It's also curious that Drobis admits that the anti-globalization movement has proven to be a serious challenge to capitalism. But why hasn't he joined the chorus that has been crying about the death of the movement? Is it because they are truly worried about what we have accomplished and their poor response to it?
I don't know, in terms of ideological opposition and PR campaigns against the anti-glob movement prior to 9/11, there was nobody at the helm of that ship.
Chuck0
Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Reuters - November 17, 2001
>
> USA: World PR chiefs ponder post-terror message. By Andrew Quinn
>
> SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - If ever a group needed some
> positive PR right now, it is the public relations industry. The
> leaders of the business that invented damage control and a million
> ways to look better, who are meeting here to sing the post-Sept. 11
> blues, are facing a slumping economy that has cut communications
> spending by major clients.
>
> The Sept. 11 attacks on the United States left the world's largest
> market jittery and fearful. The U.S.-led military strikes in
> Afghanistan have inflamed public opinion in many parts of the world,
> while anti-globalization protests have put both governments and
> corporate leaders on the defensive. "This is the most pivotal moment
> in the history of public relations," David Drobis, president of the
> International Communications Consultancy Organization, told the
> public relations summit in San Francisco when it started on Friday.
>
> "What we have is a massive communication failure on the part of
> business and government."
>
> The summit gathered PR executives from some 22 countries in an effort
> to hone new strategies and new messages to respond to a changed world.
>
> The key, many of these self-described "thought leaders" argue, is a
> stronger communications push to emphasize the benefits of an
> economically and socially integrated world, a global village built on
> shared brand names and values stretching from Islamabad to Iowa City,
> Burbank to Bombay.
>
> CAMELOT TURNS INTO "DEATH VALLEY"
>
> The Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington came as the public
> relations industry - proud specialist in crisis management - was
> already dealing with a crisis of its own.
>
> After a three-year boom that saw the U.S. PR industry balloon in
> value to $3.9 billion from $1.75 billion at the end of 1997, American
> firms were looking at their first year of negative growth, slashing
> staff and shuttering offices as an economic slump wiped out clients
> and accounts.
>
> "The global communications environment has shifted, big-time," said
> Alan Kelly, chief executive officer of Applied Communications in San
> Francisco, where many high-tech companies have simply disappeared
> from the map.
>
> "We've swung from a media Camelot to what one of my colleagues has
> termed 'Death Valley,'" Kelly said.
>
> When the hijacked airliners smashed into New York's World Trade
> Center and the Pentagon, that crisis deepened exponentially. The
> world, which had already seen violent anti-globalization protests
> break out at key international economic meetings, appeared to be
> headed for broader conflict.
>
> Drobis, chairman of Ketchum Public Relations, said the twin crises of
> the attacks and the anti-globalization movement challenged the
> industry to persuade the world that Western-style capitalism "works
> in a moral, and not just a business, context."
>
> "What's good for the soul is also good for business," Drobis said,
> noting that once-controversial companies like DuPont and Nike had
> successfully promoted themselves through corporate citizenship
> campaigns.
>
> SOME HAVE THEIR DOUBTS
>
> The United States had already taken an initial step to explain its
> actions to audiences abroad, appointing former advertising executive
> Charlotte Beers as under secretary of state for public diplomacy and
> charging her with revitalizing Washington's propaganda message to the
> rest of the world.
>
> But what plays well in New York or London will not necessarily play
> well in New Delhi and Lagos, where suspicions of Western governments
> and corporate motives still run deep, some PR professionals said.
>
> "Most of the developing world is still grappling with problems of
> hunger, illiteracy, disease ... what are the multinationals going to
> do to help?" said Nn'emeka Maduegbuna, chairman of Corporate &
> Financial, a Nigerian PR firm.
>
> "Show me a despot and I'll show you his multinational friends,"
> Maduegbuna said. "That's the image."
-- << Chuck0 >>
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INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).