Edelman is the largest public relations firm in America. Two widely followed incidents have hurt its relationship with critics and almost certainly some clients and potential clients. Edelson has made itself out to be a trusted partner and adviser to its customers and the wider business world. It even puts out a trust survey called the Edelman Trust Barometer. As it promotes this image, it has helped scorned Saudi leaders and oil companies improve their images.
[in-text-ad]
The Guardian covered the Saudi Arabia issue, which is the worst of the two problems. In an article titled “The American PR firm helping Saudi Arabia clean up its image,” reporters wrote that at the same time its CEO Richard Edelman trumpeted his firm’s belief in democracy, it signed “at least $9.6m (£7.9m) worth of contracts over the past four years with one of the world’s richest autocracies: the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” It is hard to think of an incident that could be as damning. The terrible human rights reputation of the Saudis has been savaged throughout much of the world.
[nativounit]
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been identified as the person who ordered the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi leader has used his huge fortune and help from Edelman to get back into the graces of political and business leaders.
[wallst_email_signup]
Washington Post’s reporters recently wrote that Edelman had helped fossil fuel companies with their “greenwashing.” The paper reported on January 19 that “On Wednesday, more than 450 scientists called on public relations and advertising firms, including the prestigious Edelman, to stop working for oil and gas companies.” Apparently, this upset some former Edelman employees and cannot have gone unnoticed by some clients.
[recirclink id=1191614]
Edelman should know how fragile public trust is. Its relationships with the Saudis and fossil fuel companies have badly hurt its image. It raises the question of whether Edelman puts money before ethics. It will take a long time to change that perception in some circles, if it can be changed at all.
Edelman’s Image Takes a Severe Beating
© MOHAMED HUSSAIN YOUNIS / iStock via Getty Images
Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks