Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick Worldwide (WSW) is, in 2004, the world's largest public relations company. A subsidiary of the Interpublic Group, it was formed as the product of the mergers of Weber Public Relations and Shandwick Worldwide in late 2000. In 2001, Weber Shandwick merged with BSMG to become the largest PR operation in the world. It is a privately held firm.

WSW has been heavily criticized for its work for the Japanese Whaling Association and its work for the New Zealand government-owned logging company Timberlands. WSW owns Planet 2050, a PR firm marketed as "socially responsible", which claims to help businesses "navigate the environmental and social challenges needed to operate in a planet under pressure".

Ties to Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt"
The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem."

This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's investigation of Pete Peterson's Campaign to "Fix the Debt." Please visit our main SourceWatch page on Fix the Debt.

China's Olympics
"After China lost its Olympics bid in 1993 ... Olympic insiders advised it to hire a public relations firm before its next attempt," reported the New York Times in April 2008. "Weber Shandwick, owned by the Interpublic Group, won the contract, and, [Weber Shandwick China managing director David] Liu said, his advice was that China separate its human-rights record from its Olympics bid."

Weber Shandwick "suggested to the Olympic committee ... that if Beijing were allowed to hold the Games, it might lead to some movement on a number of fronts. 'If you give China the Olympic hosting rights, then it is like you are engaging China, and naturally they will improve on a lot of things,'" Liu said. China's hosting of the Summer 2008 Olympics Games provided opportunities for advocacy groups to highlight China's human rights issues, including jailing reporters and dissidents, occupying Tibet and supporting Sudan's repressive regime. But China's government has yet to address these issues.

Exxon's Earth Day
In September 2004, O'Dwyers PR Daily reported that Weber Shandwick is "handling the 'greening' of ExxonMobil Corp. by promoting an alliance forged between the energy giant and Earth 911, a government/private sector entity with the motto of 'making every day Earth Day.'"

"The partnership aims to educate consumers about the importance of recycling used motor oil. ExxonMobil will provide funding for Earth 911 in return for the right to slap the group's logo on its Exxon- and Mobil-branded products. Earth 911's public service announcements will feature the Mobil 1 logo and the location of used motor oil collection sites. Earth 911's corporate partners include Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Aluminum Association of America and Vertex Energy, a company that recycles petroleum products." 

Post-9/11 crisis management for American Airlines
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the Dallas office of Weber Shandwick, one of world’s largest public relations agencies, mobilized a nationwide network of public relations professionals to assist the American Airlines corporate communications department.

"Within minutes of the first terrorist attack involving American Airlines, Weber Shandwick put in motion a national strategic support network, comprising more than 75 Weber Shandwick professionals, to assist American Airlines during this unprecedented crisis situation. Over the following week, the W.S. team worked around the clock on site at the AA corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as in New York, Washington, D.C., Boston and Los Angeles, providing strategic counsel and tactical support for both internal and external communications. Additionally, the Dallas office of W.S. was staffed 24 hours a day, monitoring breaking national broadcast and online news. Communications specialists in crisis management, consumer relations, internal communications, and government affairs provided support....Externally, AA faced the difficult challenge of controlling what was being said about the airline by unauthorized spokespeople. Flight attendants, pilots – and their unions - along with contracted security firms, airport authorities, government agencies including the FBI, FAA and National Transportation Safety Board, and local government agencies all issued statements regarding the events. Eyewitnesses, stranded passengers and post-September 11 travelers were also of concern. All of these external groups has an impact on American Airlines’ commnications strategy, requiring that the W.S. team ensure consistent communications with all audiences."

Got Milk?
In May 2001, Weber Shandwick won what was reported to be $2 million issues management account with Dairy Management Inc, a trade association, to promote demand for U.S. dairy products. O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported that Sara Gavin heads the DMI account from Weber Shandwick's Minneapolis office with support from the Weber Shandwick's Washington, D.C office. The campaign had been expected to focus on concerns raised by foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease in Europe. According to the PR trade newsletter, the Holmes Report, DMI's executive vice president of public and industry relations Jean Regalie said the campaign will be broader than that, taking a long term view of "the way people look at food." Dairy Management Inc. also has accounts with Golin/Harris International and BSMG Worldwide, creator of the ubiquitous "Got Milk?" campaign. 

