Hill & Knowlton's 50 Year Fudge (tobacco etc)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prwatch.org/node/6356

Hill & Knowlton's 50 Year Fudge
Submitted by Bob Burton on Mon, 08/20/2007 - 21:25.
Topics: corporations | health | labor | public relations | tobacco

Some PR executives take citizens for complete idiots.

Almost three weeks ago a local branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) called on the University of California to dump the giant PR firm Hill & Knowlton (H&K). In a letter to the university, AFSCME and other groups pointed to H&K's work for the tobacco industry, its attack on research pointing to the impact of exposure to lead on children, and its work for "some of the worst human rights abusing states in the world." In a statement emailed to the trade publication PR Week, H&K's Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Thorne claimed that the union's criticism "is directed to work done more than 50 years ago. While we disagree that H&K ever was engaged in any improper conduct, our current firm policy is that we will not provide services in any way related to tobacco, anywhere in the world."

Sorry, Mark, but you can't get away with a fudge like that quite so easily.

First, AFSCME's criticism of H&K indicated that the company's work for the tobacco industry commenced in the 1950's. While not explicitly mentioning H&K again, the letter clearly stated that the industry's disinformation strategy continued for decades. Second, H&K's work for the tobacco industry continued at least into the early 1990's, as is documented in the industry documents archived online by UC-San Francisco.

H&K's Advice on Not Talking About the Death Toll

For example, in February 1993 H&K drafted a 16-page memo for the world's largest private tobacco company, Philip Morris (PM), on the challenges it was facing to its operations in Asia. In its report, H&K was open about tobacco's deadly toll. "Overall, the current three million global deaths (mostly in the wealthier nations of the world) attributed to smoking will rise to 10 million by 2025. Seven of these 10 million will be in the developing countries and most will be in Asia, activists claim," the firm wrote. Significantly, H&K didn't dispute the numbers or address the moral dimensions of PM's share of the death toll. The firm simply flagged that the "challenge for the tobacco industry is maintaining its customer base in the face of strong challenges."

FULL story at link.

I'm a proud AFSCME member.