Marketing by government agency
So much is riding on the safety and health advice given by government agencies that big firms are determined to influence such advice. Fair enough. But when government hires a public relations firm to promote its agenda, and that agenda intersects nicely with those of some of the top clients of the public relations firm, the line between pleading your case and subverting the process starts to disappear.
That's the story detailed in a recent New York Times story ("When a Food Marketer Helps Devise Nutrition Advice", 4/10/2005). Porter Novelli, one of the world's largest public relations firms, was hired by the Department of Agriculture to help promote the latest dietary guidelines. These guidelines are not a trivial matter. As the article points out: "a favorable nod to one food group or another can result in millions of dollars of sales. They also influence federal food programs costing $46 billion a year, including food stamps and school lunch programs."
Porter Novelli is a division of Omincom, the largest advertising and marketing firm in the world. Directly or indirectly it has relationships with many of the largest firms in the country, following the pattern that only the big serve the big.
The problem is that major Porter Novelli clients in the food industry have their own agendas. These include Campbell Soup, Dole Foods, the California Almond Board, group, McDonalds's, and the Snack Food Association. Porter Novelli is actively involved in developing the guidelines and packaging the guidelines, and it's in a unique position to make subtle shifts of emphasis that may help their clients.
Porter Novelli argues that it is open about its clients, and that it has erected an internal firewall between commercial accents and government accounts. But critics are not satisfied. The article quotes o public health advocate as saying: "How much of a corporate message is behind the government message?"
With relatively few top p.r. firms out there, such conflicts are all too likely. The article notes that Porter Novelli is in a similar situation in working for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism while also having the Johnnie Walker scotch distillery as a client.
The exact role of processed foods, carbohydrates, fats, oils, and so on in the government guidelines is of extreme importance to food manufacturers. It's inevitable that the p.r. firm that help write those rules would be very attractive to companies in the industry.
11:40:27 AM 
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