So here's a very nice, good news press release about a good company doing nice things for good people doing good things. Perfect fodder for any (or all!) local media outlets dedicated to the building up of good things and the looking always on the bright side of
commerce—particularly as there is a Baltimore angle. As a Ketchum PR professional e-mailed:
Well we think Filner is just swell, and hope he wins. In fact, we wish
all
these folks could win. And we love us some FLARKE™ shelves and UNNI BJORK™ couches and have filled our respective living quarters with same. It's all good! But consider: IKEA is using a charity giveaway, in which it bestows one lucky winner a year off ($100k value) to go out and do many good things for the peoples. And for this IKEA expects (and will get) many multiples of that back in good will. And it doesn't have to do any actual good, 'cause it's got its contestants doing that part. And the good they'll be doing (if they're the lucky winner), in Baltimore anyway, involves teaching kids in an abandoned greenhouse—which the city/state/government abandoned, in part because of lack of money, i.e. taxes, with which to upkeep it. In an alternate universe in which press releases tracked with reality, media outlets might be fascinated, given that the corporation reportedly pays less than 3.5 percent in taxes because of its
