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UK: PR sell outs who joint corporat



Subject: UK: PR sell outs who joint corporate line

MOSOP OGONI wrote:
> 
> CULLED FROM The Guardian Wednesday, November 10, 1999
> 
> ECO SOUNDINGS BY JOHN VIDAL
> 
> Who in the devastated Nigeria Delta region can forget Gavin Grant, the
> Bodyshop?s chief communicator during the company?s long campaign against
> Shell and the Nigerian government to expose human rights abuses in
> Ogoniland?  Gavin visited in September 1999 with Gordon and Anita Roddick
> and his renditions of the Ogoni anthem, his pride at having babies named
> after him and the title (?Chief Helper of the Ogoni People?) conferred on
> him are still a conversation point in the bars and clubs of Port Harcourt.
> Ogoni people remember well his oratory (?Great Ogoni?Great great Ogoni, You
> have lit a beacon for all the marginalised people of the world?It?s an
> honour and privilege to campaign for your freedom?.?etc)  and  no one
> doubted that here was a man of high principle committed to social justice.
> That was three months ago, and, lo, Gavin is now a senior executive with
> Burson Marsteller, the world?s largest PR Company.  Gavin, perhaps, aside,
> BM?s brief is not to represent the poor and downtrodden, like the Ogoni, but
> anyone who can pay for image manipulation and crisis management.  The
> company that earns $250m a year has taken the shilling of almost every
> dictator with an appalling human rights record, and every major corporation
> in trouble with the locals or environmentalists.  Valued clients have
> included Nigeria, South Korea, Indonesia, Ceaucescu, Union Carbide after
> Bhopal, Exxon after the Alaskan oil disaster and, more recently, Monsanto.
> It has also worked for Shell and set up the Global Climate Coalition, which
> has lobbied so well to continue the oil economy.  So will Chief Gavin
> continue to be an ambassador for the Ogoni?  He sees no problems whatever
> because, his role is now to further a social responsibility agenda with BM'?
> clients.  So would he work for Shell while with BM?  Well, he says, he has
> the right to withdraw from any project.
> 
> Gavin joins a select bunch of men who have worked hard to promote social
> justice but who now take the corporate line.  They include Tom Burke, former
> Friends of the Earth director (now with Rio Tinto), Des Wilson, former
> campaigner for lead-free petrol (now with BAA, via Burson Marsteller) and
> Richard Aylard, former head of the Soil Association (now with Burson
> Marsteller)
> 
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