issue management

Big Soda Uses Philanthropy to Silence Opposition, Neutralize Soda Taxes

Submitted by Anne Landman on April 18, 2011 - 3:55pm

Pepsi productsAs evidence mounts linking sugar consumption to increasing rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, the soda industry is fighting back, in part by ramping up philanthropy and developing partnerships. After the Philadelphia City Council introduced a measure to add a two-cent tax on soda, the soda industry's lobbying group, the American Beverage Association created the "Foundation for a Healthy America," a new front group that donated $10 million to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia -- to expand its obesity program. The soda tax would have raised about $20 million for obesity prevention programs plus even more money for the city's general fund. Despite this, the soda tax proposal fizzled and Philadelphia's City Council declined to revisit the issue. In a similar move, Coca Cola funded a North Carolina School of Public Health campaign against childhood obesity. The slogan? "Everything in moderation." Even the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issued a report titled (pdf) "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future," which contains an odd "personal perspective" written by Pepsi CEO, Indra Nooyi, that reads like a press release. Nooyi boasts about Pepsi's partnership with the YMCA, promotes the company's "responsible advertising" and a self-regulatory project in which the company apparently monitors its own advertising to children under 12.

Main Source: 
The Atlantic.com, Marion Nestle, March 24, 2011

Coal Lobby Eyes Illinois Subsidies

Submitted by Bob Burton on December 29, 2009 - 6:03am

McGuireWoods Consulting, a Chicago-based PR and lobbying firm, has been hired by the FutureGen Alliance to lobby Illinois legislators to financially support FutureGen, a proposed coal-fired power station which would use the experimental Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology. (CCS is often touted as "clean coal".) "Their task," writes Kurt Erickson, is "to convince the state to buy all the electricity the plant produces. Such a move would help FutureGen secure federal funding" to underwrite the plant's costs.

Main Source: 
Journal Gazette and Times-Courier (Illinois), December 25, 2009

Private-Police Partnership for Water Project Spying

Submitted by Bob Burton on December 7, 2009 - 12:49am

Victoria Police has negotiated a formal agreement with the developers of a desalination plant to provide police files to the project developers. Paul Austin reports that "Victoria Police has agreed to hand over photos, video recordings and other police records to the international consortium AquaSure to help it 'manage' protests and potential security threats." A 20-page agreement was signed between Victoria Police and AquaSure in late August and contains a provision that police ''will release law enforcement data'' to the desalination plant developers.

Main Source: 
The Age (Melbourne, Australia), December 5, 2009

Yet Another PR Ploy: The Un-Spokesperson

Submitted by John Stauber on October 10, 2009 - 1:59am

The Seattle Times' Jonathan Martin reports, "In response to a request to talk with [T-Mobile] CEO Robert Dotson and other executives this week, I got an email back from the PR firm Waggener Edstrom Worldwide that ended with a strange request.

Hi Jonathan, Thank you for your phone call this afternoon and your patience while I looked into your request. While we won't be able to provide you with an interview we are able to provide the following statement. ... Please note that if you plan to use this statement in your piece, I am not a T-Mobile spokesperson and to use my name would be inaccurate.

Main Source: 
Seattle Times, October 9, 2009

Rendon's Embed Vetting Scandal

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on September 2, 2009 - 11:33am

The military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that the Pentagon was using one of its favorite public relations firms, the Rendon Group, to produce profiles of reporters requesting to [[Embedded|embed with U.S.

Main Source: 
Stars and Stripes, August 31, 2009

Water: The Newest Wave of Corporate "Social Responsibility"

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on September 1, 2009 - 7:38am

Even critics of World Water Week, held annually in Stockholm, Sweden, agree that it's an important forum where thousands of people working on water issues share information.

This year's event, held from August 16 to 22, placed special emphasis on the relationship between water and climate change. The closing statement (pdf) was literally a message to COP15, the major United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. "Water is a key medium through which climate change impacts will be felt," it reads, adding that "water-related adaptation" should be seen as part of the solution. The statement also calls for funding "to assist vulnerable, low income countries already affected by climate change," along with longer-term adaptation efforts.

So why are there critics of World Water Week? In a word, Nestlé.

Timing Is Everything

Submitted by Bob Burton on July 1, 2009 - 4:50am

A British public relations executive is cautioning PR professionals not to release bad news in the wake of Michael Jackson's death. "No-one can ever trump Labour aide Jo Moore's debacle during the September 11 attacks, but there'll be cynics out there watching very carefully for companies releasing stuff under cover of global mourning," said Dougal Paver, Managing Director of Paver Smith.

Main Source: 
PR Week (UK), June 29, 2009

An Army of One Viewpoint

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on June 24, 2009 - 11:43am

U.S. Army officials have barred a reporter with the military newspaper Stars and Stripes "from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that is attempting to secure the violent city of Mosul" in Iraq. In the refusal letter to Stars and Stripes reporter Heath Druzin, an Army public affairs officer wrote that "Mr.

Main Source: 
Stars and Stripes, June 24, 2009

Reputation Cleaning, After a Coal Disaster

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on May 26, 2009 - 3:54pm

Following a December 2008 massive coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Kingston coal-fired power station in Roane County, Tennessee, local officials want a three-year, $1.9 million public relations campaign. The Roane County Long Term Recovery Committee is asking the TVA to bankroll the campaign, which would be carried out by a Nashville PR firm, McNeely Pigott & Fox.

Main Source: 
Knoxville News Sentinel (Tennessee), May 23, 2009

BP: We Won't Blow You Up, Just Ruin the Planet

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on May 13, 2009 - 1:04pm

First, it was British Petroleum. Then, after a multi-million dollar rebranding as "green," the oil giant renamed itself Beyond Petroleum, or simply BP. Now, BP says its "number one priority" is responsibility. BP spokesperson David Nicholas described the change as "an evolution and expansion of green as a brand value rather than a replacement. ... 'Responsible' encompasses BP's original aspirations towards the environment, in addition to ... safety and social welfare." But environmental groups think BP is further distancing itself from renewable energy.

Main Source: 
BBC News, May 11, 2009
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