Corporate Campaigns

A Bad Week for Corporate Spies

by Diane Farsetta — April 14, 2008 - 3:46pm
  • Topics: Corporate Campaigns, Corporations, Democracy, Environment, Ethics, Labor, Public Relations

    • If Cara Schaffer contacts you, be wary. Take emails and online comments from "activist2008" and "stopcorporategreed" with a grain of salt. Londoners, be on the lookout for Toby Kendall, a.k.a. "Ken Tobias." And activists everywhere should think twice before putting documents in the recycling or trash bins.

    Over the past week, reporters and activists outed three different corporate spying operations. As John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote in their 1995 book "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!": "Movements for social and political reform have often become targets of surveillance. ... The public relations industry has developed a lucrative side business scrutinizing the thoughts and actions of citizen activists, using paid spies who are often recruited from government, military or private security backgrounds."

    Last week's revelations show that these underhanded tactics are very much in use today. And they don't just impact the groups being infiltrated. By privileging corporate interests, effectively giving them the first and last word on an issue, they distort vital public debates.

    The Pro-Junk Mail Lobby: Fighting to Sustain the Unsustainable?

    by Anne Landman — April 9, 2008 - 4:31pm
  • Topics: Advertising, Corporate Campaigns, Front Groups, Third Party Technique, Corporations, Environment, Ethics, Marketing

    • Junk mail kills trees, clogs mailboxes, packs landfills, wastes natural resources, and everyone would be glad to be rid of it. Right?

    Well, maybe not.

    Whether out of environmental concern or sheer annoyance, legislated efforts to reduce junk mail are on the rise, but companies that have vested interests in its continuance have started organizing to save it--in a big way. Of course, they don't call it junk mail. Their preferred euphemisms are "advertising mail," "direct mail" or even "standard mail."

    Lawsuits, Light Cigarettes and Fear-Based Marketing Strategies

    by Anne Landman — April 8, 2008 - 11:38am
  • Topics: Advertising, Corporate Campaigns, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education, Ethics, Health, Human Rights, International, Public Relations, Science, Social Justice, Tobacco

    • The Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals missed a great opportunity this week to hold the tobacco industry accountable for one of its worst marketing tactics -- positioning cigarette brands in response to smokers' medical concerns. The April 7, 2008, issue of the New York Times has an article about the dismissal of a huge, class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry that was brought by smokers of "light" cigarettes who claimed they were misled about the relative safety of "light" cigarettes compared to regular, "full flavor" cigarettes. The suit, and its dismissal by the court, brought to mind a little-recognized tobacco industry marketing survival tactic that weighs heavily on the public's perception of exactly what "light" means.

    The tobacco industry has long had a remarkable ability to rescue itself from damaging health claims by turning allegations against its products into marketing opportunities. Inside the industry, the fact that cigarettes cause widespread illness and death is referred to as the "smoking and health" issue, or "S&H issue" for short. Tobacco marketers consider "S&H issues" to be little more than "external marketing forces" that require re-positioning of products, through changes in advertising copy strategy, so that smokers will get an illusion of safety from the dangers they perceive.

    Philip Morris Snuffs Out Controversial Research Program

    by Anne Landman — March 4, 2008 - 4:23pm

    Philip Morris has quietly disbanded its controversial External Research Program (PMERP), through which it funded academic and scientific research at major universities. The funds doled out by the program were substantial: in the 2006-07 fiscal year, the University of California system alone received around $16 million through PMERP.

    Main Source: 
    The Daily Californian, March 3, 2008

    Pfizer Pulls Deceptive Lipitor Ads

    by Anne Landman — February 28, 2008 - 6:21pm

    Drug maker Pfizer yielded to pressure from a Congressional committee and pulled deceptive Lipitor ads featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik. In one of the ads, created by the Kaplan Thaler Group, Dr.

    Main Source: 
    Advertising Age, February 25, 2008

    They'd Like to Teach the World to Smoke

    by Anne Landman — January 29, 2008 - 3:07pm

    With marketing constraints increasing and cigarette usage declining in the developed world, Philip Morris (PM) is increasingly targeting smokers in other countries. PM now makes sweet-smelling cigarettes with cloves and other flavors that have twice the tar and nicotine as conventional products, created to appeal to smokers in developing countries.

    Main Source: 
    Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), January 29, 2008

    Adults Still Don't "Get It" on Youth Smoking

    by Anne Landman — January 14, 2008 - 4:54pm
  • Topics: Advertising, Corporate Campaigns, Corporate Social Responsibility, Children, Health, Marketing, Tobacco

    • A recent report issued by the American Lung Association gives the State of Virginia a "D" for its youth smoking prevention efforts.

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