corporations

Skippy peanut butter jars now have an inward "dimple" on the bottom to reduce the amount they hold. (Source: CNN)Prices of your favorite grocery items are skyrocketing, but you probably don't know it. Many companies are using a sneaky way to raise prices without driving customers to less expensive brands: they are shrinking their packaging. A jar of Skippy peanut butter, for example, is the same height and circumference it has always been, but now has a hidden, inward "dimple" on the bottom that decreases the amount the jar holds by two ounces. Boxes of breakfast cereal appear to be the same height and width they've always been, but manufacturers have reduced the boxes' depth from front to back, decreasing the amount of cereal they hold. Rolls of Scott toilet tissue contain the same number of sheets as always (1,000), but the length of each sheet has been cut from 4 to 3.7 inches. A "six ounce" can of Starkist Tuna now holds just five ounces. When asked about the shrinkage, most companies point to higher costs for ingredients, manufacturing and fuel. Dan Howard, a marketing professor at Southern Methodist University, says the only way consumers can fight back against this sneaky way of increasing costs is to refuse to buy from manufacturers who engage in this deceptive tactic.

"General Motors, teetering on the brink of insolvency, has taken the extraordinary step of calling on employees and dealers to personally urge lawmakers to approve another loan package that might keep the beleaguered automaker from going under," reports Wired.com. GM North America president Troy Clarke emailed 29,000 employees, "Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical. ... This level of economic devastation far exceeds the $25 billion of government support that our industry needs to bridge this current period. ... Directions and key messages are in the attached document to assist you with the calls." GM's U.S. sales chief, Mark LaNeve, sent a letter to all GM dealers, urging them to take action on "the deepest crisis our industry has ever faced," reports Reuters. "Separately, GM executives also held a broadcast for employees on Wednesday, urging them to contact their representatives and senators in support of any measures to provide immediate liquidity to the U.S. auto industry."

On Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to open up the "white spaces" on the television spectrum that will be available when the U.S. switches from analog to all-digital in February 2009. Sascha Meinrath, research director of the wireless future program at the New America Foundation, said that "All the PR spin and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) failed in the face of physics and the ground reality of engineering." Wired.com sees consumers as the big winners, but there are corporations that will benefit as well. Intel's chips could power new devices made by companies like Motorola, Philips, and Dell that will be used to access the broadband services in the newly available whites spaces. On the other hand, there are industry losers as well. Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast "have paid billions over the years to gain exclusive rights to the spectrum," which will now disappear. "All those problems of diversity on the airwaves and access to internet broadband connectivity are predicated on the artificial scarcity of airwaves," Meinrath said. "They will be alleviated."

"Washington's $3 billion lobbying industry has begun shedding Republican staffers, snapping up Democratic operatives and entire firms, a shift that started even before Tuesday's ballots were counted," reports the Wall Street Journal. "One signal of the new era" is that the influential Republican firm BGR Holdings (previously called Barbour Griffith & Rogers) is acquiring the Westin Rinehart Group, which is run by former Clinton administration aides. The Republican-dominated Ogilvy Government Relations (previously called the Federalist Group) will be revamped by "two former Democratic staffers": Dean Aguillen, who worked for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and James Williams, who has worked for Senators Joe Biden, Dick Durbin and Charles Schumer. Ogilvy's clients include "Chevron, the American Chemistry Council, Nascar and shareholders of the 20% of American International Group Inc. that isn't held by the federal government." Lockheed Martin and Boeing "both recently named Democrats as top lobbyists." Comcast's "chief Republican lobbyist" left the company, and the Information Technology Industry Council "passed over its top in-house Republican in naming its new president." The association and three companies all said the changes "weren't made to curry favor with Democrats."

Evergreen Defense & Security Services (EDSS), an Oregon-based aviation company and military contractor with a history of working for the CIA, recently offered their services on Election Day. EDSS "has recognized the potential conflict that could occur on November 4," firm president Tom Wiggins wrote in an email to Oregon county clerks. "EDSS proposes to post sentries at each voting center ... to assure that disputes among citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed but capable of stopping any violence that may occur, and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement help arrives." EDSS's offer "baffled county clerks and the Elections Division, who did not solicit the security help" and didn't anticipate security problems, according to PolitickerOR.com. The offer's especially strange, as the state has "no actual polling places, since Oregon went to vote by mail several years ago," noted the News-Review of Roseburg, Oregon. Counties do set up areas where voters can drop off their ballots. EDSS "didn't get any bites from the counties," reported The Oregonian.

