PR Budgets Bulge Against Obesity

July 9, 2003

PR BUDGETS BULGE AGAINST OBESITY

" Kraft Foods grabbed the PR high ground in the public debate about

obesity and America's unhealthy eating habits by announcing a

series of planned changes in how it will make and market its

products, " PR Week reports. " The changes include increased

communications with various groups interested in the obesity issue,

as well as proactive efforts to encourage improved child fitness

and nutrition. " But the Guardian's Mark Borkowski calls Kraft's

move " PR at its shabbiest and most shameful. It is an abject

demonstration of the way in which PR can create and then exploit an

agenda of apparent corporate responsibility to promote a brand,

enhance its status, and to set out a stall that provides

pre-emptive evidence to guard a company's reputation against future

attack. " Borkowski points out the dubious nature of Kraft's desire

to be " part of the solution, " considering that the food company is

majority owned by the Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris).

O'Dwyer's PR reports the Ad Council has hired GYMR, a Washington,

D.C. firm, to handle PR for a government-sponsored anti-obesity

campaign. The effort, called " Healthy Lifestyles, " has a $125,000

PR budget through December. Eric Leininger, senior VP of marketing

services for Kraft, is on the Ad Council's board of directors.

SOURCE: PR Week, July 7, 2003

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