Potter’s central thesis is that “Good PR is about control…PR people are good at manipulating the news media because they understand them…PR people cultivate reporters, ostensibly for friendship or mutual benefit, but more realistically for manipulation...With years of practice, I learned how to respond with a pithy remark if I wanted to be quoted and how to baffle them with bullshit if I didn’t...Be obscure clearly…I became a master at doing just that.”

Potter acknowledges that “PR has been used to good ends. Even the noblest of causes can benefit from the services of a communications expert to clarify facts….and there are plenty of ethical PR people out there to do this.” He quickly takes back even this modest acknowledgement with his other hand, “With PR so intricately woven into every major industry and today’s mass media reality, the stakes of spin have become incredibly high. And ethics do slip. PR often crosses the line into misleading, withholding or simply lying. And when it does, society suffers…”

Most outrageous is Potter’s conflation of propaganda and modern public relations. He goes back to one of the giants of the profession, Edward Bernays, whose book Propaganda, written in 1928, ostensibly wound up on the bookshelf of Third Reich minister Joseph Goebbels. Potter then goes on to suggest that Hitler’s Mein Kampf discusses manipulation of public opinion “in terms that could be used by one of today’s PR counselors.” He quotes the Fuhrer as saying, “All effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans.” He even quotes the Institute for Propaganda Analysis report from the late 30s uncovering effects of domestic manipulative practices of advertisers and businesses, using “propaganda/PR ploys” such as “Fear, Glittering Generalities, Testimonials, Name-Calling, Plain Folks, Euphemisms, Bandwagon and Transfer by Respected Individuals.”

He concludes his book with a bizarre “What If?” He suggests that “without basic knowledge of PR tactics and the ability to distinguish between fact and distortion, Americans---and that includes journalists—are at the mercy of spin doctors and PR practitioners whose loyalty to their clients outweighs the public’s right to the truth….We need the Woodward and Bernsteins of coming generations to ensure that Americans have access to truth and that a health balance between news and spin is in place. Otherwise our news will be coming, whether we know it or not, from companies with names like the Hawthorn Group, Edelman, Porter Novelli and APCO. If so, our way of life will truly be threatened.”

Ok, Mr. Potter, since you are calling out Edelman, let me agree with you on a few points. Front groups should not be used to cover up the true intent of a client. Biased research surveys should not purport to be factual representation of the views of the public. Communications campaigns where clients say one thing and mean another are duplicitous.

But here is where you and I part company. Inaccurate representations of the PR industry—such as yours— “not so much for public relations as for public deception”-- feed misconceptions of what we do. PR firms and their clients are dedicated to the long-term success of their business which is only achieved by honest and accurate communications, and that is the only approach tolerated at our firm.

It is incorrect to state that many of the bigger firms “pay little heed to ethical guidelines because they are happy to take your money and launder it.” Edelman, like many (if not most) PR firms, and our trade organizations, publish and adhere to a clear ethical code (For Edelman’s click here) based on core values of transparency, accountability and honesty.

At Edelman it is not the case that third party experts recruited to be credible spokespersons “won’t have a thing to do with op-eds except lend their names.”

You have done the public a great disservice in distorting the PR field. There will always be much to criticize in the world of PR, but you are wrong to call into question the motives of the vast majority of practitioners who provide the truth and inform stakeholders on relevant issues. The reality is that today, thanks to robust mainstream and social media, there is immediate damage extracted to the reputation and the license-to-operate of any company, brand or PR firm folly enough to distort the truth.

P.S. Mr. Potter published a retort to this post yesterday on Huffington Post, PR Watch.org and Center for Media and Democracy. In it, he asks, "Is Ethical PR an Oxymoron, Richard Edelman?" My answer is unequivocally, "No."

I won't presume to speak for the industry, but I will speak on behalf of our 3500 employees worldwide. The ethical standards to which we have always held ourselves accountable are no longer sufficiently well defined in our global, technology enabled world. That's why we hired Randy Corley as our Chief Compliance Officer several years ago, and made his first mandate to create a Code of Conduct for the firm. Everyone at Edelman, including me, has signed this document, and in doing so agrees to abide by and be held accountable by its contents.

