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Shona Seifert, formerly of Ogilvy & Mather, who is going
to jail for 18 months and paying a $125K fine for falsely
billing the U.S. Government, on Aug. 30 gave the court a written
a code of ethics for the ad industry, as she was ordered to
do. There is, of course, no shortage of ad industry and other
codes.
Siefert lists 16 codes including those of the American Assn.
of Advertising Agencies; WPP Code of Corporate Social Responsibility;
Johnson & Johnson; General Electric, and the U.S. Marine
Corps Code. We like the Marine code for its simplicity. It
says: "Integrity is a variable and tends to degrade over
time if not reinforced."
The "biggest risk" that Siefert met in her work
(billing clients) was that it was "boring."
She writes: "The advertising industry places a higher
value on big ideas than we do on process. The processes for
accurately recording time and costs are unpopular at most
ad agencies. We feel more pressure to do other work that we
perceive to be more valuable to our client."
More than ever, she adds, "ad agencies are challenged
by short-term financial pressures."
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Most of the bad stuff we see is not covered by any of
the ethics codes.
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Time pressures and the "boring," repetitive nature
of detailed record-keeping are blamed by Siefert for O&M's
overbilling the U.S. Government.
Siefert offers well-worn advice: "Don't stretch the
truth"...don't sign paperwork you haven't checked..."stay
true your values, be brave"..."don't be afraid to
tell the client their demand is unfair"..."think
before you act."
We're perplexed by all this talk of ethics because most of
the bad stuff we see is not covered by any of the codes.
At least that's what the enforcers of the codes say. There's
always some loophole.
For instance, about eight hours of our notes were stolen
from an open PRSA conference bag while we were covering the
2003 Assembly. This greatly interfered with our coverage of
that fractious Assembly that defeated decoupling APR from
Assembly membership by six votes.
With us when the theft happened was PRSA national board member
Gerry Corbett of Hitachi America. We told him about the theft,
which left us in a shocked condition, and he helped us search
the immediate area.
Realizing what happened, we sat down for the next 20 minutes
and composed our notes from memory as best as possible.
We then told PRSA PR manager Cedric Bess what happened and
asked for PRSA's audiotape of the Assembly to help us fill
in the missing coverage.
PRSA tapes the Assembly for transcription at a later date.
An elaborate audio system, including microphones placed throughout
the Assembly, is employed by PRSA.
Technicians later told us that the eight-hour Assembly tape
could have been easily duplicated in real time by running
the tapes overnight. If the recording was digital, they said,
new CDs can be "burned" in a few minutes.
Bess took our request but made no promises. Except for Corbett,
none of the PRSA leaders showed any interest in the theft
of our notes.
When we called Bess the next day (Sunday), we only got his
voice message and he did not return the call. We could not
reach him until the next Thursday, long after our deadline.
These details were carried in our next Newsletter.
Neither PRSA leaders nor the ethics board have shown any
interest in the theft, telling us to go to the police. Police
see it as a "misdemeanor" and not very serious.
It's not breaking and entering, armed robbery, etc., they
said.
Ethics chair Dave Rickey, asked about the theft on Sept.
2, said he didn't think it was something that the code addressed.
How about members' promise to "deal fairly" with
the media and others, we asked? September is Ethics Month
at PRSA. Its code says "Ethical practice is the most
important obligation of a PRSA member." Members promise
to "report ethical violations, whether committed by PRSA
members or not, to the appropriate authority."
Ad people were
tested for their ethical sense in The Moral Media
(4/27/05 NL). Sixty-five ad pros took the "Issues Defining
Test," which tests a person's interest in society at
large vs. personal considerations. "Ad people think about
immediate consequences when deciding how to act," says
the book. "At the very least," it says, they "choose
not to exercise the ethical reasoning abilities they have."
PRSA is again using
Dr. Mark Schilansky, a Catskill, N.Y., podiatrist,
as parliamentarian for its Assembly in Miami Oct. 22. He also
served in 2004. Previously PRSA hired local parliamentarians.
Schilansky is in Schilansky & Binnall, which is the top
advertiser on Google's parliamentarian listings.
The firm provides numerous services including helping groups
revise their bylaws. Schilansky promises to go "around
the country and around the world" to serve clients. Partner
Jesse Binnall is based in Northern Virginia. S&B charges
$150 an hour with a six-hour minimum. Since Schilansky is
from Catskill, there will be additional charges for travel,
meals, hotels.
The website of S&B (parliamentarians.net/site) identifies
Schilansky as "Dr.," not indicating that his specialty
is foot medicine. The site warns that "people can misuse
parliamentary procedure to pursue their own agendas."
It provides "Seven abused points of Parliamentary Procedure"
such as people using "point of information" when
they want to give information. A debate can't be ended by
simply calling the question and makers of motions have no
special rights to amend them, says the site.
Highlighting a weakness of parliamentarians, the site points
out they may "only advise the presiding officer and may
not make rulings. The chair has no obligation to follow the
parliamentarian's advice."
The 2003 Assembly was
marred by two false rulings–that an agenda had
to be adopted before it could be changed (no agenda at all
need be adopted), and that the loser in a vote could bring
up the matter for a re-vote in the same day. Only the winning
side may do this.
Parliamentarians tell us that where there are two sides to
an issue (such as decoupling) each side should have its own
parliamentarian. Leadership supported decoupling in 2003 and
hired the parliamentarian. Those against decoupling should
have had their own parliamentarian. Chapter delegates this
year should have their own parliamentarian and not rely on
Schilansky. This year the 56 non-APR chapter presidents (out
of 110 chapters) can appoint themselves as delegates ("the
chapter president ... may at any time designate an alternate
chapter delegate") and they could bring about major needed
changes in PRSA governance.
About 45 chapters have 100 or fewer members.
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