Palmetto State News

South Carolina will receive more than $5 million form a $350 million multi-state lawsuit settlement with Publicis Group over the PR and advertising company’s marketing of opioids, said Attorney General Alan Wilson (R-S.C.)

“Today’s filings describe how Publicis’ work contributed to the crisis by helping Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers market and sell opioids,” said a press release issued by Wilson's office. “Court documents detail how Publicis acted as Purdue’s agency of record for all its branded opioid drugs, including OxyContin, even developing sales tactics that relied on farming data from recordings of personal health-related in-office conversations between patients and providers.” 

“The company was also instrumental in Purdue’s decision to market OxyContin to providers on patient’s electronic health records,” said the press release. 

Forbes reported that Publicis said that the settlement is “in no way an admission of wrongdoing or liability. The company, however, will be prohibited from “accepting any future contracts or engagements involving opioid marketing or sale, and is required to release hundreds of thousands’ of internal documents related to its work with manufacturers and consultants.” 

In addition to representing Purdue Pharma, Publicis’ client roster also included Pfizer, a leading manufacturer and advertiser of the “COVID” MRNA injections. That relationship, reported Lee Fang of RealClearInvestigations, raised a “question of conflicts” since Publicis was also the “lead corporate investor” in NewsGuard, which called itself the “vaccine of misinformation” on issues including the MRNA injections.

“For issues such as COVID-19, NewsGuard would steer readers to official government sources only, like the federal Centers for Disease Control,” reported Fang. “Other content-moderation allies, Crovitz’s pitch noted, include ‘intelligence and national security officials,’ ‘reputation management providers,’ and ‘government agencies,’ which contract with the firm to identify misinformation trends.” 

“Instead of only fact-checking individual forms of incorrect information, NewsGuard, in its proposal, touted the ability to rate the ‘overall reliability of websites’ and ’prebunk’ COVID-19 misinformation from hundreds of popular websites,” reported Fang.

Publicis “led the funding for NewsGuard,” reported Pitchbook, and Publicis also announced an initial $6 million investment round in NewsGuard.

Founded in 1926 by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, Publicis Groupe, is a multinational advertising and public relations company with its headquarters in Paris, France. Operating in more than 100 countries, the company  provides a range of services including digital and traditional advertising, public relations, and marketing services.