Guptas denied bail
Gupta Brothers. Photo: SABC

Home » Pressure Gets to Bell Pottinger? UK PR Firm Drops Gupta Family

Pressure Gets to Bell Pottinger? UK PR Firm Drops Gupta Family

Bell Pottinger, one of the UK’s biggest global PR companies, has reportedly dropped Oakbay Investments, the company owned by the Gupta Family, as a client. This comes following several articles claiming the public relations company was allegedly being behind the creation of the catchphrase “White Monopoly Capital” …which was seen as a ploy by the Gupta’s to […]

By SAPeople
12-04-17 19:56
in News
Guptas denied bail
Gupta Brothers. Photo: SABC

Bell Pottinger, one of the UK’s biggest global PR companies, has reportedly dropped Oakbay Investments, the company owned by the Gupta Family, as a client.

Gupta brothers. File photo

This comes following several articles claiming the public relations company was allegedly being behind the creation of the catchphrase “White Monopoly Capital” …which was seen as a ploy by the Gupta’s to distract South Africans from the wealthy Indian family’s alleged control over President Jacob Zuma and the country.

Bell Pottinger has also been accused of being behind ‘Black Twitter’ – which refers to certain South African social media users who are allegedly paid to create fake accounts on Twitter and post tweets either supporting the Gupta’s and their interests, attacking perceived Gupta enemies such as former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, or stirring racism and anti-white sentiment.

The revelations have led to social media attacks, which have gone viral, and a planned protest at the company’s London office this coming weekend.

Planned protest outside Bell Pottinger in London

The Financial Times made the announcement in an article today, headlined “Bell Pottinger cuts ties with controversial South African group”.

UPDATE: The PR company reportedly terminated the contract “just over a week ago” and cited its reasons as being that it has become “the target of a politically driven smear campaign in South Africa over the last few months, with a number of totally false and damaging accusations levelled at it”.

The Telegraph published an article in 2011 about “serious allegations” that had been made after lobbyists from Bell Pottinger were recorded boasting of their close ties to then Prime Minister David Cameron and his Foreign Secretary William Hague. The Bell Pottinger executives were taped by reporters working undercover for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism – under the guise of working for the Uzbekistan government. Other revelations included the PR firm saying they could influence Google search results to not display a client’s controversial news amongst the top listings, and they could rectify less positive entries on clients’ Wikipedia pages.

Tweets criticising Bell Pottinger’s Victoria Geoghegan had gone viral:

https://twitter.com/CICArsa/status/851538795308699649