Women for H stickerMWW’s Mike Kempner, long a supporter of Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, has become a liability to her and the party because of MWW’s hiring of sex-stained Anthony Weiner last year.

With so much of the attack on Donald Trump focusing on his alleged bad attitude towards women and his opposition to abortions, the Clinton campaign cannot afford to have a tie to a person or firm linked to sexual misconduct with women. It would open Clinton to similar attacks.

Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, who has been befriended by Clinton since Abedin was a 19-year-old college student. Sometimes referred to as Clinton’s “stepdaughter,” she was deputy chief of staff for Clinton when she was Secretary of State.

Weiner’s sexploits, which won him cover stories in the New York Post, New York News and New Yorker magazine, got their most detailed description in an Aug. 9, 2013 piece in Business Insider under the headline, “The 10 Most Ridiculous Things to Come Out of the Anthony Weiner Sexting Scandal.”

Huma AbedinHuma Abedin

The worst, from a PR standpoint, was No. 9—Weiner admitting to sexting “a few women,” then “six to ten,” then “no more than three.” PR people have to be truthful. The July 23, 2015 New York Post said Weiner “destroyed his own promising political career by botching a 2011 sext-message imbroglio with bald-faced lies.” Weiner was also accused of "stonewalling."

“PR” to the Rescue!

Ignoring such baggage and no doubt doing a favor to Abedin, Kempner on July 23, 2015 named Weiner to its board of advisers, describing him as a “brilliant strategist [with] expertise on many issues” who would be “a great asset to our firm.”

This astounded NYP which said WMM “has hired the last person in the world that most people would call on to dispense advice on dealing with a scandal: disgraced, penis-texting former Congressman Anthony Weiner.”

What astounded us was O’Dwyer senior editor Kevin McCauley posting an opinion on the O’Dwyer website the same day saying NYP had made “a gleeful right-wing media assault on his (Kempner’s) decision to give the ex-Congressman a second chance.” NYP ran a page one story on the appointment.

Wrote McCauley: MWW “made a shrewd and gutsy move” in hiring Weiner since he is “a straight-talking, no BS, street-smart guy, a personality type found lacking in most large PR firms. Before triggering his own downfall via the texting fiasco, he was the most powerful Democratic politician in the city. He’s NYC through and through. A guy who gives street cred to MWW.”

Anthony Weiner's Facebook pageWeiner Out in Two Months; O’Dwyer’s McCauley In

Despite such cheerleading, Weiner lasted less than two months at MWW (to Sept. 16, 2015), a victim of the media spotlight. NYP said it obtained an internal memo that described Weiner as a “victim of the media who left of his own accord to start his own company” and “he understands that his presence here has created noise and distraction that just isn’t helpful.”

Weiner criticized the memo, saying he did not “express any of those sentiments” expressed by Kempner.

McCauley, ending an editorial career of at least 35 years including the last 26 with the O’Dwyer Co. and one of the most high-profile editors covering PR, joined MWW as VP for editorial services Oct 6. McCauley had given his two weeks’ notice to the O’Dwyer Co. in September, probably knowing that Weiner had been dumped by MWW. Efforts by him and Kempner to rebuild Weiner’s image had failed.

Weiner Episode a Blow to MWW

The Weiner sexting connection has dealt a blow to the image of MWW and its promotional efforts.

Kempner, McCauley, et al, have “gone to the mattresses,” a phrase used to describe what members of the Mafia did when besieged by enemies. Here is a definition from Wikipedia:

“When one mafia family was out to 'get' another, the first family would 'go to the mattresses'. It meant they would stick together, keep their heads down, and close ranks. Safety in numbers. Sometimes they would literally barricade themselves into their 'compounds' - hence the reference to 'mattresses', because there wouldn't be enough bedrooms so some of them would have to sleep on mattresses on the living room floor.”

Michale Kempner's Facebook page - picture with Hillary Clinton

Kempner and McCauley are now incommunicado. Calls and emails to them are not returned. Instead, we heard from chief of staff Gina Cherwin, who was a fund-raiser for Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection from May 2009 to May 2011. She was previously director of campaign services for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Marketing manager Laura Hansen said MWW "is a privately held company" that has had a "change in policy this year and will no longer be publicly disclosing our financials." She asked "How do other firms that don't disclose their financials participate? [in the rankings]. They don't.

MWW is now seeking the lowest possible profile, dropping out of the O’Dwyer rankings after being in them for five years as one of the “top ten” firms, and cancelling advertising in any media. It ranked No. 7 in 2014 with fees of $51.7 million.

MWW Bought Itself from Interpublic

Kempner had bought the firm out from Interpublic in 2010 with one of the aims being freed from Interpublic’s ban on releasing revenue figures and headcounts.

MWW releases often start out with the phrase, “one of the top five global independent PR firms” or use that phrase in a description of the firm at the bottom of the release. It was used at the beginning of the release when Arthur Schwartz joined as SVP and managing director, corporate communications, on Oct. 16,2014.

Schwartz quit in September 2015 which NYP said was caused by the “fallout from Weiner’s hiring.” NYP called it a “stunning resignation.” Schwartz had been billed as a “respected GOP operative” who would bring expertise in PA and regulatory and government relations. He had been at AIG under CEO Maurice Greenberg and then with Greenberg’s C.V. Starr & Co.

A release about PR News naming MWW as one of the “Best Places to Work” in 2015 noted at the end that MWW “is one of the world’s top five independent PR agencies with a global network of nine offices across the U.S. and Europe.”

MWW has not ranked higher than No. 6 in the O’Dwyer rankings. It was No. 7 in 2014 with $51.7M in fees and No. 6 in 2013 with $48M and No. 7 in 2012 with $42.8M in fees.

Dropping from Rankings Cuts Visibility

MWW has dropped not only from the main O’Dwyer rankings but the New York rankings where it was No. 4 in 2014; entertainment/cultural rankings where it was No. 3; financial PR/IR rankings where it was No. 7; environmental/PA rankings where it was No. 8; professional services, No. 6; food/beverage, No. 5, and healthcare, No. 22.

O’Dwyer rankings are the only ones supported by documents including the top page of the firm’s corporate income tax return or a CPA statement on revenues; copy of the W-3 showing total payroll, list of top executives and accounts; list of branch offices, and other information.

O’Dwyer’s, alone since 1992, has compiled agency revenues in 12 specialized categories, helping those who are shopping for PR counsel to narrow their searches.

Firms that make the “Top Ten” in O’Dwyer’s often report a doubling of their over-the-transom, unsolicited new business leads. The practice for many decades has been for firms to acquire other firms in order to break into the “Top Ten.” The same effect takes place in the specialty rankings.

Dropping out of the O’Dwyer rankings is a blow to MWW’s visibility and new business efforts.