Snookering the Media is Easy According to The Yes Men

When Chevron rolled out its latest ad campaign last month it wanted to burnish the image of the spill-tarnished oil industry, according to blogger Brett Michael Dykes. The campaign, called "We Agree," highlights very broad negative impressions of the oil business, with the leaders of Chevron--the "we" referenced in the spots--chiming in to say that they understand and are taking positive measures to improve things, via initiatives such as clean-energy development.
But the company now is in anything but an agreeable mood over a hoax campaign that draws on far more specific, and damning, complaints over oil company practices. The meta-pushback campaign is the handiwork of a group called the Yes Men. Joining forces with the environmental groups Amazon Watch and the Rainforest Action Network, The Yes Men released a bogus press release and even put up a phony website for the hijacked version of the "We Agree" campaign.
As the New York Times' Stuart Elliott notes: "The main difference between the lampoon and the real one was that the fake release described the ads as addressing environmental issues in which Chevron is embroiled, including a dispute in Ecuador over oil pollution; the real ads do not directly address those matters." Some media outlets, including the digital-business publication Fast Company, were taken in by the prank.
So Chevron, which had been expecting to spend much of the time touting its civic-minded achievements, is now embroiled in a push-back campaign against its media-hacking tormentors. "We expected something like this would be done," Chevron spokesman Morgan Crinklaw told the Times, because "there are activist groups whose sole focus is attacking Chevron and not engaging in rational conversations on energy issues."
The perpetrators of the prank claim they are merely truth-squadding the sunny claims of the "We Agree" spots. "The oil giant has prioritized this high-priced glossy ad campaign that attempts to trick us into believing it is of the people, for the people," Maria Ramos of the Rainforest Action Network told Reuters.
This isn't the first time the Yes Men have targeted a major energy company. The group's past campaigns included pranks ridiculing Exxon Mobil and Halliburton, among other international corporations. In boasting about the success of the Chevron prank, the Yes Men also took a shot at the media. "If you really want to snooker the media, it's pretty hard for them to resist," Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men said in a Yes Men press release. "We cobbled together some fake releases with string and thumbtacks and chewing gum, and we fooled the most respectable outlets." Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum added: "Chevron is doing what we did, a million times over, with a ginormous budget -- and it never reveals its subterfuge. No wonder the media's full of lies."

Interactive Web Campaign Helps Kraft Product's Sales Soar

If you're having a hard time growing sales for a mature brand, here's an idea: Give your most-loyal consumers reason to use it more. It's worked for Kraft, which has posted solid sales gains on Philadelphia Cream Cheese, a brand that had been essentially flat since 2005, reports Emily Bryson York in Ad Age.

By encouraging uses beyond bagel spread and cheesecake ingredient Kraft boosted Philly sales 8% since the campaign launched last September. Not bad for a brand that's done $720 million in sales over the last 52 weeks in the U.S. alone.
Also helping was seriously stepped-up advertising support: Kraft more than doubled measured-media spending on Philly last year, according to Kantar Media, to $20 million from $8 million in 2008.

The spots, featuring the catchy if not insidious "Spread a Little Love" jingle (also available as a ringtone), depict consumers adding Philly to a variety of dishes. Mr. Friedman said Kraft started with some quick "how-to" videos last spring, teaching consumers how to use the brand in dips and alfredo sauce. The resulting 250,000 downloads was overwhelming, given it hadn't received a major ad push and was seeded only on the Kraft website. The marketer tasked then-new agency McGarryBowen, Chicago, to develop the campaign around usage occasions.
Then Kraft enlisted Paula Deen. Together with Digitas and Eqal, a social-entertainment company, Kraft developed a promotion called "The Real Women of Philadelphia," a video contest to find the best consumer-generated recipes using Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Ms. Deen introduced the contest on YouTube -- a video that's gotten 10 million views -- and Kraft launched a website where consumers can upload their video entries. There are a series of instructional clips, including tips for cooking videos and how to dress for TV. Since launching in late March, the site has had 550,000 unique visitors and there have been 3,600 recipe submissions. Kraft estimates total impressions at 97 million.
Next up, Philly will whittle its entries to a list of 16 finalists -- four each making a dessert, side, entrée or appetizer -- to participate in a cook-off in Savannah on June 30. The winner gets $25,000 and her own web series. Kraft will also tap its finalists to help assemble a consumer-generated cookbook, featuring even more things to do with cream cheese.

