Industry Associations Take on Negative Press
Published: Wednesday, November 01, 2000
“We are very concerned about a lot of the misinformation that is coming out,” says Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council (ABC), based here. “[Reporters] aren’t using proper journalistic procedures. They aren’t confirming facts with experts.”
David Seckman, executive director of the National Nutritional Food Association (NNFA) in Newport Beach, Calif., says that in order to protect members of his association, consumers and the natural products sector as a whole, the industry has to be positive and proactive.
“We are trying to prevent inaccurate stories and to keep the quality of the information we disperse high,” he says. “We try to get information out by generating positive stories about the industry, as well as [through] continuing education. It is important to give the media an additional viewpoint.”
The current efforts to combat negative press are not the first ones that industry groups have attempted to put a proactive, positive spin on the industry. In fact, since well before the passage of the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994, established and ad hoc associations have tried but failed to find both consensus and resources to fund such efforts.
One of the most recent was the Natural Products Council, formed in the summer of 1997, which was envisioned to serve as a public relations arm for the industry. Funding was to come from a tariff on booth fees at both NNFA and Boulder, Colo.-based New Hope Natural Media trade shows. The group also planned to solicit funds from individual corporate donors. A lack of agreement on direction, however, quickly doomed the effort.
According to Michael Greene, director of public relations at the Washington-based Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), his association is taking a “passive-aggressive approach” to fighting the media. Rather than responding to negative coverage, it is generating positive press. “We want to highlight reports and studies and focus on the good things that are going on.”
Like NNFA and CRN, the Herb Research Foundation (HRF) in Boulder, Colo., is also spreading the good word about the industry. HRF President Rob McCaleb says the organization is also focusing its efforts on highlighting instances where DSHEA has actually kick-started herb research.
“There has been more research on herbs by American companies since DSHEA was passed than during the last 40 years,” McCaleb says. “DSHEA has revived research. It had been completely ignored since the 1960s.”
As part of ABC’s media education campaign, which includes writing letters to the editor and publishing upbeat information about herbs, the council is currently organizing a seminar for health and science writers to help them identify myths and misconceptions in media and assisting them in finding resources to confirm or document their stories. Although no date has been announced, ABC tentatively plans to hold the event in New York.
In addition, ABC is working on what it calls the Herbal Profiles Campaign. “This is where we put out short consumer-oriented articles every other week and tie them to our website. They will be well-researched, peer-reviewed, referenced, monographed articles,” Blumenthal says. “We plan to have them out in December or January.”
McCaleb says HRF recently reached out to the media by delivering 300 press kits to top print and broadcast organizations in an effort to offer an objective viewpoint to stories about herbs.
Seckman says his association’s main priority is helping its members help themselves. To do this, NNFA sends members e-mails updating them on pertinent industry information and forwarding copies of form letters for them to send to their local editors.
“Our members get consumers coming into their stores asking questions. We provide the retailers with information so they can educate the consumer,” says Tracey Taylor, NNFA director of communications. “We have the link to the consumer to combat the media that other places don’t have.”
Unlike its method of dealing with erroneous media reports, CRN’s approach to public education and public relations is rather aggressive, Greene says. At its annual meeting in September, CRN announced an action plan for the dietary supplements industry, which includes the establishment of an academic institution that would be run by third-party experts and serve as an information center for the industry.
“The main focus would be dissemination of information to the press and to organizations and associations, conducting surveys and studies, sponsoring symposiums, and briefing the public,” Greene says.
CRN also plans to launch a congressional-awareness campaign that would keep members of Congress current on industry information. “We have to be on top of who is new and who needs the information,” Greene says.
Finally, Greene adds, CRN is slightly shifting its marketing strategy. “We have an enhanced communication strategy in place, but we want to do more of an advertising approach in magazines, more of a promotional approach to provide people information.”
In keeping with the notion that strength comes in numbers, CRN is currently working with NNFA; the Washington-based Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA); and Silver Spring, Md.-based American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) to determine which strategies would be most effective in combating negative media coverage.
“We want to hold a major summit of all of the industry groups to try to implement some of these plans and breathe new life into old plans,” Greene says. CRN had originally scheduled the meeting for Nov 15, but it has yet to be confirmed.
“We are trying our best, but CRN is aware that it can’t do this by itself,” Greene says. “We need to work with the other industry leaders to get things done.”