Hill & Knowlton selected as official media sponsor for United Nations Climate Change Conference – Press Release 29/10/2009 – http://www.hillandknowlton.com/press/releases/2009/10/29/HK-selected-media-sponsor-for-climate-change-conference “The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has selected international communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton as official media sponsor for the UN Conference on Climate Change, COP15, to be held in Copenhagen over two weeks starting December 7th. Agency will support campaign on climate conscious behaviour + Selection based on network reach, experience and environmental credentials. H&K will support an information campaign to encourage climate conscious behavior by delegates and others to help reduce GHG emissions during COP15. The campaign will also ensure that knowledge from the conference regarding climate conscious behavior will be communicated more broadly, locally and internationally.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “Hill & Knowlton is one of the most famous, if not infamous, PR firms in the world. It has 71 offices in 40 different countries (ref) and has worked for a range of unsavoury clients … WPP 2001: Hill & Knowlton ($325.119.000, 3ª), Burson Marsteller ($259.112.000, 5ª), Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide ($145.949.285, 10ª), Cohn and Wolfe (57.779.000, 19ª), Finsbury and Buchanan (>25ª). Total $11,4 billion, 10% WPP’s business. 2003: Cordiant group. 2005: Grey Global, 11ª a 2004 (Source: Advertising Age), includes PR division CGI Group and global lobbying APCO Associates. WPP: 32 companies.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “Hill & Knowlton is one of the most famous, if not infamous, PR firms in the world.»
Philip Mirovski (2008) – The Rise of the Dedicated Natural Science Think Tank – The Social Science Research Council, New York – July 2008 – University of Notre Dame – Peer reviewed “Due to the court settlements against the tobacco industry for misrepresenting the health hazards of smoking, we have unprecedented access to normally proprietary records which document the ways in which the industry, in alliance with some PR and product litigation support firms like the Weinberg Group and Hill and Knowlton, later fortified by dedicated think tanks, developed a novel strategy to block exposure to liability from the harmful effects of smoking.”
David Michaels and Celeste Monforton (2005) – Manufacturing Uncertainty: Contested Science and the Protection of the Public’s Health and Environment – American Journal of Public Health Supplement 1:S39-S48 doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.043059 – Peer reviewed “Though most identified with the tobacco industry, this strategy has also been used by producers of other hazardous products. Its proponents use the label “junk science” to ridicule research that threatens powerful interests … Following a strategic plan developed in the mid-1950s by Hill and Knowlton (H&K), the tobacco industry hired scientists and commissioned research to challenge the growing scientific consensus linking cigarette smoking and severe health effects.”
Nick Davies (2008) – Flat Earth News – Chatto & Windus, 2008 – 408 pp – ISBN 9780701181451 – http://www.flatearthnews.net “Hill & Knowlton, who were then the biggest PR agency in America, duly created the Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute as apparently independent organizations to produce research to defend their sales. Internal memo make it plain that the PR object was certainly not to tell the truth about tobacco but to engage in the judicious selection of facts, specifically to select any kind of scientific reference to any kind of doubt about the link to cancer.
Nick Davies (2008) – Flat Earth News – Chatto & Windus, 2008 – 408 pp – ISBN 9780701181451 – http://www.flatearthnews.net “As one memo put it: ‘Doubt is our product since it is the best means to compete with the ‘body of facts’ that exist in the mind of the general public’. … A second PR agency, Burson-Marsteller, created the National Smokers Alliance as an Astro Turf group, to hold public meetings and hassle politicians, changing the tobacco story from a threat to health to a threat to freedom: ‘If Anti America…”
A Frank Statement to Cigarrete Smokers- The Wall Street Journal 04/01/1954
William R. Freudenburg, Robert Gramling, Debra J. Davidson (2008) – Scientific Certainty Argumentation Methods (SCAMs): Science and the Politics of Doubt – Sociological Inquiry 78:2-38 – February 2008 – University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Louisiana-Lafayette; University of Alberta – Peer reviewed “During roughly half of the twentieth century, the industry-funded “Council for Tobacco Research” (CTR) played a role having considerable resemblance to the later actions of conservative think tanks in global warming debates, except that CTR may also have helped to shield specific tobacco companies from liability … the technique of the SCAM—would be able to delay or evade a good deal of regulation for nearly half a century. It would be enough delay to allow all of the executives who met at the Plaza Hotel to retire and/or die before any significant regulations began to take effect. Among other activities, cigarette makers and the industry “Research Committee” published a so-called “Frank Statement” in full-page newspaper ads.»
