I guess even PR firms have lawyers. I have often gone head-to-head with corporate attorneys who advise their organizations, in time of crisis or public scrutiny, to say nothing. “We’ll deal with it in court,” they say.

Qorvis Communications LLC, a Beltway PR firm, is in court right now, side-by-side with one of its clients, accused of making “false and misleading claims” about sugar substitute Splenda. Qorvis evidently was involved in efforts to disparage the zero-calorie sugar substitute developed by asserting that its claim to be made from sugar are false. The maker of competing products Equal and Nutrasweet went so far as to file a lawsuit last November against Splenda for making false advertising claims.

Tate & Lyle, which makes Splenda, and McNeil Nutritionals, which distributes it, have countersued and added Qorvis and the US sugar association to the suit. The company issued a statement that said

The Sugar association and other defendants have knowingly and intentionally made false claims about the Splenda Brand that are baseless and that are designed to injure its reputation and goodwill…From our perspective, whatever the outcome of the litigation, sucralose will still be made from sugar, and still taste like sugar.

Whether Qorvis did anything wrong or not is for a court to decide. But the company isn’t even acknowledging the issue; the “News” section of its own Web site includes only press releases about new clients and new hires, and not a word about the suit. After Ketchum’s lame defense of its actions in the DOE-Armstrong Williams debacle, you’d think agencies would start acting with a bit more candor—the way we counsel our clients to behave. The litany of woes in our industry just seem to continue mounting even as we discuss ways to rehabilitate our image.