Burson-Marsteller
Encyclopedia
Burson-Marsteller is a global public relations
and communications firm headquartered in the United States. Burson-Marsteller operates 67 wholly owned offices and 71 affiliate offices in 98 countries across six continents. The company was founded by Harold Burson and William "Bill" Marsteller in 1953, and, by the early 1980s, had become one of the largest public relations companies in the world. In 1979 it became a subsidiary of Young & Rubicam
, which is now owned by WPP Group. The current CEO
of Burson-Marsteller is Mark Penn
, who joined the company in 2005.
Burson-Marsteller provides public relations and advertising services to clients, including multinational corporations and government agencies. Burson-Marsteller is primarily known for its crisis management
services and political lobbying. It has won numerous awards over the years for its work in high profile crisis management, including the late 1990s Asian financial crisis, a 2002 extortion attempt against British company GlaxoSmithKline
, and a response described as the "gold standard" for its crisis management of the 1982 Chicago Tylenol poisonings. Other high profile crisis cases include the manufacturers of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station
and Egypt
following terrorist attacks on tourists in 1993. At times it has also been the subject of protests and criticism for its use of smearing and doubt campaigns
(to undermine concerns about passive smoking
for Philip Morris
in the 1990s and anti-Google
smear campaigning for Facebook
in 2011) and its work for regimes facing severe human rights criticisms (Argentina
and Indonesia
). The firm also specializes in corporate PR, public affairs, technology and healthcare communications and brand marketing
.
Beginning with a staff of four and just two main clients, operations quickly grew, and in the early 1960s Burson-Marsteller began to establish a presence outside of the US. In 1960, they opened an office in Toronto, Canada, becoming the first US PR agency to do so. One year later, in 1961 following the founding of the Common Market in Europe, the company established its first European office in Geneva, shortly followed by an office in Brussels in 1965. At this time Hill & Knowlton
was the only other US PR firm with an office outside the US. In 1967, Burson-Marsteller opened its first London office.
(GM), the division of GM that made diesel locomotives, beginning in 1956, and was the only PR agency retained by GM at the time. In 1970, Burson-Marsteller was engaged by the main division of GM to manage their PR, following stiff competition from larger firms. According to Harold Burson, GM was seeking outside PR management following the publication of Ralph Nader
's book Unsafe At Any Speed
, which called into question GM's design practices, and led to negative media representation of the company. GM remained a client of Burson-Marsteller for the next eleven years. At the time they took on GM, Burson-Marsteller was the 10th largest PR firm in the United States.
. In his memoirs, Burson described the decision as being made for two primary reasons. First, Burson-Marsteller required capital in order to finance its expansion. Second, Marsteller's advertising agency had declined in profitability and "needed management fixing". Following the takeover, Burson became executive vice-president and a board member of Young & Rubicam. As part of Young & Rubicam in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Burson-Marsteller became known for its crisis management work. Notable clients consulting Burson-Marsteller for crisis management included: Babcock & Wilcox, following the Three Mile Island accident
in 1979; Johnson & Johnson, during the 1982 Tylenol crisis and Union Carbide Corporation
following 1984 Bhopal disaster
. The company was also involved in the introduction of New Coke
in early 1985. In interviews Burson has stated that the negative reaction of the public to the new product was unexpected. Following the reintroduction of the original Coke recipe, the strategy that Burson-Marsteller advised Coca-Cola
to employ was to "be humble" and apologize to the US public for making the decision to change to New Coke. Just two months after original Coke was reintroduced as Classic Coke, sales of Coke, Coca-Cola Classic and Cherry Coke had risen 10 percent compared with the previous year.
The 1980s also saw the company involved in large-scale publicity events. In 1984, Burson-Marsteller first brought entertainment and sports together to generate publicity for its clients with the organization of the AT&T
Olympic Torch Relay, sponsored by the telecommunications company. This was the largest promotional event that the company had undertaken to date, with up to 150 people working full-time on organizing the 8,000-mile relay. One year later, Burson-Marsteller executive Geoff Nightingale came up with the idea of Hands Across America
as a fundraising event for USA for Africa
sponsored by its client Coca-Cola.
By 1983, Burson-Marsteller had become the world's largest PR firm, with $63.8 million in revenue for that year. The following year it acquired Cohn & Wolfe
, an Atlanta-based public relations firm, which operated as a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller until 2000. The firm had established its first offices in Asia in 1973, with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur
and Tokyo, and by the mid-1980s it had further expanded overseas operations with the founding of offices in Australia and New Zealand. A subsidiary of the Xinhua News Agency
(New China News Agency) went into partnership with Burson-Marsteller in 1985, providing commercial public relations for foreign firms in China and for Chinese companies internationally. This subsidiary later became China Global Public Relations, mainland China's first specialized public relations consulting firm. Following Burson-Marsteller's appointment as the official public relations counsel for the Seoul Olympics
in 1988, it was the first foreign public relations firm to be granted a license to open a wholly owned communications and marketing office in South Korea
.
Burson-Marsteller also expanded into Central and South America during the 1980s. Offices were established in San Juan
, Puerto Rico
and Sao Paulo
. A regional headquarters was established in Miami in May 1989, and with the regional headquarters in place, the company won MasterCard International's Latin American account, which became one of the firm's largest accounts of the time.
The agency's business grew by about 24% annually during the 1980s, according to Burson, and PR Week stated in 1988 that Burson-Marsteller was by that point "the largest international PR firm in the world". The following year, Burson stepped down as CEO of the firm. He continued to work on major accounts such as Coca-Cola and Merrill Lynch, while James H. Dowling succeeded him as the second ever CEO of Burson-Marsteller.
In December 1994, the company received attention after an executive at Burson-Marsteller was killed by a mailbomb sent by the "Unabomber". The Washington Post reported that Ted Kaczynski targeted Burson-Marsteller executive Thomas Mosser due to a belief Exxon
had consulted with Burson-Marsteller during the Valdez oil spill
. Burson-Marsteller stated that they had advised Exxon in the past and had been asked to review and analyze Exxon's handling of the disaster afterwards, but had not been engaged to manage the crisis itself.
In the 1990s the company also received considerable attention for PR campaigns on behalf of tobacco company Altria (formerly Philip Morris Companies Inc.) in which it was engaged to discredit anti-smoking research and legislation attempts. In 1993 Burson-Marsteller helped organize a response to a 1992 United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) report which had identified secondhand smoke as a Group A human carcinogen. The strategy employed by Burson-Marsteller was to build doubt among consumers about the scientific validity of the EPA report and to target legislators who supported curbs on smoking. As part of this strategy, the company organized a smokers' rights group called the National Smokers Alliance
(NSA), to target politicians who supported anti-smoking legislation. The NSA was founded with an estimated $4 million in Philip Morris seed money and involvement of some fifty other tobacco industry players.
Their activities also included support for The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), which was created in 1993 by APCO Worldwide
, another major public relations firm, with funding from Philip Morris. In Europe, Burson-Marsteller provided support for an advertising campaign in 1996 carried out by Philip Morris. Advertisements were published comparing the health risks of second hand smoke exposure with a range of other activities. This campaign received significant coverage in the media across Europe. Burson-Marsteller was criticized in the media for its involvement with Philip Morris, and in 1999 a demonstration was held outside of the firm's headquarters, protesting their role as PR for Philip Morris. Those involved went to great lengths not to reveal the tobacco industry support of these organizations, in order to give the appearance they represented grassroots opposition to anti-smoking laws rather than the business interests of their sponsors.