Carta de Margery Kraus, presidente y CEO de APCO Associates, a Vic Han, director de comunicación a Philip Morris, 23/09/1993 “We are looking forward to the successful launching of TASSC this fall . We believe the groundwork we conduct to complete the launch will enable TASSC to expand and assist Philip Morris in its efforts with issues in targeted states in 1994.”
David Michaels, and Celeste Monforton (2005) – Manufacturing Uncertainty: Contested Science and the Protection of the Public’s Health and Environment – American Journal of Public Health, S1:S39-S48 – Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Washington – Peer reviewed “H&K consultants boasted that after 51/2 years of effort, they successfully created “an awareness of the doubts and uncertainties about the cigarette charges.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “One of Hill & Knowlton most famous accounts was its work for ‘Citizens of Free Kuwait’ – which was a front for the Kuwaiti royal family … ‘Please know again that this falls into the realm that the agency has no wish to confirm, deny or comment on’ (ref). Hill & Knowlton is also owned by WPP.”
Stuard Ewen – PR! A Social History of Spin – Basic Books, 1996 – ISBN: 0-465-06268-0 – 480 pp. “Nayirah was, in fact, Nayirah al-Sabah, daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States … Beyond the dubiousness of her tale, it also turned out that the Meeting of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus itself had been the brainchild of Gary Hymel, a vice-president of Hill and Knowlton, one of the largest public relations firms in the world.. … Hymel and Hill & Knowlton were on the payroll of the Kuwaiti royal family.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “The international PR firm Hill & Knowlton was to prove a very useful front for the CIA. Robert T. Crowley, who spent much of his career soliciting cover for American businesses for CIA activities across the globe, remarked “Hill & Knowlton’s overseas offices were the perfect ‘cover’ for the … CIA. Unlike other cover jobs being a public relations specialist did not required technical training for CIA officers.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “Leading Washignton PR operator Robert Gray, who was Hill & Knowlton for 20 years, also had close links with intelligence circles. He was implicated in the Iran –Contra affair through his association with William Casey, then Director of Central Intelligence.”
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton (2007) – Toxic Sludge is Good for You – Common Courage Press, Monroe – ISBN 1-56751-060-4 – Citado en Nick Davies (2008) – Flat Earth News – Chatto & Windus, 2008 – 408 pp – ISBN 9780701181451 – http://www.flatearthnews.net “But this pseudo-world is also a dirty world. In Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Stauber and Rampton tell of PR companies infiltrating pressure groups who oppose their clients, to gather intelligence and/or to screw up their activities: Hill & Knowlton activities to discredit Earth Fisrt by sending out a phoney memo paper urging violence ‘to fuck up the mega machine’.”
David Helvarg (1994) – The War Against the Greens – Sierra Club Books, San Francisco – ISBN: 1-55566-328-1 – p. 5 “This belief is strongly reinforced when Hill and Knowlton, the PR firm hired by Pacific Lumber to counter the environmentalists, passes out photocopies of faked Earth Fisrt! Flyers calling for violence during Redwood summer “to fuck up the workings of the Megamachine … ‘Lesbian, lesbian’ come cries from the sidewalk as she begins to talk about the biosphere, one of those eco-buzzwords that seems to set off the pro-timber crowd.”
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton – Toxic Sludge Is Good For You. Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry – Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine – ISBN 1-56751-060-4 “Dr. Terry Logan, a professor of soil chemistry at Ohio State University, is another sludge advocate who has conflicting roles and interests. He co-chairs the US EPA Peer Review Committee, a group described by the EPA as “the best scientific talent and data assembled” to help develop recent federal regulations that eased restrictions on sludge farming. Logan also receives $2,400 per month as a paid consultant and board member of the N-Viro International Corporation, which has developed a patented process for converting sludge into fertilizer by mixing it with dust from concrete kilns and heat-drying it to kill germs. N-Viro, a client of Hill & Knowlton PR, handles sludge treatment and disposal for sewer plants in New Jersey, Minnesota, Ohio and Harsham, England. At the recommendation of Logan’s committee, the EPA promulgated a modification of its “Part 503” regulations that increased the allowable heavy metals in sludge fertilizer. At the same time that Logan was involved in developing the new, relaxed regulations, he held stock options in N-Viro whose value could have dropped substantially if he had recommended stricter requirements.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London – ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “WPP is an ‘industry partner’, a ‘meeting partner’ and a ‘strategic partner’ of the World Economic Forum. WPP was also ‘commissioned’ by the World Economic Forum ‘to examine ways of finding a new positioning for the continent [of Africa].
