Are pharmaceutical companies behind the H1N1 hysteria?

Let’s be a bit provocative… eventhough I have to admit that I don’t have the slightest evidence to support my title!

The thing is that what is going on with this H1N1 situation on a communication point of view is totally crazy.

I don’t remember witnessing anything closer to a global hysteria in my life. The Mad Cow was pretty similar in Europe, but it was not a worldwide issue.

So what are we currently dealing with? Basically quite a strong flu, but definitely a FLU.

And that’s when the whole thing started to get wrong , WHO found a way to justify its existence and warned the world that the 21st century black plague was about to hit.

Media of course weren,t expecting that much of a scoop and extensively covered the “pandemy” (still talking about a flu) while governments got scared to be reproached that they under-reacted and joined the mass hysteria.

And pharmaceutical labs in all that? Well, you don’t see them, you don’t hear them, but they’re working. They’re producing the treatment to cure flu (I know, everyone one knows the treatment to cure flu: stay in bed and get some chicken soup…) and even a vaccine to prevent people from getting it.

To be honnest with you, I don’t believe a second this type of conspiracy theory, far from that. But who trully benefits from the crime?

US heated healthcare debate takes over top lobbyist

Top lobbyist and former House republican leader, Dick Armey, had to quit his job with the lobbying firm DLA Piper becoming the first PR victim of the US healthcare debate which seems to me as the first communication “faux-pas” of the Obama administration.

We might talk about it another day, but today’s news is that Armey had to resign for his public involvment in the debate. He is of course rejecting the Obama plan and spoke a little to loud according to the company which works for a medical company… supporting the plan.

Read this extract:

To review the odd facts of this case: the drug companies who helped defeat the Clinton administration’s health care effort 15 years ago have turned on Mr. Armey, who then was one of their most important Congressional allies. Now, having cut a deal with the administration to limit their share of the costs, the drug companies are on the other side. Foreseeing new profits from the expansion of health coverage, they are spending as much as $150 million on advertisements to support it.

To their embarrassment, however, Mr. Armey has continued to oppose the idea as the chairman of the independent conservative group FreedomWorks. The group has helped turn out rowdy demonstrators at at town hall-style meetings with lawmakers around the country. And some liberal Web sites have begun connecting Mr. Armey’s fight against the health care legislation to his other work for DLA Piper’s drug company clients.

One of DLA Piper’s biggest clients is Medicines Company, which paid DLA Piper $240,000 in lobbying fees in the second quarter. Another drug maker, Sanofi Pasteur, paid the firm $30,000 during the same period, according to its latest disclosure forms.

FreedomWorks did not respond to requests for comment.

Frank Burch, chairman of DLA Piper, said in a press release that firm appreciated Mr. Armey “taking the initiative to clear up confusion concerning FreedomWorks.”

“Despite some unfounded media suggestions attempting to link DLA Piper to FreedomWorks’s opposition to health care reform, the firm has not, on its own behalf, or on the behalf of any client, directly or indirectly opposed any of the pending health care reform bills,” Mr. Burch said. “On the contrary, DLA Piper represents clients who support enactment of effective health care reform this year.”

Russia realizes the importance of spining

Russia is often described as not caring about its public image and usually does not give such a big importance to world public opinion. Things seem to be changing these days.

The truth is that Russia’s attempt to polish its image is not intended to mass opinion but to foreign investors and especially energy investors.

Russian government has for instance hired the US PR company Ketchum Inc, based in New York, to provide “communication support” during the 2006 G8 summit.

Russia paid 2 million dollars for this “support” but signed other lobbying contrqct with Russian government since them, the purpose of which was to focus on WTO countries such as UK, France, Germany or Japan.

But as you can read below, Russian public companies are much moire active than Russian government when we talk about PR and lobbying:

The most lucrative contracts have been awarded by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas company, to Gavin Anderson and Company, which was founded in New York in 1981. In March 2007, Gazprom began paying Gavin Anderson $100,000 per month to “provide financial media relations” and to “improve understanding of Gazprom’s basic business strategies. Strengthening the trust of investors in Gazprom”. Gazprom apparently felt that negative information about its practices and opaque dealings were hurting the company and it was willing to pay a high price to remedy the situation.

GazpromExport, a fully owned subsidiary of Gazprom, also joined these PR activities in 2006-2007, choosing Ketchum to do its PR – not Gavin Anderson. The reasons for this are unknown, but it might indicate that the CEO of GazpromExport, Alexander Medvedev, was more comfortable with Ketchum, a company which seemingly is favored by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

FARA was notified by Ketchum in August 2007 that GazpromExport would pay $247,500 per month ($147,500 more per month than its parent company, Gazprom, was paying Gavin Anderson) for their services. Ketchum’s description of these services was brief: “Ketchum will pursue various activities, including arranging interviews between representatives of Gazprom and members of the media … monitoring media coverage.”

Ketchum subsidiary GPlus Europe was hired by the Kremlin in 2007 to improve media relations. They signed a deal for media handling and government advocacy that included GPlus’s work in Brussels and Paris as well as subcontracts with consultancies Dimap in Berlin and Reti in Rome. GPlus was also hired by GazpromExport to promote the concept that Gazprom and GazpromExport are fully transparent entities. The GPlus team working on the GazpromExport contract consists of 14 individuals, with four members concentrating on PR within Germany alone.

The leader of the GazpromExport team at GPlus is allegedly Milina Moncekova, who accompanies Alexander Medvedev on his trips throughout Europe. Other members of the team have responsibilities for PR within the rest of Europe. The head of the team in Germany is Peter Witt, formerly the German deputy permanent representative to the European Union.

A leading member of the team working the account is Gregor Kreuzhuber who, according to the GPlus Europe website, “Spent over ten years in the European Commission as a spokesperson and political adviser to two different commissioners. Kreuzhuber’s last post was with the Commission Vice-President in charge of Enterprise and Industry Gunter Verheugen.”

According to the European Observer, “No one takes a pay cut to join the PR sector. A mid-ranking EU official such as Kreuzhuber would take home at least 6,000 euros [US$8,600] per month in his previous job and an individual such as Witt 7,000 euros per month.”

Nonetheless, GPlus was not only whitewashing GazpromExport, according to PRWeek, in 2008. GPlus was criticized by Brussels-based PR firm Aspect Consulting for promoting Russia’s view of the war with Georgia and for being part of the Russian “propaganda” machine. Aspect Consulting, hired by the government of Georgia, told PRWeek, “There are agencies that work for Russia … but I do not know how they can be comfortable about that.”

On January 25, at the height of the Ukrainian-Russian gas dispute, GPlus was suspended from the European Union’s lobbying register for failing to disclose the identity of three clients. Peter Guilford, one of GPlus’s founders, said the firm had informed the commission in December when it first joined the registry that it had pre-existing confidentiality agreements with three clients, who did not want their names disclosed. Two of those clients are no longer represented by GPlus.

“We have been super-transparent,” Guilford said, noting that the clients in question included two trade associations and one corporation. Ketchum’s reputation might be further discredited as new information is revealed in the media about Gazprom’s dealings in the gas trade.