So now that WOMMA has spoken about Edelman’s ‘violation’ of its code of ethics with the fake Walmart blog (after much outrage from other professionals in this space) it’s time to step back and see how practitioners can adopt to the code. Whether they are members of WOMMA or not.

WE could take a leaf from Dell (yes, that Dell) who has adopted the code. Their press release goes into great length about it’s "formal ethics commitment" to

"ensure that blogs and other consumer-generated environments stay honest
and authentic. By holding their agencies to the same standards, Dell is
leading the charge to drive word of mouth ethics throughout the
marketing community."

I wish Edelman would lead the charge from the PR end, and take the issue head on, since they got this thing started. After a few posts in October, they’ve let it slide on their blog –it’s called ‘speak up,’ after all! Debbie Weil wonders if they will.

My guess is they will, and are probably crafting a response right now. Ah, the suspense!

To draw a comparison, PRSA backed the FCC rules about VNR’s to comply with ‘sponsorship identification.’ Maybe they should step up and execise similar muscle here.