For the past week, I have cringed at the ugliness brought on to my former employer - Burson-Marsteller - by a very small group of people working on behalf of their client Facebook to smear its competitor Google.
I just got through reading the loooooong list of people condeming B-M on Facebook (a tad hypocritical, I thought). My, my - the opportunistic zeal to bring down an entire company for the behaviours of a small handful.
I don't know the details of the incident, but I do know this. As a creative director at Burson-Marsteller, I worked for nearly 400 clients over 10 years. I visited more than 60 of its (then) 75 offices worldwide. As one of its senior trainers, I personally taught a countless number of people. I can say without reservation that 99.99% of its employees - then and now - are ethical, decent and hard-working professionals. A percent I might add which could be applied to the entire PR industry, if not any profession anywhere in the world.
To close, a small piece of advice to those few vultures frothing with glee at Burson - or anyone else who stumbles (badly) in life. IF you feel compelled to slap a tar brush at someone else, apply it delicately because a little bit of it might come back to hit you square in the forehead.
