News Articles
| US: Industry Takes Aim at Plan to Create Financial Protection Agency by Brady Dennis, Washington Post July 7th, 2009 Business and trade-group lobbyists are beating a path for the first major battle over the Obama administration's efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system. Recent discussions have involved the American Bankers Association, National Auto Dealers Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mortgage Bankers Association and other lobbyists. |
| US: Activist Financier 'Terrorizes' Bankers in Foreclosure Fight by James R. Hagerty, Wall Street Journal May 20th, 2009 A nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, or NACA, has emerged as one of the loudest scourges of the banking industry in the post-bubble economy. Though some bankers privately deplore his tactics, NACA's Bruce Marks is a growing influence in the lending industry and the effort to curb foreclosures. |
| US: Debt Settlers Offer Promises but Little Help by David Streitfeld, New York Times April 19th, 2009 With the economy on the ropes, hundreds of thousands of consumers are turning to “debt settlement” companies like Credit Solutions to escape a crushing pile of bills. State attorneys general are being flooded with complaints about settlement companies and other forms of debt relief. |
| WORLD: The Jewel Trade's Fading Luster by V. Dion Haynes and Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post March 28th, 2009 The drop in U.S. demand for high-end jewelry in a slumping economy is having ripple effects around the globe as stores close, workers are laid off in mass in the diamond-polishing factories of Gujarat, and countries like Botswana experience a dramatic drop in diamond revenue. |
| US: Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests by Leslie Kaufman, New York Times February 25th, 2009 The U.S. obsession with soft toilet paper has driven the growth of brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra. But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. |
| JAPAN: Nissan to Slash Payroll, Pare Japanese Output by John Murphy, Wall Street Journal February 9th, 2009 Nissan Motor Co. Monday announced plans to slash more than 20,000 jobs world-wide, shift production out of Japan and seek government assistance from Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere, part of a broad new effort by the Japanese car maker to weather the economic downturn. |
| US: U.S. jewelry retailers oppose large Alaska gold mine by Mary Pemberton, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 12th, 2008 Just in time for Valentine's Day, five of the leading U.S. jewellers have sworn off gold that someday could come from the Pebble Mine, a huge deposit being scoped out by a subsidiary of a Canadian company near the world's most productive wild sockeye salmon stream in southwestern Alaska. |
| GLOBAL: False 'Green' Ads Draw Global Scrutiny
by Tom Wright, Wall Street Journal January 30th, 2008 With companies eager to tout their "green" credentials to consumers, advertising watchdogs are stepping up efforts to rein in marketers that make false or exaggerated claims. |
| US: McDonald’s Ending Promotion on Jackets of Children’s Report Cards
by STUART ELLIOTT, New York Times January 18th, 2008 McDonald’s has decided to stop sponsoring Happy Meals as rewards for children with good grades and attendance records in elementary schools in Seminole County, Fla. |
| INDIA: Many rescued child laborers in India soon back at another dismal job by Heidi J. Shrager, Chronicle Foreign Service December 23rd, 2007 A 2006 report by the Child Welfare Committee found that 12 of 22 children from a village in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar were re-trafficked, mostly to different states, within a year after being rescued from a Delhi hand-embroidery sweatshop. |
| CHINA/US: The Recalls’ Aftershocks by Louise Story and David Barboza, New York Times December 22nd, 2007 Toy makers are investigating whether they need to treat their tainted products with stabilization chemicals or if they must seal the toys in giant polyethylene bags. |
| US: Charity’s Share From Shopping Raises Concern by Stephanie Strom, New York Times December 13th, 2007 Increasingly, nonprofit experts are questioning one of the fastest-growing sectors of giving, the practice of building a donation into the purchase of items. Such giving is unregulated and, in most cases, unaccountable — and no one knows who, if anyone, is claiming a tax deduction for it. |
| GERMANY: FSC's 'Green' Label for Wood Products Gets Growing Pains by Tom Wright and Jim Carlton, Wall Street Journal October 30th, 2007 The Forest Stewardship Council -- a widely recognized third-party labeling system to identify "green" wood and paper products -- has acknowledged that some companies using its label are destroying pristine forests and says it plans to overhaul its rules. |
