FENTON_IndustryGuide_ThisJustIn.pdf

7/27/2019 FENTON_IndustryGuide_ThisJustIn.pdf

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THIS UST IN10 lessons rom more than 25 years o public interest communications

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2009 FENTON Communications. All Rights Reserved

This Just In: 10 lessons rom more than 25 years o public interest communications

When we were looking to hire a PR frm, we wanted one with the expertise and proessionalism o a corporate frm, and

the heart and values o an organization that cares about our issues as much as we do. With FENTON, we have a true partner

that gets us results.

-Michelle Sawatka, Director o Media Relations,

The American Lung Association


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To some,thequestion mightseem amusing.

But we take it seriously.As our Savior and LordJesus Christ teaches us,Love your neighboras yourself. (Mk 12:30-31)

Of all the choices we make as consumers, thecars we drive have the single biggest impacton all of Gods creation.

Car pollution causes illness and death, andmost afflicts the elderly, poor,s ick and young.It also contributes to global warming,puttingmillions at risk from drought,flood,hungerand homelessness.

Transportation is now a moral choice and anissue for Christian reflection. Its about morethan engineeringits about ethics. Aboutobedience. About loving our neighbor.

So what wouldJesus drive?

We call upon Americas automobile industryto manufacture more fuel-efficient vehicles.And we call upon Christians to drive them.

Because its about more than vehiclesits about values.

What WouldJesus Drive?

Rev.Clive Calver,Ph.D.President,World Relief

Rev.Richard CizikVice President for GovernmentalAffairs,National Association ofEvangelicals

Loren CunninghamFounder,Youth with a MissionPresident,University ofthe Nations

Rev.David H.Englehard,Ph.D.General Secretary,ChristianReformed Church in North America

Millard FullerFounder & President,Habitatfor Humanity International

Rev.Vernon Grounds,Ph.D.Chancellor, Denver Seminary

Rev.Steve Hayner,Ph.D.Past President, InterVarsityChristian Fellowship

Rev.Roberta Hestenes,Ph.D.International Minister,World Vision

Rev.Richard Mouw,Ph.D.President,Fuller Theological Seminary

Rev.Ron Sider,Ph.D.President,Evangelicals for Social Action

Sponsored ByTHE EVANGELICAL ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK10 East Lancaster Ave.,Wynnewood,PA 19096 www.WhatWouldJesusDrive.org

Partial list of signatories.Affiliations listed for identification only.

Gun violence as a health epidemic

Each year, rearms kill nearly 30,000 Americans and

injure 75,000. To spur prevention o this public health

epidemic, doctors and public health leaders over the

past decade have helped move the debate beyond the

Second Amendment to ocus on the lives destroyed by

gunre and other weapons.

FENTON helped the Harvard School o Public Health and

a coalition o the nations leading health organizations

establish a National Violent Death Reporting System at

the Centers or Disease Control and Prevention to study

and collect linked data on violent incidents (homicides,

suicides, child abuse and domestic violence),

just as the CDC tracks diseases.

Reueling the fght over uel efciency

The drive or stronger uel-economy standards got a

resh start with two new voices on the national stage. A

What Would Jesus Drive? campaign urged automakers

and consumers to protect Gods creation by building

and driving uel-ecient cars. An ad campaign rom

Arianna Hungtons Detroit Project made the connection

between gas-guzzling SUVs and our dependence on oil

rom nations supporting terrorism.

By making national headlines, these campaigns helped

reuel the debate on the climate crisis. Front-page

stories in the New York Timesand the Wall Street Journal

reported automakers reacted to the negative publicity by

taking hybrid vehicles more seriously.


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Out on Campus

The Point Foundation provides the only national

scholarship program or lesbian, gay, bisexual and

transgender students, but it had little name recognition.

FENTON used the personal stories o Point scholars to

tell the oundations story, such as a New York Times

eature on Ryan Kim. Disowned by his amily or being

gay, the Point scholarship catapulted Kim rom a delivery

boy living at the Salvation Army to a ull-time student at

Princeton. Scholar stories also promoted the oundation

in a MTV partnership or its rst Out on Campus Week

on mtvU, which aired on over 700 campuses.

A story o love, war and the CIA

The clandestine role o the U.S. government in

Guatemalas murderous civil war was ignored or years

until a Harvard lawyer named Jennier Harbury went

on a hunger strike in 1996 to uncover the truth about the

disappearance o her Guatemalan rebel husband. Her

personal crusade exposed the larger story o the CIAs

role in Central America. One womans courage brought

to light covert operations, human rights abuses and

government corruption. Three dozen New York Times

stories and two 60 Minutes segments later, Congress

launched an investigation into longstanding abuses by

the CIA and State Department.