At the end of the 1990s, the firm had retained its position as the largest PR agency in the world, with fees of over $274 million for that year. As part of the company's continued growth it had acquired a grassroots lobbying organization, Direct Impact, in April 1999. In the same year, Burson was named by PR Week as the PR industry's "most influential person of the 20th Century".
PLC in 2000, and Burson-Marsteller became part of WPP. A noteworthy client has been the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing
, which first hired Burson-Marsteller in 1995 to publicize the new designs of US currency bills, both within the US and internationally. The Bureau had launched a second redesign in ten years of the bills, with the intention of preventing counterfeiting. As well as the media campaign, Burson-Marsteller was also involved in research prior to the redesign to ensure that the new designs would be acceptable to the public.
In December 2005, Burson-Marsteller acquired the Indian firm Genesis PR as a wholly owned subsidiary. Following this acquisition India and China became Burson-Marsteller's second and third largest markets worldwide, based on number of employees. The renamed Genesis Burson-Marsteller was announced as the company's hub for the South Asian market in 2008. Prior to the acquisition, since 2002, Genesis had been Burson-Marsteller's exclusive representative in India.
Mark Penn
became the CEO of Burson-Marsteller in December 2005, following a period of instability at the firm during which there were three leadership changes in one year. Penn's predecessor, Tom Nides, had left Burson-Marsteller after eight months in the role. A White House
political pollster for six years, he was best known for his work with President Bill Clinton
, Tony Blair
and Bill Gates
. Penn (who had not previously worked within PR) introduced new strategies at Burson-Marsteller, including one called "DIGS" (digital, integrated, global, strategic) and "Evidence-Based Communications", described by the company as a scientific and data-driven approach to communications, which drew from Penn's background in research.
Penn and Burson-Marsteller received negative media attention in 2008 when his work on behalf of the Colombian government (then seeking a free-trade agreement with the US) became a political liability for the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton
, who was opposed to a free-trade pact with Colombia. Penn described the dual role an "error in judgment" following which the Colombian government terminated its client relationship. Clinton later revised her opinion in favor of the free-trade pact.
Penn’s leadership at Burson-Marsteller has been cited by PR Week as a model for the public relations industry, particularly combining public affairs experience with public relations. In April 2011, industry expert Paul Holmes named Burson-Marsteller the US Large Agency of the Year, citing its double-digit growth within the US and record 2010 profits as factors in the award, crediting Penn with improved performance and Burson’s "global recovery".
Notable clients for Burson-Marsteller in the late 2000s include Ford Motor Company
, which took on the company as crisis management consultants in 2009, and American International Group
(AIG), on whose behalf the firm undertook crisis management work in 2008 and 2009. Burson-Marsteller was brought in by AIG to help respond to requests for information from customers, employees and the media, due to the liquidity crisis it suffered in September 2008. In 2010, Burson-Marsteller announced it had made a commitment to no longer accept work on behalf of the tobacco industry.
In May 2011, Burson-Marsteller was hired by Facebook to conduct a PR attack on Google
. Burson-Marsteller contacted a number of media companies and bloggers in an effort to get them to write unflattering stories about Google. The campaign backfired when one of the bloggers went public by posting the emails he received from Burson-Marsteller on the Internet.
services including both public relations
and advertising
services. The firm's reputation as a "leading-edge" communications consultancy was established largely through its work with corporate clients and in crisis situations, although it also undertakes a wide range of other communications and public relations work. The services Burson-Marsteller provides for clients include public relations, public affairs, advertising and other communications, including web-related services. The company is split into several practices, within which a range of services is offered. These include: Public Affairs, Corporate and Financial Communications, Healthcare, Technology, Brand Management, and an Issues & Crisis Group. Within each of these practices there are specialty teams focusing on particular disciplines such as media management, investor communications, product liability and recalls, and corporate counseling.
, former senior aide to US President George W. Bush
and former White House Press Secretary
Dana Perino
, and Don Baer, former communications director for the Clinton administration, the three of whom were brought to the firm by Mark Penn.
In an interview in 2003, Harold Burson was quoted as saying that Burson-Marsteller has been "a training ground for the industry", with more than 35,000 people continuing to participate in the company's alumni network . Notable former employees at Burson-Marsteller include: Thomas Nides, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; Lord Watson of Richmond, a member of the House of Lords
; Perry Yeatman, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Kraft Foods
; Kathryn Beiser, vice president of corporate communications at Discover Financial Services
; Bob Feldman and Jeff Hunt, co-founders and principals of PulsePoint Group communications consultancy; and Daniel Lamarre, CEO of Cirque du Soleil
and prominent figures in a number of PR companies, including the CEOs of Ketchum Inc.
, Cohn & Wolfe
and Wunderman
.
work, Burson-Marsteller has become identified with many major corporate crises of the past half-century. Burson-Marsteller added crisis management as a service following Young & Rubicam's 1979 takeover of the company. In 2008, Burson-Marsteller established a global practice called the Issues & Crisis Group (ICG) that focus specifically on this area of communications. The company's ICG practice has a network of specially certified experts in crisis management located in its offices worldwide. Services include providing communication with clients' employees, customers and the general public during crises.
In addition to helping clients deal with crises as they occur, Burson-Marsteller also provides clients with assistance in developing contingency plans for potential crises. The firm provides intelligence reports to clients either hourly or daily that advise of new issues, public reception, and critical or supportive responses and carries out market research into CEO and corporate reputation. Burson-Marsteller also offers services including communications tools and techniques intended to help companies to recover following a crisis.
In particular, Burson-Marsteller has had a close working relationship with many global producers and marketers of petroleum products, especially assisting on key communications of specific crisis situations such as oil spills and serious accidents. It has also worked with these companies in the development of environmental upgrade programs. Significant clients have included Shell
and ExxonMobil
.
The company has received a number of awards for its work in crisis management. In 1999, Burson-Marsteller was awarded a Public Relations Society of America
Silver Anvil, the public relations industry's highest award for organizations, recognizing its communications program aimed at restoring confidence in the Korean economy
during the Asian financial crisis of 1998. It also received a Silver Anvil in 2003 for its work with the United States Postal Service
for managing communications during the anthrax crisis
. In 2002, the company received a Golden World Award, the highest award from the UK-based International Public Relations Association, for its crisis management work on behalf of GlaxoSmithKline
following an extortion attempt involving its Panadol
brand.
Since the early 1980s, Burson-Marsteller has dealt with a range of much-publicized crisis management situations, from industrial accidents to acts of terrorism. Notable early cases include work involving the 1982 and 1986 Tylenol contaminations and the Bhopal disaster.
in September 1982 has been referred to as the "gold standard" for crisis management. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed when they took Tylenol capsules tainted with cyanide
, and Johnson & Johnson went to Burson-Marsteller for advice on how to approach the situation. After an eighth death, which occurred in California, the response by Johnson & Johnson was to announce a nationwide recall of all Tylenol capsules. Burson-Marsteller organized a press conference televised across 35 markets in the US, addressing the recall and reporting that the product tampering had occurred on the shelves, not during manufacturing. During late October 1982, a brief television campaign was undertaken asking for the public to trust Tylenol, and Burson-Marsteller carried out nationwide polling which found that the majority of the population still had confidence in Johnson & Johnson. Ninety percent of respondents stated that they did not hold the manufacturer responsible for the deaths.
