Meet the Harrisons: Architects of Greenwashing and Environmental PR
E. Bruce and Patricia Harrison launched the E. Bruce Harrison Company in 1973, working for a mix of chemical companies, oil and gas companies, and tobacco companies. E. Bruce is considered the father ...
28 Feb 202029min
The Tobacco-Oil-Plastic Triangle
John Hill, founder of Hill & Knowlton, was an Ivy Lee devotee who worked for Standard Oil in the 1930s, strategized against labor movements and the New Deal, and wound up representing the American Pet...
27 Feb 202024min
The Origins of Corporate PR Manipulation
Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, coined the term "public relations" when propaganda started to become a negative term. His specialty was using psychological know-how to manipulate the masses an...
25 Feb 202026min
Guardian Bans Fossil Fuel Ads: Emily Atkin Talks with CEO Anna Bateson
We'll be back with more Mad Men tales next week, we promise! While we're out chasing leads, listen to this great interview from Emily Atkin with The Guardian's interim CEO Anna Bateson about that publ...
18 Feb 202022min
Oil Slick, Part 2: False Equivalence and Free Speech
In part two of our episode on former Mobil VP Herb Schmertz, we dig into how Schmertz's approach bred false equivalence, and why he pushed so hard for the extension of First Amendment rights to corpor...
11 Feb 202015min
Oil Slick, Part 1: Mobil's PR Mastermind and the Rise of the Corporate Persona
Mobil Oil's Herb Schmertz humanized the oil company, creating the "corporate persona," fighting for First Amendment rights to extend to corporations, and laying the groundwork for decades of aggressiv...
4 Feb 202019min
Psychological Warfare and Big Oil
Daniel Edelman learned the tools of his trade combating Nazi propaganda in WWII, then came home and put his psychological warfare training to work for American industry, including tobacco and Big Oil....
28 Jan 202020min
The Oil-Nazi-Propaganda Triangle
Ivy Lee worked with Standard Oil and the Rockefellers to establish the American Petroleum Institute in 1919, as well as a petrochemicals partnership with German chemical giant IG Farben. That job took...
21 Jan 202021min
