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Yahoo!SACRAMENTO (AP) — Public relations firms across the country predict massive layoffs in the coming months due to recent legislation outlawing the firms’ most lucrative practices.
Hill & Knowlton’s New York office after layoffs were announced yesterday. Cutbacks have rippled through giants across the industry.
The new regulations carefully scrutinize government contracts with for-profit public relations companies, and apply much higher standards to public relations work overall. The new rules would have forbidden the creation of the National Smokers Alliance, a front group formed by Philip Morris with the help of P.R. giant Burson Marsteller, which presents itself as a grassroots group opposed to smoke-free laws.
The regulations would also have rendered impossible the notorious “Kuwaiti incubators” episode of 1992, in which P.R. giant Hill & Knowlton worked with the U.S. and Kuwaiti governments to galvanize public opinion in favor of the Persian Gulf War. Among other things, the firm helped stage a press conference in which a 15-year-old girl named Nayirah claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers flinging Kuwaiti babies to the ground from their incubators. Nayirah was later revealed to have been performing on behalf of her father, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the U.S. The “Kuwaiti incubator” hoax was considered decisive in turning popular opinion toward war against Iraq.
“It’s unfortunate that our hard work is being discussed under these circumstances,” said Cynthia Knowlton, granddaughter of Hill & Knowlton founder David J. Knowlton III and a spokesperson for the company.
While most industries suffered during the Iraq War, the P.R. industry remained buoyant. As overall consumer spending decreased, government spending increased, and the coffers of some private firms expanded. Of the 40 percent of Iraq War spending that went to private military contractors since the 2003 invasion, a full 10 percent is rumored to have gone to P.R. firms.
Campaigns like “Army Strong” and “Be All You Can Be” were created by private firms, and companies are even alleged to have been paid hefty sums to guarantee returning veterans prominent placement on television programs such as “Wife Swap,” “Trading Spaces,” and “Punk’d.”
One P.R. firm, MediaLink Worldwide, plans to cut its media commentator funding, a substantial portion of its budget. “We are forced to cut back, and that does mean letting excellent and qualified candidates in all fields go,” company spokesperson Fred Donahue said in an official statement. Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the largest ad firms in the world, fired over 300 employees in its Word-of-Mouth Division. Leo Burnett in Chicago is expected to release all part-time staff later this week.
It’s a vast network of influence, all crumbling down around the feet of culture producers.
“P.R. companies have been doing whatever it takes to maximize their profit,” contended media activist Ben Jefferson at a hearing which shortly preceded the passage of the new regulations. “The mystical power of the consumer isn’t going to change that — whereas the actual power of the citizen is. That’s where legislation comes in.”
Oh, yeah. Thought so.
[...] in the issue, which can also be found online, that might be of interest to the industy: “Public Relations Industry Forecasts a Series of Massive Layoffs.” Public relations firms across the country predict massive layoffs in the coming months due [...]
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