Corporate Social Responsibility

Drug Company Pulls Funding After Conference Criticism

by Bob Burton — November 10, 2006 - 10:10pm

Adriane Fugh-Berman, an Associate Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, recounts her experience of speaking at a recent medical conference in New Mexico on the topic of drug industry influence in medical education. "Immediately after my talk, one pharmaceutical company representative announced to a conference organiser that her company would no longer support the annual conference. Another packed up his exhibit and walked out," she writes in the British Medical Journal.

Main Source: 
British Medical Journal, November 11, 2006

Why Did KFC Cross the Road? (Because PR Was On The Other Side)

by Jonathan Rosenblum — November 10, 2006 - 10:38am

When KFC crowed on October 30, 2006, that it was planning to ban transfats in its U.S. fried chicken, the company had a PR machine behind it ready to score a news hit in one of the nation's fast food capitals, New York City.

Main Source: 
PR Week, November 6, 2006 (sub req'd)

Disney's Healthy Food Marketing Plan a Fantasia?

by Jonathan Rosenblum — October 25, 2006 - 7:49am

On the very day that Walt Disney Company announced that it would limit future food marketing deals to brands that provide healthy food products to kids, there was Kellogg's sugar-crazy Tony the Tiger (again) welcoming kids to Disney's website. Is the company, then, not "Greeeaat!" for its plan to limit calories, fat, saturated fat and added sugars to any product the Disney name promotes?

Main Source: 
Alternet, October 19, 2006

Pink Ribbons Mean Healthy Sales

by Diane Farsetta — October 16, 2006 - 5:20pm

This October is the 26th annual Breast Cancer Awareness month, an event "conceived by the pharmaceutical company Zeneca, now AstraZeneca ...

Main Source: 
Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN), October 13, 2006

Faulty Accounting

by Bob Burton — October 13, 2006 - 4:56am

The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against a Scottish energy utility that claimed that a tree planting scheme funded by consumers volunteering to pay a higher tariff would offset their carbon emissions. The ASA told Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) to withdraw a brochure promoting the scheme. SSE had argued that the average household produced 4.65 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from gas usage and household waste.

Main Source: 
Guardian (UK), October 12, 2006

McDonald's Chews Fat with "Independent" Obesity Researchers

by Jonathan Rosenblum — September 26, 2006 - 2:42pm

When previously spotted pitching in to help the cause of "independent" research involving its products, McDonald's Corp. asked a Connecticut nun to quickly issue an unfinished report about farm workers in order to help the fast food giant fight off a fair wage campaign by migrant tomato pickers.

Main Source: 
Reuters, September 13, 2006

GolinHarris Aims To 'Leverage and Deflect' Activists

by Bob Burton — September 19, 2006 - 4:19am

Global PR firm GolinHarris has unveiled a range of new "practices and products," including one it has dubbed "Engage: Activist Issues Management." The firm explains, "In response to the growing influence of NGOs, GolinHarris has formalized its approach to leverage and deflect the influence of activists on issues ranging from the environment to animal welfare." In

Main Source: 
GolinHarris media release, September 12, 2006

How Bizarre is a CSR Bazaar?

by Jonathan Rosenblum — August 23, 2006 - 9:03am

The Institute for International Research notes that it is transmitting information about its September 2006 corporate social responsibility meeting in Dubai solely via the web in order to conserve paper. But one of IIR's sessions--the "CSR Bazaar"-- might lead some to wonder if the organization sees the forest or only the trees.

Main Source: 
Institute for International Research, August 2006

BP's Adman Got Suckered by His Own Scripts

by John Stauber — August 14, 2006 - 10:09am

BP is the most successful oil company at greenwashing its own image. Unfortunately for BP, the recent news about its massive oil leak in Alaska and the shutting down of its corrosive pipelines have revealed the truth -- it really is all about oil profits. In the New York Times , a BP adman admits that even he was suckered.

Main Source: 
New York Times, August 14, 2006
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