At a Burson-Marsteller organized press conference in November 1982, Johnson & Johnson introduced new tamper-proof packaging, becoming the first company to introduce triple-sealed packaging, which later became the industry standard. The conference gave Johnson & Johnson the opportunity to announce that they were reintroducing Tylenol capsules to the market and would replace any Tylenol that consumers had thrown away. In addition, Johnson & Johnson published advertisements with coupons for consumers to use in replacing Tylenol that had been thrown out and produced commercials and print advertisements thanking the public for their "continuing confidence and support". Within six weeks of the introduction of the repackaged product Tylenol's sales returned to the previous level. In 1983, Burson-Marsteller was awarded a Silver Anvil for "out-of-the-ordinary crisis management" for its work with Johnson & Johnson. The company was brought back to handle crisis management during a second Tylenol crisis, involving cyanide tainting in New York in 1986.
was one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. In 1984 a gas leak killed over 2,000 people at a plant in Bhopal, India and poisoned thousands more. The plant was jointly owned by Union Carbide Corporation, now Dow Chemicals, and the Indian government, and run by local Indian management. Burson-Marsteller consultants were brought in by Union Carbide to organize communications following the leak and provide advice to Union Carbide executives. Specifically, the company set up an information center to provide information to the media and help to transmit news from the remote location to newspaper, TV and radio outlets, and facilitate daily press conferences that reported on steps taken following the accident. Under advice from Burson-Marsteller's consultants and corporate lawyers, Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson traveled to Bhopal where he was placed in custody by the Indian government. Anderson posted bail, returned to the US, and refused to return to India. He was declared a fugitive from justice by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal on 1 February 1992, for failing to appear at the court hearings in a culpable homicide case in which he was named the chief defendant. While his visit to India several days after the leak was viewed positively by the media and other corporations and brought attention to Union Carbide's actions in showing its concern for what had happened in Bhopal it didn't deflect criticism of Union Carbide for cutting costs on safety measures. While Burson-Marsteller has been criticized for its involvement with Union Carbide, Harold Burson has stated that he is proud of the company's work in helping the media cover the story.
The company organized a campaign for Egypt's Ministry of Tourism following terrorist attacks on tourists in 1993. The campaign focused on Western Europe and the US, and featured TV commercials and other media coverage of new archeological discoveries and the role of Egypt in the Middle East.
Blackwater USA
, the private military company, took on Burson-Marsteller's subsidiary company BKSH to help founder Erik Prince
prepare for a congressional hearing
in 2007. In September of that year, Blackwater guards were involved in a shooting in Baghdad
in which 13 Iraqis were killed. Blackwater faced a large amount of negative publicity and Prince was asked to give testimony to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
, financial communications, organizational performance, and C-suite
positioning. Services provided by Burson-Marsteller include market research into corporate reputation, corporate communications strategies and intelligence tools. Among the corporate intelligence initiatives launched by Burson-Marsteller's corporate practice, its Global Social Media Check-up, a study of how social media
(including corporate blogs) is used by the top 100 companies from the Fortune Global 500 index
, was viewed online by over 60,000 people in 2010. One of Burson-Marsteller's longstanding corporate clients was the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation
(SABIC). The company began work with the petrochemical producer in the late 1970s when they first entered the market in the Middle East. Other notable corporate clients have included Procter and Gamble, British Gas Plc
, Philips
, Unilever
, Du Pont, Coca-Cola
, GlaxoSmithKline
, Merrill Lynch
, General Electric
, the Federal Communications Commission
, and Colgate-Palmolive
.
and Qualcomm
and its headquarters moved to Silicon Valley
in the late 1990s. The practice focuses specifically on public relations for technology companies and organizations using technology as a key part of their business. Notable clients include HP, Intel and business software corporation SAP AG
.
, the Hebrides Range Task Force, for whose campaign Burson-Marsteller won several awards in 2010, South Korea, including representation of the Seoul Olympics
Organizing Committee in the late 1980s, and the Brazilian government tourism agency. Burson-Marsteller has in the past taken on government clients who have been controversial, in particular during the 1970s when clients notably included Romania
, Indonesia and Argentina
. The company has received awards for its public affairs work, including an award for the Europe/Middle East/Africa public affairs agency of the year at the 2009/10 SABRE awards, the world's largest awards competition for the public relations industry, and a Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America
in 2004 for their work for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
as the friendliest of the Soviet bloc leaders to their interests. US President Nixon
visited Ceauşescu in Bucharest in 1969, which he viewed as a diplomatic opportunity to gain access to China, and later the Romanian dictator was said to be instrumental in arranging Nixon's visit to China. Burson-Marsteller was brought in by the Romanian government specifically to promote trade and tourism for Romania; one result was a week-long visit to the country by NBC
's Today program.
of East Timor
protesters by occupying Indonesian forces
, the Indonesian government retained Burson-Marsteller "to help improve the country's human rights and environmental image," according to the Far Eastern Economic Review
. Another contract was signed in 1996. The company was retained in total from 1992 to 1998. Over the six years that the company worked for the country's government, Burson-Marsteller promoted Indonesia's trade opportunities in order to encourage foreign investment and aided the country in attempts to improve its human rights image.
, and the remit of attracting industrial investment, marketing Argentine bonds, promoting Argentine products, mainly wine, and improving the image of the dictatorship around the world. In doing so the company produced press kits and direct mailings, arranged for journalists to visit Argentina, and held lunches with business groups and financial seminars.
At that time human rights organizations were denouncing state crimes against humanity
including forced disappearance
s and torture
that were taking place in what later became known as the Dirty War
. Burson-Marsteller has maintained that it was not asked to defend human rights violations, however, researcher Rubén Morales wrote that the company created a slogan to coincide with the September 1979 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
' fact-finding visit which stated in its English translation, "We Argentines are right and humane". Naomi Klein
wrote in The Shock Doctrine
that Burson-Marsteller executive Victor Emmanuel stated that "violence was necessary to open up Argentina's economy" since securing investment was impossible if a state of civil war
existed, and that while acknowledging that "a lot of innocent people were probably killed", "given the situation, immense force was required." Burson-Marsteller did not seek an extension of its four-year contract.
. Notable clients have included AstraZeneca
, Allergan
, Wyeth
, Schering-Plough
, Sandoz
, and Bristol-Myers Squibb
. Burson-Marsteller has won a number of international awards for campaigns by its healthcare practice, including a Platimum PR Award for its 2002 National Breast Cancer Awareness Month campaign.
's privacy practices after security researcher Christopher Soghoian
re-posted a pitch he received from a Burson-Marsteller representative. Other influential outlets, including USA Today, confirmed that they had received similar pitches and even offers for help in writing article content. It was soon discovered by The Daily Beast that Google-competitor Facebook had hired the firm to promote press coverage critical of Google's practices, although Burson-Marsteller did not initially divulge to writers who had paid for their services. This was confirmed by Facebook itself shortly after.