| UK: Three 'face jail' over Ikea deals BBC News Online September 7th, 2007 A supplier and two employees of the furniture giant Ikea have admitted to using bribes in purchasing deals. |
| US: Lead found in more baby bibs? Bibs sold in Toys R Us, Babies R Us questioned
by Anna Marie Kukec, Daily Herald August 16th, 2007 A California consumer group said Wednesday it has filed a legal action against Toys R Us and Babies R Us for selling vinyl baby bibs said to contain high levels of lead. |
| WORLD: We must count the true cost of cheap China by Richard McGregor, Financial Times August 2nd, 2007 In the wake of the multiple scandals over tainted Chinese food and drug exports in recent months, Chinese goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. But the fact that wrongly labelled foods, liquor and pharmaceuticals have routinely sickened and even killed people en masse in China has been largely overlooked. |
| US: Mattel Recalls One Million Toys by Louise Story , New York Times August 2nd, 2007 Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products’ surfaces are covered in lead paint. According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China. |
| MEXICO: Thousands of Unpaid Teens Bag Groceries for Wal-Mart by Joseph Contreras, Newsweek August 1st, 2007 Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. Wal-Mart is Mexico's largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico-and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. |
| US: SEC Suspends Online Listing Of Companies Tied to Terrorism by Deborah Solomon and Neil King , Wall Street Journal July 20th, 2007 Amid a barrage of criticism, the Securities and Exchange Commission is temporarily suspending an online list intended to spotlight companies doing business in countries tied to terrorism. |
| CHINA: Lead Toxins Take a Global Round Trip by Gordon Fairclough, The Wall Street Journal July 12th, 2007 High levels of toxic lead turning up in cheap jewelry from China are prompting recalls in the U.S. But some of the lead used by these Chinese manufacturers comes from an unconventional source: computers and other electronic goods discarded in Western countries and dumped in China. |
| NETHERLANDS: Shell ordered to withdraw 'misleading' Dutch ad that made environmental claims by James Kanter, The International Herald Tribune July 5th, 2007 Royal Dutch Shell has been ordered to withdraw an advertisement in the Netherlands that sought to portray the oil giant as environmentally friendly, and British authorities said Thursday they had opened a formal investigation in the case. |
| CHINA: The Growing Dangers of China Trade by Jyoti Thottam, TIME Magazine June 28th, 2007 Growing concerns over the safety of everyday goods manufactured in China and imported to the US have thrown into relief the problematic (and dangerous) differences in safety and regulatory standards between the two countries. |
| US: Green like money: Activists counter PG&E's greenwashing by Amanda Witherell, SF Bay Guardian January 31st, 2007 During a so-called green fair at the LGBT center in San Francisco, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG & E) unveiled a $170,000 gift of solar panels for the roof of the building. But activists complain that this recent move is a greenwashing tactic, to make this corporation, which owns a mere 0 percent solar and 2 percent wind, appear green when it is in fact not. |
| US: US farming watchdog accuses Wal-Mart of mis-selling by Stephen Foley in New York, Independent (UK) January 21st, 2007 Wal-Mart, the controversial retailing giant, is under investigation in the US over allegations it is trying to pass off non-organic foods as organic. |
| US: Gates Foundation faces multibillion-dollar dilemma by Kristi Heim, Seattle Times January 14th, 2007 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation owns shares of BP — a company accused of fouling the air with its oil refinery and paper mill in South Africa. Since the foundation spends billions of dollars to improve the health of Africans, that investment strategy would seem to conflict with its mission. |
| WORLD: GM crops slow to win over the world by Stephen Leahy, Mail & Guardian Online January 10th, 2007 Widespread use of GM crops remains limited worldwide, even as growing weed and pest issues are forcing farmers to use ever greater amounts of pesticides. |
| US: Ads Test Payola Case Settlement by Jeff Leeds, The New York Times October 25th, 2006 Hardly more than a year has passed since the nation’s biggest record labels started agreeing to a series of measures that were intended to end the industry’s long history of employing bribes and other shady practices to influence which songs are heard on the radio. |
| US: Tobacco firms to face US class action over 'light' cigarettes by Simon Bowers, The Guardian (UK) September 26th, 2006 Leading tobacco firms in the US, including British American Tobacco, are to face a class action lawsuit seeking punitive damages of up to $200bn (£105bn) relating to the alleged fraudulent promotions suggesting "light" branded cigarettes are safer, or less addictive, than regular ones. |