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50th anniversary o Brown v. Board o Education

UCLAs Institute or Democracy, Education and Access

(IDEA) leveraged the 50th anniversary o the landmark

civil rights decision to spotlight the state o education

in Caliornia, particularly or students o color. FENTON

collaborated with IDEA to release a poll o Caliornia

teachers, making sure that localized data was available

to penetrate targeted media markets and ocusing on

the most compelling ndings. With an early jump and

multiple news angles, the survey rose above the media

noise and garnered signicant state-wide and local attention.

Amber Alert to prevent child abductions

The Polly Klaas Foundation worked or years to promote

an emergency alert system that was saving abducted

childrens lives in a ew states. Ater a high-prole

abduction and murder in Caliornia, FENTON helped the

oundation publish an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee that

contributed to the governors implementation o Amber

Alerts.

Six days later, the alerts saved two teenagers and the

oundation launched a national campaign. Ater an op-

ed in USA Todayand appearances on cable news and

Nightline, oundation representatives joined President

Bush as he signed a national Amber Alert bill.


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Breast Cancer Action

For Think Beore You Pink, Breast Cancer Actions

campaign calling or better coordination o breast cancer

researchs multibillion-dollar undraising industry, we

packaged a viral e-mail by writer and breast cancer

survivor Barbara Ehrenreich with voice-over narration

and an animated movie o pink ribbons racing or a

nish line. Many o the 14,000 people who viewed the

fash le took action on the Web site, and the story

made headlines in Newsweek, major daily newspapers

and on CBS radio, opening the door or meetings at

organizations like the Susan G. Komen oundation.

The ugly truth behind beauty products

Working with Environmental Working Group, Womens

Voices or the Earth and Health Care Without Harm to

expose toxic chemicals in perume and beauty products,

FENTON produced an e-mail with the provocative

subject line, Are her cosmetics hurting his testicles?

More than 1.2 million hits to the campaign Web site

produced thousands o e-mails to the FDA about their

ailure to regulate chemicals linked to birth deects and

cancer. Ater widespread media coverage, multinational

cosmetics companies ultimately agreed to remove two

reproductive toxins rom health and beauty products.


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Nazi slave labor settlement

When negotiations stalled between survivors o Nazi

camps and the German corporations that had proted

rom slave labor, Bnai Brith International and other

Jewish organizations knew they had to raise the stakes.FENTON built a media campaign around a series o

ull-page ads that singled out individual companies

Daimler-Benz, Ford and Bayer. The German governments

lead negotiator protested that the ads posed a threat

to U.S.-German relations, but soon ater the advertising

appeared, the plaintis received a $5 billion settlement.

The 2004 presidential campaign

MoveOn.org Voter Fund invested in television ads

in battleground states on how President Bush was

misleading the country about the war on Iraq and

about domestic issues such as education and theenvironment. Public opinion research showed that

support or Bush dropped in areas where the unds

ads aired.


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Pick a Poster Child

Studies prove that liquor advertising encourages

underage drinking. In December 2001 NBC broke

the 50-year taboo against airing hard-liquor ads. The

American Medical Association condemned the move on

public health grounds.

FENTONs strategy eatured a ull-page newspaper ad

that drove people to a Web site that served as an activistportal or a letter-writing campaign directed at NBC

executives. Media rom CNN to USA Today and the New

York Timescarried the story. Within a ew months, the

network announced a reversal o its decision to run ads

or hard liquor. Other networks shelved any plans they

had to accept liquor advertising.


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The Day Ater

ABCs The Day Ater made television history in

1983 when hal the country tuned in to watch the

doomsday drama about nuclear war. With provocative

teasers like Dont watch this alone and public service

announcements urging parents to talk to their kids about

the show, FENTON ocused attention on the work o

peace groups to halt the nuclear arms race.

The Day Ater Tomorrow

The 2004 movie The Day Ater Tomorrow was a

catalyst or groups including MoveOn.org and the

bipartisan Energy Future Coalition to educate Americans

about the climate crisis. Town hall meetings held by

MoveOn.org with Al Gore and Robert Kennedy Jr., press

briengs with scientists, and the distribution o fyers at

theaters across the country carried the message, We

cant wait until the day ater tomorrow to stop global warming.

Rock Concerts or Social Change

David Fenton, the ounder o FENTON Communications,

harnessed the energy o music as co-producer o the

1979 No Nukes concerts, ve nights at Madison

Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen and others. He

also helped organize a massive rally eaturing Ralph

Nader and Jane Fonda, who had recently starred in The

China Syndrome about a nuclear plant meltdown, to

reinorce the concerts message. The concerts, rally

and subsequent wave o activism helped to turn public

opinion against nuclear power.

During the 2004 election, FENTON Communications

helped orchestrate MoveOn.org PACs Vote or Change

Tour in swing states, eaturing Springsteen, the Dixie

Chicks, the Dave Matthews Band and REM.