Burson-Marsteller has since admitted its role in the campaign, and claims to have parted ways with Facebook.
and brand marketing for Old Navy
.
.
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
and communications firm headquartered in the United States. Burson-Marsteller operates 67 wholly owned offices and 71 affiliate offices in 98 countries across six continents. The company was founded by Harold Burson and William "Bill" Marsteller in 1953, and, by the early 1980s, had become one of the largest public relations companies in the world. In 1979 it became a subsidiary of Young & Rubicam
Young & Rubicam
Y&R is a marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting.-History:...
, which is now owned by WPP Group. The current CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of Burson-Marsteller is Mark Penn
Mark Penn
Mark J. Penn , is the worldwide CEO of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. In September 2007, he released a book titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, which examines small trends sweeping...
, who joined the company in 2005.
Burson-Marsteller provides public relations and advertising services to clients, including multinational corporations and government agencies. Burson-Marsteller is primarily known for its crisis management
Crisis management
Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. The study of crisis management originated with the large scale industrial and environmental disasters in the 1980's.Shrivastava, P....
services and political lobbying. It has won numerous awards over the years for its work in high profile crisis management, including the late 1990s Asian financial crisis, a 2002 extortion attempt against British company GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
, and a response described as the "gold standard" for its crisis management of the 1982 Chicago Tylenol poisonings. Other high profile crisis cases include the manufacturers of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is a civilian nuclear power plant located on Three Mile Island in the Susquehanna River, south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It has two separate units, known as TMI-1 and TMI-2...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
following terrorist attacks on tourists in 1993. At times it has also been the subject of protests and criticism for its use of smearing and doubt campaigns
Fear, uncertainty and doubt
Fear, uncertainty and doubt, frequently abbreviated as FUD, is a tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda....
(to undermine concerns about passive smoking
Passive smoking
Passive smoking is the inhalation of smoke, called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke , from tobacco products used by others. It occurs when tobacco smoke permeates any environment, causing its inhalation by people within that environment. Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke causes...
for Philip Morris
Philip Morris
- Philip/Phillip Morris :*Altria Group, conglomerate company previously known as Philip Morris Companies Inc., named after the 19th century tobacconist**Philip Morris USA, tobacco company wholly owned by Altria Group...
in the 1990s and anti-Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
smear campaigning for Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
in 2011) and its work for regimes facing severe human rights criticisms (Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
). The firm also specializes in corporate PR, public affairs, technology and healthcare communications and brand marketing
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
.
1950s and 1960s: Founding and early history
Prior to the establishment of Burson-Marsteller, co-founders Harold Burson and William "Bill" Marsteller owned separate agencies, focused on public relations and advertising, respectively. Burson had established Harold Burson Public Relations in 1946 and was based in New York City. Meanwhile, Marsteller had founded the Chicago-based advertising agency Marsteller Gebhardt and Reed (later renamed Marsteller Inc.) in 1951. Burson and Marsteller met in 1952 when Marsteller needed a PR agency to work on an account for his client, Rockwell Manufacturing and was referred to Burson. The two agencies shared the Rockwell account and, later, an account for Clark Engineering Equipment Company. In 1953, they entered into partnership, creating a new public relations firm that was owned jointly by Burson and by Marsteller's advertising agency.Beginning with a staff of four and just two main clients, operations quickly grew, and in the early 1960s Burson-Marsteller began to establish a presence outside of the US. In 1960, they opened an office in Toronto, Canada, becoming the first US PR agency to do so. One year later, in 1961 following the founding of the Common Market in Europe, the company established its first European office in Geneva, shortly followed by an office in Brussels in 1965. At this time Hill & Knowlton
Hill & Knowlton
Hill & Knowlton is a global public relations company, headquartered in New York City, United States, with 79 offices in 44 countries. Hill & Knowlton was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1927 by John W. Hill and is today led by Chairman & CEO, Paul Taaffe...
was the only other US PR firm with an office outside the US. In 1967, Burson-Marsteller opened its first London office.
1970s: General Motors
One of the firm's earliest clients was the Electro-Motive Division of General MotorsGeneral Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
(GM), the division of GM that made diesel locomotives, beginning in 1956, and was the only PR agency retained by GM at the time. In 1970, Burson-Marsteller was engaged by the main division of GM to manage their PR, following stiff competition from larger firms. According to Harold Burson, GM was seeking outside PR management following the publication of Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
's book Unsafe At Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile by Ralph Nader, published in 1965, is a book detailing resistance by car manufacturers to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety...
, which called into question GM's design practices, and led to negative media representation of the company. GM remained a client of Burson-Marsteller for the next eleven years. At the time they took on GM, Burson-Marsteller was the 10th largest PR firm in the United States.
1980s: Young & Rubicam and worldwide expansion
In 1979, the company was sold to the communications group Young & RubicamYoung & Rubicam
Y&R is a marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting.-History:...
. In his memoirs, Burson described the decision as being made for two primary reasons. First, Burson-Marsteller required capital in order to finance its expansion. Second, Marsteller's advertising agency had declined in profitability and "needed management fixing". Following the takeover, Burson became executive vice-president and a board member of Young & Rubicam. As part of Young & Rubicam in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Burson-Marsteller became known for its crisis management work. Notable clients consulting Burson-Marsteller for crisis management included: Babcock & Wilcox, following the Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
in 1979; Johnson & Johnson, during the 1982 Tylenol crisis and Union Carbide Corporation
Union Carbide
Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. It currently employs more than 2,400 people. Union Carbide primarily produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some are high-volume...
following 1984 Bhopal disaster
Bhopal disaster
The Bhopal disaster also known as Bhopal Gas Tragedy was a gas leak incident in India, considered one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India...
. The company was also involved in the introduction of New Coke
New Coke
New Coke was the reformulation of Coca-Cola introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace the original formula of its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola...
in early 1985. In interviews Burson has stated that the negative reaction of the public to the new product was unexpected. Following the reintroduction of the original Coke recipe, the strategy that Burson-Marsteller advised Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
to employ was to "be humble" and apologize to the US public for making the decision to change to New Coke. Just two months after original Coke was reintroduced as Classic Coke, sales of Coke, Coca-Cola Classic and Cherry Coke had risen 10 percent compared with the previous year.
The 1980s also saw the company involved in large-scale publicity events. In 1984, Burson-Marsteller first brought entertainment and sports together to generate publicity for its clients with the organization of the AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
Olympic Torch Relay, sponsored by the telecommunications company. This was the largest promotional event that the company had undertaken to date, with up to 150 people working full-time on organizing the 8,000-mile relay. One year later, Burson-Marsteller executive Geoff Nightingale came up with the idea of Hands Across America
Hands Across America
Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States...
as a fundraising event for USA for Africa
USA for Africa
USA for Africa was the name under which forty-seven predominantly U.S. artists, led by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, recorded the hit single "We Are the World" in 1985. The song was a US and UK Number One for the collective in April of that year...
sponsored by its client Coca-Cola.
By 1983, Burson-Marsteller had become the world's largest PR firm, with $63.8 million in revenue for that year. The following year it acquired Cohn & Wolfe
Cohn & Wolfe
Cohn & Wolfe is a global public relations firm dedicated to creating, building and protecting corporate brands. Its mission is to support through a mix of both traditional and unconventional marketing and public relations techniques designed to build media visibility, develop customer relationships...