In the spirit of full tansparency (one of its principles), here it is -- unvarnished and in full. My Executive Committee and I believe it to be comprehensive, but as always, would welcome your feedback on how to make it even better.

Please click here to read Edelman's Code of Ethics.

Posted by Edelman at 3:37 PM |

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Posted by: Brian Connolly at November 23, 2010 12:44 PM

Posted by: Hugh Campbell at November 23, 2010 10:40 PM

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November 16, 2010

A Matter of When

As I had breakfast this morning with my old friend, Dr. Seth Berkley, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, recent comments from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were front-and-center in my mind. At the AIDS Vaccine 2010 Conference in September, Fauci said, It is no longer a question of if, it is a matter of when we will have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS. We have to just follow the science. Seth is convinced that the research will “crack the critical problems in the next five years” if adequately funded although he acknowledges that it is very hard to predict scientific breakthroughs. Solving these problems will put a marketable vaccine within sight.

In the past 18 months, there have been four very promising developments:

1. A vaccine candidate for the first time provided protection, though modest, in humans demonstrated in a trial in Thailand that enrolled more than 16,000 people. The protection rate for those getting the vaccine was 31%. The vaccine tested in the trial is actually a combination of two candidates, and the trial was run jointly by the U.S. Army and the Thai governments.


2. Cellular-mediated immunity was given a huge setback 3 years ago when the Merck trial failed to provide protection. Now there are six approaches showing more promise in the best of the animal models. One incredibly exciting one is based on the cytomegalovirus (CMV). In animal trials, the monkeys are immunized with modified CMV virus into which are inserted the genes of SIV, the simian virus similar to HIV. In more than half of the monkeys, the immune control reaction is so strong that the SIV is completely controlled. In some of these animals studied more carefully, virus can’t be found suggesting that the virus may have burned out.


3. Antibody-based vaccines. There have long been four known human antibodies to HIV that neutralized many of the multitudinous varieties of the virus. Now, researchers have identified more than a dozen more, some of which are extremely potent and very broad. Combinations of two or more of these antibodies neutralize most of the HIV variants. Efforts are underway to create vaccines that will induce these types of antibodies.


4. A trial of a microbicide gel candidate funded by the South African government and USAID reduced risk of HIV infection by 39% of women tested and in 54% of women who use it regularly.

The IAVI effort is funded by a $90-$100 million annual budget, about 1/3 from the US government, 1/3 from European governments and about 20% from the Gates Foundation. This money is used in research laboratories in Brooklyn, La Jolla, and London and to support clinical research centers in India and Africa. “Now is the time that every government should be putting money on the table. The same goes for pharmaceutical companies,” Seth said. “We are getting closer to the goal line, but this is science, so it could be one year and it could be 10 years. You just don’t know for sure.”

I have the greatest respect for Seth as a researcher and visionary. He has been named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People 2009. He has been able to partner with wealthy patrons such as Bill Gates. He has chosen this path instead of opting for the easier route of working as a senior executive in a company or running a university. The world is changed by those who refuse to accept the status quo and who persuade others that the goal is attainable. It is our job in PR to keep the HIV/AIDS issue, especially the longer term attempts to solve the problem, top of mind, to persuade our friends in the media to write stories and to stimulate peer discussion on line, so that governments continue to fund the research initiatives.

Click here to read The Harvard Gazette’s article on Seth Berkley’s work.

Posted by Edelman at 4:31 PM |

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Richard, thank you for helping to keep the challenge of HIV/AIDS out there. We can use every forum available in treatment, prevention and education.

