Ahmadinejad Not Welcome At Ground Zero? Try Edelman.

Poor President of Iran... he's coming to visit the States, do a little debating, raise a few nuclear weaponry funds, take in a show or two. But Little Man Ahmadinejad has been thwarted from his whacked photo-op intentions to lay a wreath at Ground Zero. Official New York surely doesn't want him to darken their doorstep downtown.

Silly dude! Didn't anyone tell him he just needed to hire Edelman? They excel at fake PR. They're the network. They Da Man.

Whatcha want to bet Edelman could get Ahmadinejad the Ground Zero wreath laying event he's craving? Edelman thing doesn't work out, try Caren West. Heck, she'll even toss in a fake column in the Sunday Paper for ya too at no extra charge. What a deal.

Come on Ahmadinejad. Think outside the Axis of Evil! This is America hon, where you can always manufacture yourself some ethics and integrity if you're running low.

Does Shirley Really Read Red State (The Blog)?

Just in time for the holidays, think Edelman -- the gift that keeps on giving. The City of Atlanta has. Edelman pops up to manipulate everything everywhere! Sprinkling PR fairy dust in their wake. Kinda like bloggers. Too bad they are just floggers. Technorati does biz with 'em, too. Why not join the flog party?!

Atlanta government is using Edelman (pro bono, see UPDATE below) to promote a city initiative to end child prostitution. Do we really want a PR company that specializes in creating and disseminating phony information to get mixed-up in the deadly serious, city government business of eliminating crimes against children?

I'm sure they are kings of the best propoganda money can buy (Edelman VP Michael Krempasky runs the righty, very popular blog, Red State, Shirley hon. Did you know that?), but the Edelman reputation is being paraded through the streets of the blogosphere -- for good reasons too. Will it end up on the block?! Tune-in to the ever-howling blogosphere to find out.

And for chrissake... like Peachtree Screed says, forget glossy PR campaigns! Use the energy and effort to send the johns and perverts and pimps and assorted child sex-crime offenders to Reidsville so they can get what's coming to them. In just the right place.

UPDATE: Someone who worked on the Hidden In Plain View study just let me know that the work done by Edelman for the City of Atlanta's campaign to stop child prostitution was done pro bono. At least no tax-payer dollars were, uh, misplaced that way.

Pray For The American PR Industry

Oh, this is getting just priceless, the smackdown PR battle going on for the Wal-Mart message. I could care less who's right or wrong -- the fun part is watching the all-out corporate catfight!

There are some great examples, on either side, of the flat-out battle to shape the message. I love it. All the flaming and name-calling. I'm particularly charmed by this one anti-Wal-Marteers' slogan: America, Pray for Wal-Mart to Change. A lot of yap in search of a genuine problem perhaps, but it's got zing. PR warfare at its snarky-delicious best.

Note the Newt dude here, and his lukewarm “Dukakis-like” messaging effort:

Then Republican strategist Frank Luntz (famous for helping Newt Gingrich forge his Contract With America) takes a turn. He's been brought in to analyze the focus group, and when he tests classic Wal-Mart rebuttals, including how much the company saves consumers, he bombs, scoring a Dukakis-like 30 percent.

And this: "Last time I checked, he (another dude) wouldn't have a job if it weren't for our (anti-Wal-Mart) campaign."

Yes, these are some glory days for the PR industry. My editorial two-cents: Wal-Mart is losing points for having ZERO sense of humor. Humor’s hot these days, clueless dumb-asses. Hell, even suits stuck way out of reality in a Gulfstream can tell that. Then again… maybe not.

Keep it coming folks. There's big money to be made in war -- and corporate PR.

Technorati tags: wal-mart, Technorati, Edelman, public relations

Good PR Firm, Good

At my request in a blog comment today, Edelman did remove my editorial from the Georgia Families For Wal-Mart site. At once. Edelman hizseff contacted me by email to honor my request. I really appreciate this responsiveness on their part, and I told 'em that they were free to put the article back on the site, if it (their site) suddenly became "more transparent."

This is the power of the blogosphere, folks. YOU now own media. You, the individual, don't you see? And all before lunch! Now everybody... shut-up and shop!

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart, Edelman, PR

Bad PR Firm, Bad

Edleman, the massive PR agency with clients like, oh say... Wal-Mart, the second (?) largest corporation in the history of capitalism, has admitted, finally, to their ethically dubious behavior. In a nutshell, and you can click yourself into a mia culpa frenzy reading all about it on your own time, Edelman created phoney sites and blogs and world f-ing tours and a host of other $$$-generated smoke and mirrors for their bestest client, Wal-Mart.

Seemed the smarties in the blogosphere, as opposed to the general public, weren't too confused for too long. (I mean...duh... what were they thinking? That people would seriously believe there was a genuine, grassroots, pro-Wal-Mart effort afoot in the land? Do we LOOK stupid here in the blogosphere?!) And guess what, folks got pissed and called 'em out. Imagine that.

I, too, got caught-up in the whole fake Wal-Mart PR campaign, a practice refered to as "astroturfing," when my editorial for The Georgia Political Digest ended-up on the Georgia Families For Wal-Mart site. It's still there. I asked Edelman today to remove the editorial until the whole campaign/site is made more transparent. (UPDATE as of 12:05pm EDT: they did.)

I stand-by my editorial direction in the article. I like Wal-Mart, and plan to shop there when the new intown store opens tomorrow in my 'hood. (Shit, I'm a single working mom; we're programmed to love Wal-Mart due to our historically slim budgets alone.) I just don't like being used on a highly un-transparent site.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart, Edelman, PR