, an Atlanta-based public relations firm, which operated as a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller until 2000. The firm had established its first offices in Asia in 1973, with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
and Tokyo, and by the mid-1980s it had further expanded overseas operations with the founding of offices in Australia and New Zealand. A subsidiary of the Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency
The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
(New China News Agency) went into partnership with Burson-Marsteller in 1985, providing commercial public relations for foreign firms in China and for Chinese companies internationally. This subsidiary later became China Global Public Relations, mainland China's first specialized public relations consulting firm. Following Burson-Marsteller's appointment as the official public relations counsel for the Seoul Olympics
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
in 1988, it was the first foreign public relations firm to be granted a license to open a wholly owned communications and marketing office in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
.
Burson-Marsteller also expanded into Central and South America during the 1980s. Offices were established in San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and Sao Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
. A regional headquarters was established in Miami in May 1989, and with the regional headquarters in place, the company won MasterCard International's Latin American account, which became one of the firm's largest accounts of the time.
The agency's business grew by about 24% annually during the 1980s, according to Burson, and PR Week stated in 1988 that Burson-Marsteller was by that point "the largest international PR firm in the world". The following year, Burson stepped down as CEO of the firm. He continued to work on major accounts such as Coca-Cola and Merrill Lynch, while James H. Dowling succeeded him as the second ever CEO of Burson-Marsteller.
1990s: Global presence and Philip Morris
By 1990 Burson-Marsteller had branches in 28 countries, with 52 offices and over 2300 employees. Notable international work carried out by Burson-Marsteller in the early 1990s included a public relations campaign undertaken for the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism in 1993, following terrorist attacks on tourists in Egypt. The campaign aimed to encourage tourists to visit Egypt, focusing on recent archaeological discoveries.In December 1994, the company received attention after an executive at Burson-Marsteller was killed by a mailbomb sent by the "Unabomber". The Washington Post reported that Ted Kaczynski targeted Burson-Marsteller executive Thomas Mosser due to a belief Exxon
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
had consulted with Burson-Marsteller during the Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused...
. Burson-Marsteller stated that they had advised Exxon in the past and had been asked to review and analyze Exxon's handling of the disaster afterwards, but had not been engaged to manage the crisis itself.
In the 1990s the company also received considerable attention for PR campaigns on behalf of tobacco company Altria (formerly Philip Morris Companies Inc.) in which it was engaged to discredit anti-smoking research and legislation attempts. In 1993 Burson-Marsteller helped organize a response to a 1992 United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) report which had identified secondhand smoke as a Group A human carcinogen. The strategy employed by Burson-Marsteller was to build doubt among consumers about the scientific validity of the EPA report and to target legislators who supported curbs on smoking. As part of this strategy, the company organized a smokers' rights group called the National Smokers Alliance
National Smokers Alliance
The National Smoker's Alliance was a group formed in 1993 to protest U.S. anti-smoking legislation.The NSA was a public relations created front group funded by the tobacco industry, which operated nationally from 1994 to 1999 to advocate for adults using tobacco products without vigorous...
(NSA), to target politicians who supported anti-smoking legislation. The NSA was founded with an estimated $4 million in Philip Morris seed money and involvement of some fifty other tobacco industry players.
Their activities also included support for The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), which was created in 1993 by APCO Worldwide
APCO Worldwide
APCO Worldwide is an independent communications consultancy. With more than 600 employees in 29 worldwide locations, it is the second largest independently-owned PR firm in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., APCO was founded in 1984 by Margery Kraus, who is now the firm’s global...
, another major public relations firm, with funding from Philip Morris. In Europe, Burson-Marsteller provided support for an advertising campaign in 1996 carried out by Philip Morris. Advertisements were published comparing the health risks of second hand smoke exposure with a range of other activities. This campaign received significant coverage in the media across Europe. Burson-Marsteller was criticized in the media for its involvement with Philip Morris, and in 1999 a demonstration was held outside of the firm's headquarters, protesting their role as PR for Philip Morris. Those involved went to great lengths not to reveal the tobacco industry support of these organizations, in order to give the appearance they represented grassroots opposition to anti-smoking laws rather than the business interests of their sponsors.
At the end of the 1990s, the firm had retained its position as the largest PR agency in the world, with fees of over $274 million for that year. As part of the company's continued growth it had acquired a grassroots lobbying organization, Direct Impact, in April 1999. In the same year, Burson was named by PR Week as the PR industry's "most influential person of the 20th Century".
2000s: Current era
Young & Rubicam became a subsidiary of the media group WPP GroupWPP Group
WPP plc is a global media communications services company with its main management office in London, United Kingdom and its executive office in Dublin, Ireland. It is the world's largest advertising group by revenues, and employs over 150,000 people in 2,400 offices in 107 countries...
PLC in 2000, and Burson-Marsteller became part of WPP. A noteworthy client has been the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a government agency within the United States Department of the Treasury that designs and produces a variety of security products for the United States government, most notable of which is paper currency for the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve itself is...
, which first hired Burson-Marsteller in 1995 to publicize the new designs of US currency bills, both within the US and internationally. The Bureau had launched a second redesign in ten years of the bills, with the intention of preventing counterfeiting. As well as the media campaign, Burson-Marsteller was also involved in research prior to the redesign to ensure that the new designs would be acceptable to the public.
In December 2005, Burson-Marsteller acquired the Indian firm Genesis PR as a wholly owned subsidiary. Following this acquisition India and China became Burson-Marsteller's second and third largest markets worldwide, based on number of employees. The renamed Genesis Burson-Marsteller was announced as the company's hub for the South Asian market in 2008. Prior to the acquisition, since 2002, Genesis had been Burson-Marsteller's exclusive representative in India.
Mark Penn
Mark Penn
Mark J. Penn , is the worldwide CEO of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. In September 2007, he released a book titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, which examines small trends sweeping...
became the CEO of Burson-Marsteller in December 2005, following a period of instability at the firm during which there were three leadership changes in one year. Penn's predecessor, Tom Nides, had left Burson-Marsteller after eight months in the role. A White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
political pollster for six years, he was best known for his work with President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
. Penn (who had not previously worked within PR) introduced new strategies at Burson-Marsteller, including one called "DIGS" (digital, integrated, global, strategic) and "Evidence-Based Communications", described by the company as a scientific and data-driven approach to communications, which drew from Penn's background in research.
Penn and Burson-Marsteller received negative media attention in 2008 when his work on behalf of the Colombian government (then seeking a free-trade agreement with the US) became a political liability for the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
, who was opposed to a free-trade pact with Colombia. Penn described the dual role an "error in judgment" following which the Colombian government terminated its client relationship. Clinton later revised her opinion in favor of the free-trade pact.
Penn’s leadership at Burson-Marsteller has been cited by PR Week as a model for the public relations industry, particularly combining public affairs experience with public relations. In April 2011, industry expert Paul Holmes named Burson-Marsteller the US Large Agency of the Year, citing its double-digit growth within the US and record 2010 profits as factors in the award, crediting Penn with improved performance and Burson’s "global recovery".
Notable clients for Burson-Marsteller in the late 2000s include Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
, which took on the company as crisis management consultants in 2009, and American International Group
American International Group
American International Group, Inc. or AIG is an American multinational insurance corporation. Its corporate headquarters is located in the American International Building in New York City. The British headquarters office is on Fenchurch Street in London, continental Europe operations are based in...
