EDELMAN TACKLES OBESITY ISSUE

Edelman PR Worldwide and Dittus Comms. have been tapped to spearhead PR and lobbying for the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition, a coalition of top food and beverage industry groups seeking to counter charges that the industry is at fault for a swelling obesity problem in the U.S.

The food and beverage industries - notably fast food chains and soft drink makers - have come under fire as of late with lawsuits and charges that it is contributing to the country's obesity problem, especially in children. Government statistics show that one in three Americans now struggles with obesity.

Formed earlier this year, the Council stresses that both physical activity and a proper diet are needed for a healthy lifestyle.

The group includes the American Frozen Food Institute, Kraft Foods, Chocolate Manufacturers Assn., Sugar Assn., Grocery Manufacturers of America, National Restaurant Assn., National Council of Chain Restaurants, and the Assn. of National Advertisers, among a handful of others.

Dittus is handling grassroots lobbying efforts for the coalition, said Stacey Morton, director of marketing for the firm, who referred a call to Gene Grabowski, VP of comms. and marketing for the GMA and spokesman for the Council. He said the Council is targeting "opinion leaders" and regulators at the federal and state levels.

SILVERMAN GETS HONEYWELL MEDIA SPOT

Merrill Lynch's Richard Silverman has joined Honeywell as corporate media relations director. He reports to Tom Buckmaster, VP-corporate communications at the Morris Township, N.J.-based company and former Edelman PR Worldwide vice chairman and Hill and Knowlton/Washington GM.

Prior to Merrill, Silverman was a journalist and editor at Dow Jones News Services and Bloomberg for more than a decade.

Tom Crane, who had handled Honeywell's corporate media relations duties, joined Skanska USA last month as senior VP-corporate communications.

Andrew MacMillan, who was senior VP-corporate communications at NASDAQ, is now head of Barclays Capital corporate PR group. He also worked at Credit Suisse First Boston. Heyman Assocs. conducted the search.

IPG SAYS PR DOWN 18% IN Q3

PR revenues declined 18% in the third quarter, Interpublic said Nov. 19 as part of its Q3 earnings report. The two main IPG PR units are Weber Shandwick Worldwide and Golin/Harris International.

Omnicom reported a 9% gain in PR revenues in Q3 but this includes an undetermined amount from acquisitions.

IPG, which has admitted failing to record expenses totaling $181.3 million over the past six years, told analysts in a conference call that legal and accounting expenses related to its internal investigation and other matters totaled $24 million in Q3.

The Securities & Exchange Commission is investigating IPG on an informal basis apparently because of the frequency and amount of the restatements.

Andy Polansky, president and COO, North America region of Weber Shandwick, said high tech PR has been weak but healthcare and consumer PR are strong.

IPG has laid off about 10,000 of the 62,000 employees it had two years ago.

APCO REPS KEY ASIAN GROUP

APCO Worldwide is providing PA services to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an economic group of 10 nations with a combined populationof 500 million and a $740 billion GDP. Terry Judge, VP of the Grey Global Group unit, is leading his firm's effort to develop "positive U.S.-ASEAN ties."

President Bush has made establishing free trade agreements with each individual ASEAN nation a foreign policy priority. The U.S. has completed an FTA with ASEAN-member Singapore, and U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Zoellick held a meeting with the organization's ministers in Manila last week to pave the way for future pacts.

The U.S. Administration also counts on ASEAN support for its war on terrorism. The U.S. and ASEAN issued a "Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism" in August.

The other ASEAN-member states are Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Brunei and Myanmar.

The O'Dwyer website, www.odwyerpr.com, is going on a paid basis as of Monday Dec. 2 after four years as a free site. Features include 450 PR firms, 8,000 companies & associations and 1,500 PR services in 58 categories, along with breaking PR news. Cost is $20 yearly. Info.: 212/679-2471.

RED CARPET IS OUT FOR NYC MEETINGS

New York City is bending over backwards to accommodate conventions, events, and film and commercial producers, Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff told 80 ad/PR leaders at a luncheon Nov. 19 at Gracie Mansion.

As an example, he said the city allowed the National Football League to stage a season kickoff event in Times Square Sept. 5 that brought 500,000 people to the area and shut down Broadway from 50th to 42nd st.

Such an event would not have been allowed in previous years but it's an example of how far the city will go to work with promoters, Doctoroff said.
"The police and other city services bent over backwards to make sure the event went over smoothly," he added.