| US: Schering-Plough Agrees To Plead Guilty, Pay Fine by Denise Lavoie, Associated Press August 30th, 2006 Schering-Plough Corp. on Tuesday agreed to pay $435 million and plead guilty to conspiracy to settle a federal investigation into marketing of its drugs for unapproved uses and overcharging Medicaid for certain drugs. |
| INDIA: Pesticide Charge in India Hurts Pepsi and Coke by Amelia Gentleman, International Herald Tribune August 22nd, 2006 When claims were first published on the front pages of Indian newspapers this month that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo beverages were contaminated with pesticides, executives at the two companies were breezily confident that they could handle the issue. Three weeks later, though, they are still struggling to win back Indian consumers. One-quarter of India’s component states have imposed partial bans on their products, and a complex legal battle to overturn those bans is only just beginning. |
| US: Study Documents ‘Ghetto Tax’ Being Paid by the Urban Poor by Erik Eckholm, The New York Times July 19th, 2006 |
| US: The Next Niche: School Bus Ads
by Caroline E. Mayer, The Washington Post June 4th, 2006 BusRadio, a start-up company in Massachusetts, wants to pipe into school buses around the country a private radio network that plays music, public-service announcements, contests and, of course, ads, aimed at kids as they travel to and from school. |
| IRAQ: U.S. Urged to Stop Paying Iraqi Reporters by David S. Cloud, The New York Times May 24th, 2006 |
| IRAN: Iran Target of Apparent Disinformation Campaign by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service May 23rd, 2006 A story authored by a prominent U.S. neo-conservative regarding new legislation in Iran allegedly requiring Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive colour badges circulated around the world this weekend before it was exposed as false. The article by a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Iranian-American Amir Taheri, was initially published in Friday's edition of Canada's National Post, which ran alongside the story a 1935 photograph of a Jewish businessman in Berlin with a yellow, six-pointed star sewn on his overcoat, as required by Nazi legislation at the time. The Post subsequently issued a retraction. |
| US: Wal-Mart Tries to Enlist Image Help by Michael Barbaro, The New York Times May 12th, 2006 |
| UK: Roddick Targets Nestlé after Corporate 'Sell-Out' by Jonathan Brown, The Independent May 11th, 2006 Dame Anita Roddick has admitted that she harbours concerns over the ethical record of Nestlé, a major shareholder in the French cosmetic giant L'Oréal, which bought the Body Shop for £652m. |
| US: Disney Loses Its Appetite for Happy Meal Tie-Ins by Rachel Abramowitz, Los Angeles Times May 8th, 2006 Disney is not renewing its cross-promotional pact with the fast-food giant, ending the arrangement with this summer's release of "Cars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." One reason, say multiple high-ranking sources within Disney, is that the company — which prides itself on being family friendly — wants to distance itself from fast food and its links to the epidemic of childhood obesity. |
| GERMANY: EU to take Germany to court over tobacco ads Reuters April 12th, 2006 Germany could face legal action for failing to implement a ban on advertising tobacco, a European Commissioner was quoted on Wednesday as saying. |
| UK: Body Shop's Popularity Plunges after L'Oreal Sale by Cahal Milmo, The Independent (UK) April 10th, 2006 The sale of the Body Shop to the French cosmetics giant L'Oréal last month has dented the reputation of the British high street retailer once vaunted as the champion of ethical beauty products. |
| US: America's Fake News Pandemic by Timothy Karr, Media Citizen April 7th, 2006 A report released yesterday by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press exposes corporate propaganda’s infiltration of local television news across the country. |
| US: Food Companies Criticized Over Health Commitments by Kate Holton, Reuters April 4th, 2006 Many of the world's top food companies are not doing enough to help cut the salt, fat and sugar which are contributing to a global, diet-related health crisis, according to a report on Tuesday. |
| US: Unwitting Shoppers Recruited for Wal-Mart PR Fight by Marilyn Geewax, Cox News Service April 4th, 2006 Last December, Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., created its own grassroots group, Working Families for Wal-Mart. It hired Edelman, a global public relations firm, to organize the group out of its Washington office and launch a nationwide campaign. |
