Here’s a surprising follow-up to the story (below) about PR giant Hill and Knowlton starting an Astroturf group to fight against increased Alberta oil royalties. The site itself, GetItRightAlberta.ca, is now carrying the Edmonton Journal story that originally revealed GetItRight’s oily connections.
Either H&K‘s high-end internet help set up an automatic system to upload any news with GetItRight in the copy (kind of embarrassing) or H&K is beyond embarrassment (more likely). There will no doubt be an argument to follow that (nearly) full disclosure argues that the group is a legitimate “grassroots” organization.
Wrongo, guys. Full disclosure means owning up to who’s paying the bills. Anything short of that and we have to continue to assume that this is a corporate play for undeserved “public” legitimacy.
