Another PR Firm Gets in Hot Water Over Astroturfing

Jackie Danicki writes in that Pierce Mattie PR is getting up in her grill by allegedly spamming beauty blogs. They are purportedly astroturfing, posing as customers of their clients' products and leaving phony comments on her blog and others. Jackie has tracked the IP addresses for the firm. This comes on the heels of some similar shenanigans over at DCI.

This is a good time to talk about the work that Keith Jackson (the Aussie PR guy, not Mr. "Whoa Nellie") and others are doing to stop this kind of nonsense. They have launched an initiative to put an end to astroturfing.

This is becoming a really important issue for the PR community. A small number of black hats are going to give the folks who are engaging bloggers the right way to get an unfair black eye. I urge everyone in the PR community to read and pass along the information that's on the New PR Wiki. This is certainly something we will do at Edelman and I am sure other leading firms are doing the same.