| US: Wal-Mart Begins Quest for Generals in P.R. War by Michael Barbaro, The New York Times March 30th, 2006 Wanted: two people to help defend the nation's largest retailer against critics. Requirements: plenty of experience managing a crisis. |
| US: The Conservative Hand of Hollywood by Justin Clark, Nerve.com March 29th, 2006 The Christian leader of megaplex Regal Cinemas is trying to shape what audiences see -- and don't see -- at the movies. |
| US: Google hires D.C. lobbyist with a friend in high places by Verne Kopytoff, San Francisco Chronicle March 16th, 2006 Facing increasing congressional scrutiny, Google Inc. has hired a lobbying firm that includes the son of U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. |
| US: For Tobacco, Stealth Marketing Is the Norm by Julie Bosman, New York Times March 10th, 2006 Tobacco companies, which are able to vastly outspend antitobacco groups, may still be winning the marketing wars. While tobacco companies have abandoned most conventional advertising, they are using other means to get their point across. Antismoking groups, on the other hand, are now struggling to find the money to maintain even a small-scale campaign. |
| US: Chromium Evidence Buried, Report Says by Rick Weiss, The Washington Post February 24th, 2006 Scientists working for the chromium industry withheld data about the metal's health risks while the industry campaigned to block strict new limits on the cancer-causing chemical, according to a scientific journal report published yesterday. |
| US: Wal-Mart to Loosen Health Insurance Limits by Michael Barbaro, The New York Times February 23rd, 2006 Wal-Mart Stores, facing a raft of state legislation that would require it to increase spending on employee health insurance, will lift several of its long-standing — and most-criticized — restrictions on eligibility over the next year, the giant retailer said this morning. |
| AUSTRALIA: Lobbyists hired by AWB by Richard Baker, Sydney Morning Herald February 22nd, 2006 AWB enlisted the help of an influential Washington lobby firm headed by the former US defence secretary, William Cohen, to deal with a United Nations investigation into kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein. |
| US: Advisories on Fish and the Pitfalls of Good Intent by Marian Burros, The New York Times February 15th, 2006 SHOPPING for fish these days is fraught with confusion. There is so much contradictory information about what is safe and what isn't. Some nutritionists are worried that people will throw up their hands and choose steak instead. |
| US: Quick Rise for Purveyors of Propaganda in Iraq by David S. Cloud, The New York Times February 15th, 2006 Mr. Bailey, a boyish-looking Briton, and Mr. Craig, a chain-smoking former Marine sergeant, then began winning multimillion-dollar contracts with the United States military to produce propaganda in Iraq. |
| US: Sales Brisk for "Wal-Mart" Docu As Accusations Fly
Reuters February 15th, 2006 Berlin's European Film Market became the backdrop for yet another verbal battle between Wal-Mart and its filmmaker nemesis Robert Greenwald on Tuesday. The Greenwald-directed film "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" made for hot sales but heated words at the market. |
| UK: Drug firm censured for lapdancing junket by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian February 14th, 2006 One of the world's largest drug companies has been disciplined by the industry's UK watchdog after admitting that its staff entertained doctors to greyhound racing, lapdancing and Centre Court tickets at Wimbledon. |
| US: Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries by Stephanie Saul, The New York Times February 7th, 2006 Americans are taking sleeping pills like never before, fueled by frenetic workdays that do not go gently into a great night's sleep, and lulled by a surge of consumer advertising that promises safe slumber with minimal side effects. |
| IRAQ: Planted Articles May Be Violation by Mark Mazzetti, Los Angeles Times January 27th, 2006 |
| SWITZERLAND: "Corporate villains" named and shamed Swiss Info January 25th, 2006 The Walt Disney Company, the Chevron Corporation and Citigroup have been awarded booby prizes by Swiss non-governmental organisations (NGOs). |
| GHANA: Ghana Journalists Condemn Gold Mining Campaign Aimed at Children Environment News Service January 23rd, 2006 The Ghana Institute of Journalism is objecting to a new public relations collaboration between the mining company Newmont Ghana Gold Ltd. and the weekly newspaper "Junior Graphic" to make positive information about gold mining available to children in Ghana. |
| US: Consumer Group to Sue Cereal Maker ABC News January 18th, 2006 A consumer group wants to keep Tony the Tiger from promoting sugary cereals on the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon show, or anywhere else kids are watching. |
| US: AmeriDebt Founder Settles Charges