Food issues
In April 2008, Weber Shandwick announced it was launching a "a new food issues practice to assist food, beverage and agricultural organizations in handling complex issues," headed by Susan Ruland. The practice will address "environmental sustainability, food safety, food nutrition and obesity concerns, animal welfare, biotechnology" and related issues, through "legislative initiatives, as well as executive reputation and brand management" tactics.

"In addition to having registered dietitians on-staff, Weber Shandwick offers a unique network of 100 registered dietitian spokespeople across the United States who are deployed on behalf of clients," noted the Holmes Report.

History
Peter Gummer, the British chairman of Shandwick, is candid about why he started a PR firm. "When I started off in public relations, it was a business that people went into because they weren't good at anything else," he wrote.

While working at a London venture capital firm in the early 1970s, Gummer observed a parade of his peers establishing their own businesses and making serious money. "So I thought that I'd like to start my own business. And as I wasn't very good at anything, I decided I'd better start a PR firm," he explained. Peter Gummer was knighted in 1996 and is now known as Lord Chadlington. 

In October 1998, Shandwick was bought by the Interpublic Group of Companies, a U.S. firm that also owns the advertising agencies McCann Erickson Worldwide Group, Ammirati Puras Lintas and The Lowe Group. Following the takeover, Shandwick was merged with the Weber Group. The merged companies operated as Weber Shandwick from January 2001.

Clients
Some of Shandwick's current or recent clients include:

USA

 * 3M
 * Aerospatiale
 * American Cancer Society
 * Bayer
 * Brown & Williamson Tobacco
 * Browning Ferris Industries
 * Cancer United
 * Carlyle Group
 * Central Maine Power
 * Columbia Gas Systems
 * Chase Manhattan Bank
 * Ciba-Geigy
 * Coca-Cola
 * Compaq
 * Council for Agricultural Science and Technology
 * U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
 * Dairy Management Inc
 * Dun & Bradstreet
 * Earth Day USA
 * Eastman Kodak
 * ExxonMobil
 * the Falkland Islands
 * Federal Emergency Management Agency
 * Ford Motor Company
 * Gabon General Electric
 * General Motors
 * Georgia Pacific Corporation
 * General Mills
 * Global Climate Information Project
 * Honeywell
 * IBM
 * KPMG Peat Marwick
 * Kraft
 * Lever Brothers
 * Los Angeles Police Department (sub req'd)
 * Mastercard International
 * Michelin
 * Monsanto
 * Mall of America
 * Microsoft
 * New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau
 * New York State Electric and Gas
 * National Pest Control Association
 * Northwest Airlines
 * Novartis,
 * Novo Nordisk
 * Ray-Ban
 * Remington and Sharp Electronics
 * Sandefer Capital Partners
 * Shell Oil
 * Symantec

In a listing on its website of PR companies with a crisis management capability, the American Meat Institute described the "Shandwick Public Affairs (formerly Powell Tate)" in the US as having "done crisis management work for Jack in the Box, Food Lion, Hudson Foods, Hooters of America, Denny's, Federal Express and the National Association of Convenience Stores. Shandwick Public Affairs' cadre of senior professionals, who have been in the trenches with the senior management teams of global corporations, are ready to offer assistance at a moment's notice." 

Europe

 * Anglian Water
 * British American Tobacco
 * British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL)
 * Coca Cola Great Britain (sub req'd)
 * Corporation of London
 * ICI Paints
 * Meat and Livestock Corporation
 * MCI Worldcom
 * Mercedes-Benz
 * Nestle
 * P&O Cruises
 * Reckitt & Coleman
 * Shell Oil
 * Tesco
 * Unilever

Latin America

 * Government of Colombia

Asia Pacific

 * Japanese Whaling Association

New Zealand

 * Real Estate Institute of New Zealand
 * Professional Firefighters Union
 * Southern Cross Healthcare
 * Timberlands (contract ended late 1999).