The NFL got huge coverage out of the promotion including a page one story in USA Today and major coverage by the three networks, he said. Dan Klores Communications promoted that event.

Doctoroff noted the city has 66,500 hotel rooms that range from the extravagant to the "affordable." Occupancy rate lately has been 76%, or about 15% below normal.

"We need all of you to be evangelists for New York City," Doctoroff told the audience.

Edelman: Launch Products in NY

Richard Edelman, president of Edelman PR Worldwide, which recently won the $2 million PR program to promote downtown New York, besting 70 other PR firms, described several recent product launches in New York by his firm.

Having New York as the point of origin helped to win coverage and get the message across, he said.
"The city is a great platform for announcing new products and new ideas," he said.

Also present at the lunch was Howard Rubenstein, president of Rubenstein Assocs., which is helping New York in its bid to win the 2012 Olympics.
Thus far it is the finalist representing the U.S. in the competition. A final choice will be made in about three years.

The luncheon was the fourth in a series at Gracie Mansion staged by the Convention, Exhibition, Meeting and Events committee.

Other luncheons were held for leaders of the pharmaceutical, insurance/financial, and trade show industries. A luncheon for the cultural/travel industry is planned for January.

David Adler, of BiZBash Media, heads a committee that is helping to stage the luncheons.

Christyne Nicholas, president and CEO, NYC & Co., which is assisting in the promotional lunches, also described the attractions of New York for tourists and businesses.

J.R. Hipple, 47, has resigned as president of Carter Ryley Thomas, Virginia's biggest PR firm, so he can spend more time with his family and pursue other business interests, according to the firm.

BEERS STIFFS D.C. MEDIA-AGAIN

U.S. Propaganda czar Charlotte Beers cancelled a luncheon speaking engagement at the National Press Club Nov. 18. It was the third time that the former J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy CEO cancelled an appearance before the Washington press corps.

The NPC did not provide a reason why Beers dropped the event from her schedule. A State Dept. staffer told this NL that Beers doesn't like appearing before the press.

The "no show" robbed Beers of an opportunity to rebut criticism of America's propaganda efforts.

Kim Andrew Elliott, an analyst in the Office of Research at the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, questioned the merits of Beers' plan to "air mini-documentaries about the lives of Muslim Americans" in places like Indonesia in a New York Times op-ed piece on Nov. 16.

The 25-year international broadcasting veteran said he is not aware "of any persons huddled by their radios to hear about the achievements and values of the U.S. or any other country."

People overseas aren't looking for propaganda that puts U.S. policies in their best light. They get enough propaganda from their own governments. Elliott also said that no amount of public diplomacy spin will "make a dent in the public opinion in the Arab world, that largely opposes American policies toward Israel and Palestine."

Rather than propaganda, Elliott believes the U.S. should promote independent broadcasting to provide Arabs with the good and bad of American democracy. "Arabs may wind up understanding America a bit more and dislike it a bit less," wrote Elliott.

FC TAKES RIDE WITH JC

Fenton Communications is steering publicity for the Evangelical Environmental Network's "What Would Jesus Drive" campaign designed to pressure automakers to develop more fuel-efficient autos. That effort was featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and on CNN last week.

Rev. Jim Ball, of the EEN, believes Christians should junk SUVs and drive better less-polluting vehicles because they aren't as harmful to the environment and people's health.

EEN maintains the more fuel efficient cars would reduce the risk of global warming and cut America's reliance on "imported oil from unstable regions" that could threaten this country's peace and security.

Detroit is taking EEN seriously. Ball met with Ford and General Motors executives last week. He was accompanied by Parker Blackman, the San Francisco-based Fenton VP who is running the campaign. Blackman was executive director of the Washington Public Interest Research Group before joining Fenton as a member of its environmental and violence prevention teams.

Kaylee Kreider, FC's managing director in D.C., is among the staffers who pitched the WWJD story that first broke in an Associated Press story Nov. 13.

NEW RULES LIMIT ANALYSTS' MEDIA ACCESS

New disclosure rules proposed by the New York Stock Exchange will punish analysts who give information to media outlets that do not comply with the rules, Edward Kwalwasser, a group EVP of the Stock Exchange, and the man in charge of regulatory activities, told Floyd Norris, a financial journalist for The New York Times.

The NYSE's new rules, which have been broadened to include newpapers as well as broadcasters, will require outlets to disclose any analyst conflict on interest in their reports.