Posted by: Barry Collodi at December 2, 2010 6:16 AM

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November 12, 2010

Herbivores and Beyond

I spent last week doing advance work for President Obama’s trip to Asia. Just kidding, folks, I was actually making my annual visit to Japan, Korea and China, three of our important Asian markets. Here are a few observations from my trip:

1. Birth Rates—Japan and Korea are facing real demographic challenges. As I walked around the Mitsukoshi store in Tokyo, I was struck by the age of the average shopper and the paucity of strollers. I actually felt like a young guy, just the opposite of my male dinosaur in the suit and tie look near our office in Soho. Two companies whom I visited are considering CSR programs around nurseries, making it easier for working mothers to consider having more than one child. Since immigration is off the table as a strategy, the government and private sector must take seriously the economic (it is costly to have a kid) and social challenge.
2. Battle of the Sexes—At dinner in Tokyo, two of my female employees referred to Japanese males as herbivores. Stunned by the comment, I asked for clarification. They said Japanese men are overly interested in grooming, clothing and neat rooms. These women, in their late 20s, are direct, ambitious and impressive. They told me that they actually yearn for the days of the hard-drinking, macho Japanese male of their parents’ generation. For comic relief, two guys showed up a bit late for dinner (they were working for clients so all good). To disprove the thesis, or perhaps because they were just starving, they wolfed down every bit of food remaining on the table in ten minutes.
3. The Hiring of Senior Foreign Talent— Indicative of a general trend, Samsung has recently hired foreigner Steve Fludder (disclosure: former GE client) to run its Samsung Engineering business, building power plants and factories around the world. He is based at headquarters in Seoul. Fludder’s experience on the GE Ecomagination program will also help on the “greening” of the company.
4. Rise of Private Schools in China—I met with Wang Zhize who is President of Huijia Education, who is already operating private schools in the Beijing area. He has plans to roll out across China, focusing on wealthier neighborhoods where parents want their children to qualify for the top colleges. He believes there is also opportunity in the US and Europe for Chinese language education centers.
5. G-20 Meeting in Seoul—The Edelman team in Korea created the first ever official Facebook and Twitter pages for a multi-national summit. Presidential Committee Chairman SaKong Il was posting to his blog on a regular basis this week. We offered people around the world the chance to ask questions of the world leaders through a Talking to World Leaders” campaign on the Facebook site.
6. Environmental Concerns in Beijing—City leaders are considering a strict limitation on automobile ownership to one per family. I heard that 10,000 new cars are coming onto the roads per week in Beijing. The infrastructure is being overwhelmed by the additional cars. Just a bit of advice from an avid walker. The cars have freedom to make right turn on red without stopping. The very notion of slowing down for pedestrians is utterly not in vogue in Beijing. Take the underpasses to cross streets—crossing an eight lane road is a hazardous undertaking.
7. No Wonder America Is World’s Shopping Center—I could not believe the prices on merchandise at the Mitsukoshi store in Tokyo. I disabled my roller bag with yet another overstuffing of clothes and books. To buy a replacement would have cost three times what I would pay in NY City—actually $1,200 for a bag—I muddled through. The same for prices of electronics gear at a shopping center in Beijing—the PCs are more expensive than in the US. When you check out of the hotel, you should not follow my example of mentally calculating the dollar equivalent. I have my own reason to protest the Fed’s QE2 policy which weakens the dollar.

Last night at the National Committee for US China Relations, the honoree Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE (disclosure: client) said that he grew up in Ohio and had never travelled more than 50 miles outside of Cincinnati until he went away to college at Dartmouth. “The greatest privilege in my thirty year career has been the opportunity to do business all over the world. We have to persuade more Americans that this is our future.” I could not agree more.

Posted by Edelman at 2:02 PM |

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Regarding the weak dollar TIAA- CREF has a contest to “Raise the Rate” (U. S. Personal Savings Rate) to 10% in two years. One of the entries that would strengthen the dollar is a 15% consumption tax to replace the lion share of U.S. employment taxes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrAYT2GXXP0. Among the “TIAA-CREF Saving in America” survey’s major findings (preformed by StrategyOne):

- Ninety-three percent of Americans realize that saving is essential for financial security.

- Seventy-seven percent aspire to save more for retirement next year.

- Eighty-two percent admit that they don’t know what it takes to save.

- Sixty-five percent say they will be unable to retire in the manner they hoped.

