We talk a lot with clients about the ladder of engagement, and one of the items on our example ladder is usually “write a letter” (to your representative, to a newspaper, to a company). It’s about halfway up the ladder, and marks an intermediate step between online (less commitment) and in-person (greater commitment) activities. But it’s always supposed to be a letter personally and freely written by an advocate.
Coal Group Reveals 6 More Forged Lobbying Letters and UPS Employees Say They Were Forced to Lobby Against FedEx are stories about letter-writing gone wrong. In one case, advocates didn’t write the letters sent under their names. In the other, employees felt pressured to write letters to benefit their employer.
Except to the extent that any publicity is good publicity, those letters have become anti-recommendations for the positions they espouse and for the organizations that solicited them. Credibility is an easy thing to lose….