"If a newspaper won't print information that the NYSE thinks investors should know, then perhaps that paper's reporters should not be allowed to talk to analysts. That is the conclusion the Big Board has reached," Norris wrote in his Nov. 22 column.

While the National Assn. of Securities Dealers has proposed new rules that are similar, they do not apply to news reports, according to Norris, who said the SEC will decide which rule will be approved.

Kwalwasser said the NYSE's rule would apply to any opinion given by an analyst.

"An analysts's observation that a company needed to increase its sales to young people could be deemed an opinion, so an article reporting that would have to mention any conflicts that existed," said Norris.

"If it did not - the Big Board has advised its member firms - the firm would be expected to not talk to that newspaper any more, unless the paper agreed to mend its ways," said Norris.

Kwalwasser put it this way: "All we said is that if you continue to use that media, whatever it is, you will be in violation of those rules."

Violations could be punished by fines or even expulsion from the securities industry, according to Norris, who said securities regulators do not believe the NYSE's rules are unconstitutional. "We're not saying what you can print," said Kwalwasser. "We're just saying what our members have to do."

Would Interfere

While the rules do not explicitly make news organizations change their practices, Dow Jones, AOL Time Warner, and the New York Times Co. say if approved the proposals would interfere with their publications' free-speech rights.

In a written statement, DJ said while the company "would applaud" efforts by the NYSE, NASD, or SEC to disclose analysts' potential conflicts, it "would be a terrible mistake" for regulators "to seek directly or indirectly to mandate what information any member of the press includes in its articles."

Mary Shapiro, who is the top regulator for the NASDAQ, said it decided to modify its rules by specifiying that it covers only articles written by analysts, and perhaps question-and-answer columns.

"We had a goal, to get information to investors," she told Norris. "But I don't think we have the right to achieve that goal by cutting off access for newspapers."

LAUREN's 35TH GETS LOTS OF COVERAGE

The 35th anniversary of the Polo Ralph Lauren brand and its founder, Ralph Lauren, got widespread coverage this fall in several magazines.

Lauren appears on the cover of the November issue of GQ as one of its Men of the Year as well as the cover of Architectural Digest, and Town & Country.

Additionally, Vogue dedicated 30 pages to Lauren, while O, the Oprah Magazine offered readers an eight-page interview with Lauren; Men's Journal ran eight pages, and the August issue of W had six pages devoted to Lauren.

Ad Age's Jon Fine said "a range of editorial and publishing executives felt they were put under pressure by Lauren's son, David, SVP of marketing, advertising and communications, and Jeff Morgan, president of Ralph Lauren Media, to cover the anniversary."

Fine's article points out that Lauren spent $52.8 million to advertise his brands in 2001, giving him "immense clout" in the magazine world.

Fine said the editors and publishers of the titles that devoted prominent coverage to the anniversary insisted theirs were editorial decisions.

David Lauren and Morgan declined to be interviewed, Fine said. A spokeswoman attributed the following statement to Morgan: "Have we discussed the 35th anniversary with magazines? Of course we have. That's my job. But magazines make their own decisions. They choose what stories they think are of interest to their readers. They aren't going to put Ralph Lauren on a cover if it doesn't sell magazines."

TIME EXPANDS FASHION COVERAGE

Time, which published two special Time Style & Design sections this year in Europe, will produce similar specials in the U.S. next spring and fall.

The spring issue, which will be sent to 600,000 high income subscribers, will profile architects and look at retro fashion, according to Mediaweek, which also reported that People magazine is bringing back its two semiannual Style Watch specials.

POP CULTURE IS BIG NEWS AT N.Y. TIMES

Howell Raines, executive editor of The New York Times, said readers can expect to see more in-depth reporting of popular culture.

Raines, who spoke Nov. 18 at a forum at the Univ. of California, Berkeley, cited a recent front page story in the paper about pop star Britney Spears as the kind of stories that readers find interesting.

Raines said popular culture is the "pulse of the country," and influences everything from businesses to governments overseas.

The Spears' story was about the "fame machine, the economic engine that's behind it," he said, adding "Our readers are interested in reading a sophisticated exegesis of a sociological phenomenon like that."

(Media news continued on next page)

FIRM PITCHES RESTAURANT INDUSTRY NEWS

Bennett & Co., Orlando, has started a media information service about the restaurant industry for iDine Rewards Network, a new client.

"We've thought about the elements you might need and offer an entire package for you with background and news elements including targeted story ideas, trends and industry spokespeople for your restaurant and marketing coverage in 2003," says Laura Bennett in an e-mail pitch letter.

