The author of Deadly Spin, former PR man Wendell Potter, is posing as a whistleblower with something useful to reveal. But a quick look at his book’s main theme suggests that he’s talking nonsense about his trade because he doesn’t like its paymasters.

What are we PRs to do with the troublesome issue of privacy? We certainly have an interest in leading this debate because reputations are linked to the public’s perception of its protection. Read on ›

Google’s Eric Schmidt says we should be able to reinvent our identity at will. That’s daft. But he’s got a point. Most personalities possess more than one side. Read on ›

What happened to Mark Hurd at HP was the stuff of Hollywood. Michael Moore or Oliver Stone to the fore? Read on ›

I’m home refreshed after two weeks in the Swiss canton Ticino on the shores of Lake Lugano. It didn’t take long, however, for me to get my focus back and decide to take a swipe at some PR nonsense. Read on ›

‘Do No Evil’ Google has, rightly, returned to China. However, Google was also right when it withdrew because its reputation and survival were at stake. Read on ›

Here’s a thought. Is the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Vision 2050anything more than a PR survival plan for today’s big companies seeking a long-term and popular licence to operate?
Read on ›

I took a peculiar pleasure today in helping Rupert Murdoch turn The Times in to a club for grown-ups who acknowledge that free journalism online is unsustainable. Read on ›

The last in my trilogy on the Stockholm Accords is dedicated to rebutting the authoritarian notion that public relations professionals (let’s just call them ‘PRs’) are “ideological governors of value networks”. Read on ›

Note: This piece needs to be treated with care. I was the victim of a sophisticated hoax. I apologize to anybody who was mislead. But I’m leaving the post here as a spoof of a spoof. It shows how even if the anti-Shell campaigning trickesters got their way, it would not address the problems in Nigeria in a sensible or realistic manner but would actually make things worse.

Yesterday “Shell” (go to hoax press release) said it was going to clean up the Niger Delta, compensate local communities for past injuries, and institute a local stakeholders’ program that will help lift the region out of poverty. That sounds like good news. But what if the real victim is the truth? Read on ›