Another Brick in Boral's Wall

A major Australian building products company, Boral, has been forced to publish a full-page apology for its role in an astroturf campaign against BGC, which was seeking government approval for a new brickworks. In the advertisement, Boral stated that one of its subsidiaries, the Midland Brick Company, engaged Professional Public Relations "to assist with the prosecution" of a campaign which featured a "local ratepayers association" which "produced and distributed a DVD and leaflets which contained false and defamatory statements about BGC and the proposed brickworks". The advertisement stated that "Midland Brick did not want its role in the campaign to be known publicly." On its website PPR states that one of its values is "integrity" which it associates with "honest, respected and respectful, truthful, genuine, reliable". BGC's Len Buckeridge told ABC News that he was "quite ashamed of Australian business, and particularly big business where people like Boral seem to thing it's their entitlement to do whatever the hell they like."