Public Relations

Playing for the "Green" in Las Vegas

by Anne Landman — March 24, 2008 - 5:41pm

MGM Mirage's new $8 billion CityCenter project is a massive 75 acre, 4,000-room hotel-casino complex with condos and retail space currently under construction in Las Vegas.

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In Business Las Vegas, Tourism and Gaming, March 21-27, 2008

It's Not Your Grandfather's Oil Industry

by Diane Farsetta — March 24, 2008 - 4:04pm

The oil industry's "nationwide publicity drive to clear up what it calls 'common and surprising misperceptions'" about its record-breaking profits continues.

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Rocky Mountain News (Colorado), March 22, 2008

Introducing the coalSwarm

by Judith Siers-Poisson — March 21, 2008 - 5:19pm
  • Topics: Activism, Front Groups, Global Warming, Corporations, Democracy, Environment, Lobbying, Politics, Public Relations, Science, Social Justice, U.S. Government

    • In the spring of 2007, when author Ted Nace set out to profile the emerging No New Coal Plants movement for Orion magazine, he had no idea that the assignment would turn into more than just a single article.

    More Spin for the Span

    by Diane Farsetta — March 19, 2008 - 5:25pm

    After the tragic collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis last August, the state wants to "restore the image of the beleaguered Minnesota Department of Transportation." So Minnesota is paying the public relations firm Himle Horner at least $550,000.

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    Star Tribune (Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota), March 16, 2008

    No-Bid PR Contract Bugs California Officials

    by Diane Farsetta — March 13, 2008 - 5:41pm

    "State officials struggling to convince critics about the safety of aerial spraying to control an invasive moth awarded a $500,000 no-bid contract to a prominent public relations firm with ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger," reports Associated Press.

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    Associated Press, March 13, 2008

    BGR to Lobby Both Sides of the Aisle

    by Diane Farsetta — March 13, 2008 - 5:13pm

    "The 16-year old lobbying firm that used to be called Barbour Griffith and Rogers -- that's Barbour as in Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) -- has hired its first Democrat," reports Al Kamen.

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    Washington Post, March 12, 2008

    The PR Surge Is Working for McCain - More Americans See "Success" in Iraq

    by John Stauber — March 13, 2008 - 9:34am

    Politico notes that U.S. public support for the war in Iraq "has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006. ... According to late February polling conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 53 percent of Americans -- a slim majority -- now believe 'the U.S.

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    Politico.com, March 12, 2008

    Teacher Warns Students About War Propagandist John Rendon

    by John Stauber — March 13, 2008 - 8:53am

    Steve Runge, an instructor at Northeastern University in Boston, is raising a red flag about a controversial lecturer. "John Rendon of the Rendon Group will be addressing the College of Business Administration Thursday afternoon.

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    The Northeastern News, March 13, 2008

    Zimbabwe Casts About for PR Help

    by Bob Burton — March 12, 2008 - 12:49am

    Appearing before a parliamentary committee inquiry into the lobbying industry, the head of Bell Pottinger, Peter Bingle, explained that the agency had been approached to represent the Zimbabwe regime headed by Robert Mugabe. "We will turn down clients. We had a call from Zimbabwe asking to advise Zimbabwe. We said thank you very much, but no. It would have been a fairly malign campaign if someone had run it," Bingle said.

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    PR Week (UK), March 10, 2008

    Ketchum Helps Russia with "Really Smart PR"

    by Diane Farsetta — March 6, 2008 - 1:30pm

    "Flush with foreign reserves from oil and natural gas sales, the Kremlin is pumping tens of millions of dollars into various forms of public diplomacy," reports Peter Finn. The Russian government "has hired the giant U.S. public relations firm Ketchum Inc. 'to help the government tell its story of economic growth and opportunity for its citizens,' said Randy DeCleene, an executive at the firm." As part of the PR push, "the official government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta is ... fund[ing] monthly supplements in newspapers in India, Britain, Bulgaria and the United States," including a paid supplement in the Washington Post. "Russiaprofile.org, a news and analysis site funded by [the government news agency] RIA Novosti" features "a range of opinions, including some quite hostile to the Kremlin." RIA Novosti also hosts an annual "Valdai Discussion Club," where "30 to 40 Russia experts and prominent journalists, mostly from the United States and Western Europe ... are wined and dined in the company of Russian policymakers and political analysts." The Hoover Institute's Michael McFaul (an adviser to Barack Obama's campaign) called the Valdai events, which featured sessions with then-President Vladimir Putin, "really smart PR." A previous Spin noted Russia's new think tank, the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation.

    Main Source: 
    Washington Post, March 6, 2008
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