From Starbucked.com to Againstthewal.com, gripe sites – or Websites and blogs that solicit and publish consumer complaints directed towards a particular product or company – are popping up on the Internet with increasing frequency. But according to a piece published in The Wall Street Journal last week, companies are finally indentifying ways to fight back. Thus far, the preferred course of action has been to buy up the domain names that may one day be used ... Read More

Even after a summer in which Barack Obama’s comments about religion and guns and Jesse Jackson’s “cutting” remarks about the Democratic presidential nominee offered ample reminders that the microphone is always on – no matter how private you think a conversation might be – two MSNBC analysts have done it again. During the Republican National Convention this week, Republican consultant Mike Murphy and Wall Street Journal columnist and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan were caught ... Read More

Yesterday, the Yale School of Medicine released a study that once again raises questions about the safety of a chemical commonly found in everyday plastics.   The potential dangers associated with Bisphenol A, or BPA, have long been the subject of debate among regulators, scientists, consumer groups, and the manufacturers that produce nearly 7 billion pounds of BPA each year. But with the revelation that exposure to EPA-accepted levels of the chemical has caused brain function and ... Read More

It’s a sad but true reality of the 21st Century that companies and governments must make cyber-crime part of their crisis communications plans. There has long been paranoia in the international business, information technology, and law enforcement communities surrounding hackers’ ability to invade private enterprise databases – and as such, best practices for communicating during such an event are proliferating every aspect of the global economy. But as a recent report from the British Government indicates, the ... Read More

Critics of the food industry, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest and The San Francisco Chronicle, are questioning the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to allow irradiation of lettuce and spinach following devastating outbreaks of food-borne illness connected with those raw foods. The naysayers are scoffing at the idea of using irradiation, saying that it’s a distraction from what they see as the real problem – a lack of adequate resources ... Read More

The news media, legal eagles and Wall Street all seem to agree that the recent $100 million jury verdict in favor of Mattel, Inc., the maker of Barbie, against Bratz doll maker MGA Entertainment represents only a symbolic victory. That’s because the amount the world’s biggest toymaker won in the case is so much less than the $2 billion in damages it sought. But while the scale of Mattel’s victory remains the subject of debate, a ... Read More