Revelations in the U.K. last week of spurious and unethical actions from the renowned global PR firm Bell Pottinger have cast a pall over the U.K. PR industry. For any public relations professional who values transparency and ethics ahead of lofty client billings, the multi-day exposé in The Independent newspaper of London makes for grim reading.

The editorial series is worth a read, and I encourage you to dig into it to form your own opinions.

Before diving into some of the specific issues addressed in the reports, let’s be clear on two important points:

First, offering to manipulate a client’s online reputation through the use of fake online accounts, newly created blog pages or fake online reviews is not only foolhardy (the likelihood of getting caught is very high), it is unethical. Lacking in transparency, such activities would be in violation of PRSA’s Code of Ethics and are banned in both the U.K. and the U.S. (the latter through the FTC’s “Blogger Rules.”).

It has been said before, but is worth repeating: the Internet does not forget. It is one of the greatest truth-seekers the world has ever known. If, like the Bell Pottinger executives, you are asked by a potential or current client to manipulate a Wikipedia entry or online review, your obligation as an ethical practitioner is to explain the lack of ethics behind such manipulation. And, if the client does not understand or refuses to acknowledge those concerns, the next step is refusal to comply.

Second, the act of representing a dictatorship, such as Bell Pottinger would have done had it taken on the proposed work with the Uzbekistan government, is a slippery slope for the public relations profession. As PRNewser reports, “Uzbekistan has a reputation for child labor and other human rights violations.”

Continue reading " Bell Pottinger Lobbying Scandal: The ‘Dark Arts’ of Unethical PR "

Concert fans frustrated by rampant online ticket scalping may have breathed a sigh of relief this summer when two new groups, the Fans First Coalition and the Fan Freedom Project, announced they would become advocates on behalf of consumers.

Fans First Coalition, whose mission is to protect ordinary consumers from ticket scalpers, has been supported by a number of prominent musicians, including Jennifer Hudson, R.E.M., Maroon 5 and the Dixie Chicks. The Fan Freedom Project, likewise, claims to represent the interests of concertgoers.

But as The New York Times noted in a recent front-page expose, although the groups’ efforts are admirable, the manner in which those efforts are presented is anything but. In essence, the groups claim to be representing the best interests of consumers, when in reality, they are really looking out for their own bottom lines. It’s astroturfing at its worst.

The disparity between these groups’ stated intentions and their actual work caught my attention as chair of PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS). In a letter to The New York Times editor that was published July 31, I wrote that, “The fact that two competing private companies — Live Nation Entertainment and StubHub — are covertly backing these organizations represents a clear conflict of interest to their purported purpose of advocating on behalf of consumers and thwarting rampant scalping.

Continue reading " Astroturfing Rears Its Ugly Head in Ticket-Scalping Battle "

Several unfortunate events of late have thrust the issue of ethics to the forefront of discussion and debate in the public relations industry:

• A high-tech public relations firm allegedly directed its interns to write favorable reviews of computer games sold by its clients.
• A D.C. lobbying firm is said to have sent letters to political constituents on a third-party’s letterhead, giving the impression that the letters originated with that organization.
• A public relations firm allegedly established a program through which clients could engage a stable of “tweeters” to propagate favorable messages about its clients and their products.
• In the current debate on health care reform, special interest groups are accused of setting up and/or funding organizations to promote their positions, without disclosing who is actually behind the groups.
• A major aerospace concern is investigating reports that one of its employees attended an industry gathering posing as a journalist and blogger and participated in press conferences staged by two of its competitors.

Continue reading " Public Relations Ethics and the Role of PRSA "