In the classic French movie "Hiroshima Mon Amour," one of the characters tartly noted that if people can make films to promote soap, why can't they make films to promote peace?
Alas, there are no peace-themed films to report on this week, but we can provide a trio of different initiatives and approaches that were recently undertaken to address the
seemingly impossible task of establishing calm and harmony across the world (which is, in a way, the ultimate social responsibility).
| The PR Focus | Good PR or Bad PR? |
|---|---|
| Neenah Paper is the corporate sponsor of the touring show "The Graphic Imperative: International Posters of Peace, Social Justice and the
Environment: 1965-2005," which opened in New York on June 15 after exhibitions in Boston and Philadelphia. The exhibition presents politically charged posters from around the world that played a significant part in shaping public opinion on socio-political issues. |
GOOD PR: Neenah Paper may not be a familiar name to most art gallery patrons, but for artists and printers it carries significant clout. The
company's sponsorship of this timely event calls attention to its position in the graphic arts industry, and the full range of countries represented in the exhibition (all sides of various geo-political clashes) carefully avoids any charges of favoritism or bias in the curatorial process. |
| In a report published in the May 29 edition of The New York Observer weekly newspaper, Sen. John McCain held an unpublicized meeting with
wealthy and influential Republican donors at a luxury Manhattan hotel. When asked for his plan on bringing peace to Iraq, Sen. McCain reportedly stated: "One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say: 'Stop that bulls**t.'" |
BAD PR: If Sen. McCain is to be believed, the peace solution that has proved so elusive for more than three years is little more than a cowboy
attitude and a barnyard epithet. The senator's naive approach to this situation (which curiously ignores the third major hostile demographic in Iraqi, the Kurds) was confirmed by three people attending this supposedly secret meeting. Mercifully for Sen. McCain, his comments were not widely reprinted elsewhere. |
| Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the recently elected President of Liberia and Africa's first female head of state, launched a National Peace Council
on May 6 in a bid to encourage healing and reconciliation within her war-torn nation. The new council is also expected to serve as a national umbrella organizations of similar councils to be organized at country, district and community levels throughout this West African republic. |
GOOD PR: Liberia's civil war was barely acknowledged by the American government, which refused to send peacekeepers to this country, despite
pleas from its people. America is also absent from the peace effort, which President Sirleaf is leading on her own. The Liberian war destabilized the fragile West African infrastructure - perhaps the peace council will strengthen it anew and bring about long-elusive serenity. |