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “WPP, through its subsidiary companies, is also a key mover behind the Advertising Association in the UK, which has been lobbying government not to introduce regulations restricting the pushing of junk food at children. Hardly socially responsible one might think, but business is business. In terms of sustainability, WPP, and the advertising industry in general, harly inspire confidence.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “Philip Lader, who was appointed chairman of WPP in 2001 … is also a senior adviser to Morgan Stanley as well as on the board of Marathon Oil and AES Corporations … he is both director of the RAND Corporation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, both of which are immensely influential think tanks at the center of the US foreign policy discussions. Lader is also the founder of Renaissance Weekend … An assortment of US elite often attends, including various PR and propaganda theorists. The advisory board includes Ann Wexler of lobbying firm Wexler Public Policy … and Joseph Nye, the academic theorist of ‘soft power’, or propaganda (ref).”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “Another advisory board member [of the Renaissance Weekend] is Esther Dyson … CNET … sits on the board of WPP as a non-executive director is also a trustee for the Eurasia Foundation … [that] proposes [is] that there should be no collective management by citizens but that corporations should be allowed to operate without regulation … the Russian oil firm Yukos, were among the sponsors. Dyson’s other activities include positions at the EastWest Institute (along with BP and bap’s Nick Butler. She has been also an adviser to Al Gore as a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council and to the republicans trough the Progress of Freedom Foundation (ref).”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. “[Martin] Sorrell is a member of the Trilateral Comission and contributed to its 2001 meeting (ref) … Sorrell is on the advisory council of KPMG … a member of the NASDAQ Board and a trustee of the New York corporate lobby group, the Conference Board (ref). In 2002 Sorrell was appointed to the CBI International Advisory Board and the Engineering and Technology Board.”
Hill & Knowlton’s Carbon Two-Step – PR Watch 29/10/2009 – http://www.prwatch.org/node/8680 “In a media release, the PR firm Hill & Knowlton (H&K) boasts that the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has awarded the company a short-term consultancy for «an information campaign to encourage climate conscious behavior by delegates and others to help reduce GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions» related to the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen in December. H&K’s global Chairman & CEO, Paul Taaffe, states that «climate change is the world’s #1 issue and a huge and complex challenge for us all.» The release also points out that the PR firm is «a pro bono advisor to the Iwokrama rainforest trust in Guyana.» What it doesn’t state is that the firm also works for some of the world’s largest carbon emitters such as Huaneng Power International, a subsidiary of the Chinese government-owned China Huaneng Group. A recent Greenpeace China report (pdf) listed the Huaneng group as the largest coal burning power company in China and the largest greenhouse gas emitter.”
David Miller and William Dinan (2008) – A Century of Spin. How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power – Pluto Books, London –ISBN: 978-0-7453-2689-4 – 232 pp. – Pág.
Divorce forces Sorrell to cash in £12m of WPP shares – Brand Republic 21/12/2005 – http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/br/article/533574/divorce-forces-sorrell-cash-12m-wpp-shares/ “A costly divorce has forced Sir Martin Sorrell, the WPP Group chief executive, to cash in £12m of shares in the British advertising giant he created. Sorrell will no doubt appreciate the irony in selling off some of his shares to fund the divorce after his globetrotting and the long hours spent building WPP were cited by Lady Sandra Sorrell as reasons behind the collapse in their marriage.”
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La humanidad se encuentra frente a una de las mayores disyuntivas que cabe imaginar. El sistema climático terrestre parece haber sido definitivamente desestabilizado, mientras la inmensa mayoría de la población vive ajena a un fenómeno llamado a marcar nuestras vidas de forma determinante y abrumadora. Comunidad científica, medios de comunicación y clase política se encuentran aturdidos por el fenómeno y sin respuestas adecuadas a la magnitud del desafío. Cuando las élites fracasan, es la hora de la gente.
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