Polling and research by PR Watch shows that three out of four prominent PR firms have no qualms about pushing tobacco addiction.
Of 38 companies surveyed or researched, only 9 said they would decline a contract to represent the tobacco industry.
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. Sprinkle Consulting.
Firms willing to flack for tobacco interests include: Abernathy MacGregor Scanlon; Apco Associates; Booke Communications Inc.; M. Booth & Associates; Burson-Marsteller; Capitoline/ MS&L; Cohn & Wolfe; Council for Tobacco Research; The Dolphin Group; CME-KHB Advertising; Earle Palmer Brown Public Affairs; Edelman PR Worldwide; Epley Associates, Inc.; Fleishman-Hillard Inc.; GCI Group Inc.; Gavin-Anderson & Company; Jack Guthrie & Associates; E. Bruce Harrison; Hill & Knowlton; Kekst & Company, Inc.; Keller Crescent Company; Lockhart & Pettus, Inc.; RTC Group; Joanne Ralston & Associates; The Robbins Group; Rogers & Cowan; Tobacco Institute; and Watt, Roop & Company.