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Contaminated Breast Milk

A study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG)

warned that American women had high levels o

chemical re retardant in their breast milk. FENTON

helped EWG launch their campaign alerting the publicand pressuring the EPA to reduce environmental

exposure to the chemicals sources. Coordinated eorts

to explain the dangers and causes to mainstream outlets

such as Good Morning America, ABC World News

Tonight, CNN, USA Today, the Washington Postand

Associated Press piled on the pressure, and the EPA

phased out the two most widely used re retardants.

Alar and apples

A comprehensive risk analysis o pesticides in ood was

done in 1989 by the Natural Resources Deense Council

(NDRC). The reports conclusion that children were at

risk rom Alar, a chemical known to cause cancer but stillused because o a bureaucratic loophole could have

easily been lost in jargon.

With a 60 Minutes investigation and congressional

testimony by actress Meryl Streep, FENTON helped

NDRC transorm a dry risk-assessment study into

a national debate. The chemical and ood industries

launched a multi-million dollar spin campaign to discredit

NRDC, but numerous studies and reviews since then

conrmed the original studys ndings. Later in 1989,

the Environmental Protection Agency quietly bannedthe chemical, which earlier had been withdrawn by its

manuacturer because o the publicity.


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Derailing media monopolization

When the Federal Communications Commission foated

a plan that would increase concentrations o media

ownership, MoveOn.org, Common Cause and others

launched a campaign to stop the proposal. Focusing

on Rupert Murdoch personally, ads about the FCC rule

change ran in newspapers and on Murdochs own Fox

network.

And the alignment o progressives like MoveOn.org

with conservatives like the NRA and Parents Television

Council proved to be an infuential orce or media and

elected ocials. A groundswell o protest generated

millions o calls and petition signatures to Congress,

which ultimately voted against the FCCs proposed

changes.

Ches, a swordfshs best riend

By the mid 1990s, North Atlantic swordsh was

becoming extinct. Only babies too young to reproduce

were being caught. When Sea Web and the National

Resources Deense Council asked or a strategy, we

created the award-winning Give Swordsh A Break

campaign, organizing 750 prominent ches across the

country who reused to serve the sh.

Hundreds o print and broadcast stories ollowed;

supermarkets and consumers joined the boycott.

Eventually, President Clinton called or swordsh

protection. The government, in a landmark decision,

placed 130,000 square miles o swordsh nursery

grounds o-limits to shing. The swordsh population

has recovered.

RupertMurdoch,theAustralianmedia

mogul,alreadyownsthe FoxTVnetwork,

eightcablenetworks,and localTV stationsin

34U.S. cities.Heowns Americannewspapers,

moviestudios,publishinghouses,andrecord

companies.

ButMurdochwantsmore.Much more.And

togetit,heneedstorepealthelastlawsthat

protectthepublic frommonopolycontrolof

thenewsmedia.

Unlessweact now,RupertMurdochisgoing

togethisway.

Nextweek,the FederalCommunications

Commissionplansto sweepawayownership

restrictionsthat, forthreedecades,have

guaranteedatleast minimalcompetitionand

diversityofopinionson thepublicairwaves.

Whatwill itmean?For Murdochandhisfellow

moguls,itmeansswallowingup independent

broadcastersand affiliates,andgainingfurther

controlovernewscontent,advertisingrevenue

andcable rates.Thenewrules willallow them

toown severalcompetingTVstationsin most

cities.Andtheyll bepermittedto controlthe

largestnewspapers,radioandTV outletsina

singlemarket.

Forthepublic, itmeanshigher cablebills,fewer

choices,cannedprogrammingand reduced

coverageofcommunityissues.

RupertMurdochsNews Corporation,together

withfourotherconglomerates(Disney,Viacom,

GE,andAOLTimeWarner),alreadycontrol

75percentofthe totalU.S. televisionaudience

and90 percentofthe TVnewsaudience.

Thatslocalandnational,broadcastand cable.

Isntthatenough?Isntthat toomuch?

You Can Help Stop Them.

Ofthe thousandsof publiccommentsfiled

withthe FCConthis issue,morethan

97percentopposeincreasedownershipof

localTV bymedia conglomerates.

Publicoutrageis perhapsouronlychance

tostop orreversethese changes.Letthe

CommissionersandCongressknowwhat

youthink.Visit www.MoveOn.org tosendaninstant,personalizedcomment.

This Man Wants to Control

the News in America.

YES! I Want to Help ProtectMedia Diversity in My Community.

Yourcontributionwillbeusedto fundadditionaleffortstoget

thewordoutthroughmoreadvertisingandothermeans.

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY STATE ZIP

EMAILADDRESS

BecauseCommonCauselobbies,yourcontributionisnotdeductible

forincometaxpurposes.

