Source: TheDrum
WPP companies have collected $1.46m in lobbying fees from the US National Rifle Association (NRA) since 2007, making the agency holding company an important advocate for the gun lobby. At the same time, other WPP companies also worked on campaigns calling for gun control.
A report by The Guardian stated that WPP firms – first Ogilvy and then Prime Policy Group – have taken in big revenue streams from the NRA over the last decade, according to US lobbying records, for their efforts helping to block gun control legislation in Washington, DC. While Prime Policy has not recorded any new NRA revenues in 2017, the NRA is still listed as a client of the firm.
These lobbying efforts have been done during the same time that WPP made efforts to show that it was opposed to gun violence – a sustainability report on the WPP website calls out a pro-bono 2013 pro gun-control ad by that Grey New York that was part of WPP’s human rights work.
The ad, shows a man entering an office with a musket and luckily misses as he aims at a co-worker. The man must then reload, which takes long enough for the office workers to scramble. It’s tagged with: “Guns have changed. Shouldn’t our gun laws?”
Also in 2013, the story states, lobbyists working for Prime Policy – which was paid $60,000 by the NRA – helped defeat a gun control measure after the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell declined to comment to The Guardian regarding the story.
The Guardian was emailed a statement by a WPP spokesperson which stated: “Our subsidiary companies will not undertake work that is intended or designed to mislead, and they operate within national laws at all times. In the US, our public affairs companies have representatives of both major parties among senior management, and work with clients from across the political spectrum.”