Posted by: Hugh Campbell at November 12, 2010 8:02 PM

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Thanks for the insights. The herbivore piece is a bit more complex than just a change in behaviour and although it more pronounced in Japan, it is also happening in places like the UK. Some of the reasons are similar in nature:
- Roles that were traditionally male in nature tend to be industries in decline, whereas roles where females have thrived (like PR) are on the ascendency. Yet expectations on men are still as high
- Feminisation of an industry often brings lower financial rewards which makes male participation even harder to attract
- There are negative sides to a hard-driving male culture such as fractured family lives, drink and other health problems and a lack of work | life balance
- A generation who are unlikely to be as well off as their parents when all things pan out

The herbivore aspect of this is a focus on things that they can control and a definition of themselves in a way that doesn't resolve around their position in a company.

In some ways this mirrors the 'hipster' that sprang up since the early 90s in American culture from gen-X'ers and now populates Portland, OR & Williamsburg in the boroughs.

I would prefer herbivores in the UK to what we actually have: pseudo-hipsters, chavs (search for 'Donk music' on YouTube) and the EDL (English Defense League) - a racist outlet for (largely) male frustration at their condition (similar in motives to the dark side of the skin head movement back in the day). You probably won't be aware of this because London is a bubble that doesn't really reflect the wider UK in many respects.

Shopping in Japan: Luxury and cutting-edge brands in Japan are expensive. Japanese label Neighborhood was dropped by many of its outlets in the UK due to prices and it amazes me how much A Bathing Ape charges for items. There is a second aspect where Japanese luxury brands don't bother sizing for export markets which indicates a lack of interest in the outside world.

On the other side of the shopping equation: Japanese designs made elsewhere like Uniqlo and Muji provide excellent value for money and have thrived in an age of austerity - which the Japanese have been used to because of the constant deflation over the past number of years.

If you are going to go shopping in Asia Richard: Hong Kong is your best bet. Try SOGO on Causeway Bay for the Japanese shopping experience at Hong Kong prices; though local department stores like Lane Crawford and others at Pacific Place (PP) are as good if not better.

Posted by: Ged Carroll at November 13, 2010 8:27 AM

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November 3, 2010

Good Purpose Goes Global

I am in Beijing to launch Edelman’s Fourth Annual goodpurpose® Survey. The headline of the study is that consumers in the developing world have leapfrogged their peers in the developed world in demanding that companies deliver both financial performance and purpose.

In a stunning reversal of findings from only two years ago, the citizen consumer movement is now being pushed by people in Brazil, China, India and Mexico. Our research challenges the traditional thinking that cause marketing/CSR is a product of Western social democracy and that low price is the winning formula in developing markets.

Our study, conducted in 13 countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, UAE, UK, USA) with 7,259 consumers, reports that 86% of consumers globally believe that companies need to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as they do on business’ interests. They expect the private sector to be part of the solution to important global issues; 69% of the respondents said that companies are in a uniquely powerful position to make a positive impact on good causes (80% in the US). Almost two thirds of respondents believe it is no longer enough for companies to give money to solve societal problems; they want companies to integrate good causes into everyday business and thereby move from old style corporate philanthropy to a business model that makes (as client GE coined) “green equal green.”

They will reward those companies by buying their brands:

• 70% said they are more likely to purchase a product from a company that supports good causes while offering fair prices over a company offering deep discounts but no support for causes.
• Global consumers say that purpose is more important than design/innovation or brand loyalty as a purchase trigger when quality and price are the same.
• The number one cause for consumers worldwide is protection of the environment, though top causes differ significantly by country (improving the quality of healthcare and aiding in disaster relief is tied for #1 in China, while alleviating hunger and homelessness tops the issues list in the U.S.)

Mitch Markson, Edelman’s chief creative officer and the genius behind the survey, said that purpose is now the fifth “P” in the marketing equation--joining product, place, price and promotion. He believes that purpose allows deeper consumer engagement with brands, allowing the opportunity for citizen participation in solutions. Professor John Quelch of Harvard Business School agrees with Markson, stating that, “Purpose is the ultimate avenue for consumer engagement and inclusion, two vital pieces of the marketing puzzle.”

