Category:Public Relations

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

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.

Tactics: Greenwashing and Astroturf

The Greenpeace Book on Greenwash downloadable pdf

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