Proof Integrated Communications

Proof Integrated Communications (PIC) is an "integrated marketing communications firm" under the umbrella of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M). It "produce[s] television commercials, short- and long-form video, print ads, radio spots, out-of-home advertising, websites, online advertising, social media campaigns, and events," according to B-M. Since April 2012, its CEO is Michael Bassik, who is also Chair of B-M's U.S. Digital Practice. Bassik was previously the chief digital officer of progressive radio network Air America, and directed political advertising strategy at America Online.

2012: "Massive Campaign" for Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt"
The Campaign to Fix the Debt (Fix the Debt) is the latest incarnation of a multi-decade effort by Blackstone billionaire Pete Peterson to cut back crucial insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare in order to balance the budget and fix the nation’s "debt problem."

With a staff of 80, and a target of $60 million for their budget, $40 million of which was raised by February 2013, Fix the Debt is best described as an "Astroturf supergroup." Fix the Debt has five Washington, D.C. PR firms/lobby shops working on its account, many of whom also lobby for Fix the Debt firms. These include DCI Group, Glover Park Group, and Dewey Square Group, which have lobbied for multiple Fix the Debt corporations in multiple years. For example, DCI Group lobbied for Morgan Stanley on tax issues in 2006 and 2007. Fix the Debt is also using Proof Integrated Communications (PIC), a unit of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller, for its aggressive advertising push. As Fix the Debt creates more Astroturf state chapters, they also engage PR firms at the state level to carry their message.

PIC's campaign for Fix the Debt included "parody recreations of well-known advertising slogans," such as: the slogan "i'm fixin' it" on a carton of fries to imitate the McDonald's "i'm lovin' it" campaign; the slogan "Got debt?" to imitate the famous "Got milk?" dairy ad campaign; and the slogan "Just fix it" to imitate the Nike "Just do it" campaign.

Fix the Debt CEOs are treated with fawning respect by the mainstream media. Fix the Debt’s David Cote "brings serious financial muscle to the table" when he pushes "market credible solutions," says the Wall Street Journal. Cote is free to lecture the country on the hazards of Social Security, given his $78 million dollars in personal pension assets. The fact that he underfunds his employees’ pensions by $2.7 billion is never noted; and the fact that he heads a company paying a negative tax rate (-0.7 percent) is apparently not considered relevant.The campaign had the most presence in the Washington, D.C. area, but Bassik said that "future iterations of the effort will use images of regular people to show lawmakers that constituents also want a bi-partisan deal to take place." Fix the Debt's other PR agency partners, DCI Group, Glover Park Group, and Dewey Square Group, were to do additional research and "find average citizens." Dewey Square and DCI are also handling "grass-roots outreach" -- i.e. Astroturf -- for the campaign, according to Politico, and "firms are still pitching the coalition, hoping to get business for potential television ads" as of December 5, 2012. On December 16, 2012, Fix the Debt released its first television ad (see video), with a six-figure buy, featuring "interviews with several Americans who talk about their concerns over America’s debt" and accompanying text, "We need to do more than avoid the fiscal cliff."

According to the LA Times, Fix the Debt had spent $3 million on its PR campaign as of December 2012. Burson-Marsteller's Johanna Schneider told PR Week that the ad campaign was the biggest public policy campaign she had seen in some time. It also included full-page ads in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Roll Call, Politico, and National Journal. Politico said of Fix the Debt's campaign, "Message men, lobbyists, grassroots firms and lawyers are raking in cash . . . It's a classic Washington phenomenon: Ahead of a major deal, corporate clients and other groups pay a premium to the Washington influence machinery to make sure their interests are protected."

Visit the Fix the Debt main page on SourceWatch.org to learn more about this PR effort backing a Simpson-Bowles style austerity bill.

Clients
PIC's clients include the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's Campaign to Fix the Debt, energy giant Dominion, Hormel Foods Corporation, the city of Washington, D.C., Australian water products company Applica, failed nationwide wireless network builder LightSquared (started by global broadband services company Augere with B-M and PIC, and funded in part by Harbinger Capital Partners), and the following:


 * Chase Bank
 * Comcast
 * Ford Motor Company
 * Leviton
 * Intel
 * Qualcomm
 * Johnson Controls
 * HAVA
 * Bureau of Engraving & Printing
 * Microsoft
 * P&G
 * Federation Equestre International
 * MEGA Brands
 * Sanofi
 * Make it Right Foundation
 * Washington Nationals
 * TXU
 * Chevron
 * DVT
 * Verizon
 * New Era Cap
 * National Fisheries Institute
 * Ginnie Mae
 * Shell
 * Accenture
 * Ascension
 * Transition Lenses
 * Raytheon
 * Nickel Institute
 * Coca-Cola
 * Con Edison
 * Sony

Featured SourceWatch Articles on Fix the Debt

 * Fix the Debt
 * Fix the Debt's Leadership
 * Fix the Debt's Partner Groups
 * Fix the Debt's State Chapters
 * Fix the Debt's Lobbyists
 * Fix the Debt's Parent Group
 * Fix the Debt's Corporations
 * Peter Peterson
 * Peter G. Peterson Foundation
 * AmericaSpeaks
 * Simpson-Bowles Commission
 * Erskine Bowles
 * Alan Simpson
 * Social Security
 * Medicare
 * Medicaid

Other Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Burson-Marsteller Hires a Green 'Cash Cow'
 * Burson-Marsteller Offers Journalists Cash to Attend Drug Regulator's Hearing
 * Beauty and the Breast
 * Confidence Game: Burson-Marsteller's PR Plan for Silicone Breast Implants
 * Science Under Pressure
 * Why Philip Morris Hates Trial Lawyers
 * Burson-Marsteller and global warming
 * Monsanto and Burson-Marsteller Hire a Consumer Organizer
 * Burson-Marsteller and the National Smokers Alliance
 * Burson-Marsteller Brussels lobbying for the bromine industry
 * Burson-Marsteller, the Colombian Government and Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign
 * California Latino Water Coalition
 * Colombia
 * Hillary Clinton: U.S. presidential election, 2008
 * Mark Penn
 * New Jersey Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy Coalition

Other SourceWatch articles on PIC parent firm B-M's activities can be found by looking under B on the list of article titles.

External articles
See Burson-Marsteller:External articles for a list of news articles and commentaries on PIC's parent firm.