The most stunning findings in the study come from Brazil, China, India and Mexico:

• In China and India, the percentage of adults personally involved in a cause has skyrocketed in one year from the mid 40s to the mid 80s.
• More than seven in ten consumers in these four developing markets would buy products from companies supporting good causes, versus the mid-60s for the recession-wracked economies such as France and Italy.
• Citizenship is no longer optional; 79% of consumers surveyed in China and India expect brands to be involved in good causes and at least 70% in those countries say they will more likely recommend a brand if it supports a good cause, versus mid-50s in Western Europe.
• Developing market consumers are much more likely to recommend a brand that engages in social purpose than peers in the West (80% in Brazil, 77% in China versus mid 50s in European markets).

The linkage of brand with corporate reputation in developing markets is supported by consumer trust in companies that are socially responsible (81% in Brazil and 78% in China, 77% in India, and 78% in Mexico). Carol Cone, the mother of cause-related marketing and managing director of Brand and Corporate Citizenship at Edelman, said that “the dramatic rise of the citizen consumer in these markets has happened so quickly because the battle over natural resources and human rights is happening in their backyards.”

At Edelman we see our clients in developing markets move toward causes that utilize their products while aligning with national social interests. A perfect example is the BMW Cultural Tour, an annual drive that visits, and thereby highlights, heritage sites and customs in China, that benefit from BMW donations and consumer participation. Natura, a leading cosmetics company in Brazil, sources its products in a sustainable manner from the Amazon Basin, while enabling its largely female sales force to improve its economic status by selling door-to-door, even instructing rural poor in how to utilize internet cafes to place orders. PepsiCo is constructing check dams in rural India to facilitate rainwater collection while investing in locally grown agricultural products that enrich farmers and limit transport. So marketers, our fastest growth opportunities are awaiting us if we embrace this new era of the “citizen consumer.”

To learn more, visit www.goodpurposecommunity.com

Posted by Edelman at 1:07 PM |

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Many companies have specific assets or value beyond capital that they can devote to good causes. The focusing of their strengths on solving or contributing to the solving of social or societal issues of importance to them and/or their customers can go a long, long way.

Posted by: Josh Morgan at November 4, 2010 4:54 PM

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W. Edwards Deming had the following to say about aim and purpose, in The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education:
"What is a system? A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system. The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment Aim and method are essential. An aim without a method is useless. A method without an aim is dangerous. It leads to action without direction and without constancy of purpose."

Regarding companies integrating good causes into everyday business , a famous quote of Russell L. Ackoff is “A system is a product of the interaction of its parts and never the sum of its parts.”

In 1972 Ackoff wrote a book with Frederick Edmund Emery about purposeful systems,[4] which focused on the question how systems thinking relates to human behaviour. "Individual systems are purposive", they said, "knowledge and understanding of their aims can only be gained by taking into account the mechanisms of social, cultural, and psychological systems".
Any human-created systems can be characterized as "purposeful system" when it's "members are also purposeful individuals who intentionally and collectively formulate objectives and are parts of larger purposeful systems". Other characteristics are:
"A purposeful system or individual is ideal-seeking if... it chooses another objective that more closely approximates its ideal".
"An ideal-seeking system or individual is necessarily one that is purposeful, but not all purposeful entities seek ideals", and
"The capability of seeking ideals may well be a characteristic that distinguishes man from anything he can make, including computers".

Posted by: Hugh Campbell at November 5, 2010 3:09 PM

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i am quite curious about the China survey, cause, i didn't realize that the good cause awareness in China is that high. So it will be good to know which group of people in China has accepted in the survey (including their social position, monthly income, job etc.)

Posted by: lucia at November 11, 2010 2:34 AM

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I agree with you post Ed. If all businesses have a good purpose it could be on the top and will globally known. Brilliant post and thank you for the rest of the information.

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Posted by: George Phillip at November 17, 2010 11:37 AM

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