"In the weeks ahead, you will receive newsworthy releases on a brand new consumer survey, 2003 dining out trends and more," said Bennett.

IDine, a Miami-based marketing company, provides transaction-based dining rewards programs.

ZIFF DAVIS HAS NEW VIDEO/PC GAME MAG.

Ziff Davis Media Game Group, San Francisco, is starting a new magazine, GMR , a monthly video and PC game publication, in collaboration with Electronics Boutique, a specialty retailer of electronic games.

Simon Cox, who is currently creative director for ZDMGG, was named editor-in-chief of GMR.

Cox said GMR will be a new type of magazine that will appeal to a large portion of those 20 million core video and computer gamers who are not regularly reading a magazine right now.

He said editors will write about the best games just as they are hitting shelves.

"We think this concrete product focus will appeal to a broad spectrum of core gamers who want more solid information now and less hype," said Cox.

GMR will start publishing with an average rate base of 225,000 for 2003.

Plesser Assocs. is handling GMR's PR.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Gables is the name of Media3's new upscale quarterly publication for residents of South Florida.

Victoria Gallo, who is president of Miami-based Media3, and publisher of Gables, has named Justo Sanchez, who was arts editor of New York's El Diario/La Prensa to the position of executive editor.

The premier issue includes a review and behind-the-scenes look at Lydia Rubio's art installation at the Port of Miami, a review of Umberto Eco's new novel, a travel article about Aix en Provence, and a look at Latin American art masterpieces in Coral Gables galleries.

Gables will be mailed to households with income over $100,000 in Coral Gables, Pinecrest, South Miami and Coconut Grove.

Sanchez can be reached at Media 3's offices, which are located at 2307 Douglas rd., Miami, 33145. 305/992-5647; [email protected].

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's new PR, advertising and marketing reporter, Leon Stafford, said the paper has stopped putting emphasis on new accounts and new hires in its coverage of these fields.

The only time he will cover these areas is when he can put them into a larger context, one that reflects how the industry is doing.

"The stories I look for generally are more universal in nature than personal," said Stafford, who was ICD Media.com's guest news columnist of the month.

Stafford, who has been a J-C reporter for more than five years, said PR people should tell him which topics are hot and which are not.

Stafford, who gets to the office around 10 a.m., said the best time to contact him is around 10:30 a.m. He prefers e-mail and phone calls. 404/526-5366; [email protected].

Business 2.0 has added three regular column contributors. Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer of the graduate school of business at Stanford Univ. will write a column called "The Human Factor"; Shoshana Berger, editor, writer and gadgets expert, is writing the "Gizmos" column, and John Tayman, editor, writer and automotive aficionado, is writing the magazine's "Power Toys" column.

Josh Quittner is editor of Business 2.0, a San Francisco-based monthly magazine.

MEDIA BRIEFS

The plug has been pulled on plans to start a weekly TV health newsmagazine show produced by the Tribune Co., Chicago, and sponsored by Walgreen's drug store chain.

Car and Driver magazine is syndicating a new radio program, hosted by Alan Taylor.

Csaba Csere, editor-in-chief of Car and Driver, said a studio will be set up in the magazine's Ann Arbor editorial headquarters so Taylor can stay close to the editorial staff, as well as have access to the latest product reviews, opinions and editorial features.

The program will begin airing in major markets in December.

Reader's Digest magazine and Universal Press Syndicate have signed an agreement to syndicate editorial content from the magazine to U.S. newspapers on a monthly basis, beginning in December.

UPS will distribute columns such as: "Medical Update," "RD Challenge," and "World Power," as well as celebrity interviews and other original feature stories from Reader's Digest.

Boehringer Ingelheim, a pharmaceutical company based in Germany, has begun an international awards program to recognize journalists who extend public awareness and understanding of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

Three winning journalists will get a one-week trip for two people and an invitation to the European Respiratory Society Congress in 2004.

An award application can be downloaded from www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/news.

NEW APR TEST AT PROMETRIC

Accreditation candidates of PRSA will be able to take the new multiple-choice test at any one of hundreds of Prometric test centers throughout the U.S. next year. Candidates no longer have to have five years in PR to take the test.

Prometric is part of the $7.2 billion Toronto-based Thomson Corp., owner of First Call, which tracks analysts' recommendations, as well as other financial, healthcare, legal and regulatory information services and publications including Investment Dealers' Digest and The Bond Buyer.

