Dodgy research not everyone's cup of tea

Pumping out client-favourable research has a long and ignoble history in the annals of PR, but you would hope that by this point companies might have got the hang of it.

Apparently not: Bus stop advertising great, says bus stop owner

What makes this so depressing is the utter contempt Right Angle Media seems to be showing to the press. Normally research so blatantly pro-sponsor is released with the paymaster's name gently buried - relying on the laziness of journos (yep, that's us) to prevent them from digging any further.

Taking one example at random - tea and its purported health benefits - a quick trawl of the BBC News website for 2007-2008 revealed positive tea-related stories here, here, here, here, here and here. In contrast, only two stories - here and here - cast any doubt on tea's efficacy as the cure of all our ills.

Notably, the first of the latter two stories still has a positive spin, and the second is the ruling of an advertising watchdog, striking down claims by one tea-maker about the brew's healthful properties.

The former, positive, set of stories is notable for an absence of any information on who sponsored the research in each case. Some may be genuine, but I doubt all six would be without at least the taint of tea or tea-related producers.

Sadly, this is just one of many lessons Right Angle has failed to pick up. Ultimately, of course, it's all the better for transparency, etc - but it does strike me that this is basically a colossal waste of time.