(AIG), on whose behalf the firm undertook crisis management work in 2008 and 2009. Burson-Marsteller was brought in by AIG to help respond to requests for information from customers, employees and the media, due to the liquidity crisis it suffered in September 2008. In 2010, Burson-Marsteller announced it had made a commitment to no longer accept work on behalf of the tobacco industry.
In May 2011, Burson-Marsteller was hired by Facebook to conduct a PR attack on Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
. Burson-Marsteller contacted a number of media companies and bloggers in an effort to get them to write unflattering stories about Google. The campaign backfired when one of the bloggers went public by posting the emails he received from Burson-Marsteller on the Internet.
Company overview
Burson-Marsteller offers clients integrated communicationsIntegrated Marketing Communications
Integrated Marketing Communications is defined as customer centric, data driven method of communicating with the customer. IMC is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, functions and sources within a company into a seamless program that maximizes the impact...
services including both public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
services. The firm's reputation as a "leading-edge" communications consultancy was established largely through its work with corporate clients and in crisis situations, although it also undertakes a wide range of other communications and public relations work. The services Burson-Marsteller provides for clients include public relations, public affairs, advertising and other communications, including web-related services. The company is split into several practices, within which a range of services is offered. These include: Public Affairs, Corporate and Financial Communications, Healthcare, Technology, Brand Management, and an Issues & Crisis Group. Within each of these practices there are specialty teams focusing on particular disciplines such as media management, investor communications, product liability and recalls, and corporate counseling.
Structure and employees
Burson-Marsteller is split into four divisions by geographic region: Asia Pacific, Europe/MiddleEast/Africa, Latin America and the US. Within each region there is a separate leadership structure, all of which report to the CEO Worldwide. The company is practice-based and is therefore organized into practice specialties and client teams, with each practice having its own global chair and chairs within each geographic location. Across all practices worldwide, Burson-Marsteller employs more than 2,000 people. Key employees in the firm include: Mark Penn, worldwide CEO; Patrick Ford, US president and CEO Bob Pickard, Asia-Pacific president and CEO; Ramiro Prudencio, Latin America president and CEO; Jeremy Galbraith, Europe/Middle East/Africa CEO and global chair of Public Affairs; and Jay Leveton, worldwide EVP. Other notable current employees of the company include Karen HughesKaren Hughes
Karen Parfitt Hughes is the Global Vice Chair of Burson-Marsteller. She served as the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of State with the rank of ambassador. She resides in Austin, Texas.-Early life:Born in Paris, France, she is the daughter...
, former senior aide to US President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and former White House Press Secretary
White House Press Secretary
The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....
Dana Perino
Dana Perino
Dana Maria Perino is an American political commentator for Fox News. She served as the White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush from September 14, 2007 to January 20, 2009...
, and Don Baer, former communications director for the Clinton administration, the three of whom were brought to the firm by Mark Penn.
Training
Within the industry Burson-Marsteller is known for its effective company employee training programs and for having helped to develop the careers of many members of the public relations industry. From early in the company's history, employees were expected to participate in ongoing training. Due to this practice, Harold Burson estimated in the early 1980s that 65 percent of the company's costs were related to human resources. The aim of Burson-Marsteller's training is to create a uniform approach to public relations across all clients and locations. In 2005, the company launched Burson-Marsteller University, providing comprehensive training to its executives in developing corporate communications that are consistent worldwide while remaining culturally appropriate. In 2009, when the firm debuted a new approach to public relations called "Evidence-Based Communications", Burson-Marsteller also introduced an extensive training program designed to help employees apply it to ongoing projects and new proposals. Specific training is also provided to employees relevant to their practice areas. In the Issues & Crisis Group, employees are trained to communicate the correct information during crises for a variety of different clients and issues.In an interview in 2003, Harold Burson was quoted as saying that Burson-Marsteller has been "a training ground for the industry", with more than 35,000 people continuing to participate in the company's alumni network . Notable former employees at Burson-Marsteller include: Thomas Nides, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; Lord Watson of Richmond, a member of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
; Perry Yeatman, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
; Kathryn Beiser, vice president of corporate communications at Discover Financial Services
Discover Financial
Discover Financial Services is an American financial services company, which issues the Discover Card and operates the Discover and Pulse networks...
; Bob Feldman and Jeff Hunt, co-founders and principals of PulsePoint Group communications consultancy; and Daniel Lamarre, CEO of Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
and prominent figures in a number of PR companies, including the CEOs of Ketchum Inc.
Ketchum Inc.
Ketchum is a global public relations firm, offering marketing, branding and corporate communications services. Founded in 1923 by George Ketchum as a Pittsburgh-based advertising company which later evolved to include a public relations practice, the firm currently has 23 offices and 46 affiliates...
, Cohn & Wolfe
Cohn & Wolfe
Cohn & Wolfe is a global public relations firm dedicated to creating, building and protecting corporate brands. Its mission is to support through a mix of both traditional and unconventional marketing and public relations techniques designed to build media visibility, develop customer relationships...
and Wunderman
Wunderman
Wunderman is a network of advertising, marketing and consulting companies with offices in 55 countries. Headquartered in New York City, Wunderman is part of Young & Rubicam Brands and a member of WPP Group .- History :...
.
Crisis management
Through its crisis managementCrisis management
Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. The study of crisis management originated with the large scale industrial and environmental disasters in the 1980's.Shrivastava, P....
work, Burson-Marsteller has become identified with many major corporate crises of the past half-century. Burson-Marsteller added crisis management as a service following Young & Rubicam's 1979 takeover of the company. In 2008, Burson-Marsteller established a global practice called the Issues & Crisis Group (ICG) that focus specifically on this area of communications. The company's ICG practice has a network of specially certified experts in crisis management located in its offices worldwide. Services include providing communication with clients' employees, customers and the general public during crises.
In addition to helping clients deal with crises as they occur, Burson-Marsteller also provides clients with assistance in developing contingency plans for potential crises. The firm provides intelligence reports to clients either hourly or daily that advise of new issues, public reception, and critical or supportive responses and carries out market research into CEO and corporate reputation. Burson-Marsteller also offers services including communications tools and techniques intended to help companies to recover following a crisis.
In particular, Burson-Marsteller has had a close working relationship with many global producers and marketers of petroleum products, especially assisting on key communications of specific crisis situations such as oil spills and serious accidents. It has also worked with these companies in the development of environmental upgrade programs. Significant clients have included Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
and ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
.
The company has received a number of awards for its work in crisis management. In 1999, Burson-Marsteller was awarded a Public Relations Society of America
Public Relations Society of America
The ' , based in New York City, is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals. The organization has more than 21,000 members, including professionals from public relations agencies, corporations, government, health care institutions, military, professional services firms,...
Silver Anvil, the public relations industry's highest award for organizations, recognizing its communications program aimed at restoring confidence in the Korean economy
Economy of South Korea
South Korea has a market economy which ranks 15th in the world by nominal GDP and 12th by purchasing power parity , identifying it as one of the G-20 major economies. It is a high-income developed country, with a developed market, and is a member of OECD...
during the Asian financial crisis of 1998. It also received a Silver Anvil in 2003 for its work with the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
for managing communications during the anthrax crisis
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
. In 2002, the company received a Golden World Award, the highest award from the UK-based International Public Relations Association, for its crisis management work on behalf of GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
following an extortion attempt involving its Panadol
Panadol
Panadol is the GlaxoSmithKline trade name for paracetamol or acetaminophen , which is an over the counter pharmaceutical analgesic and antipyretic ....
brand.
