Corporate America must go into full-throttle attack mode when threatened by activist groups, said Nick Nichols, during his "tough guy" speech at the National Pork Producers Council annual meeting.

Activists want industry scalps so they can further their own political agendas, and create the buzz required to raise money, said the Nichols-Dezenhall CEO. He believes it's no use in trying to negotiate a solution because activists are unwilling to compromise and have little respect for the private sector.

And you can forget about using PR during a crisis. That's like sending a poodle to a Rottweiler show, in Nichols' view.

Nichols said to forget about PR during a crisis, comparing that to sending a poddle to a Rottweiler show.

The Washington crisis counselor dismissed PR as something designed to make people feel good, but ill-equipped to stop an attack. Nichols recommended gathering as much information about activist groups and launching guerrilla campaigns to destroy their credibility.

Of groups that cloak themselves as consumer advocates, protectors of the elderly/children or Mother Earth, Nichols told the audience to tear down that "mantle of virtue."

Activist groups are vulnerable because they don't expect corporations to mount strong counterattacks. Nichols' advice is to show how activists have wrong facts, fabricated crises in the past, exist beyond the cultural mainstream and are supported by "money-grubbing lawyers."

Nichols' speech was titled "Stopping the Attackers in Today's Assault Culture."

He warned that activists are aligned with other "vindicators," such as reporters who get to write about a controversy, trial lawyers who get clients, regulators who get to regulate and lawmakers who get to legislate.

During his presentation, Nichols showed quotes from gangster Al Capone ("You can get more with a smile, a kind word and a gun then with a smile and a kind word."), George Carlin ("If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten!") and partner Eric Dezenhall ("If you live by the sword, you may die by the sword. But if you live by the olive branch, you may still die by the sword.")

The title of the speech was "Stopping the Attackers in Today's Assault Culture."

Nichols gave the talk earlier this month in Kissimmee, Fla. N-D counts the Meat Industry Council as a client.