Kelley Campaigns

Public relations firm runs for Congress to test Supreme Court decision

Kelley Campaigns — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:43:08 +0000

Murray Hill, Inc., a Maryland-based progressive public relations firm, announced its candidacy for Congress after the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision that ruled political spending by corporations may not be banned in candidate elections.

“Until now,” the firm says in a release, “corporate interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence peddling to achieve their goals in Washington. But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.”

This tongue-in-cheek bid for office highlights the logic behind the ruling that “corporations are people, too.”

Lawsuit seeks to protect consumers’ right-to-know

Kelley Campaigns — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:37:25 +0000

Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation, a California nonprofit organization, and two other plaintiffs are suing fish oil manufacturers and pharmacies that sell the supplements because they have failed to alert consumers of high levels of man-made industrial chemicals (PCBs) found in the supplements. The plaintiffs say this is a violation of California’s right-to-know law.

“The people buying these fish oil supplements are not being told the PCBs are there,” says David Roe, the plaintiff’s attorney in an interview Kelley Campaigns coordinated with Alexandria Sage of Reuters.

Defendants include Houston-based Omega Protein, the world’s largest producer of omega-3 fish oil, as well as Rite Aid Corp and CVS Caremark Corp.

Environmentalists prepare for worst on EPA coal waste rule

Kelley Campaigns — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:33:52 +0000

In the ongoing debate over coal ash, environmentalists fear that intense industry lobbying may prevent the EPA from adopting its preferred approach of declaring the material hazardous. Industry claims that a ruling that coal ash is “hazardous” would decimate industries that currently use the waste materials in construction materials.

In an InsideEPA.com report by Dawn Reeves, an industry source notes that “industry is a lot more happy than environmentalists are right about now.”

Activists are seeking a meeting with Cass Sunstein, head of the White House Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs, to highlight Sunstein’s support for the “precautionary principle” favoring regulation.

In the same report, one activist says the EPA’s preferred approach is being undermined by “unsubstantiated claims…by those who benefit from no regulations…They have a lot to gain by exaggerating.”

Banned industrial chemicals found in fish oil

Kelley Campaigns — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:22:54 +0000

While many people take fish oil supplements because of the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, consumers may be getting more than that with the discovery of banned industrial chemicals in the supplements. The chemicals, called polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs), are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Eight fish oil producers and retailers were filed suit against after the discovery that PCBs were found in the supplements.

“The reason for the lawsuit is that people are being exposed to PCBs through these products and they’re not being told,” said David Roe, attorney for the plaintiff, on ABC’s Good Morning America in an interview Kelley Campaigns coordinated with Elisabeth Leamy.

The fish oil industry is aware of the possibility of PCB contamination and some supplements are labeled that PCBs have been removed.

Watch here

Activists given a voice in coal ash disaster

Kelley Campaigns — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:01:19 +0000

Described as “an environmental disaster 100 times the size of Exxon Valdez,” the spilling of more than 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash from an impoundment near the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston, Tenn., coal-burning electric power plant led the local community on a crusade to protect their environment and health. Kelley Campaigns ensured that these community activists were equipped with the access and skills to tell their stories and dispel the myths created by the power utility.

Through concentrated media efforts, Kelley Campaigns garnered media attention for the disaster in newspapers, blogs and magazines on the East Coast. In a feature article for GQ magazine, contributor Sean Flynn reports how TVA attempted to alter the reality of the disaster:

After [editing an internal talking-points memo], the spill was no longer catastrophic but merely sudden and accidental, and it did not dump 2.6 million cubic yards (which was off by more than half, anyway) but 1,600 acre-feet, which employs both a smaller number and a unit of measurement few people can readily visualize.

Students coached to success in solar competition

Kelley Campaigns — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:00:47 +0000

University of Maryland’s team in the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored Solar Decathlon for student-built solar houses on the National Mall called on Kelley Campaigns for communications coaching.

Like the other houses on the National Mall, the team’s LEAFHouse (the name stands for Leading Everyone to an Abundant Future) made all its own electricity, and enough to run a two-seater electric car 40 miles a day.

Kelley Campaigns provided the team assistance with branding LEAFHouse through website and brochure concepts, web video, media training, event logistics, local media relations, a Capitol Hill lobby day, and an audio tour.

LEAFHouse won the communications category with 98.2 out of 100 possible points, helping it finish as the top U.S. house in the contest, 2nd overall to Germany. The teams were judged on the quality of web content, delivery of messages to target audiences, innovation of methods to engage audiences, and quality of onsite graphics.

Learn more about LEAFHouse