Richard Edelman
Richard Edelman

Congratulations to Richard Edelman, who will become the first PR person inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame this evening during a ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street.

According to his prepared remarks, he will call the Edelman Trust Barometer, which was created 22 years ago, his greatest contribution to the PR business.

Its key finding that business ranks as the most trusted institution comes with a special responsibility to step into the void left by the government to speak out on diversity, equity and inclusion; on sustainability; and on wage levels and re-skilling, according to the CEO of the No. 1 independent PR firm.

He will thank his father, Dan, whom he spoke with every day during the 35 years that they worked together, for being his mentor, founder of the firm and creator of marketing PR.

Edelman will credit his mother, Ruth, as the person most responsible for his success—even to the point of rousting him out of bed at 7 am with a whistle, supervising his school football pre-season training.

He will thank his wife, Claudia, and business partners; sister Renee, and brother, John.

Richard will look to the future, saying that daughters Margot, Amanda and Tory will carry on his work.

His message to them: Being an Edelman “is a special responsibility, to work harder than anyone else, to get up when you get knocked down, to treat your team as your family, always lead from the front and to be an active contributor to the community.”

Richard has been a good friend of the O’Dwyer Co. for many years.

Imagine if he lost… President Emmanuel Macron of France has won a second term, defeating the far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a close competition, reported the New York Times.

C’mon, what’s the definition of “close.”

Macron walloped Le Pen, a three-time presidential loser, by seventeen points. Joe Biden could only dream of defeating his 2024 rival by even a quarter of Marcon’s margin of victory.

In the run-up to the election, the media predicted the contest could be a nail-biter.

It was as if the media were secretly hoping for a victory for the racist and pro-Putin Le Pen, so they could report on the next five years of France-triggered disruption of NATO, European Union and war against its Muslim population.

The media also had the gall to play up Le Pen’s declaration of “victory.”

She claimed the results "represent in itself a great victory because "millions of our compatriots have chosen the national camp and change.”

Le Pen overlooked the inconvenient truth that millions more French people totally refuted her views and voted for a guy who vowed to unite the country.

“I’m not the candidate of any one camp any more, but the president of all of us,” said Macron, who became the first French president to be re-elected in 20 years.

Edward von Kloberg, the late flamboyant DC lobbyist who took great pride in representing “the damned” (e.g., Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Romania’s Nicolae Ceaucescu and Liberia’s Samuel Doe) used to tell me of his grand plan to restore the various exiled monarchies of Europe. The Atlantic has picked up Ed's plan.

Von Kloberg's idea was that a restoration of the deposed kings and queens in the countries that had been part of the Soviet bloc would stabilize them in the aftermath of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

As editor of the O’Dwyer’s Washington Report during the 1990s, I used to check in with Ed once or twice a month for his read on the DC lobbying scene.

He was also available for a chat and he would invite me to attend his meet-and-greets in New York.

The session at the six-story Upper East side townhouse owned by Bobo Sears Rockefeller with a member of Hungary’s royal family and some United Nations reporters was a classic.

Ed would have cheered (or perhaps even placed) “The Shadow Royals” article in the May issue of The Atlantic.

The article notes that Europe has a dozen remaining monarchies who believe they have something to offer in the 21st century.

Von Kloberg, who was fond of black capes, fedoras and lavish parties, was honored in 2001 by exiled King Kigeli V of Rwanda with the Chevalier Grand Croix of the Royal Order of the Intare.

The founder of the Washington World Group lived his professional live by the motto, “Shame is for sissies”

He famously fell victim to a 1992 sting operation conducted by Spy magazine, in which a staffer posed as a neo-Nazi and pitched von Kloberg on his bid to get Germany to annex Poland.

Ed agreed to rep the trickster, which resulted in a story called “Publicists of the Damned.” After it was published, shameless von Kloberg showed up at Spy’s DC office, wearing a helmet and saying he was ready to “take the flak.”

Von Kloberg, who was in ill health, took his life in 2005 by flinging himself off the wall of the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. He was 63.

Von Kloberg was one of a kind.