Bogus press releases have become a fact of modern life and Minnesota-based General Mills became the latest victim on the night of June 15, when a release was posted with the headline ‘Obama orders full investigation of General Mills supply chain following food recalls’.
The hoax release was quickly removed after being detected by an alert General Mills PR director, but headlines and stories appeared briefly on newswires. Online automated alerts, from services such as Google, further disseminated the false headlines, some with links to the hoax release or retracted news stories.
‘We were the victim of a hoax,’ said Tom Forsythe, a spokesman for General Mills, in a genuine press release the company issued on June 16. ‘We found the false release and removed it within minutes, but even false information can still spread incredibly quickly on the internet. This information did not come from the company. It was not authorized or confirmed by the company. We are shocked that the news release was posted. It was quite clearly and obviously a hoax.’
The fake release was issued by PR Newswire at about 11pm. Kirstie Foster, director of public relations for the food giant, was checking her email and saw an alert that the release had crossed the wires. She called PR Newswire, which pulled the release and issued a retraction. She then called news services that had run stories based on the release and they pulled their stories.
It was only by chance that she checked her email before retiring, she says, as she does not have an alert that will notify her proactively if a story crosses the wires mentioning General Mills.
General Mills uses Business Wire for corporate releases, but several of the company’s brands use public relations agencies that use PR Newswire, according to Foster. She is unwilling to speculate about how the breach occurred but says the company is investigating the incident and has engaged with law enforcement agencies. The company declines to provide details of that investigation, but says it will pursue and prosecute the matter to the fullest extent of the law.
Foster is also unwilling to speculate as to the motives behind the phony press release, saying ‘that is part of the investigation’. She adds the company is looking at how it monitors news and wire services as a part of its investigation.
Kris Wenker, vice president of IR for General Mills, notes that ‘it didn’t create much stir on the IR side – thanks in large part to Kirstie’s great work in the middle of the night’.
In an email exchange, Rachel Meranus, vice president of communications for PR Newswire, comments: ‘PR Newswire issued a press release in the US and UK provided to us from someone purporting to be from General Mills, Inc. Upon learning from General Mills that the press release was a hoax, PR Newswire promptly issued a ‘kill’ notice advising media and databases to pull the press release immediately.’
‘PR Newswire maintains stringent editorial procedures and safeguards to protect against hoax releases, and it is an extremely rare occurrence when a situation circumvents these procedures. We take this situation – and any similar hoaxes that our peers in the news distribution services industry have to confront – very seriously. We have reported the situation to the appropriate regulatory authorities and will cooperate in any investigation that may occur as a result of the hoax. Because this situation is pending potential investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.’
Ersatz press releases have been issued by Wall Street traders to try to move a stock, but that is typically done during trading hours, involving smaller and less liquid stocks than General Mills. The food company’s bogus release never ran during trading hours. A quick check of options trading on General Mills stock did not show a large amount of activity in ‘put’ options which would be a bet on the stock declining.
Bogus press releases and fake press conferences have also become a favored tactic of activists trying to score publicity points.
