September 25, 2008

The French Connection to Palin Smears

What is an PR firm with an eyebrow-raising international affiliation doing producing an anti-Palin video?

And what is Publicis? By its own account, Publicis is the fourth-largest communications group in the world, having generated some €4.7 billion (or $6.9 billion) in revenue in 2007. With its distinctive postmodern headquarters on Paris’ Champs-Elysées just a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triomphe, Publicis also happens to be one of those highly politically-connected French firms that are so characteristic of the upper echelons of the French economy....

The obvious question, then, is for whom were Winner and his “associates” working? The most obvious answer is: the Obama campaign. Another and at least equally troubling possibility, however, is that they were working for one of Publicis’s high-powered European clients.

Read the rest. This is a politically connected firm. One guess on which side of the French political spectrum their connected to.

Just to reemphasize: it wasn't just Ethan Winner involved in the Palin smear, it was also his father who is President of the company he sold to Publicis several years ago, and at least one employee of the company. Yet Ethan claims sole responsibility for the video.

Also note while reading the article that Publicis has put Ethan Winner -- who works in their Los Angeles division -- over PR for the European Union.

Folks, I don't have any more time to dig into this, but if you do don't just focus on Winner & Associates, focus on Publicis and the dozens of media and PR companies they own.

PS-I didn't mean to imply that some foreigner paid for the campaign -- although that is John's emphasis, don't rule out the Europeans -- just that Publicis is the company to look at. They and their holdings in the US are major PR players here. W&A is just one of their assets, and the fact that they use W&A to run a EU PR campaign is evidence that they have no problems using whatever asset they think has the most strength for whatever cause they are engaged in.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 09:22 AM | |