Corporate Campaigns

Corporate-Sponsored "Slacktivism": Bigger and More Dangerous than the Urban Dictionary Realizes

Recently while browsing the Web I came across UrbanDictionary.com, which is sort of a wiki of contemporary slang. I found some of the newer words listed there amusing, like "hobosexual" (the opposite of metrosexual; someone who cares little about their looks), "consumerican," ("a particularly American brand of consumerism"), and "wikidemia" ("an academic work passed off as scholarly yet researched entirely on Wikipedia").

Citing Menthol Exemption, Black Group Pulls Support for FDA Tobacco Bill

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Menthol cigarette ad targeting African AmericansThe National African American Tobacco Prevention Network (NAATPN) has withdrawn its support for a bill allowing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, May 30, 2008
Topics: 
Corporate Campaigns
Ethics
Health
Human Rights
Lobbying
Race / Ethnic Issues
Secrecy
Tobacco

Conservative Bloggers Link Rachael Ray Ad to Terror Symbolism

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Rachael Ray Dunkin Donuts ad featuring controversial scarfDunkin' Donuts pulled an online ad for frozen lattes featuring domestic maven Rachael Ray after receiving complaints from right-wing bloggers, including conservative FOX News commentator

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Main Source: 
Advertising Age, May 28, 2008
Topics: 
Advertising
Corporate Campaigns
Right Wing
Internet
Terrorism
International
Propaganda
Race / Ethnic Issues
Religion
Social Justice

Healthcare Privacy Laws Quietly Assist Fundraising

Submitted by Anne Landman on

stethoscope on walletWhen a patient checks into a hospital or goes to see a doctor, they are typically handed a booklet called "Notice of Privacy Practices" and are asked to sign a document acknowledging that they received the information. Patients assume that these "privacy practices" are in place to protect their personal information and that doctors and hospitals will keep their information in strictest confidence.

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Main Source: 
San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 2008
Topics: 
Corporate Campaigns
Corporate Social Responsibility
Cause-Related Marketing
Corporations
Education
Ethics
Health
Human Rights
Marketing

The New Whopper: Burger with a Side of Spies

Submitted by John Stauber on

Author Eric Schlosser editorializes about "the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying," citing Burger King Corporation's spying on the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers through Cara Schaffer and her private security firm,

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Main Source: 
New York Times, May 5, 2007
Topics: 
Activism
Corporate Campaigns
Corporate Social Responsibility
Democracy
Ethics
Human Rights
Labor
Secrecy
Social Justice

Businesses Lobby During "Earth Month" to Protect Plastic Bags

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Plastic bag wasteThe Progressive Bag Alliance, the American Chemistry Council and Wal-Mart Stores were among the parties who successfully lobbied Democratic Pennsylvan

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Main Source: 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 22, 2008
Topics: 
Advertising
Corporate Campaigns
Corporate Social Responsibility
Front Groups
Corporations
Environment
Ethics
Lobbying
Propaganda
Public Relations
Rhetoric

A Bad Week for Corporate Spies

From MAD magazineIf Cara Schaffer contacts you, be wary. Take emails and online comments from "activist2008" and "stopcorporategreed" with a grain of salt. Londoners, be on the lookout for Toby Kendall, a.k.a. "Ken Tobias." And activists everywhere should think twice before putting documents in the recycling or trash bins.

Over the past week, reporters and activists outed three different corporate spying operations. As John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote in their 1995 book "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!": "Movements for social and political reform have often become targets of surveillance. ... The public relations industry has developed a lucrative side business scrutinizing the thoughts and actions of citizen activists, using paid spies who are often recruited from government, military or private security backgrounds."

Last week's revelations show that these underhanded tactics are very much in use today. And they don't just impact the groups being infiltrated. By privileging corporate interests, effectively giving them the first and last word on an issue, they distort vital public debates.

The Pro-Junk Mail Lobby: Fighting to Sustain the Unsustainable?

Junk MailJunk mail kills trees, clogs mailboxes, packs landfills, wastes natural resources, and everyone would be glad to be rid of it. Right?

Well, maybe not.

Whether out of environmental concern or sheer annoyance, legislated efforts to reduce junk mail are on the rise, but companies that have vested interests in its continuance have started organizing to save it--in a big way. Of course, they don't call it junk mail. Their preferred euphemisms are "advertising mail," "direct mail" or even "standard mail."

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