Public Relations

Feed a Flack, Bomb Iraq

"Let's have this damn war and get it over with it," said Doug Dowie, a senior vice president at the Fleishman-Hillard PR firm. Speaking at a Los Angeles meeting of the Public Relations Society of America, Dowie complained that uncertainty connected with the Iraq war has paralyzed client spending. "The sooner we get there the better off most of us are going to be," he predicted.

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Bush Faces Increasingly Poor Image Overseas

"The messages from U.S. embassies around the globe have become urgent and disturbing," reports the Washington Post. "Many people in the world increasingly think President Bush is a greater threat to world peace than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein."

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Homeland Security's "Get Ready Now" Gets PR Help

"Ruder Finn designed the Dept. of Homeland Security's www.ready.gov website and brochure that provides tips on how to prepare against a biological, radiation or nuclear attack," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Ruder Finn wants to be 'clear and accurate' in giving tips to cope with terror attacks. 'We worked with the Ad Council on its Smokey the Bear campaign, and AC staffers recommended us for the Homeland Security work,' said [Ruder Finn senior VP Scott] Schneider.

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Fitz-Pegado's Progress

As an employee of the Hill & Knowlton PR firm, Lauri Fitz-Pegado helped coach Nayirah, the 15-year-old daughter of Kuwait's ambassadors whose false testimony about Iraqi atrocities helped build public suport for the first U.S. war in the Persian Gulf. Participating in one of the most scandalous PR scams of the 1990s hasn't hurt her career, though. After Operation Desert Storm, she went to work for Iridium LLC, a satellite phone company that went bankrupt a few years later.

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