An Advise for Steve Rubel after the next Blunder for Wal-Mart
After this story about stealth mode authors on fakeblogs for Walmart, the top blogger of Edelman Steve Rubel asks for advise how to go on with topics like transparency, authenticity and, well, credibility. IŽm just a blogger from the tiny, crappy German Blogosphere (copyright Edelman Germany), but of course IŽm willing to help. I would suggest Edelman to tell the whole story. Because the story of those three authors revealed to the public is just the next act in an opera buffa full of lies, blunder and forgery. So I wrote a comment on SteveŽs blog:
Mr. Rubel,
quite simple: Tell us the whole truth. Those three Edelman employees of forwalmart.com and paidcritics.com arenŽt experienced professionals, theyŽre newbies. There are virtually no traces of them at Google. Kate Marshall of paidcritics graduated from James Madison University in 2004:
http://smad.jmu.edu/alumni.php
“Date Posted: July 25, 2006
Name: Kate Marshall
Year Graduated: 2004
Location: Alexandria, VA 22314 USA
Email Address: kate.marshall@edelman.com
Employer: Edelman
Message: I’m onto job #2, this time working as an account exec at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in DC. I work on the Wal-Mart account and am usually responsible for researching, creating backgrounders, fact sheets, and talking points, and pitching the media. The job is awesome (never a dull moment) and the environment and people at Edelman are great too. Drop me a line if you’re in DC and/or are interested in working here. Good luck, smaddies!
What Edelman wants to tell the blogosphere is that some twentysomethings, none of them with blogging experience according to Technorati, were allowed by the third largest worldwide PR firm to run the two fake blogs for an important PR campagne of the worlds largest retailer, trying to fight the behemot of trade union campagnes and political uproar all over the USA..
IŽm sorry, IŽm just a journalist, but Edelman had 35 PR consultants working on that project. I do believe that Kate Marhall, Miranda Grill and Brian McNeill do exist, and I do believe that there are obviously accounts with their names at those blogs.
What I donŽt believe and I guess noone accustomed to PR buzz will believe is that those three pals are responsible for anything that is writen or said on those two blogs. There are others who decide what is said and done. According to a source inside Edelman there are a bunch of Edeman consultants behind Brian, Miranda and Kate.
I donŽt know wether if are simply the pawn sacrifice. But they are definitely the curtain to hide a certain man. The guy who said: “ThatŽs the way we gonna do it. WeŽll hide EdelmanŽs engagement from the public”. Richard Edelman took the responsibility, we now know the names of those at the front end. But the truth is what is inbetween those pals offered to the public and Richard Edelman. It took Richard Edelman four days to get the facts. I donŽt think itŽs a wise decision to hide those facts for another four days. Because, if yu donŽt tell, someone will find out. In the meantime everyone will be talking about the man behind the curtain. We all see the shoes. I thought they were red, with the sign “rathergate” on them.
My source said Mike Krempasky isnŽt the man behind the courtain. Well, who else?
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Es heißt “Advice”, lieber Don. Sonst aber fein.
Schaue jetzt mal bei Steve Rubel, ob der schon geantwortet hat.
Ich dachte ja immer, PR-Kram wäre furchtbar langweilig. Aber mit einem Glas Rotwein ist diese ganze Geschichte hier eine nette Abendunterhaltung. Edelman auf den Spuren von Arthur Andersen? ;)
[…] Mann Mann Mann, die stecken da jetzt echt mal in der Scheiße bei Edelmann würde ich sagen. Wenn man sich als Dings-Agentur Transparenz und Kommunikation und Web2.0 auf die Fahnen schreibt, dann wird das auch eingefordert. Und zwar nicht von den Kunden (von denen wohl als allerletztes), sondern von den Lesern der Edelmann-Blogs, von den Lesern der Fake-Blogs und von der Blogosphäre ganz allgemein. […]
… Edelman hat jetzt braune Streifen in der Unnerbüx …
As Churchill said: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Edelman still has the chance to confess. I want the names of the me2revolution senior execs who are responsible. I want them quick, or else I'll try to get them. And this will become much more painful than a simple confession. They'll confess anyway. Armageddon will start Monday, 10 A.M. East Coast Time.