Since the early 1980s, Burson-Marsteller has dealt with a range of much-publicized crisis management situations, from industrial accidents to acts of terrorism. Notable early cases include work involving the 1982 and 1986 Tylenol contaminations and the Bhopal disaster.
Tylenol
Burson-Marsteller's handling of the Chicago Tylenol poisonings for Johnson & JohnsonJohnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
in September 1982 has been referred to as the "gold standard" for crisis management. Seven people in the Chicago area were killed when they took Tylenol capsules tainted with cyanide
Cyanide
A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
, and Johnson & Johnson went to Burson-Marsteller for advice on how to approach the situation. After an eighth death, which occurred in California, the response by Johnson & Johnson was to announce a nationwide recall of all Tylenol capsules. Burson-Marsteller organized a press conference televised across 35 markets in the US, addressing the recall and reporting that the product tampering had occurred on the shelves, not during manufacturing. During late October 1982, a brief television campaign was undertaken asking for the public to trust Tylenol, and Burson-Marsteller carried out nationwide polling which found that the majority of the population still had confidence in Johnson & Johnson. Ninety percent of respondents stated that they did not hold the manufacturer responsible for the deaths.
At a Burson-Marsteller organized press conference in November 1982, Johnson & Johnson introduced new tamper-proof packaging, becoming the first company to introduce triple-sealed packaging, which later became the industry standard. The conference gave Johnson & Johnson the opportunity to announce that they were reintroducing Tylenol capsules to the market and would replace any Tylenol that consumers had thrown away. In addition, Johnson & Johnson published advertisements with coupons for consumers to use in replacing Tylenol that had been thrown out and produced commercials and print advertisements thanking the public for their "continuing confidence and support". Within six weeks of the introduction of the repackaged product Tylenol's sales returned to the previous level. In 1983, Burson-Marsteller was awarded a Silver Anvil for "out-of-the-ordinary crisis management" for its work with Johnson & Johnson. The company was brought back to handle crisis management during a second Tylenol crisis, involving cyanide tainting in New York in 1986.
Bhopal
The Bhopal DisasterBhopal disaster
The Bhopal disaster also known as Bhopal Gas Tragedy was a gas leak incident in India, considered one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India...
was one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. In 1984 a gas leak killed over 2,000 people at a plant in Bhopal, India and poisoned thousands more. The plant was jointly owned by Union Carbide Corporation, now Dow Chemicals, and the Indian government, and run by local Indian management. Burson-Marsteller consultants were brought in by Union Carbide to organize communications following the leak and provide advice to Union Carbide executives. Specifically, the company set up an information center to provide information to the media and help to transmit news from the remote location to newspaper, TV and radio outlets, and facilitate daily press conferences that reported on steps taken following the accident. Under advice from Burson-Marsteller's consultants and corporate lawyers, Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson traveled to Bhopal where he was placed in custody by the Indian government. Anderson posted bail, returned to the US, and refused to return to India. He was declared a fugitive from justice by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal on 1 February 1992, for failing to appear at the court hearings in a culpable homicide case in which he was named the chief defendant. While his visit to India several days after the leak was viewed positively by the media and other corporations and brought attention to Union Carbide's actions in showing its concern for what had happened in Bhopal it didn't deflect criticism of Union Carbide for cutting costs on safety measures. While Burson-Marsteller has been criticized for its involvement with Union Carbide, Harold Burson has stated that he is proud of the company's work in helping the media cover the story.
Other cases
After the Three Mile Island accident of 1979 became the most significant accident in the history of US commercial nuclear power generation, Burson-Marsteller conducted public relations work for Babcock & Wilcox, the plant's manufacturer.The company organized a campaign for Egypt's Ministry of Tourism following terrorist attacks on tourists in 1993. The campaign focused on Western Europe and the US, and featured TV commercials and other media coverage of new archeological discoveries and the role of Egypt in the Middle East.
Blackwater USA
Blackwater USA
Xe Services LLC, better known by its former names, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide, is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.. Xe is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors...
, the private military company, took on Burson-Marsteller's subsidiary company BKSH to help founder Erik Prince
Erik Prince
Erik Dean Prince is the founder and formerly the sole owner of the private military company Xe Services LLC, formerly Blackwater Worldwide. On March 2, 2009, Prince announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Xe. He is currently living abroad in the United Arab Emirates, where he is creating a...
prepare for a congressional hearing
Congressional hearing
Congressional hearings are the principal formal method by which committees collect and analyze information in the early stages of legislative policymaking. Whether confirmation hearings — a procedure unique to the Senate — legislative, oversight, investigative, or a combination of these, all...
in 2007. In September of that year, Blackwater guards were involved in a shooting in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
in which 13 Iraqis were killed. Blackwater faced a large amount of negative publicity and Prince was asked to give testimony to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Corporate PR
Burson-Marsteller's second-largest practice is its Corporate and Financial Communications group. The company's corporate PR practice focuses on four different specialties: corporate brand positioningPositioning (marketing)
In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization....
, financial communications, organizational performance, and C-suite
Corporate title
Publicly and privately held for-profit corporations confer corporate titles or business titles on company officials as a means of identifying their function in the organization...
positioning. Services provided by Burson-Marsteller include market research into corporate reputation, corporate communications strategies and intelligence tools. Among the corporate intelligence initiatives launched by Burson-Marsteller's corporate practice, its Global Social Media Check-up, a study of how social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
(including corporate blogs) is used by the top 100 companies from the Fortune Global 500 index
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
, was viewed online by over 60,000 people in 2010. One of Burson-Marsteller's longstanding corporate clients was the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation
SABIC
SABIC is a diversified manufacturing company, active in chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia as listed in Tadawul, but the Saudi government still owns 70% of its shares...
(SABIC). The company began work with the petrochemical producer in the late 1970s when they first entered the market in the Middle East. Other notable corporate clients have included Procter and Gamble, British Gas Plc
British Gas plc
British Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
, Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
, Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
, Du Pont, Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
, GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
, Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
, General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
, and Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products . Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of...
.
Technology
Burson-Marsteller first established a technology group in its New York office in the early 1980s, specializing in "high-tech PR services". The company's technology practice expanded rapidly over the 1990s with major clients including Apple, Sun MicrosystemsSun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
and Qualcomm
Qualcomm
Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...
and its headquarters moved to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
in the late 1990s. The practice focuses specifically on public relations for technology companies and organizations using technology as a key part of their business. Notable clients include HP, Intel and business software corporation SAP AG
SAP AG
SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
.
Public Affairs
Within Burson-Marsteller's public affairs practice, the company specializes in public relations and communications for government and corporate clients. Notable public affairs clients have included the US Bureau of Engraving and PrintingBureau of Engraving and Printing
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a government agency within the United States Department of the Treasury that designs and produces a variety of security products for the United States government, most notable of which is paper currency for the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve itself is...
