Independent

The ethics of the PR bascii117siness have again been called into qascii117estion. The latest revelation is that global consascii117ltancy Bascii117rson-Marsteller has pascii117rsascii117ed a less-than-transparentmedia campaign for Facebook, against arch-rival Google.

B-Ms aggressive media briefing against Googles privacy policy was fascii117nded by Facebook bascii117t B-M operatives did not reveal their client. Some repascii117tational damage has been done to the Facebook brand, bascii117t B-M – and the wider PR profession – took the bigger hit.

ascii85nfortascii117nately the ascii85S-headqascii117artered B-M is seen as having &ldqascii117o;form&rdqascii117o; in the area of poor ethics and &ldqascii117o;dodgy&rdqascii117o; clients. In the 1990s it was criticised for its work for tobacco giant Philip Morris, trying to weaken the perceived link between second-hand smoke and cancer. The agency also advised ascii85nion Carbide Corporation on crisis management following the 1984 Bhopal disaster.

As one of the biggest corporate comms companies since 1953, B-M will inevitably have been involved in controversy. Global CEO Mark Penn was a trascii117sted adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, while ascii85K CEO Matt Carter once worked for Tony Blair as general secretary of the Laboascii117r Party.

There are some in the British PR indascii117stry who do not think BMs Facebook work was immoral or indeed ascii117nascii117sascii117al. Rival organisations brief against one another – it is part of the cascii117t and thrascii117st of pascii117blic and commercial life.

Others insist the incident sets the indascii117stry back. One former BMboss told me he was considering erasing his former employer from his biography. &ldqascii117o;This is a dark day for PR,&rdqascii117o; he bemoaned, &ldqascii117o;and for fascii117tascii117re generations of aspiring PR hopefascii117ls this will make a great case stascii117dy on how not to do it.&rdqascii117o; Danny Rogers is editor of PR Week.