Crisis Management

Puffery for Puff Daddy

by Sheldon Rampton — October 29, 2003 - 11:00pm

Dan Klores Communications, a PR firm that specializes in "crisis communications" for clients embroiled in scandals, is representing Sean ("P. Diddy") Combs, the artist formerly known as "Puff Daddy," as he faces criticism for the use of sweatshop labor to manufacture his clothing line.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, October 30, 2003

Corporate Damage Control Turns Tough

by John Stauber — October 21, 2003 - 6:12pm

Alicia Mundy writes that "I was about to go live on the
Today show to discuss my book on the fen-phen scandal when the host,
Maria Shriver, leaned forward and very kindly said, 'I'm really sorry
about the way we're doing this interview and the questions I have to
ask. You understand, don't you?' ... It seems that the pharmaceutical company, Wyeth-Ayerst, had been
calling. Wyeth, a major conglomerate, makes Dimetapp and Robitussin, as
well as hormone replacement products and other drugs, and was a huge
advertiser with NBC.

Main Source: 
Columbia Journalism Review, September/October, 2003

Dead Meat

by Sheldon Rampton — September 1, 2003 - 10:00pm

A Canadian meat packing plant has retained the Primary Counsel Group, a PR firm, to help answer allegations that it has been processing and selling "deadstock" - dead and condemned animals deemed unfit for human consumption.

Main Source: 
CTV (Canada), September 2, 2003

Wal-Mart Seeks To Repair Image

by Laura Miller — August 13, 2003 - 10:00pm

"Wal-Mart, concerned about its public image, is using a consultant to analyze that image and has commissioned radio and television ads to try to reverse criticism from local officials, consumers and others," Constance Hays reports.

Main Source: 
New York Times, August 14, 2003

"Media Plan" Nearly Incinerated

by Sheldon Rampton — August 1, 2003 - 10:00pm

Officials with the British Ministry of Defence were preparing to destroy a "media plan" about Dr. David Kelly three days after his death, according to a the Telegraph. "It is not clear whether the papers were burned, but MoD officials admitted last night that ministry security guards called the police after finding the 'media plan' relating to the Kelly affair in a sack of classified waste being prepared for incineration," the paper reported.

Main Source: 
Telegraph (UK), August 2, 2003

America, Eat Your Fries!

by Laura Miller — July 31, 2003 - 10:00pm

The U.S. Potato Board is facing a crisis stemming from the decline in french fries sales, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. So, they've enlisted the creative powers of the St. Louis-based firm Osborn & Barr, whose clients have included the Cattlemen's Beef Board, National Pork Board and United Soybean Board. The Potato Board is looking for "concepts aimed at opinion leaders and consumers" to be part of a $1 million campaign (run by food industry PR giant Fleishman-Hillard) to get Americans to eat more french fries.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, August 1, 2003

White House Fumbles On 16-Word Crisis

by Laura Miller — July 23, 2003 - 10:00pm

"If President Bush's White House is known for anything, it is competence at delivering a disciplined message and deftness in dealing with bad news," Washington Post's Dan Balz and Walter Pincus write. "That reputation has been badly damaged by the administration's clumsy efforts to explain how a statement based on disputed intelligence ended up in the president's State of the Union address." The shifting White House story about it's references to Iraq, Niger and uranium continues to draw attention to the Bush administration deception.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, July 24, 2003

Witch Hunts And PR Blunders In The UK

by Laura Miller — July 21, 2003 - 10:00pm

"In England, they shot the messenger," the Los Angeles Times' Robert Scheer writes, referring to the apparent suicide of British biological weapons expert David Kelly. The scientist, who worked for the British Ministry of Defense, found himself at the center of a battle between the British government and the BBC over a BBC report that the government "sexed up" a September 2002 intelligence dossier on Iraq's weapons.

Main Source: 
Alternet, July 22, 2003

PR Firm Advises MIT Research Center On Privacy Issue

by Laura Miller — July 20, 2003 - 10:00pm

"A privacy group is blasting a unit of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for its PR plans for a controversial product-ID technology and other internal documents labeled confidential that were posted on its public website," PR Week's John Frank writes. Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) has been raising the red flag over privacy concerns associated with the use of tiny radio-frequency transmitting ID tags in consumer products.

Main Source: 
PR Week, July 21, 2003

The War of Spin

by Sheldon Rampton — July 19, 2003 - 10:00pm

David Kelly, the scientist whose suicide marked a tragic twist in the unfolding controversy over British intelligence dossiers that supported the war in Iraq, was "ripped apart in the middle" of a "war of spin," said an editor at the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC has come under intense criticism for its reports alleging that top British officials "sexed up" the dossiers, and now it is being criticized on grounds that its reports may have contributed to Kelly's suicide. "Yes, we had a role in it," the editor said.

Main Source: 
Daily Telegraph, July 20, 2003
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