Defining Domestic Propagand

Defining Domestic Propaganda: "The Government Accounting Office is investigating three cases where the Bush administration paid journalists to promote a certain policy. NPR's Madeleine Brand examines the cases and explores the definition of propaganda."

(Via Blogdigger search for propaganda.)

Recent developments in Advergaming: "As part of an 18-month global campaign that kicks off on May 5, Disney will roll out an interactive, multiplayer game called "Virtual Magic Kingdom." It aims to provide a virtual visit to Disney's five global resorts and 11 theme parks to anyone with an Internet connection. The target: "tweens" ages 8 to 12 and young teens.... The goal: push kids to urge their parents to visit a Disney park during the anniversary promotion that also includes the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland on Sept. 12. "eens 'As part of an 18-month global campaign that kicks off on May 5, Disney will..."

(Via Captology Notebook - Stanford University.)

Customer Surveillance at Tesco

Tesco RFID's "The group CASPIAN has called for a worldwide boycott of Tesco stores, after they announced plans to use RFID tags to track some individual items, giving them the ability to link a purchase to a crdit card sale, and from there track the purchasers behavior. FIGHT THE MAN!" (Via Blogdigger search for rfid.)

Manipulating Minds: A Closer Look at Bush's Speeches

Manipulating Minds: A Closer Look at Bush's Speeches: "Like many other recent Bush speeches his inaugural address was charged with ideology and emotive symbolism. His speech writers, whatever else one may think of them, are particularly adept at manipulating ideological platitudes, popular psychology and mass culture.

Top 10 Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories

Have you heard about these humanitarian disaster stories? If not, you need to get better news coverage... Uganda | Democratic Republic of Congo | Colombia | Tuberculosis | Somalia | Chechnya | Burundi | North Korea | Ethiopia | Liberia

The Top 10 Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2004.

Companies paying to get on the news

Achieving success with your VNR in 2005: "This article from PR Week details the increasing opportunities for the use of 'Video News releases', or VNRs -- ads disguised as news reports distributed by PR companies to be broadcast as news -- thanks to 'a shrinking news hole'."

Some companies are paying to guarantee their story appears on the news: "Ed Lamoureaux, SVP of sales and marketing for West Glen Communications, says he has noticed a significant rise in the use of guaranteed or paid placements for VNRs.
“The idea of securing a placement and using a VNR is more of a grassroots outreach and has become very popular,” Lamoureaux says. “It goes hand in hand with the coming together of advertising and PR."

(Via Blogdigger search for vnr media.)

Monsanto Manipulated Pollution Assessment

Monsanto pays up: "What do you do if you're trying to plant genetically engineered cotton in a hurry, but the government wants to make sure there won't be any environmental damage from doing so? If you're the giant Monsanto corporation, one answer might be: bribe somebody to skip over that pesky environmental assessment. Who knows how many times this tried and true practice has worked before? This time, they've been caught red-handed in Indonesia, and fined US$1.5 million."

(Via News from Greenpeace.)

Human Surveillance Chip Tested "for Hospitals"

Harvard Medical School CIO Tests Embedded RFID Chip: "The CIO of the Harvard Medical School has offered himself as a guinea pig in order to determine how the human body affect the functioning of wireless RFID (radio-frequency identification) devices and whether RFID can be a practical technology in hospitals."

(Via Blogdigger search for rfid.)

Cult Leader Helps Fund Bush Celebrations

Rev. Moon “funnels” $250,000 for Bush inaugural bash: "Rev. Moon, purported ‘Messiah’ and 'cult leader' of the Unification Church has ‘funneled’ $250,000 to help pay for President Bush’s inaugural festivities reports John Gorenfeld of I approve this messiah.com. The $250,000 cash contribution, which represents the limit set for..."

(Via Cult News.com.)

Goodyear Advertises on Basketball Player's Head

Goodyear Advertises on Basketball Player's Head: "Seems there's no end to the use of the human body as a walking billboard. Just a few days ago, Detroit Pistons guard Richard Hamilton wore the pattern of Goodyear's Assurance TripleTred tire pattern as a hairstyle during the game against the Knicks in Det"

(Via Adrants)

Govt propaganda agent engineered war opinion

Shill to the Stars and Stripes: The Independent profiles secretive PR executive John Rendon, whose firm often works for the U.S. government and military. 'In 2001 he won a contract to handle the PR aspects of U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan. ... The following year the Pentagon hired the Rendon Group to assist its own propaganda agency, the Office of Strategic Information, which was later publicly disbanded amid claims it would engage in 'black' propaganda. Independent, January 31, 2005(Via PR Watch )

Propaganda poster uses deceptive image

Photoshopped propaganda image
Linda Eddy's photoshopped poster, which takes an Iraqi child whose mother has just been killed and turns it into propaganda saying the child is 'glad' for the war in Iraq."(Via PR Watch)

