PR WATCH

PRweek: PENTAGON DEALS OUT "PR PLAY OF THE WEEK"
PR Week's "PR Play of the Week” goes to the Pentagon's limited
edition playing cards, which the trade publication described as
"part troop diversion and part Most Wanted poster.” The cards
features the pictures of the of 55 top members of the fallen Iraqi
regime. "The deck's unveiling in and of itself would have amounted
to a smart PR move, as the reporters stationed at the briefing
center have grown restless in recent weeks from the perceived lack
of real information and news coming from [Brig. Gen. Vincent]
Brooks' daily briefings,” PR Week writes. "Nevertheless, besides
providing the media with at least one story that day, the Iraqi
rogues' gallery playing cards also seem to serve as a great
communications tool on at least two levels. First, the deck served
an immediate practical function by showing the troops what members
of the Iraqi regime look like. Secondly, the cards' subtlety
reinforced the notion that the Hussein regime was on the run, and
the only major wartime task left was to round up the suspects.”
According to the Guardian, the decks are being marketed in the
U.S. for more than $100.

PRwatch: PRO-WAR RALLY GETS PR HELP
"Shirley & Banister Public Affairs helped put together one of the
largest pro-Bush rallies during the Iraq war on the National Mall
in Washington, D.C., last Saturday, starring Republican
heavyweights G. Gordon Liddy, former senator and actor Fred
Thompson and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, among others,"
O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "The event, which drew between five and
ten thousand people, was staged for longtime client Citizens United
Foundation. ... The firm credentialed 60 reporters and landed
coverage on NBC, ABC, CNN and in The Washington Post, The
Washington Times and Associated Press."
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, April 17, 2003