@topher agreed and as a result, the “damage” was minimized from a PR perspective. On the homefront, that’s a different issue altogether. And yes, the word sorry is no longer what is used to be.

The thing that continually frustrates me is that it has become a culture where apologies do not mean a true contrition regarding the action, but more of a “I’m so very sorry I got caught. I promise to be better at concealing next time.”

There is no ethical way to help the tobacco industry increase market share for a product that kills its customers. There is no ethical way to protect polluters, sweatshops and makers of defective products while they continue to practice business as usual, and there is no ethical way to harass and censor journalists whose reporting threatens a client’s controversial product.

Many, if not all, of the major public relations firms, engage in these types of offensive practices. They don’t do it because they are evil people. They do it because their wealthy clients have problems, and cleaning up their image is often easier (and cheaper) than cleaning up their mess.

Ethics will always seem to take a back seat. I personally believe there is a boiling point in which a practitioner’s ethical limit will be reached. Most people have a conscious mind of what is grossly unethical. For example, people are going to use tobacco no matter what, one voice isn’t going to necessarily be heard; however, once their personal decisions become unethical, I feel most people have the strength and dignity to realize, and change.