, the Hebrides Range Task Force, for whose campaign Burson-Marsteller won several awards in 2010, South Korea, including representation of the Seoul Olympics
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
Organizing Committee in the late 1980s, and the Brazilian government tourism agency. Burson-Marsteller has in the past taken on government clients who have been controversial, in particular during the 1970s when clients notably included Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Indonesia and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. The company has received awards for its public affairs work, including an award for the Europe/Middle East/Africa public affairs agency of the year at the 2009/10 SABRE awards, the world's largest awards competition for the public relations industry, and a Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America
Public Relations Society of America
The ' , based in New York City, is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals. The organization has more than 21,000 members, including professionals from public relations agencies, corporations, government, health care institutions, military, professional services firms,...
in 2004 for their work for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Romania
Burson-Marsteller represented the Romanian government in the early 1970s, during which time the country gained Most Favored Nation status for trade with the United States. At the time the US and other western nations regarded Romania's president Nicolae CeauşescuNicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
as the friendliest of the Soviet bloc leaders to their interests. US President Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
visited Ceauşescu in Bucharest in 1969, which he viewed as a diplomatic opportunity to gain access to China, and later the Romanian dictator was said to be instrumental in arranging Nixon's visit to China. Burson-Marsteller was brought in by the Romanian government specifically to promote trade and tourism for Romania; one result was a week-long visit to the country by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Today program.
Indonesia
Following the 1991 Santa Cruz massacreSanta Cruz massacre
The Santa Cruz massacre was the shooting of East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators in the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili, on 12 November 1991, during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor.-Background:...
of East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
protesters by occupying Indonesian forces
Indonesian occupation of East Timor
Indonesia occupied East Timor from December 1975 to October 1999. After centuries of Portuguese colonial rule in East Timor, a 1974 coup in Portugal led to decolonization among its former colonies, creating instability in East Timor and leaving its future uncertain...
, the Indonesian government retained Burson-Marsteller "to help improve the country's human rights and environmental image," according to the Far Eastern Economic Review
Far Eastern Economic Review
The Far Eastern Economic Review was an English language Asian news magazine started in 1946. It printed its final issue in December 2009. The Hong Kong-based business magazine was originally published weekly...
. Another contract was signed in 1996. The company was retained in total from 1992 to 1998. Over the six years that the company worked for the country's government, Burson-Marsteller promoted Indonesia's trade opportunities in order to encourage foreign investment and aided the country in attempts to improve its human rights image.
Argentina
Burson-Marsteller carried out public relations work for the last Argentine military dictatorship (1976–1983), for which it received criticism. The corporation accepted the military junta government of General Jorge Videla as a client with the full knowledge of and advice from the U.S. State DepartmentUnited States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, and the remit of attracting industrial investment, marketing Argentine bonds, promoting Argentine products, mainly wine, and improving the image of the dictatorship around the world. In doing so the company produced press kits and direct mailings, arranged for journalists to visit Argentina, and held lunches with business groups and financial seminars.
At that time human rights organizations were denouncing state crimes against humanity
Crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
including forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
s and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
that were taking place in what later became known as the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
. Burson-Marsteller has maintained that it was not asked to defend human rights violations, however, researcher Rubén Morales wrote that the company created a slogan to coincide with the September 1979 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States .Along with the...
' fact-finding visit which stated in its English translation, "We Argentines are right and humane". Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
wrote in The Shock Doctrine
The Shock Doctrine
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a 2007 book by Canadian author Naomi Klein, and is the basis of a 2009 documentary by the same name....
that Burson-Marsteller executive Victor Emmanuel stated that "violence was necessary to open up Argentina's economy" since securing investment was impossible if a state of civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
existed, and that while acknowledging that "a lot of innocent people were probably killed", "given the situation, immense force was required." Burson-Marsteller did not seek an extension of its four-year contract.
Healthcare
Burson-Marsteller established its Healthcare practice in the 1980s and by the early 1990s was listed as the top ranked healthcare PR firm by O'Dwyer's PR Services Report. The company's healthcare practice provides public relations and communications for clients in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare provider, policy, nutrition, cosmetics and consumer health markets. Specific services provided by the company's healthcare practice include grassroots mobilization, patient advocacy and scientific and political consensus building. Significant campaigns undertaken by the practice have included a campaign launching the first biotechnology firm and also the organization of the first National Breast Cancer Awareness MonthNational Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure...
. Notable clients have included AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca plc is a global pharmaceutical and biologics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's seventh-largest pharmaceutical company measured by revenues and has operations in over 100 countries...
, Allergan
Allergan
Allergan, Inc., is a global specialty pharmaceutical company. Their product ranges include ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, dermatology products, and neurological products.-Profile:...
, Wyeth
Wyeth
Wyeth, formerly one of the companies owned by American Home Products Corporation , was a pharmaceutical company. The company was based in Madison, New Jersey, USA...
, Schering-Plough
Schering-Plough
Schering-Plough Corporation was a United States-based pharmaceutical company. It was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering as Schering AG in Germany. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co...
, Sandoz
Sandoz
Founded in 2003, Sandoz presently is the generic drug subsidiary of Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company. The company develops, manufactures and markets generic drugs as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnological active ingredients....
, and Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb , often referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City. The company was formed in 1989, following the merger of its predecessors Bristol-Myers and the Squibb Corporation...
. Burson-Marsteller has won a number of international awards for campaigns by its healthcare practice, including a Platimum PR Award for its 2002 National Breast Cancer Awareness Month campaign.
Google smear campaign
It became public knowledge that Burson-Marsteller had been soliciting negative articles about GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's privacy practices after security researcher Christopher Soghoian
Christopher Soghoian
Christopher Soghoian is a Washington, DC based researcher, activist, blogger, and Ph.D. Candidate at Indiana University. He first gained notoriety in 2006 as the creator of a website that generated fake airline boarding passes. Since that incident, he has continued to engage in high-profile...
re-posted a pitch he received from a Burson-Marsteller representative. Other influential outlets, including USA Today, confirmed that they had received similar pitches and even offers for help in writing article content. It was soon discovered by The Daily Beast that Google-competitor Facebook had hired the firm to promote press coverage critical of Google's practices, although Burson-Marsteller did not initially divulge to writers who had paid for their services. This was confirmed by Facebook itself shortly after.
Burson-Marsteller has since admitted its role in the campaign, and claims to have parted ways with Facebook.
Brand Marketing
The company's Brand Marketing practice focuses on brand management with services including consumer lifestyle communications and brand communications across a range of markets. Notable campaigns by the practice include the launch of SegwaySegway Inc.
Segway Inc. of New Hampshire, USA is the manufacturer of a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle, the Segway PT, invented by Dean Kamen...
and brand marketing for Old Navy
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...
.
Subsidiaries and affiliates
Burson-Marsteller operates a number of subsidiary companies, including grassroots marketing consultancy Direct Impact, government affairs and lobbying firm Prime Policy Group, advertising consultancy Proof Integrated Communications, and strategic communications consultancy PivotRED. In addition to these subsidiary companies, Burson-Marsteller also has a large number of affiliates, with partners in 60 countries and 70 affiliate offices worldwide. Among them, Burson-Marsteller has formed strategic partnerships with firms inside the US including Targeted Victory, a political and advocacy consultancy, and also international firms including Mikhailov and Partners in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.