holds
a 15% share of the global tobacco market and sold 807 billion cigarettes
in 2001. Its social responsibility report marked the culmination of more
than two years of work, during which BAT coaxed journalists, health advocates,
tobacco control activists and government officials to participate in meetings
whose purported mission was to advise the company on how to become a responsible
corporate citizen.

align="BOTTOM">BAT's newfound interest in social responsibility came in the context
of growing successes by the tobacco control movement. In Western countries
especially, anti-tobacco groups have become increasingly successful at
persuading governments to restrict tobacco advertising and promotion--restrictions

EQ Management: From Body Shop to Burma Drop

by Bob Burton and Andy Rowell

EQ Management, the consulting firm that helped
British American Tobacco develop its first social responsibility report,
was formed in 1998 by Malcolm Guy and Deborah Smith, two former employees
of the Body Shop, which uses claims of social responsibility to market
its line of cosmetic products.

align="BOTTOM">Guy and Smith remain EQ Management's only two full-time employees.
On their web site, they claim to have "lived the chaos of ethical challenges"
and disavow any association with the public relations industry.

Toxic Sludge--You've Read the Book, Now See the Video

public relations

The
Media Education Foundation (MEF) has produced a video documentary based
on the book by PR Watch editors John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic
Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry.

align="BOTTOM">The video version of Toxic Sludge is narrated by Amy Goodman,
host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! Like the book, the video shows
how PR functions as invisible propaganda, complementing the visible
propaganda found in advertisements.