by Caroline E. Mayer, Washington Post January 10th, 2006 The founder of the defunct credit-counseling firm AmeriDebt Inc. yesterday agreed to pay up to $35 million to settle two lawsuits accusing him of misleading debt-burdened consumers into paying high fees to support his lavish lifestyle. |
| US: AmeriDebt Founder to Settle With the FTC
by Steven Manning, Associated Press January 9th, 2006 The founder of the credit counseling firm AmeriDebt on Monday agreed to pay $35 million to settle suits filed by regulators and former customers over $172 million in allegedly hidden fees the company collected from financially strapped debtors. |
| AFRICA: Death By Dilution by Robert Cockburn, American Prospect December 20th, 2005 When fakes of a GlaxoSmithKline anti-malarial drug turned up in Africa, authorities assumed the drug giant would want to know. Instead, they learned about a huge, evil trade in fake drugs -- and about an industry that doesn’t want the truth to get out. |
| NEPAL: Nepal's Garment Industry Hangs by a Thread by Jo Johnson, Financial Times December 19th, 2005 The pashmina bubble that buoyed the garment industry in the late 1990s has burst. Fashion trendsetters have moved on, leaving a glut of cheap Chinese knock-offs in their wake. |
| US: DirecTV, Marketers Settle Charges
Do-Not-Call Rules Violated, FTC Says by Jonathan Krim, Washington Post December 14th, 2005 Satellite television operator DirecTV Group Inc. agreed to pay $5.3 million to settle charges it repeatedly violated rules against telemarketing to consumers whose names were on a national do-not-call registry, the Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday. |
| US: Best Buy Sued for Bias by Jason Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle December 10th, 2005 Six current and former employees of Best Buy filed a race- and sex-discrimination lawsuit Thursday against the consumer electronics chain in federal court in San Francisco, accusing it of denying better-paying sales and managerial jobs to African Americans, Latinos and women in favor of white men. |
| U.S.: A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room by Michael Barbaro, The New York Times November 1st, 2005 Wal-Mart is taking a page from the modern political playbook. Under fire from well-organized opponents who have hammered the retailer with criticisms of its wages, health insurance and treatment of workers, Wal-Mart has quietly recruited former presidential advisers, including Michael K. Deaver, who was Ronald Reagan's image-meister, and Leslie Dach, one of Bill Clinton's media consultants, to set up a rapid-response public relations team in Arkansas. |
| U.S.: Fiction Genre Fits Big Pharma by Michael Hiltzik, LA Times October 27th, 2005 According to a proposal, PhRMA was to pay Phoenix a six-figure sum for the marketing and production of a written-to-order fictional thriller. The plotline was what Hollywood would term high-concept — a group of shadowy terrorists conspires to murder thousands of Americans by poisoning the medicine they're importing from Canada to beat U.S. drug prices. PhRMA subsequently pulled the plug on the deal. |
| US: On Television, Brands Go From Props to Stars by Lorne Manly, The New York Times October 2nd, 2005 Network, advertising and production executives say that this season, more and more brands will venture outside the confines of 30-second ads. They may have no choice: As technology and clutter blunt the effectiveness and reach of the commercial spots that have underpinned the television business for nearly 50 years, the various players are scrambling to adapt. |
 | US: Magazine ad "unleashes hell" for Boeing and Bell by Hal Bernton, The Seattle Times October 1st, 2005 Boeing and its joint-venture partner Bell Helicopter apologized yesterday for a magazine ad published a month ago - and again this week by mistake - depicting U.S. Special Forces troops rappelling from an Osprey aircraft onto the roof of a mosque. |
| Rules On Corporate Ethics Could Help, Not Hinder, Multinationals
by Kenneth Roth, Financial Times June 22nd, 2005 Some western companies have begun to recognize it might be in their interest to operate under enforceable standards that apply to all their competitors, rather than under voluntary ones that, for all practical purposes, apply only to prominent companies. |
| US: Pharmaceutical Giant Will Curb Ads Aimed at Patients Associated Press June 15th, 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. won't push new drugs in that way for at least a year. The change comes amid criticism of the industrywide practice. |
| US: The New Blacklist
by Doug Ireland, LA Weekly June 13th, 2005 The Christian right has launched a series of boycotts and pressure campaigns aimed at corporate America -- and at its sponsorship of entertainment, programs and activities they don't like. |
| US: Congress to Force Agencies to Identify Fake News Reuters May 3rd, 2005 |
| US: Is Fast Food Just What the Doctor Ordered?
