Cohn and Wolfe Ltd

This article is part of the Foodspin project of Spinwatch.

This article is part of the Pharma_Portal project of Spinwatch.

Cohn and Wolfe - a subsidiary of WPP - describes itself as a "strategic marketing public relations firm dedicated to creating, building and protecting the world's most prolific brands." It has offices all over the world including UK, US, throughout Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region.

The firm claims to be an agency for the 'new communications landscape'. It is a global public relations agency with 50 offices in major markets around the world. They 'offer a powerful combination of breakthrough, brand-building creativity and pioneering digital and social media strategies.'

The firm's 10 industry practices are Consumer Branding, Corporate, Digital, Energy, Entertainment, Healthcare, Public Affairs, Sports Marketing, Sustainability and Technology.

It offers clients 'strategic partnerships' with other WPP companies, including Quinn Gillespie, a lobbying firm.

Cohn and Wolfe has also teamed up with lobbying firm Open Road in the UK.

Healthcare

Cohn and Wolfe recognise that Healthcare PR is changing and encourage clients to search for new models in communicating effectively to healthcare professionals, consumers and payors. The agency in turn creates 'bold creative strategies' with a focus on providing consumers with more information to take more active roles in their healthcare. According to C & W: 'As public relations professionals, it's our job to really understand the conversations happening among our clients' customers, patients, physicians, policy makers, and payors. Much of today's conversation is happening in social media channels, and this is true for healthcare.' The agency claims to be an expert in working in the complex environment where healthcare providers, patients, caregivers, advocacy groups and manufacturers engage in digital communications channels like social communities, blogs, and various audio/video sites.

Dabbling with fake blogging

Fake blogs - a form of viral marketing in which PR or advertising agencies attempt to generate interest in their client's product by creating a fictional character on the internet - are drawing criticism from real bloggers. Cohn & Wolfe apologized in 2005 after "using a fictional character to leave a series of thinly veiled advertisements on blogs and other websites. A number of websites were hit last week with messages from Barry Scott," a fictional spokesman for a British household cleaning product.

British blogger Tom Coates was especially outraged and called it "a new low for marketers" after he wrote an emotional account of his relationship with his father, and then received comment spam from "Barry Scott" disguised as condolences. Coates replied: "My view was that any right-thinking person would view trying to market your product on such a post as revolting, corrupt, cynical, disgusting, sick and dishonourable."

Ghost-written journal articles

Cohn & Wolfe was at the centre of a scandal in which Eli Lilly (a Cohn & Wolfe client) officials ghost-wrote studies for medical journals. The articles plugged an Eli Lilly drug, the antipsychotic Zyprexa, and were published under the names of credentialed scientists.

Zyprexa is controversial because it is administered by internal injection and is sometimes given forcibly to psychiatric patients. It is also controversial because of its severe listed side-effects, which can include diabetes and tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements of the mouth, tongue, jaw, or eyelids). The latter side-effect is in some cases irreversible.

In spite of these drawbacks, Lilly sought to make Zyprexa “the number one selling psychotropic in history,” Bloomberg.com reports. In order to make the drug attain its "sales goal", Eli Lilly hired ghost-writers to prepare the articles for publication in medical journals. Documents unsealed as a result of a lawsuit against Eli Lilly for overpricing its drugs reveal that Cohn & Wolfe played a PR role in this process.

Bloomberg.com reports:

“The paper for the Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry supplement has been completed and sent to the journal for peer review,” Kerrie Mitchell, an employee of the public relations agency Cohn & Wolfe, wrote in a Feb. 23, 2001, e-mail to Michael Sale, a Lilly marketing official. The message was among the unsealed files.

“We ‘ghost’ wrote this article and then worked with author Dr. Haddad to work up the final copy,” Mitchell said in the e- mail. Eric Litchfield, a spokesman for Cohn & Wolfe, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment... Peter Haddad, a researcher at Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K., was listed as the article’s lead author.

Rebranding shyness as national disease problem

According to a story by Martha Rosenberg on AlterNet, Cohn & Wolfe is credited with rebranding shyness as a disease that requires medication with the drug Paxil:

Slick PR firm Cohn and Wolfe is credited with vaulting "shyness" to a national psychiatric problem, the answer for which is Paxil, and creating faux grassroots patient groups like Freedom From Fear to push their clients' drugs.

