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July 16, 2007Debbie Weil. Alliconnect, astroturfing and the ethics of PR people... observations
The Debbie Weil - alliconnect - astroturfing flare-up grew a little too personal for my taste, so I am mostly happy to see the thing fade away. And it never should have flared up at all.... Debbie Weil just didn't know any better. See, what surprised me from the start was Weil's defense of her invitation to astroturf: "There's nothing underhanded about the email I sent, as I posted the same request publicly on my blog. And I didn't send it to a list of "prominent PR bloggers." Just a list of folks I know. It's not that big a deal. Bloggers - corporate and otherwise - use the backchannel of email all the time to communicate with one another." What kind of explanation is that? How she sent the invitation is, of course, irrelevant. But in reading the posts of those who criticized her effort and those of her (few) defenders, I suddenly realized what was up. Debbie Weil doesn't know astroturfing is wrong -- she doesn't work in PR or corporate communication, and doesn't realize astroturfing is a huge breach of ethics. And, pretty much down the line, her defenders are outside the communication profession and her critics are in it. Now, I know the general public ranks PR professionals fairly low, somewhere around lawyers and CEOs, but 99.9% of the PR professionals I've met take their ethics codes (PRSA's, for example, or IABC's) very seriously. Astroturfing is something we just don't do (and some are working actively against it), and we damned sure aren't shy about calling people on it when we catch them at it. But that works only if the other person should know better. Debbie Weil just doesn't. Well, that's alright then! Isn't it? Update: she should have gone to buyblogcomments.com. Posted by Allan Jenkins at 04:35pm in Advertising & PR, Communication, Ethics, Pharmaceutical Industry, PRSA, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (6) July 11, 2007Debbie Weil performs liposuction on Alliconnect
You may not have noticed the new Alliconnect Blog,. Alliconnect is a place to discuss weight loss with the creators of alli, an over-the-counter weight control medication, approved for OTC sales in the USA, made by GlaxoSmithKline. I am not quite sure how alli works.. the blog is coy on the subject, but since it discusses "oops moments" ("Good thing I was close to home so I could change my clothes!" says chief blogger Steve Burton) and "undigested fat floating in the toilet," I can only speculate that the drug blocks fat absorption. Why be coy about that? Were I seriously overweight and committed to losing weight, I am perfectly fine with learning the possible side effects. But since it's a corporate product fluff blog, we can leave that. The problem for GlaxoSmithKline is that the alliconnect blog has attracted almost no readers and only a handful of comments -- all but one of those are from Now, that would normally be a problem between GSK and Weil. But Weil has made the bad results -- the falling short of client expectations -- brutally obvious in a public way. Can things be so bad she's asking PR bloggers to "seed" comments onto the alliconnect blog? Yes. David Murray quotes this email from Weil on his blog: *** Hi everyone, This is a shameless request. I'm working with GlaxoSmithKline on the While traffic to the blog is growing, readers seem shy about leaving Comments. You can help jump start the two-way conversation! Take a peek at the If you're inspired or provoked, leave a comment on any entry. No need It really is kind of neat that a Global 100 company is doing a blog - D -- *** Weil (an IABC conference speaker, by the way) has truly wedged herself in a tight spot. I cannot believe GSK's alliconnect is going to get a sudden surge of comments from her feeble plea -- you'd have to be an obese PR blogger more than ready to shill for no pay -- and I'm certainly skeptical of her professional ethics. What I wonder is who thought this up? Weil, alone, in desperation? Or did GSK lean on her? Either way, it's another sad ethics tale for our profession. If you're inspired or provoked, leave a comment on any entry. No need OK! Who can resist! Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:49pm in Bizarre & Unexpected, Blogging for Benjamins, Corporate Communication, Marketing, Pharmaceutical Industry | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (12) December 09, 2004Better Use of IT in Healthcare
I used to lead Internet communication at Novo Nordisk,
a Danish pharma company; and I have had the privilege of serving other
pharma clients. People who know me know I'm happiest at the
intersection of healthcare and communication (which, today, usually
means having a good IT infrastructure). So I was cheered this morning to read Interfaculty initiative aims to heal U.S. health care from the Harvard Gazette. The same subject is covered in Renaissance Health Improves Patient Care with IT. I
attended the conference on IT & Healthcare at Harvard in the spring
of 2000 where the panelists grappled with the question of how to
improve patient-physician relations, using IT, at a time when HMOs were
pressing doctors to be as efficient (read: "fast") with patients as
possible. Frankly, I thought little would come of the conference, but
apparently it sowed a few seeds that germinated. Via Jim Horton Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:35am in Communication, Pharmaceutical Industry | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0) |
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