by Melanie Warner, New York Times May 2nd, 2005 In the last two years, at least two dozen leading nutrition scientists and experts have started working for large food companies, either as consultants or as members of health advisory boards. Most do not directly promote products, though Dr. Arthur Agatston, a practicing cardiologist and author of "The South Beach Diet," has a licensing deal with Kraft Foods to sell a line of South Beach foods, which are appearing on supermarket shelves this month. |
| US: The Escalating Obesity Wars by Caroline E. Mayer and Amy Joyce, http://www.washingtonpost.com April 27th, 2005 Nonprofit's Tactics, Funding Sources Spark Controversy |
| US: Video Games Add Advertisements
by Matt Richtel, New York Times April 11th, 2005 Until now, ads have appeared occasionally and haphazardly in video games. But a new advertising agency hopes to bring a more aggressive marketing approach to interactive media. The aim is to put up billboards and make product placements for mainstream advertisers in the cyberworlds of sports, shooting and strategy games. |
| MEXICO: Teoti-Wal-Mart by John Ross, The Progressive March 14th, 2005 Wal-Mart puts down roots in the shadow of the Pyramid of the Sun in San Juan Teotihuacan. Is the global leviathan any match for Quetzalcoatl? |
| US: Beyond the God Pod by Silja J.A. Talvi, The Santa Fe Reporter March 9th, 2005 The nation's biggest private prison corporation is forging strong ties with a fundamentalist Christian ministry, blurring the line between church and state and harkening a new turn in corrections toward Christian-based programming. |
| UK: Ethical Consumerism: Mass Appeal Datamonitor March 1st, 2005 The Fairtrade Foundation has reported a 51% increase in UK sales of Fairtrade products. |
| US: Pepsi Puts a Lid on Kids' Ads by Andrew Ward and Jeremy Grant, The Australian March 1st, 2005 PepsiCo, one of the world's largest soft-drink makers, has introduced voluntary restrictions on its advertising to children, in response to rising levels of obesity in the US and western Europe. |
| US: Wal-Mart Starts Image Boosting Ads Reuters January 13th, 2005 Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, launched a national advertising campaign on Thursday to burnish an image tarnished by allegations that it discriminates in hiring and promotions and drives smaller rivals out of business. |
| US: Marketing Under the Radar by Deborah Branscum, CMO December 22nd, 2004 Stealth. Guerilla. Undercover. Whatever it’s called, covert marketing woos ad-weary consumers by pretending to be something it’s not. But is it the real deal for marketers? |
| UK: To Be a 'Clone Town,' or Not: That Is the Question by Lizette Alvarez, New York Times November 1st, 2004 To survive the approach to the home where William Shakespeare was born, a striking timber-frame house in the center of this bustling town, it would be wise to bid adieu to all bucolic notions of quaint old England and ready oneself for the onslaught of globalization. |
| US: Questions on the $3.8 Billion Drug Ad Business by Stuart Elliot and Nat Ives, New York Times October 13th, 2004 Drug advertising can not only misleading, but harmful to your health. |
| US: PR Firm Drafts Ethics Reforms by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times July 30th, 2004 |
| UK: New Taskforce to Tackle 'Attacks' on Corporate Business by Mark Tran, Guardian July 6th, 2004 A leading business group today announced the creation of a taskforce designed to help companies respond to what it described as growing attacks on corporate behaviour. |
| USA: Unhappy Meals by Barry Yeoman, Mother Jones magazine January 6th, 2003 Every weekday at lunch, courtesy of the federal government, more than 27 million schoolchildren sit down to the nation's largest mass feeding. |
| USA: New Report Examines Commercialism in Schools by Constance L. Hays, New York Times September 14th, 2000 From exclusive soft-drink contracts to computers displaying continuous advertising, corporate marketing in public schools is rising sharply. But few states have laws in place to address the phenomenon, and most decisions on commercial arrangements in schools are made piecemeal by local officials, according to a report from the General Accounting Office scheduled to be released today. |
| TURKEY: Dam Will Destroy Kurdish Culture, Say Critics Bloomberg August 16th, 2000 A Kurdish human rights lawyer is spearheading an international campaign to block the Turkish government's efforts to build a dam he says will dislodge thousands of Kurds and destroy archeological artifacts. |
| US: Info-Cleansing on the Web by Marcia Stepanek, Business Week Online July 7th, 2000 Beware the public relations person with a modem. Now corporate spinmeisters, too, can go online to track customers -- especially the disgruntled ones who vent their spleen in cyberspace. |
| Canada: Business-Education Partnerships a Troubling Trend by Bernie Froese-Germain and Marita Moll, Education Monitor June 1st, 1997 Berne Froese-Germain and Martia Moll, two researchers with the Canadian Teachers Federation, outline the scope of the problem. |
| US: by Michael Barbaro, The New Wal-Mart Stores, facing a raft of state legislation that would require it to increase spending on employee health insurance, will lift several of its long-standing — and most-criticized — restrictions on eligibility over the next year, the giant retailer said this morning. |