Pete Yost reports that "Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse. In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September. ... The Republican senators targeted by DCI began hearing from prominent constituents and financial contributors, all urging the defeat of Hagel's bill because it might harm the housing boom. The effort generated newspaper articles and radio and TV appearances by participants who spoke out against the measure. Inside Freddie Mac headquarters in 2005, the few dozen people who knew what DCI was doing referred to the initiative as 'the stealth lobbying campaign,"' according to three people familiar with the drive. They spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying they fear retaliation if their names were disclosed."

The defunct $10,000 billThe insurance company American International Group (AIG), which "vowed to temper spending after hosting a conference at a California resort amid a federal bailout," belatedly canceled "a similar event planned for next week at a $400-a-night hotel." The U.S. government loaned AIG $85 billion in September and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York just loaned the company another $37.8 billion, to "replenish liquidity." Members of Congress harshly criticized AIG's earlier luxury conference, which cost $440,000. Before AIG canceled its more recent event, it considered buying ads to explain that such conferences are necessary to "motivate and educate" independent agents selling AIG coverage. But AIG's public relations consultant, George Sard, warned against the move. Sard, who heads the PR firm Sard Verbinnen & Co., emailed that "to spend the taxpayer's money on an expensive ad campaign to apologize for how you used taxpayer money leaves you open to further attacks." However, Sard mistakenly sent his advice to a Bloomberg reporter.

The Society for Environmental Journalists (SEJ), which promotes "excellence in environmental journalism," is gearing up for its annual conference in Roanoke, Virginia in mid-October. As the conference is in the "heart of coal country," numerous sessions will address "the status and future of big coal." Richard Pauli, who writes the NoEnergyTomorrow blog, notes that two of the conference's "premier sponsors” are the coal-addicted energy corporations American Electric Power and Dominion Power. "It's like seeing a Heart Association 10k race sponsored by a tobacco company," he wrote. In response, SEJ Executive Director Beth Parke stated that the corporate funding is for Virgina Tech, which will host the conference, and not directly for SEJ. Pauli noted SEJ's response, suggesting that "an improved analogy might be that of a track meet being held in a stadium that shows tobacco advertising. It may not be connected to the team, but they have to run below the sign."

The Burson-Marsteller PR firm did pro bono communications and media relations support for America's Health Care at Risk: Finding a Cure, which is billed as "a bi-partisan conference bringing together major stakeholders in the health care debate for a high-level dialogue aimed at generating real and lasting solutions." While organizers of the conference were thrilled to have the free help, they may have been wise to check on B-M's health credentials. B-M has had a close relationship with cigarette maker Philip Morris and the tobacco industry as a whole over the years, having organized the smokers' rights group the National Smokers Alliance for PM in the early 1990s. In addition, B-M has performed crisis management work for corporate clients on a variety of issues, including Salmonella (Schwan's and Jewel Supermarkets), worldwide product recall and relaunch (Perrier), and Mad cow disease/BSE (McDonald's and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association). B-M is glad for the opportunity to burnish its image. Chris Foster, Chair of Burson-Marsteller's U.S. Health Care Practice said, "We are proud to be part of this bi-partisan effort to develop real solutions for one of the major challenges facing the U.S. today."

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association of car and light truck manufacturers, has launched "EcoDriving," "a national campaign intended to empower consumers on an individual basis to reduce fuel use and CO2 emissions." The campaign will utilize social networking, events, and media outreach to "offers manufacturers an opportunity to show consumers they are part of the solution." Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Environmental Defense Fund have all endorsed the campaign. But as CMD previously reported, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers employed PR firm Fleishman-Hillard in 2007 to oppose efforts to raise fuel mileage standards to 52 miles per gallon by 2030.