Crisis Management

Federal Reserve Tries to Burnish Image with Ad Campaign

by Anne Landman — December 4, 2009 - 12:36pm

The Federal Reserve Bank is on the hot seat for failing to protect consumers from unscrupulous mortgage lenders, failing to predict or prevent the financial crisis, and its involvement in the multi-billion-dollar, 2008 taxpayer-funded bailouts, making this a great time to run an ad campaign to try and burnish its image.

Main Source: 
Los Angeles Times, November 26, 2009

Sugar-Coated Counterattack

by Bob Burton — November 2, 2009 - 5:15pm

The PR firm Edelman is handling a crisis management campaign for Imperial Sugar to "pick apart claims" by a whistleblower about poor safety standards at the Port Wentworth refinery near Savannah, Georgia. Graham H. Graham, who was Vice President of Operations for Imperial, testified that the refinery was a "dirty, dangerous facility" before a February 2008 explosion which killed 14 people.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily (Sub req'd), October 26, 2009

Toxic PR

by Bob Burton — June 7, 2009 - 11:42pm

The Denver public relations firm MGA Communications boasts that it has won a Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America, for its work organizing a special event at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal for Shell Oil. Chemical weapons had been manufactured at the site for for the U.S.

Main Source: 
MGA Communications media release, June 5, 2009

Putting Lipstick on a Sick Pig

by Diane Farsetta — May 5, 2009 - 2:17pm

The National Pork Board and its public relations firm, Weber Shandwick, are working "to distance 'the other white meat' from the outbreak of swine flu in the U.S." The industry group "is highlighting health and safety measures at hog raising and production facilities in the U.S. and assuring consumers and media that pork products are safe to eat ...

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), April 30, 2009

Merck's Heart-Stopping PR in Australia

by Diane Farsetta — May 1, 2009 - 2:24pm

In Australia, the pharmaceutical company Merck is on trial. Australians who took the pain medication Vioxx allege that Merck and its Australian subsidiary, Merck Sharp & Dohme, "knew Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks long before it voluntarily withdrew the drug from the market in 2004." Merck has paid $4.85 billion to U.S. Vioxx patients, but never admitted liability.

Main Source: 
The Australian, April 24, 2009

Anger Management

by Sheldon Rampton — March 21, 2009 - 2:00pm

Harvard Law School is hosting seminars in April and November to teach "Public Relations, Communications and Media Strategies for Dealing With an Angry Public." They'll be teaching techniques for dealing with people who "are angry because you've let them down" or who "want to embarrass you publicly," as well as "environmental groups threatening you" over issues such as "the use and disposal of toxic materials." You can visit their website for details.

Main Source: 
Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School, March 2, 2010

Even Dezenhall Couldn't Have Saved Madoff

by Sheldon Rampton — March 19, 2009 - 10:48am

"As the swindle of the ages inches closer to its denouement, reporters covering financial scandals -- and a few friends -- have asked me, 'What could somebody like you have done for Bernie Madoff?'" writes crisis management specialist Eric Dezenhall.

Main Source: 
Huffington Post, March 16, 2009

The PR Firm for "Evil"

by Bob Burton — March 10, 2009 - 1:44pm

After it was revealed that the floundering American International Group (AIG) had hired Burson Marsteller (B-M) as one of its PR advisers, Rachel Maddow, the host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, wondered who else the firm had worked for. After a scathing review of their past clients -- including the Argentinean military dictatorship, Philip Morris, and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu -- Maddow concluded that "when evil needs public relations, evil has Burson-Marsteller on speed dial.” In response, B-M CEO Mark Penn wrote an internal email to staff claiming that Maddow "significantly mischaracterized the nature of the firm's past." In the email, which was leaked to PR Week, Penn wrote that "we are and should be proud of the work we do. ... While we can't spend our time responding to every attack that comes our way over the internet or cable television, I do think it is important that I reach out to each of you to let you know that we have a good story to tell about the work we do."

Main Source: 
PR Week, March 7, 2009

Global Warming Fills Lobbyists' Coffers

by Bob Burton — March 3, 2009 - 4:18am

A review of U.S. lobbying disclosure records has revealed that global warming has proved to be a boon to lobbyists. The Center for Public Integrity.

Main Source: 
Center for Public Integrity, February 25, 2009

Before Blackwater Had Xe, PM Had NewCo

by Anne Landman — February 27, 2009 - 5:14pm
  • Topics: Crisis Management, Public Relations, Tobacco

    • After years of bad press over no-bid contracts and massacres of Iraqi civilians, the private military contractor Blackwater Worldwide has changed its name to the cryptic "Xe" (pronounced "Zee"). In an eerily similar move, disgraced sub-prime mortgage lender Countrywide announced that its new name is the smooth-sounding "Bank of America Home Loans." Rounding out the triumvirate of chameleons, Baghdad's Abu Ghraib Prison, made infamous worldwide for the torture and abuses perpetrated inside its walls by both Saddam Hussein and the U.S. government, is changing its name to "Baghdad Central Prison."

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