''Secrets and Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign'' is a 1999 book by

Nicky Hager Nicolas Alfred Hager (born 1958) is a New Zealand investigative journalist. He has produced seven books since 1996, covering topics such as intelligence networks, environmental issues and politics. He is one of two New Zealand members of the I ...

and Bob Burton.

The book

The book documents the

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

information put out by

Timberlands West Coast Limited Timberlands West Coast Limited was a New Zealand State-owned enterprise based on the West Coast. It was formed to manage the native and exotic forests on the West Coast of the defunct New Zealand Forest Service. A large quantity of internal ...

in order to win public support for logging of native forests on the West Coast of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The material is based on a large amount of documentation leaked by a staff member from the local branch of Shandwick (now Weber Shandwick Worldwide), a global public relations company, which had been hired by Timberlands to run a secret campaign against environmental groups such as Native Forest Action between 1997 and 1999. The book describes its tactics of surveillance of meetings, monitoring the press and responding to every letter to the editor,

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called green sheen, is a form of advertising or marketing spin that deceptively uses green PR and green marketing to persuade the public that an organization's products, goals, or ...

, the use of SLAPPs, cleaning anti-logging graffiti and blotting out campaign posters in public places, and managing to install its pro-logging educational materials into schools. The book alleges that almost every pro-logging letter or article was organized by this campaign.

Reception and responses

In 2000, a press council complaint was made against a letter to the editor in ''The Press'', which argued that Hager had lied in the book. The complaint was not upheld, because the Press Council ruled that it was responsible for vetting robust debate in the letter pages. During a general Parliamentary debate in November 2006, when the book ''

The Hollow Men "The Hollow Men" (1925) is a poem by the modernist writer T. S. Eliot. Like much of his work, its themes are overlapping and fragmentary, concerned with post–World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles, hopelessness, religious conversi ...

'' had an injunction against its publication, the MP

Gerry Brownlee Gerard Anthony Brownlee (born 4 February 1956) is a New Zealand politician and the 32nd speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He was first elected as a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for Ilam (New Zealand elec ...

said of the author and the book: ''The Hollow Men'' documents behind the scenes activities of the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

, of which Brownlee was deputy leader at the time. In 2009, Kerry Tankard looked back at the book in a review for '' Salient''. She concluded that: "As a study of how PR firms help corporations to spin and manipulate public opinion, I’ve seen none better."

References

External links

Detailed rebuttal
of the book b
Chris Perley
a New Zealand forestry and agriculture consultant. {{DEFAULTSORT:Secrets And Lies (Hager) Environment of New Zealand New Zealand books Environmental non-fiction books Non-fiction books about public relations Greenwashing 1999 in the environment 1999 in New Zealand Potton & Burton books