Why PR agencies and their spin should be the subject of greater scrutiny

Abstract

First paragraph: It was one of the biggest and best-known British PR agencies around. So when Bell Pottingercame crashing downearlier this year, you could be forgiven for wondering why it hadn’t prepared a better crisis strategy to deal with the fall-out. You could also be forgiven for wondering why it was involved in work which ended up with it being widely accused of stirring up racial tension in South Africa. But Bell Pottinger was never shy of signing up controversial clients. It infamouslylobbied for former Chilean dictatorAugusto Pinochet when he wasarrested in Londonin 1998, held multiple contracts witharms of the Bahraini governmentand represented Asma al-Assad, the wife of the Syrian dictator.