PR firm Sunshine Sachs called out for editing Wikipedia entries
The New York Times recently revealed that employees with the agency had altered several celebrity clients’ pages, in violation of the website’s terms of service.
The album, titled “Babywoman,” was a “critical and commercial failure,” according to the model’s Wikipedia entry. That is, until her PR firm removed the criticism, violating Wikipedia’s terms of service.
On Monday, The New York Times reported that Sunshine Sachs—an agency specializing in celebrity PR and crisis communications—paid editors to alter clients’ Wikipedia pages. The clients included Campbell, Mia Farrow and Sarah Brightman.
Though the changes were traced back to a number of usernames, the most obvious edits were made by Alexander De la Torre Bueno, one of the agency’s employees. Neither Bueno nor the other editors involved disclosed their conflict of interest on Wikipedia.
According to The Times, a Sunshine Sachs email sent in April was the catalyst for a person tipping off Wiki Strategies partner, Pete Forsyth. The email read in part:
Sunshine Sachs has a number of experienced editors on staff that have established profiles on Wikipedia. The changes we make to existing pages are rarely challenged.
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