Corporate PR watch

In his latest Op-Ed in the Boston Globe, Bob Kuttner reminds us that corporate PR is nothing but self-serving bullshit meant exclusively to fatten profit margins and distract the public from inconvenient facts that might not put the firm in the most favorable light.

True, none of this is revelatory, but he does provide us with some helpful recent examples of corporations pretending to be good citizens, and then quickly exposes the public relations machine working in high gear.

I do wish Kuttner's editorial was a bit longer, and I think it would have been great if he had tackled head-on the entire farce that is "Corporate Social Responsibility", or "CSR". When I used to work for the pro-Wall Street think tank The Conference Board I had to edit a whole series of research reports on CSR, and I remember being amazed at how much of a sham the whole concept was. Of course, some large corporations have set up foundations and give a lot of money for charitable giving, but it is rarely more than a tiny blip on the radar screen and is done almost exclusively as a public relations booster.

Think I'm overly cynical? First, check out this helpful article from the Center for Media and Democracy. Also, CMD's PR Watch website is a pretty good resource for tracking corporate Americas PR spin and propaganda campaigns.