Prometric, based in Baltimore, has 1,900 affiliated test centers in North America and a total of 3,500 worldwide. A Prometric test center is within one hour's drive of every PRSA member, the Assembly was told. Prometric handled six million exams in 2001.

PRSA is looking for about 150 volunteers to take the test in March 2003 as part of a practice run. If they pass, they would receive their APRs at a cost of only $100 vs. the usual $275.

No Essay Questions

Candidates will have to answer about 150 multiple-choice questions. There will be two sets of such questions whose order will be rearranged for the different candidates.

Instead of a personal interview and a series of questions requiring essay answers, the new process starts with a "readiness review." Candidates will be interviewed by chapter APRs to determine their readiness for the multiple-choice exam.

They will be asked to present samples of their work or projects on which they worked (pointing out what their contribution was).

"It's a portfolio review of sorts," said Carol Scott, of Scott PR, Corpus Christi, Texas, who has been working on the new exam for several years.

Instead of Effective PR, which has been the one recommended text for the exam, candidates will be given a list of ten text and other books that can serve as source materials.

The APRs will determine the level of knowledge candidates have and decide whether they are ready for the test. They will be asked how they studied for the exam. The questions are aimed at those with 5-7 years' in PR.

The exams will be given on computers and automatically graded at the end of the test. The results will be given to the APR board which will then give them to the candidates.

Instead of waiting five and six months for the results, which is what past APR candidates have had to do, it's expected that PRSA will tell the candidates how they did in a few days.

The new process is expected to dramatically reduce the costs of the APR exam. Outside "professional fees" for exam grading and other services were $113,321 in 2001; $207,147 in 2000; $86,846 in 1999; $90,870 in 1998, and $76,309 in 1997.
The program lost $135,511 in 2001; $441,467 in 2000, and $329,235 in 1999.

CORPORATE AMERICA HURT BY SCANDALS

Crooked corporate behavior has "poisoned" the public's perception of Corporate America, and PR is but one tool that can help restore confidence that the system isn't rigged against small investors.
That's the message that Tony Ridder, CEO of Knight Ridder, and Marilyn Carlson Nelson, head of Carlson Cos., told PRSA's national conference in San Francisco on Nov. 18.

Ridder chided CEOs for ducking responsibility for corporate shenanigans during their watch. If a chieftain claims ignorance about overstated revenues or falsely capitalized expenses, he/she is "probably derelict" in other areas as well, Ridder said.

He also noted that CEOs usually "hire people in their own image" so if he/she bends the truth other execs are likely to follow suit.

Bloated CEO compensation packages also may encourage other officers to raid the till, according to Ridder, because employees take their cue on compensation based on what the top exec makes.

"If the CEO is bilking the corporation through excessive remuneration, why wouldn't others be inclined to do the same?" asked Ridder, who earned $935,720 in pay last year. [Ridder earned $1.4M and $1.6M in salary/bonus for the two previous years. He did not receive a bonus in 2001.]

PR Pros Must Be Patient

Carlson said PR pros must be patient and craft a consistent message to help companies recover reputations tainted by scandal. She emphasized internal communications as the best way to get a company back on track. "The surest way to influence a customer is through an employee," she said.

The reverse also holds true. "A negative experience with an employee sours the customer on that brand every time, and can sometimes influence a corporate reputation," she added.

Carlson Cos., via its travel agency network Radisson Hotels, and TGI Friday restaurants, employs 190,000 workers.

IESF PICKS WARSCHAWSKI

The Israel Emergency Solidarity Fund has retained Warschawski PR to boost visibility of the group that raises money for victims of terror attacks in Israel.

Word-of-mouth is how the Baltimore-based firm got the account, according to David Warschawski. He said WPR made its mark in the Jewish community via work on behalf on the National Jewish Outreach Program. That New York organization was founded in 1987 by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald to "address issues of Jewish assimilation and intermarriage," says its website. WPR has promoted NJOP's "Read Hebrew" and "Shabbat Across America" programs, said Warschawski. More than 650,000 North American Jews have participated in NJOP activities.

The IESF has raised more than $5 million since it was started in November 2000 from events such as Cookies 4 Israel, and Israel Walk-a-Thons.

The attempt to separate accreditation from office-holding at PRSA failed in the Assembly Nov. 16 because of lack of leadership.

Reed Byrum, 2003 president, made the motion to decouple and Joann Killeen, 2002 president, seconded it. But neither said a word in behalf of it.

