Corporations

BP: It's Not Easy, Feigning Green Cred

"BP's reputation as one of the world's most environmentally progressive energy companies is on the line," writes the Independent. That's because BP refused to support mandatory carbon dioxide emissions limits in the energy bill, as proposed by U.S. Senator Bingaman. The energy bill will be debated by the Senate this week.

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Merck Compiles Dossiers on Doctors

"I didn't realize how powerful the drug companies thought they were," said health policy professor Lisa Bero, regarding Merck's campaign to silence a prominent physician critical of their painkiller Vioxx. According to documents obtained by NPR, Merck first approached Stanford University's Dr. Gurkirpal Singh in 1998.

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Plain Talk About Drug Company PR

GlaxoSmithKline is undertaking yet another effort to improve its reputation - "an extensive state-by-state media blitz." Michael Pucci, GSK's vice-president of "external advocacy," told PR Week that local reporters were easier for the drug company to deal with. "These folks are hungry for news," he said. "They'll print everything we say ...

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Pfizer's Fickle Philanthropy

In a series of announcements in the aftermath of the tsunami that swept that swept through East Asia and parts of Africa on December 26, 2004, Pfizer committed itself to contribute a total of $20 million in cash and $60 million worth of medicines. Pfizer's staff chipped in a further $2 million.

On its U.S. website, Pfizer listed its tsunami response as an example of its commitment to corporate social responsibility.

However, at a recent drug industry marketing conference in Sydney, Pfizer Australia's Manager of Government Affairs, David Miles, said that the company would have been better off being less generous. "We would be better off giving five million and shutting up," Miles said, only a little jokingly. "As soon as you get into big numbers people think you can double or triple it."

Self-Hating Media Moguls Take More Airwaves

"For weeks, it sounded as if amateurs had been bleeding their voices into the broadcasts of stations in Akron, Ohio, owned by Clear Channel, the corporate radio giant." The pirate broadcasters' website contained "a manifesto about 'corporate-controlled music playlists' that took potshots at several local Clear Channel stations." But it was all a Clear Channel marketing campaign, to promote an Akron station's switc

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