Corporations

Painful Flame Broiling "Empowers" Burger King Marketers

The Associated Press in Miami reports that "a dozen Burger King marketing department employees suffered first and second degree burns on their feet when they walked barefoot over a strip of glowing, white-hot coals as part of a corporate bonding experience." At least one was hospitalized. But pain didn't stop a burned Burger King marketer from putting the best spin on the cultish training she helped organize. "'It was a great experience for everyone,' said Dana Frydman, vice president of product marketing... Although Frydman was one of those injured, she said she has no regret.

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Improper Lab Partners

In the last 20 years, corporate funding in the fields of information technology and biotechnology has grown faster than support from any other source, and there is growing concern over possible corporate interference and industrial pressures that could inappropriately influence the direction, interpretation, and outcome of research. This past summer, several organizations took measures to examine and address this situation.

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The Wartime Opportunists

Corporate interests and their proxies are looking to exploit the September 11 tragedy to advance a self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with corporate profits and dangerous ideologies. Fast track and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. A corporate tax cut. Oil drilling in Alaska. Star Wars. These are some of the preposterous "solutions" and responses to the terror attack offered by corporate mouthpieces.

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Pharma Buys a Conscience

"The pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries are funneling more and more cash into the pockets of academics who teach and study ethics," observes philosophy professor Carl Elliott, who works at a bioethics center. "Bioethicists have written for years about conflicts of interest in scientific research or patient care yet have paid little attention to the ones that might compromise bioethics itself," he notes, pointing to several cases in which companies like Eli Lilly have used funding to pressure ethicists into censoring or changing their views.

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Heritage for Sale

Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small has embraced commercialism and shifted the Smithsonian's mission from "the increase and diffusion of knowledge" to acting as an auxilliary megaphone for corporate marketing and public relations efforts. "Mr. Small, a mortgage banker by profession, is much better suited to the promotion of SUVs or hamburgers than to the management of our nation's most important cultural institution. Mr.

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PR Watch Examines How Corporate PR Defeats Environmentalism

Supporters of the Center for Media & Democracy have just been mailed the third quarter 2001 issue of PR Watch. It examines the strategies employed by corporations such as Philip Morris and BP/Amoco, and their PR firms such as Burson-Marsteller, to defeat environmental activism through partnerships and co-optation. Articles include "Keep America Beautiful: Grassroots Non-Profit or Tobacco Front Group?" by Walter Lamb; "Corporations 'Get Engaged' to the Environmental Movement" by Andy Rowell; and, "Endangered Wildlife Friends Are Here" by John Stauber.

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P&G Admits to Dumpster Diving

Procter & Gamble admitted that a company working on its behalf went through the garbage of rival company Unilever in an attempt to find out more about its hair-care business. According to the Financial Times, the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals in Alexandria, Virginia, however, wrinkles its nose at the mention of rifling through a competitor's rubbish in search of corporate secrets. "It's not professional," says Bill Weber, executive director of the society, which represents 6,000 corporate intelligence gatherers in 45 countries.

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UK's Labour Party Looking For Corporate Sponsorship

The UK's Labour Party is offering "branding opportunities" to corporations during its annual meeting set for the end of September. A Party brochure obtained by the Guardian offers a price list for placement of corporate logos and messages to reach the conference's "captive audience". Up for sale were spots on ambulance service, relaxation zone, phone service, video screens, recycling bins, and gala dinner flower arrangements. McDonalds ponied up

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