Three out of Four Flacks Agree: No Ifs About Butts

This article was first published as "Three out of Four Flacks Agree: No Ifs About Butts", PR Watch, volume 1, number 3, Third Quarter 1994. The original article was authored by John Stauber and is used here with permission. As with all SourceWatch articles, feel free to edit and revise.

Polling and research by PR Watch shows that three out of four prominent PR firms have no qualms about pushing tobacco addiction.

Of 38 companies surveyed or researched, only 9 said they would decline a contract to represent the tobacco industry. The firms that "just said no" were: Cone/Coughlin Communications; Corbett Associates, Inc.; Cunningham Communication Inc.; Edward Howard & Company; Lukaszewski Group; MWW/Strategic Communications, Inc.; Padilla Speer Beardsley Inc.; The Pires Group, Inc.; and G.K. Sprinkle Consulting.

Firms willing to flack for tobacco interests include: Abernathy MacGregor Scanlon; Apco Associates; Booke Communications Inc.; M. Booth & Associates; Burson-Marsteller; Capitoline/ MS&L; Cohn & Wolfe; Council for Tobacco Research; The Dolphin Group; CME-KHB Advertising; Earle Palmer Brown Public Affairs; Edelman PR Worldwide; Epley Associates, Inc.; Fleishman-Hillard Inc.; GCI Group Inc.; Gavin-Anderson & Company; Jack Guthrie & Associates; E. Bruce Harrison; Hill & Knowlton; Kekst & Company, Inc.; Keller Crescent Company; Lockhart & Pettus, Inc.; RTC Group; Joanne Ralston & Associates; The Robbins Group; Rogers & Cowan; Tobacco Institute; and Watt, Roop & Company.