Longtime Procter & Gamble PR head Charlotte Otto is to get the Paladin Award of the PRSA Foundation Thursday. But all of P&G's soap couldn't cleanse the image of the press-boycotting Foundation.

charlotte ottoReporters and photographers are banned from the dinner at the Bryant Park restaurant unless they cough up $500 each, it has been decreed by Foundation president Lou Capozzi.

The award is named after the Paladins, courageous warriors in the Court of Charlemagne, who reigned from 768-814.

That surely will discourage any reporters and is the Foundation's way of boycotting the press. The PR Society, which controls the Foundation, needs no such subterfuge. It simply boots reporters out of its conference hotels, blocks them from the exhibit hall, and blocked all reporters from its Assembly from 2011-2013.

Otto had a long and distinguished career at P&G, handling worldwide media relations, product publicity, consumer relations, employee, shareholder, regulatory and technical communications, government and community relations, and philanthropy, her bio says.

She was employed 33 years by P&G including 13 years in its marketing organization and 20 years in global public affairs and external relations. She was global external relations officer for more than 13 years and was the trusted counselor to five P&G CEOs.

The Cincinnati Enquirer named her “Woman of the Year” in 2005 and “Corporate Woman of the Year” in 2009. She holds a B.S. in Consumer Affairs and an M.S. in Management from Purdue University.

P&G PR Told of Press Boycott

The media relations department of P&G has been informed of the boycott and has replied that the dinner is an event of the Foundation over which P&G has no control.

We have asked media relations to bring this situation to the attention of P&G CEO A.G. Lafley as well as Chief Information Officer Linda Clement-Holmes.

A company the size of P&G ($83 billion in sales) should not be anywhere near a press boycott.