SUCCESSES
PARTNERING WITH FEDERAL AND STATE AGENCIES
Case Study on the Manufacturers of Emission Controls Association (MECA)
KellenAdams won its first Silver Anvil – the nation’s top public relations award – for this nationwide public-private partnership program with EPA to educate the public and auto industry on new emission controls for cars.
Challenge
KellenAdams Public Affairs was asked by MECA to change negative public attitudes toward new emission controls on cars and discourage dismantling by auto mechanics.
Strategy
KellenAdams’s strategy focused on partnering with EPA and state environmental agencies, using high school seniors and local media as message bearers on the new technology.
Tactics
- KellenAdams gained the support and cooperation of the federal EPA and state and local education officials to cooperate in a series of special events at leading high schools in 10 major cities across the country, organized by KellenAdams.
- At each event, students, local officials and the media were able to observe dramatic reductions in tailpipe emissions, measured through instruments on old and new cars.
- The team then distributed information addressing “myths” about emission controls and car performance. Auto experts and teachers at the events answered questions from students and the media.
Result
The program gained major television and print media coverage in each region and in national education and industry publications. Public support for emission controls soared. Dismantling gradually stopped. The program received a Silver Anvil – the nation’s top public relations award – for “excellence in public education.”
REDUCING FIREWORKS INJURIES TO CHILDREN
Case Study on the National Council on Fireworks Safety
KellenAdams won its second Silver Anvil and other top awards for creating a highly successful program to reduce fireworks injuries to children, working closely with the Consumer Products Safety Commission, fire chiefs, parents and schools.
Challenge
When the Consumer Product Safety Commission was created in the early 1970s, one of its first targets was backyard (Class C) fireworks, which are traditionally sold from roadside stands in the weeks before July 4th. Organizations representing fire chiefs, the blind and the public health community lobbied hard for a ban on this class of fireworks to prevent unnecessary fires and injuries. The American Pyrotechnics Association, representing manufacturers of these fireworks – mostly small family firms – asked KellenAdams Public Affairs to help them manage this crisis, which would have destroyed their livelihoods.
Goals
- To reduce fireworks injuries to children while permitting continued use of “backyard” fireworks for July 4th celebrations.
- To prevent a ban on fireworks that would have destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of small family-owned businesses.
Strategy
To work with the Consumer Products Safety Commission to prevent a ban on fireworks, and at the same time launch a CPSC-approved annual safety campaign addressed to parents of young children.
Tactics
- Formed and managed the National Fireworks Safety Council, which included fire chiefs, teachers and consumer representatives
- Developed and distributed educational materials for schools, parents, fire stations and emergency response units to teach parents and young children how to handle their Fourth of July fireworks safely
- Implemented annual media campaign, including major op-ed placement, news articles, radio and TV media tours and a media “hotline” in the weeks leading up to July 4th, reminding parents and consumers about the importance of fireworks safety
Result
Injuries have continued to drop dramatically, permitting backyard fireworks to continue to be made and sold for July 4 celebrations.
The safety campaign received two awards for excellence in public education from the Public Relations Society of America, including a Silver Anvil.
REVERSING PRODUCT DE-SELECTION
Case Study on the Council for LAB/LAS Environmental Research
KellenAdams successfully prevented product deselection of the world’s most widely used detergent surfactant known as LAS through an international program combining science, media and government relations.
Challenge
LAS is the world’s most widely used surfactant, a highly effective, relatively benign ingredient of detergents and other cleaning products worldwide. Ten years ago, during the worldwide campaign against petroleum-based products, LAS came under attack from activists, aided by makers of competing “natural” surfactants that were not petroleum-based.
Strategy
The industry formed an international coalition of LAS producers, the Council for LAB/LAS Environmental Research, and hired KellenAdams Public Affairs to manage it.
Tactics
- KellenAdams established a web site, worldwide monitoring and a “truth squad,” comprised of KellenAdams’s science team (headed by a PhD in microbiology and chemistry) to respond immediately to misleading news reports, articles or statements, wherever they appeared.
- KellenAdams developed fact sheets and an annual technical journal, the CLER Review, to make responsible LAS studies easily accessible to regulators, industry and the media. KellenAdams also held regular media briefings and organized CLER exhibits at international conferences of customer industries.
- KellenAdam's science team directed the CLER research program to resolve outstanding environmental issues, testified on behalf of LAS at professional conferences, and persuaded the European chemical industry and detergent manufacturers to join a CLER-led coalition to fight proposed bans on LAS in Denmark and Sweden.
Result
The issue has successfully been put to rest in most of the world, largely due to CLER’s advocacy and partnerships with its European counterparts. CLER continues to advocate the environmental safety of LAS through science. It recently completed an exhaustive review of the surfactant through a program run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which found the product safe for the environment and public health.
BRINGING ONLINE EDUCATION TO THE NAVAJO
Case Study on OnSat and the Navajo Nation
KellenAdams played a major role in bringing online education and business opportunities to the Navajo nation by preventing a threatened cutoff of federal funds.
Challenge
KellenAdams Public Affairs was tapped by OnSat, a communications company that provides critical satellite coverage and Internet access to the Navajo Nation’s public safety services, schools and libraries, to recoup unpaid government funds that the company needed to pay its own vendors. Without the funding, OnSat would be forced to cut off 411 emergency services and other vital communications systems within weeks. KellenAdams Public Affairs had a very short window to draw attention to what was becoming an increasingly desperate situation.
Tactics
KellenAdams drafted press releases and letters on behalf of Navajo Nation president to media, Congress and government officials, and arranged interviews with key Washington media that would reach major influencers.
Result
Client’s plight gained overage in the Washington Post, Communications Daily, Satellite Week, the Navajo Times and Space News. The coverage prompted Sens. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to write to the chairman of the Federal Communications Committee urging action. FCC then ordered OnSat’s network provider to extend the satellite coverage cutoff date until the funding issue could be resolved.