MakecheckspayabletoCommonCause.Mailto:CommonCause

FCCCampaign,1250ConnecticutAve.NW, Washington,DC20036.

www.commoncause.org

The FCC Wants to Help Him.

www.commoncause.orgwww.moveon.org

www.mediareform.net


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Environmental Media Services

FENTON helped to create EMS, a counter to industry

and government environmental inormation. A nonprot,

independent clearinghouse that holds briengs and

connects reporters with experts across a broad rangeo environmental and public health issues, EMS has

become a trusted resource or journalists. Its award-

winning Web site is used by 92 percent o environment

reporters, according to surveys, with 48 percent relying

on it daily.

The war in Iraq

Beore President Bush invaded Iraq, a concerted eort

conceived by FENTON exposed the signicant opposition

to war rom military thinkers and diplomats as well as

the hundreds o thousands o ordinary Americans whoparticipated in protests. The coalition group Win Without

War connected opponents o the war with major media

outlets, created news events and organized private

briengs or media decision makers.

Go ahead. Send me a new generation of recruits.Your bombs will

fuel their hatred of America and their desire for revenge. Americans

wont be safe anywhere. Please, attack Iraq. Distract yourself from

fighting Al Qaeda. Divide the international community. Go ahead.

Destabilize the region. Maybe Pakistan will fall we want its nuclear

weapons. Give Saddam a reason to strike first. He might draw Israel

into a fight. Perfect! So please invade Iraq. Make my day.

Osama says: I Want You to Invade Iraq.

TomPaine.comfeatures reasonswhy we shouldnt.

2002The FlorenceFund,PO Box53303,Washington,DC20009


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We see FENTON Communications as a core parto our team. Their almost unique understanding o

online organizing, combined with their media and

communications depth, has been undamental to our

breakout success.

-Wes Boyd, President, MoveOn.org

For more than our years, weve been duly impressed

by FENTONs ability to manage and weave together

complex policy, research and communications pieces

into a comprehensive, sophisticated and successul

public health campaign. Thanks in part to their work, wenow have a ederal system in place that collects critical

inormation about all homicides and suicides to guide

eective violence prevention policies - just as we do or

trac accidents.

-Mary OConnell, Director of Communications,

Joyce Foundation

When an advocacy group releases a report, it can be

dicult to get the news media to stand up and take

notice. FENTONs strategic advice and media work was

extremely helpul in turning our reports valuable data

and analysis into invaluable media coverage.

-Russlynn Ali, Executive Director,

The Education Trust-West

When we take on a corporation like Enron, Royal Dutch

Shell or WorldCom on behal o individual shareholders,

or pension unds and the workers whose unds they

invest, weve ound that FENTON Communications gets

our lawsuits and settlements properly interpreted by the

media as necessary remedies to corporate greed and

misbehavior. For about ve years now, our lawyers and

FENTON have been a successul partnership leading

toward corporate governance reorm and signicant

paybacks to derauded investors.

- Al Meyerhoff, attorney for Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller

Rudman & Robbins LLP (Los Angeles)

We hired FENTON Communications at a pivotal timein our new oundations growth. At the time, The Point

Foundation was not adequately on the publics radar

screen. FENTON worked with us to develop messages

that conveyed our mission in a way that connected with

the public on an emotional level. FENTON is passionate

about their work and it shows. They helped put The Point

Foundation on the map.

-Vance Lancaster, Executive Director,

The Point Foundation

One o Air America Radios untold stories is the earlyadopter outreach that FENTON did to ensure that

our natural base was excited about the new network.

FENTON played a crucial role in our rapid growth and

success by building buzz among infuential progressive

audiences in the months beore we launched, helping us

knock Rush Limbaugh o the top o the charts.

-Carl Ginsburg, Executive Vice President,

Air America Radio

In a complex, conusing and oten hostile media world,

FENTON knows how to get our message out quickly,

honestly and orcibly. They are great!

-Julian Bond, Board Chairman, NAACP

FENTON gets it. When it comes to positioning women

and girls at the center o social change in the world,

FENTON gets that we cant aord to think small. We

count on them or their laser-sharp ideas, initiative and

savvy. And they deliver every time.

-Christine Grumm, Womens Funding Network


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About FENTON Communications

For more than 25 years, FENTON Communicationshas partnered with nonproft clients to make

social change. We work to protect the environment,

improve public health and advance human rights

and social justice. This guide is one in a series

that weve produced to help build the strategic

communications capacity o the nonproft sector.

To download a ree copy o this and other FENTON

guides, visit www.enton.com.

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? We welcome your

thoughts and ideas.

New York

Lisa Witter, Chie Operating Ocer

(212) 584-5000

[email protected]

Washington, D.C.

Ira Arlook, Managing Director

(202) 822-5200

[email protected]

San Francisco

Parker Blackman, Managing Director

(415) 901-0111

[email protected]

Documents

FENTON_IndustryGuide_ThisJustIn.pdf