It must really suck to be Richard Edelman this week.
I had decided to stop writing about Wal-Gate, even after no WOMMA sanctions for Edelman because it seemed excessively cruel to keep beating a dead horse. Give them a chance to get their house in order, I thought.
Until today’s news that there were two more "flogs" for Working Families for Wal-Mart written by Edelman staffers without attribution.
Enough already.
This can’t be simply "one bad apple" who didn’t get it. There are just too many rotten apples and too much evidence that this is culturally acceptable behavior at Edelman.
Far from transparent or honest, it is Fifties-style PR with a social media patina (paraphrasing a comment by John Wagner on an earlier post here.)
And it is most certainly not what we did, or should, expect of a social media leader.
********
Some more recommended posts on this topic: John Wagner, Katie Paine, Tom Murphy, Constantin Basturea
Tags: Edelman, Wal-Mart, flog, fake blog, PR, public relations, ethics
Let’s see how WOMMA handles it now. A defining moment, imho.