When the Professional Line Blurs with the Personal Line the Public Looses

Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com mentioned in his Tim Tebow column that two accredited media members asked Tebow for an autograph. One was a Cincinnati reporter.  One was a photographer. Tebow obliged with his signature, and then the Broncos P.R. staff promptly booted the two media members from the premises who were harshly criticized for being just one step from hitting the press box wearing a home team’s jersey and cheering through the entire game.

Cuban-American CNN Host Rick Sanchez was fired after making controversial remarks on a satellite radio show. Sanchez called Comedy Central host Jon Stewart a "bigot" for mocking him, and complained that Jews — like Stewart — don't face discrimination. He also suggested that CNN, and perhaps the media industry more broadly, is run by Jews and elitists who look down on Hispanics like himself. He didn't just make a single impolite statement, but spoke at length — for roughly 20 minutes — about Stewart and a media world he believes to be filled with "elite Northeast liberals" who consider Hispanic journalists "second tier." This wasn’t the first time in Sanchez's four years at CNN that his comments had led to controversy or mockery. He once called President Obama a "cotton-picking president," and had attributed unconfirmed quotes to Rush Limbaugh and misidentified the Galapagos Islands as Hawaii.

Juan Williams was fired by NPR after saying on Bill O'Reilly's show that he gets nervous when he sees people in "Muslim garb" on airplanes. Within 24 hours Williams signed a $2 million contract with FOX. Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes said, “He's an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.” Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and other conservative leaders rushed to Williams' defense calling for the federal government to stop providing funds to NPR. Erick Erickson, author of the "Red State" blog, called NPR's decision disgusting.  "All Juan Williams did is say both exactly how he feels and how many, many other Americans feel on this subject," Erickson wrote. “The man's body of work makes clear he is no bigot. But we sure can't offend [m]uslims can we?"

Not long ago you had to have a college degree to be a journalist, but now that anyone can publish anything —be it news, rumor or innuendo— on the Internet, the rules and the profession itself are changing. There was a time when journalism placed a high internal value on the rules of objective coverage and had a code of ethics to ensure it. Believe it or not, facts and sources had to be double and triple-checked before anything was published. Reporters and on-air personalities were aware of journalistic standards that prohibited them from injecting themselves into a story. They knew these standards and codes applied to everyone, in every circumstance.

The lack of professionalism in all cases mentioned is staggering, especially from a "mainstream media" that never holds back a chance to take shots at the blogosphere holding itself to a higher standard. However, it is not a matter of free speech; it is a matter of professional standards. Do you think Coca-Cola executives are free to divulge Coke’s secret formula under the First Amendment protection? Every company makes its own rules; every employee is free to leave a company when they don’t like the company’s mission, ethics or standards. NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm told the L.A. Times that Williams had been warned about the policy that their journalists should not participate in programs "that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis." NPR said that William’s comments “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.” But Williams thought free speech trumped company policy and said, “Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality.” 

Political correctness doesn’t negate objectivity and reality is objective. A professional recognizes that they have to be circumspect about their own opinions on divisive issues. There are some news organizations that present only one side and only one agenda letting fairness and balance fly out the window. They have much lower journalistic ethics and standards; but as long as they make them known to their employees, and the employees are comfortable working in that environment there is no problem. On the other hand, there are some news organizations that understand the role of the reporter/host is to present the story or the issue, not to make it. They feed objectivity to the public and let them make their own mind by presenting all sides of an issue; that’s what fair and balance is all about. Thank goodness there are some news organizations that still uphold their journalistic standards and ethics refusing to lower the bar!