I'm totallly pissed off by Edelman because of their tactic games, making three young pals the scapegoats. If you're platoon leader in a battle, you have to lead from the front. You must not press your privates in a combat you yourself wouldn't dare to fight. Get up and fight, Mr. X., or try to run – but I got a bullet, and I'll get your name on it.
Câ??mon man, cool down! We all know that they are trapped.
And first of all, stop this godamn bullet-shit! You donâ??t wanna sound like Gestapo! Do you?
Youâ??re right! Itâ??s up to Edelmann to walk the talk now.
Youâ??re right! Itâ??s boring, that theyâ??re not revealing the whole truth.
Youâ??re right! That theyâ??re just trying to sacrifice a pawn.
But hey, we are thousands. And did you ever hear the voice of thousands saying: â??Liar, liar, pants on fireâ???
Entschuldigen Sie, werter Don, aber wenn Sie Waffen ins Spiel bringen, finde ich die Wortwahl verfehlt.
Diese Business-Week-Schlagzeile aus dem Jahr 2005 klingt inzwischen, als hätte sie Comical Ali verfasst: Edelman shows Wal-Mart the power of blogs.
Er, pardon Thomas, we're confronted with guys who invented a “War Room” that runs those blogs. Those are the guys who want to “neutralize” critics. Oh, of course, they talk like the Pentagon does. NTL, they declared war on public opinion. Take a look at Mike Krempasky's bio. He's in it for the war and nothing but the war. But hell, this is the blogosphere. There is no need to hide the true character of this conflict with all its side effects like soldiers of fortune, betrayers, paid assassins, you name it, you get it. The wars of the 21st century are not about taking a hill or holding a shore, they're about what people believe. And what I would like to ask Edelman is simply to surrender.
And one more thing: If you're a German, you should think at least twice before using the word “Gestapo” arguing with a jew, especially on shabbos.
[…] UPDATE: Thanks to some investigative blogging, indeed the puppets employees behind the flogs turn out to be junior ad executives from Edelman! But as one blogger puts it — there’s no way to know if their names / identities haven’t been used for the purposes of masquerading the true authors of these flogs. Its still ludicrous to believe that such a huge client would have been palmed off to such junior members of the team. Sure enough, still no reply from Mr. Rubel. […]
[…] Und Don wird gerade warm und stellt sich schon mal in die Mitte der Straße mit ner Kugel im Lauf. Und nicht nur einer: Peng Peng Peng. […]
your english is atrocious, dude.
Edelman treibt es eindeutig zu weit. So eine Art der Propaganda sollte es in einem freien Markt sowiso nicht geben, weil es auch auf die erliche Art gehen würde. Fake blogs sind sehr mieß, wie ich finde.
Danke für das Teilen dieser Nachricht mit mir !
[…] die Causa Wal Mart / Edelman (besonders lesenswert dazu heute: die BlogBar) […]
maybe you'd like to translate, 7/4? ;-)
Bitteschön!
“some advice”
“the top blogger of Edelman Steve Rubel ” – Edelman top blogger Steve Rubel
“how to go on” … on how to go on …
perhaps he could use help but so do you.
[…] Don Alphonso, An Advise for Steve Rubel after the next Blunder for Wal-Mart: I'm sorry, I'm just a journalist, but Edelman had 35 PR consultants working on that project. I do believe that Kate Marhall, Miranda Grill and Brian McNeill do exist, and I do believe that there are obviously accounts with their names at those blogs. [er bezieht sich hierbei auf die Namen der drei nonymen Blogger, die mittlerweile auf dem ForWalmart.com Blog eindeutig als Edelman-Autoren gelistet werden] […]