It\u2019s hard to\nkeep up with glutamate-industry propaganda, as they clearly have some of the\nmost creative minds in the business. The latest to handle PR for Ajinomoto Co,\nInc. (the leading producer of monosodium glutamate) is none other than Daniel\nJ. Edelman Public Relations, the largest independently owned PR firm in the\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the\nbeginning of this year, Richard Edelman (son of founder Daniel), when writing\nabout how honored he was that his namesake agency was listed as a \u201cbest place\nto work\u201d by Ad Age<\/em>, proudly told how they\nare now working with Ajinomoto to \u201cset the record straight about\nlong-misunderstood monosodium glutamate (MSG) in the U.S.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\nexplains a lot about the bold new propaganda campaigns we\u2019ve been seeing lately\n— significantly different approaches. One in particular masquerades as an\nannouncement of a newsworthy event to be featured in business sections of some\ntop-name newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRescuing MSG\u2019s Unsavory Reputation\u201d was carried by the Chicago Tribune<\/em>, the Latin American Herald Tribune<\/em>, and the Wall Street Journal<\/em> among others, with lots of \u201cfeel- good\u201d words paired with \u201cmonosodium glutamate.\u201d\u00a0 Psychologists might call it conditioning; we call it brainwashing. The same piece was also posted in Food Processing<\/em>, which calls itself \u201cthe information source for food and beverage manufacturers,\u201d under the headline, \u201cAjinomoto Wants to Repair MSG\u2019s Reputation.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we\u2019ve seen \u201cThe\nman who discovered umami,\u201d by Veronique Greenwood, in no less a program than BBC\u2019s \u201cFuture\u201d. This time,\nthe message that MSG is a harmless flavor enhancer is encased in a pleasant\nstory about the glories of \u201cumami.\u201d And\nin this friendly, good-natured, affable little tale is inserted the message that\nthe consumer is supposed to take away: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe product, a monosodium glutamate (MSG) powder called\u00a0Aji-No-Moto<\/strong>, is still made today. (Although rumuors have swirled periodically that eating too much MSG can give people headaches and other health problems,\u00a0the US Food and Drug Administration has found no evidence for such claims<\/strong>. It just makes food taste more savoury.)\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s clever, for sure. But Edelman has a long history of clever propaganda techniques. One that it terms \u201clitigation PR,\u201d was used to stop a dozen state attorneys general from joining the anti-trust actions taken against Microsoft in the late 1990s. Other efforts of theirs have included representing the American Petroleum Institute at a reported fee of $52 million a year in an \u201castroturfing\u201d venture (a fake grass-roots campaign typically industry funded) to promote fracking, as well as other climate-change-denial crusades, and working with Big Tobacco to help \u201cslow or reverse\u201d public opinion regarding smoking. One document from the late 1970s, produced by Edelman for RJ Reynolds, states that their purpose is to \u201cbegin the process of establishing that there is another point of view on the cigarette question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But nothing describes Edelman\u2019s MSG \u201cset the record straight\u201d\neffort better than a story that appeared in Gawker<\/em>\nten years ago. According to an unnamed, top-level marketing executive, an\nEdelman senior management training session included this quote: \u201cSometimes, you\njust have to stand up there and lie. Make the audience or the reporter believe\nthat everything is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can\u2019t wait to see what these propaganda artists will\nhave in store for us next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.edelman.com\/insights\/edelman-ad-age-best-places-work-2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/Edelman<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/gawker.com\/356220\/sometimes-you-just-have-to-stand-up-there-and-lie<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu\/tobacco\/docs\/#id=mybm0104<\/a><\/p>\n