Frankie.

Not sure if I want to claim this receipt - okay, I won’t. But next time this person goes to Vegas they could at least invite me?!

The social network secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about the search giant, The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons reveals—a caper that is blowing up in their face, and escalating their war.

I’m still shaking my head - for shame Burson-Marsteller! I hear it often that PR people are “spinners”, sure we are - but there’s never any planned deception. PR professionals are hired to make company messages more appealing to their audience. It’s that simple. No lies, no deception. 

In this case, the PR folks from Burson were not being transparent about who they were representing and their tactics were just plain - dirty.

Burson-Marsteller released the following statement:

“Now that Facebook has come forward, we can confirm that we undertook an assignment for that client.

“The client requested that its name be withheld on the grounds that it was merely asking to bring publicly available information to light and such information could then be independently and easily replicated by any media. Any information brought to media attention raised fair questions, was in the public domain, and was in any event for the media to verify through independent sources.

“Whatever the rationale, this was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies, and the assignment on those terms should have been declined. When talking to the media, we need to adhere to strict standards of transparency about clients, and this incident underscores the absolute importance of that principle.”

(source: USA Today)

Yes, I agree - they should’ve declined the job. Next, I suggest the entire agency enrolls in a Code of Ethics course with PRSA (Public Relations Society of America). Even better read these guidelines now … click here!

All Media People - newly launched social network where PR and media professionals can exchange ideas/comments via forums, or check out the job board. It’s a great resource for communication professionals!