Mary Pat Adams of the Colorado chapter (No. 6 with 506 members), said: "This is a drastic step to take for an issue that has not been discussed," causing the all-APR Assembly to break out with applause and cheering, thereby showing its feelings on this motion. It was scolded by the parliamentarian who said expressions of approval or disapproval of speakers is barred by Roberts Rules.

There had been no articles on decoupling in Strategist or Tactics and no white papers giving the history of APR, pass/fail rate, percentage of member participation, costs, pros and cons, etc.

Discussion of decoupling was cut off after about 40 minutes although 2001 president Kathy Lewton and treasurer Del Galloway were waiting in line to speak in favor of decoupling.

Assembly delegates should have spent the entire day discussing decoupling, the Nike vs. Kasky lawsuit, and the at-large student membership proposal. Instead, they opted to listen to six hours of presentations by leaders that should have been put on paper and distributed beforehand.

A lot of effort has been spent on revamping the APR test but a cloud will hang over its head until decoupling across the board (as unanimously urgedfour years ago by the strategic planning committee) is passed. A new Assembly should be convened, by proxy if necessary, to pass this measure. The board can authorize proxies on a particular issue. If APR is a mark of "high standards," as 2003 APR chair Nancy Wood told the Assembly, the APRs must act that way. Mary Adams of Colorado, by the way, said the test sets "minimum standards." Which is it?

The APRs' position that only they can run PRSA is causing too much bitterness. This stand is especially untenable now that anyone can take the test no matter how long they have been in PR (the old five years of experience rule has been dropped). PRSA lost 5,263 members in 2001 and added 5,324, for a gain of 61. The 74% renewal rate is too low.

The Amicus brief filed by PRSA, Institute for PR, Council of PR Firms and others supporting Nike in its lawsuit vs. citizen Mark Kasky cites Johnson & Johnson's "swift" public response to the Tylenol murders in Chicago in 1982. The brief praises J&J's "forthrightness with the public" that "saved the Tylenol brand and perhaps J&J itself..."

Companies will have a hard time speaking out if they fear lawsuits, says the brief.

Kasky charges that Nike made false statements about its overseas labor practices in painting itself as a socially responsible company.

What the Tylenol story shows is that a company with vast PR and advertising resources can put forth a picture of a situation that is largely at odds with the truth. This is why companies must be held to much higher standards of truth, accuracy and completeness than ordinary citizens who may have to file a lawsuit to get their views heard.

PR professor and PRSA board member Carole Gorney, writing about Tylenol in PRSA's fall Strategist, says J&J made a "quick decision...to remove all the popular painkillers from the shelves nationwide to protect the public..."

Larry Foster, former VP-PR of J&J, in the same issue, wisely avoids making any claims about a quickrecall of Tylenol capsules because there was none. He merely writes, "the voluntary recall was extended to seven Midwestern states, and then nationally."

He fails to mention that the first murders by Tylenol were discovered on Thursday, Sept. 30, 1982 and J&J ordered a nationwide recall the following Thursday. Both J&J and the FDA acted when a man in Oroville, Calif., had convulsions after taking a poisoned Tylenol capsule, again showing the flaw in capsules (which can be easily opened and doctored). Foster and Gorney don't mention this incident.

In "The Insider" movie, actor Russell Crowe, with a sweep of his arm, says J&J CEO James Burke "pulled Tylenol off the shelves in every store right across America instantly." How could J&J allow such a false statement to be made?!

As for the full disclosure and press cooperation claims, J&J never held a press conference. It took mostly phone calls from 1,500 reporters. Who knows what, if anything, it told them? It's time for J&J to answer some questions about this giant myth.

Despite the economy and the many woes on Wall Street, about 980 were drawn to the "Financial Follies" of the N.Y. Financial Writers' Assn. Nov. 22.This was a gain from 870 last year but below 2000's 1,250. CPAs came in for a good drubbing. To the tune of "I Cain't Say No," CPAs were said to "always tellthe CEO just what he wants to hear" because "we can't say no." Biggest splash among table sponsors was made by Burson-Marsteller, which had 11 (at $3,000 a table), up from eight last year. Next was Bloomberg Business News which had four. Twelve firms had two tables each including Weber-Shandwick,NYSE, Kekst, Dilenschneider, BrunswickGroup, Citigate Sard Verbinnen, Manning, Selvage & Lee, and FD Morgen-Walke (which had 14 tables in 2000)
--Jack O'Dwyer