Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the Assault on Democracy

The public relations industry is not just about celebrity gossip. This book shows how, whenever big business is threatened, spin doctors, lobbyists, think tanks and front groups are on hand to push the corporate interest, often at the public’s expense.

Written by leading activists and writers, this book reveals the secrets of the PR trade including deception, the use of fake ‘institutes’, spying and dirty tricks. The impact can be devastating – when the public is denied access to the truth, the results are rising inequality and environmental catastrophe.

Exposing the misdeeds of famous companies including Coca Cola, British Aerospace, Exxon and Monsanto, and revealing information about the covert funding of various apparently independent thinks tanks and institutes, the authors offer a guide to campaigns that can help us roll back corporate power and resist deceptive PR.