Public Relations

Examples

Bee CCD scams.

Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza are fighting for justice after what has been called one of the most catastrophic environmental disasters in history. They leading an unprecedented community-driven legal battle against a global oil giant. According to the plaintiffs, beginning in 1964 and through 1990, Texaco dumped nearly 17 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of drilling wastewater directly into the Ecuadorian Amazon. Attacked by same PR hacks who made fake newspaper to shill for Chevron in Richmond CA.

Global Warming See also Environmental Science and Skeptical Challenges

Fox News Attacks Global Warming from Brave New Films (partisan)

Grist editorial/overview on history of fear, uncertainty and denial tactics.

Psychological/sociological Fundamentals:

Economist Tyler Cowen loves a good story. But in this intriguing talk from TED, he asks us to step away from thinking of our lives -- and our messy, complicated irrational world -- in terms of a simple narrative. (video).

Advertising & the End of the World is a brilliant Big Picture analysis of how the culture of consumption drives eco-degradation. 2010 Update: Adverstising & the Perfect Storm: Global Warming, Peak Oil & Consumer Debt presented by Sut Jhally, Umass and Founder/Exec Director of the Media Education Foundation (MEF). Must See Videos See also Oil and Global Warming.

General works on corporate Public Relations

Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber excerpts

Toxic Sludge is Good for Youby John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton Common Courage Press, 1995 excerpts video online video preview

Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business by Roland Marchand (Long excerpt from Ch 1).

NPR story (Audio) on how products pretend to be green, a practice dubbed green-washing.

Earth for Sale: Reclaiming Ecology in the Age of Corporate Greenwash Brian Tokar

Astroturf is a term applied to industry-created front groups that pretend to be legitimate grassroots organizations. Rick Berman, AKA Dr Evil, has created a number of these groups, including one that attempted to discredit UCSC alum Chuck Savitt, co-founder of the most important publishers of green books, Island Press. 60 Minutes video. Here's a fun short video of people protesting this practice.

PR!: A Social History of Spin By Stuart Ewen. Basic Books, 1998 UCSC McHenry HM263 .E849 1996

Greenpeace study: "Exxon's Weapons of Mass Deception" Excerpt.

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman is a classic study of how the media works. excellent video). Summary of the basic model.

== Tactics == Greenwashing and Astroturf

The Greenpeace Book on Greenwash 1992 downloadable pdf

NPR story on how products pretend to be green. (Audio).

Stop Greenwash.org from Greenpeace. Greenwashing discussed in Earthbeat Radio segment (audio).

Greenwash Watch on Guardian UK newspaper.

A Brief History of Greenwash

Brief article on greenwash with links

Big Box stores greenwash editorial

Chevron makes fake 60 Minutes segment

"Astroturf" is the creation of a fake grassroots organization. Here's an example of one by coal industry using stock photos. In a new documentary Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham went undercover to investigate astroturfing (trailer)(warning: could be interpreted, presumably, as partisan).

Third Party technique defined by one public relations (PR) executive as, "putting your words in someone else's mouth." This can involve think tanks or front groups/astroturfing.

See PRwatch article on corporations altering Wikipedia including Chevron deleting the entire article on bio-diesel, and Exxon rewriting the history of the Valdez oil spill.

(this is a mirror page of the PR category)