Voicemail broadcast aimed at elderly

Who May I Say Is Calling?
'Automated callers are phoning seniors in at least a dozen Republican congressional districts across the country telling them their representative favors 'privatizing Social Security,'' reports the Hill. The calls are targeting 'Republican members with high concentrations of senior citizens ... in potentially close districts.' They warn of a two trillion dollar cost to taxpayers and decreased retiree benefits, saying Social Security 'should be in a lock box, not a Wall Street slot machine.' No group has claimed responsibility for the calls. Main source: The Hill, January 27, 2005

(Via PR Watch's Spin of the Day)

Product Seeding Campaign at Silicon Valley

Third Parties in the Valley
For years, marketers have known that 'sociable, influential early adopters,' or connectors, can drive sales. In California this month, '100 of Silicon Valley's top venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, bloggers and promoters will begin receiving cool new stuff for free. ... These movers and shakers promise to sample the products and offer feedback to their manufacturers. The companies hope that, if the mood strikes, the Silicon Valley 100 will chat up, blog on, or just plain recommend the products to friends and colleagues, generating that most invaluable of currencies:
Main source: Newsweek, January 21, 2005
(Via PR Watch)

Front Group begins persuasion campaign

A Less Kind, Less Gentle Environmentalism

What do the Committee on the Present Danger and the Natural Resources Defense Council have in common? They both endorse Set America Free, an 'energy security' plan put forward by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and other conservative think tanks.

Slate, January 25, 2005
http://slate.msn.com/id/2112608/

(Via PR Watch's Spin of the Day.)

Fake Fans Preying on Chat Forums

Message Forum Spam: "Not only is pop star Ashlee Simpson lip syncing and manufactured, but so are some of her fans:

'I just read about Ashlee in us weekly. Those guys at the football game were total jerks.' -- mandyc19

Welcome to the world of message forum viral marketing, 'street team' advertising, and corporate shills. That 'fan' posting in forums about Court TV, The Smoking Gun, or shows on Fox isn't a fan at all -- just another type of spammer -- only this time employed by giant media corporations."

(Via MetaFilter.)

British Propaganda Push for EU

Afraid of Being an Island Unto Itself
The British government 'is using taxpayers' money to hire a PR agency to extol the virtues of (European Union) membership and explain why the European constitution is a 'success for Britain.'' The London-based firm Geronimo PR received a £40,000 ($US74,900) contract to mount an 'extensive communications campaign,' prior to a public referendum on the constitution, likely in 2006.
Main source:Financial Times, January 19, 2005
(Via PR Watch's Spin of the Day.)

Chef's Secret Deal with Heinz Exposed

Beans means cash

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has admitted accepting £15,000 ($US28,000) from Heinz as part of a product placement deal in which he agreed to include an up-market version of baked beans on toast on the menu at his restaurant. 'I should have been brighter,' Oliver told The Independent. The Independent (UK) January 14, 2005.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=600673

(Via PR Watch's Spin of the Day.)

How to Deceive Consumers: Management Journal Explains

Exposing stealth marketing
A respected management journal recommends lying and cheating as a marketing tactic.
Stealth Marketing: How to Reach Consumers Surreptitiously,' published by The California Management Review from the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, recommends reaching new customers via deceptive, covert marketing.Authors Andrew M. Kaikati, a consultant with Accenture, and Jack G. Kaikati, Emeritus Professor of Marketing at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.
(Via Church of the Customer.)

Fake News Items Circulated By White House

Karen Ryan, Meet Mike Morris
For the second time, the Government Accountability Office 'scolded the Bush administration for distributing phony prepackaged news reports,' or video news releases. The VNRs were produced by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, featured former reporter Mike Morris, and were aired, at least in part, on 300 news shows.Main source:

Washington Post, January 7, 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54651-2005Jan6.html(Via PR Watch Other Feed.)

Double Agent 'Advocates' for Consumers and Industry

A Front Group Affront

An American Prospect article on Rick Berman of the front group Center for Consumer Freedom notes, 'Berman's strategy turns on a simple rhetorical gimmick: By employing the language of consumer freedom, he protects his client industries by demonizing (and, hopefully, discrediting) their critics.' Berman 'stands out, if only for the sheer, unparalleled audacity with which he's straddled his dual roles as consumer 'advocate' and industry lobbyist.

Main source:

The American Prospect, January 3, 2005

Main URL:
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=8984

(Via PR Watch's Spin of the Day.)

Food Ads Exploiting Children

Responding to an explosion in ads for food that targets children, a consumer group Wednesday proposed nutrition-based limits on marketing aimed at kids that would halt ads for sugary snacks and fatty foods.

First Post

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