Australia

 * Screen Producers Association of Australia
 * Australian Chicken Growers Council.
 * Mastercard International

Personnel

 * Jack Leslie, Chairman
 * Andy Polansky, CEO
 * Gail Heimann, President and Chief Strategy Officer
 * Cathy Calhoun, President, North America
 * Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist (CEO reputations)
 * Abby Gold, Executive Vice President, Human Resources
 * Jill Murphy, Chief Business Development Officer
 * Frank Okunak, Chief Financial Officer
 * Tim Sutton, Chairman, Weber Shandwick - Asia Pacific
 * Colin Byrne, CEO, Weber Shandwick - UK & Europe. Was hired by Peter Mandelson to work for the UK Labour Party in 1997.
 * Laura Schoen, Chair, Latin America and President, Global Healthcare Practice
 * Judith Harrison, Senior Vice President, Staffing and Diversity & Inclusion
 * Laura Tessinari, Senior Vice President - Learning and Development

Former Personnel

 * Harris Diamond, CEO

Contact information
919 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 USA Phone: 212-445-8000 Web: http://www.webershandwick.com

Featured SourceWatch Articles on Fix the Debt

 * Fix the Debt Portal Page
 * 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
 * Pete Peterson
 * Peter G. Peterson Foundation
 * America Speaks
 * Simpson-Bowles Commission
 * Erskine Bowles
 * Alan Simpson
 * Social Security
 * Medicare
 * Medicaid

Case studies

 * Shandwick Works to Save the Fox, Kill the Whale
 * Shandwick's Story: From Good-for-Nothing to Global Threat
 * Secrets and Lies: How Shandwick PR Tried to Destroy the Rainforests of New Zealand
 * Building Bridges and Splitting Greens
 * When Helicopters Attack: A Near Accident Leads To Coverup
 * Erasing the Writing on the Wall: Timberlands Censors Its Critics
 * Shandwick Takes Aim at a Goldman Prizewinner
 * Weber Shandwick and Nuclear Power

Books

 * Nicky Hager and Bob Burton, Secrets and Lies: the anatomy of an anti-environmental PR campaign, Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine, 2000.

SourceWatch resources

 * Colin Byrne
 * Labour Party
 * Weber Shandwick (UK)
 * Mike Kirk

Articles

 * The entire edition of PR Watch of the first quarter of 2000 was devoted to a profile of Shandwick's activities on behalf of the New Zealand government-owned logging company, Timberlands, with a small additional amount of profile material. The edition of PR Watch is available at http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/index.html
 * Nicky Hager and Bob Burton, "Shandwick's Story: From Good-for-Nothing to Global Threat", PR Watch, First quarter 2000, page 7.
 * Bob Burton, &#8220;Shandwick Works to Save the Fox, Kill the Whale&#8221;, &#8216;&#8217;PR Watch&#8217;&#8217;, First quarter 2001.
 * &#8220;$2 million Dairy Issues Management Contract Awarded to Weber Shandwick&#8221;, &#8216;&#8217;Spin of the Day&#8217;&#8217;, May 21, 2001.
 * American Meat Institute, "Public Relations Firms With Crisis Management Capabilities", accessed February 8, 2004.
 * "ExxonMobil goes green", O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), September 8, 2004.
 * Anita Chabria, "WS helps LAPD use film trailers as recruitment tool", PR Week, January 3, 2005.
 * "WS offers gratis comms support", PR Week, November 10, 2005. (Sub req'd).
 * "Weber Shandwick Gudes Nuke Deal", O'Dwyers PR Daily, February 6, 2006. (Sub req'd)
 * Press release, "New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau Selects Weber Shandwick as Public Relations Partner: Agency Hired to Spread the Word that Now is the Time for Tourists to Return to New Orleans," Weber Shandwick via Yahoo! Finance, February 16, 2007.

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