“This agreement highlights Hill & Knowlton’s special interest in the Maghreb region and more specifically in Morocco, a country that is very active politically, socially and economically on the international scene and within the region,” comments Dave Robinson, Hill & Knowlton’s CEO for the Middle East & North Africa region. “Moreover, we are seeing an increasing number of business requests from international clients as well as from North Africa.”
Fatime Zohra Outaghani, the managing Director of PR Media adds, “The challenges, expectations and importance of local or foreign companies in Morocco call for the best in communication. We are thrilled and excited to be joining the Hill & Knowlton network and we look forward to delivering results for our local and international clients in the Maghreb.”
But there is another view of Hill & Knowlton that is not so glowing.
Hill and Knowlton is one of the world 's largest and most influential corporations. As such, its virtually unregulated status, its longstanding connections to intelligence agencies, its role in shaping policy, and its close relationship to the American administration deserve careful scrutiny.
Cast your mind back:
On October 10, 1990, as the Bush administration stepped up war preparations against Iraq, Hill & Knowlton, on behalf of the Kuwaiti government, presented 15-year-old "Nayirah" before the House Human Rights Caucus. Passed off as an ordinary Kuwaiti with firsthand knowledge of atrocities committed by the Iraqi army, she testified tearfully before Congress:
"I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital...[where] I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where 15 babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."
Supposedly fearing reprisals against her family, Nayirah did not reveal her last name to the press or Congress. Nor did this apparently disinterested witness mention that she was the daughter of Sheikh Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S. As Americans were being prepared for war, her story- which turned out to be pure fiction -became the centerpiece of a finely tuned public relations campaign orchestrated by Hill & Knowlton and coordinated with the White House on behalf of the government of Kuwait and its front group, Citizens for a Free Kuwait.
In May 1991, CFK was folded into the Washington-based Kuwait-America Foundation. CFK had sprung into action on August 2, the day Iraq invaded Kuwait. By August 10, it had hired Hill & Knowlton, CFK reported to the Justice Department receipts of $17,861 from 78 individual U.S. and Canadian contributors and $11.8 million from the Kuwaiti government. Of those "do- nations," Hill & Knowlton got nearly $10.8 million to wage one of the largest, most effective public relations campaigns in history.
From the streets to the newsrooms, according to author John MacArthur, that money created a benign facade for Kuwait's image:
"The H&K team, headed by former U.S. Information Agency officer Lauri J. Fitz-Pegado, organized a Kuwait Information Day on 20 college campuses on September 12. On Sunday, September 23, churches nationwide observed a national day of prayer for Kuwait. The next day, 13 state governors declared a national Free Kuwait Day. H&K distributed tens of thousands of Free Kuwait bumper stickers and T-shirts, as well as thousands of media kits extolling the alleged virtues of Kuwaiti society and history. Fitz-Pegado's crack press agents put together media events featuring Kuwaiti "resistance fighters" and businessmen and arranged meetings with newspaper editorial boards. H&K's Lew Allison, a former CBS and NBC News producer, created 24 video news releases from the Middle East, some of which purported to depict life in Kuwait under the Iraqi boot. The Wirthlin Group was engaged by H&K to study TV audience reaction to statements on the Gulf crisis by President Bush and Kuwaiti officials. "
All this PR activity helped "educate" Americans about Kuwait-a totalitarian country with a terrible human rights record and no rights for women. Meanwhile, the incubator babies atrocity story inflamed public opinion against Iraq and swung the U.S. Congress in favor of war in the Gulf.
There is no doubt that Hill & Knowlton are an accomplished PR firm, but they deserve to be watched like a hawk.
1 comment:
Having worked for H&K Dubai, as well as other leading, global agencies in the US - I can assure you that H&K in the Middle East does not have the capabilities, creativity or intelligence (even if it is questionable) to be as politically underhanded and ruthless as its American counterparts. The only people who should fear them are those that work in this industry and would like to maintain a level of integrity, professionalism and quality work rather than debase the industry as greedy and useless.
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