Issue Management

Roche Fined for Doctors' Feast


Source: Guillaume restaurant at the Sydney Opera House

The global drug company, Roche has been fined $A75,000 for breaching a provision of the Australian drug industry's voluntary c

Monsanto Mulled PCB "Smokescreen"

The United Kingdom's Environment Agency has opened an investigation into toxic groundwater contamination in south Wales after examining evidence that Monsanto knowingly contracted to dump thousands of tons of waste in British landfill sites. In 1968, a Monsanto committee secretly considered disposal options for Aroclor, a trade name for cancer-causing PCBs, and wrote: "[I]t will be impossible to deny the presence and persistence of Aroclors. ...

UK Gov't Seeks to ID Flack for IDs

The British government is looking to recruit a senior PR professional to help sell the controversial UK National Identity Cards Scheme. The yet-to-be appointed Director of Marketing and Communications will will help oversee the roll-out of the ID cards, which are scheduled to be introduced in 2009.

Some Carbon Belchers Seek New Image on Global Warming

Ten of the nation’s largest companies, including Caterpillar and former Global Climate Coalition member, Duke Power, say they now want Congressional legislation to limit climate change--including at least a 10 percent annual national decline in carbon dioxide emissions.

FCC's TV/Child Obesity Task Force Adds Members, Sets Valentine's Day Meeting

The Federal Communications Commission has added junk food marketing critic Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the Benton Foundation (an FCC watchdog), and several academic groups to a list of mostly industry advocates on an FCC task force slated to consider limits on marketing food and beverage products to children. Sen.

Moore Delivers For Nuclear Waste Client

The most recent pro-nuclear presentation by Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant, was at the annual conference of EnergySolutions.

As Nicotine Dose Increases, So Must Awareness of the Pitfalls of FDA Regulation

The Harvard School of Public Health released a study Thursday revealing that the amount of nicotine in cigarettes has increased significantly since the major American tobacco companies signed the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) in 1998. Predictably, Philip Morris (PM), in a media release available at their web site, denies the study results. The U.S. Surgeon General in 1988 warned that nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine, but these drugs don't have decades of sophisticated R&D behind them aimed at heightening their addictiveness. Cigarettes, among the most highly engineered consumer products in the world, deliver nicotine into more people's bodies more times every day than aspirin. Still, they remain unregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Spin Doctor Outed As 'Health' Adviser on Guantanamo Prisoner

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, recently sought to downplay concerns about the mental health of an Australian citizen, David Hicks, who has been imprisoned in G

Gazprom Plans PR Blitz

Gazprom, the Russian gas company that supplies approximately one quarter of Europe's gas needs, is planning a PR and lobbying campaign in Europe and the U.S. to improve its image, after it cut off gas supplies to the Ukraine in 2006 and Belarus in 2007.

Gates Foundation Retreats From Responsibility

After two articles exposing the contradiction between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funding health programs while maintaining $8.7 billion in investments in companies involved in socially damaging projects, the foundat

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