Scandal

Less than two weeks ago, Keith Belling, the CEO of PopChips was apologizing for offensive promo videos starring Ashton Kutcher in brownface, doing a terrible and Indian accent. Last night, he was calling the shots on the latest episode of The Pitch.

The AMC reality program, which tracks the path of two competing ad agencies pitching new business, fittingly followed this week’s episode of Mad Men (it looks like it’s moving from its Monday time slot). With the recent scandal still fresh, we tuned in to see if the germ of that bad idea would be revealed. Alas, it was not.

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

In the world of public perception, a scandal can knock a brand down for weeks. But Wal-Mart, which is currently facing a public relations problem with a bribery scandal in Mexico, has fared better than other brands like Taco Bell and Target, according to data from YouGov BrandIndex, which measures “buzz score” on a point index.

YouGov BrandIndex measurement scores range from 100 to -100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.

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Following what The New York Times calls a “damning report” from a parliamentary committee that concludes Rupert Murdoch “is not a fit person” to lead an international company, News Corp. has issued a statement acknowledging “wrongdoing” at the now-shuttered News of the World, but highlighting the partisan nature of the findings.

In a statement, News Corp. didn’t specify the nature of the “wrongdoing,” but admitted that its response was too slow. However, the statement says the report had comments that were “unjustified and highly partisan.” And the company has taken steps to correct the problems and done an investigation. So, you know. We’re done here, right?

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Yesterday, Penn State University announced that it had hired two firms —  Edelman and La Torre Communications, a Harrisburg, PA-based firm — to aid in continuing transparency efforts. According to La Torre founder David La Torre, a primary goal of the work will be “improving relations with local and state media.”

Since news broke in November of child sex abuse allegations against one of the University’s former assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky, it has been in the media spotlight.

“We’ve been given an overarching directive from the University,” La Torre told us in a phone call this morning. “We’ll be dealing with any information from the University related to substantive issues the University is facing.” Those issues, La Torre continued, “need to be relayed to the community in a timely manner.”

The community includes everyone from parents and faculty, to students and other members of the public.

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Walmart is feeling the repercussions of The New York Times’ massive story about the Walmart bribery scandal in Mexico. Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) have announced that they will begin an investigation into the company’s lobbying efforts against the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Act that that the company allegedly violated with its bribes. The Huffington Post and The Washington Post reported on the lobbying effort. David Tovar, VP of comms for Walmart, denies this.

“Walmart has never lobbied on FCPA. Simply because Walmart is a member of an organization does not mean we agree with every position they take,” he said.

A shareholder, Henrietta Klein, has also sued both Walmart’s board and a number of officers over the damage to the company’s reputation and the cost of the investigation. The very busy Tovar says the company is looking at that lawsuit “closely.”

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Penn State University has hired two PR firms — Edelman and La Torre Communications, a Harrisburg, PA-based firm – as part of the effort to be more transparent, rebuild its reputation, and reach stakeholders.

In a statement from the University, Penn State’s president Rodney Erickson said, “Earlier this year, I announced five promises to guide Penn State in recovery from our recent crisis and rebuild trust with the Penn State community. Retaining these communications firms puts us more firmly on the path toward accountability, openness and preserving our reputation as one of the world’s leading research universities.”

The two firms will help with media relations, corporate communications, and stakeholder engagement, the statement says.

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Now that we’re in the finger-pointing stage of the General Services Administration conference scandal, blame has been placed on various members of the GSA leadership (rightly), President Obama (naturally), the matrix (Neo!), Congress (maybe a little), and Sin City itself (??).

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman will not hear it, saying that she doesn’t want her fair city “scapegoat[ed] by Washington insiders who might seek to portray Lady Luck as some siren luring unsuspecting bureaucrats to their fiscal doom.” Nice, L.A. Times.

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The BBC has released its list of female “Faces of the Year 2011.” For January, we have Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. March has Eman al-Obeidi, who was captured on film in Tripoli making frantic accusations of rape and assault against members of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s militia. But what’s that fuzzy black and white muzzle there for December? Why, that’s Sweetie, a damn panda.

Sweetie is half of a pair of panda bears (the other, a male that did not appear on the Faces of the Year 2011 for men list, is named Sunshine) that will be on loan to a zoo in Scotland for the next decade.

Foreign Policy‘s blog notes the outrage that the selection has caused, fueling a Twitter hashtag #pandagate, prompting members of the media to point out the gender issues this selection raises, and prompted a parody Twitter feed. The controversy also comes shortly after the news organization failed to nominate a woman for Sports Personality of the Year.

“For a number of people, the BBC’s decision to include Sweetie smacks of sexism,” the blog says. To be sure, the BBC isn’t helping its case with tweets like the one after the jump.

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5WPR founder Ronn Torossian has been named in an investigation over an alleged plot that one rabbi’s followers say resulted in the loss of millions of dollars of the congregation’s money.

According to The New York Times, followers of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto have accused a former aide, Ofer Biton, of taking money intended for charity. Moreover, they say that Biton hatched a plan with Torossian to push negative news in the media. The story says:

The rabbi’s followers have also charged that Mr. Biton and Ronn Torossian, a public relations agent based in Manhattan, engaged in a scheme in which they leaked purportedly damaging information about the rabbi to reporters. Then, the followers said, Mr. Biton pushed to have Mr. Torossian put on retainer to help put an end to the bad publicity.

No one has been charged or found guilty of anything. However, the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI have stepped in to investigate.

In the story, Biton denies “any involvement whatsoever in any plot.” Torossian also said he had no comment in the story. He sent us an email with a short statement: “I have no knowledge of any of the absurd allegations alluded to,” he wrote.

Shortly after, he added to his comments, also via email.

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The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the U.K.’s “advocate and voice of the public relations profession,” came out with its response to the Bell Pottinger scandal that unfolded (on video!) last week.

In a post on the CIPR Conversation blog, the CEO of the organization Jane Wilson said comments on the video show “poor judgment,” were “over-claiming” or “ill-informed,” and said PR can only be “seen as a strategic, senior management discipline” when “incidents such as this are a thing of the past.”

At the same time, Wilson defends PR and lobbying, saying that, as a former MP, Tim Collins, head of public affairs at the firm, would have strong government connections, and using them is something that other organizations, like philanthropic groups, do. Talking about the coverage in The Independent, Wilson writes, “There is a lot of what appears to be wilful misunderstanding or fake outrage at the use of what are in fact open and above board communications channels.”

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