Something Fishy in the Paper

"Industrial salmon farming corporations have learned an important lesson ... about what to do with their tarnished images of ecological and social injustice," writes Rebecca Clausen. "Simply pour money into a public relations campaign and overwhelm dissent." She points to half-page ads that the industry group Salmon of the Americas (SOTA) ran last month in major U.S. newspapers. The ads touted ocean-farmed salmon as "good for you" and "good for the oceans." Never mind that "the salmon farming industry is based on the 'stripping of the seas' through its reliance on fish-based feeds such as anchovy, sardines, and other lower-food-chain species," adds Clausen. SOTA uses the PR firm MarketShare, but its new push draws from Hill & Knowlton's work for the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association. The Canadian industry group's executive director once bragged, "It's the stories that don't appear in the newspaper that mean we've done our job."