Paxil is an antidepressant drug of the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) type, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. It became controversial after a Wyoming, USA lawsuit in 2001 brought against GlaxoSmithKline. The jury decided that Paxil was implicated in a tragic case where a 60-year-old man, Donald Schell, shot and killed his wife, daughter and granddaughter and then himself after taking Paxil for only two days. The jury, assisted by the expert testimony of Dr David Healy, a well known critic of SSRIs, concluded that Paxil "can cause some people to become homicidal and/or suicidal." GlaxoSmithKline was ordered to pay the plaintiffs, members of Mr Schell's family, $8 million.

Clients

As of June 2009 O'Dwyer's Directory of PR Firms lists Cohn & Wolfe clients as including: 3M | ADP | American Foundation for Suicide Prevention | Chevron Texaco | Coca-Cola | Colgate-Palmolive | Danone | Diageo | DuPont | Eli Lilly & Co. | Epson | Hewlett-Packard | Hilton Hotels | Illycafe | Intel | M&M/Mars | McDonald's | Merck | Novartis | PGA | Pfizer | Seagram's (Absolut) | Sears | Smuckers | Sony | Taco Bell

Personnel

Executive team

• Donna Imperato, Chief Executive Officer, Cohn & Wolfe Worldwide
• Tom Petrosini, Chief Finance Officer, Cohn & Wolfe Worldwide
• Robert Walsh, Chief Information Officer, Cohn & Wolfe Worldwide
• Jill Tannenbaum, Chief Marketing Officer, Cohn & Wolfe Worldwide
• Stephanie Howley, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Cohn & Wolfe Worldwide

Regional and market leaders

• Almudena Alonso, Managing Director, Madrid
• Stephen Brown, Managing Director, Atlanta
• Doug Buemi, Vice Chairman, Regional Director, Asia Pacific
• Mischa Dunton, Managing Director, San Francisco
• Gavin Foo, Group Managing Director, Southeast Asia
• Andrew Goldman, Managing Director, Indonesia
• Roberto Gonzalez, President, Mexico
• Erik Graadt van Roggen, Managing Director, Benelux
• Nicky Guertin, President, Paris
• Franco Guzzi, President, Milan
• Karen Ho, Group Managing Director, Southeast Asia
• Brooke Hovey, Digital Innovation Group - Americas; Managing Director, Austin
• Jim Joseph, President, North America
• Marta Karlqvist, President, Nordics
• Rafi Q Khan, CEO, India
• Adrian Lee, Group Managing Director, Southeast Asia
• Marina Leung, Managing Director and Chief Branding Officer, Greater China
• Nitin Puri, CEO, Middle East
• Megha Sharma, Senior Advisor, New Delhi
• Lydia Shen, Managing Director, China
• Elena Silva, Managing Director, Milan
• Robyn de Villiers, Managing Director, Africa
• Carol Wang, Managing Director, Beijing
• Scott Wilson, CEO, London
• Jonathan Shore, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe London

Practice and industry leaders

• Jeremy Baka, Chief Creative Catalyst
• Geoff Beattie, Global Corporate Affairs Practice
• Liz Beck, U.S. Consumer Practice
• Steve Bonsignore, U.S. Sports Marketing Practice
• Lynn Fisher, Global Brand Planning & Evaluation
• Brooke Hovey, Digital Innovation Group - Americas; Managing Director, Austin
• Mike Kan, Global Healthcare Practice
• Chad Latz, Global Digital Innovation Group

Healthcare: Linda Dyson Healthcare Practice Leader

Former people

• Sarah Descher, account manager, Cohn & Wolfe London. Is now global corporate communications manager at Pernod Ricard Winemakers
• Christiane Dirkes, managing director, Cohn & Wolfe Frankfurt
• Victoria Dix, managing director, Cohn & Wolfe Geneva. Now head of media relations at Trafigura
• Patricia Godefroy, EVP, General Manager, Cohn & Wolfe Los Angeles. Now associate dean, marketing and communications at UCLA Anderson School of Management
• Jean-François LeBrun, EVP, General Manager, Cohn & Wolfe Montreal
• Annie Longsworth, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe San Francisco. Is now CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S North America
• Michael O'Brien, President, General Manager, Cohn & Wolfe New York. Left to be appointed executive vice president and director, New York client service, at Ketchum.
• Carol J. Panasiuk, EVP, General Manager, Cohn & Wolfe Toronto. Is now principal at the Communications Department.
• Rose de la Pascua, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe Madrid. Is now head of Weber Shandwick, Spain.

Contact details

Address:

Cohn & Wolfe London/EMEA

7-12 Tavistock Square

Lynton House

London, WC1H 9LT

United Kingdom

Phone:

+44 (0)207 331 5300

Fax: +44 (0)207 331 9083

Website:

http://www.cohnwolfe.com/

292 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212.798.9700

Resources

• Cohn and Wolfe PRCA Yearbook 2004