Atos A Brand Under Terrible Pressure

							http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/atos-brand-under-terrible-pressure.html




WEDNESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2012

Atos: 'A Brand Under Terrible Pressure'
The Guardian described the Paralympics as 'Surprisingly Political' in an
article on Monday. How anyone can be surprised given the ongoing
demonisation of disabled people in public life I'm not certain, especially
when that demonisation continued during the games as plans for savage
punishment of disabled benefit claimants became clear and the
Telegraph sank to Hate Mail levels as it branded us 'lazy sickness benefit
claimants'. However the article ranged wider than just covering the
protests that disabled people had been staging against the backdrop of
the Games, touching also on C4's focus on the transport issues of No Go
Britain and coverage of the rising disability hate crime rates.

But it was the anti-Atos protests that were the meat of the article, and the
final paragraphs provide ample proof that they have achieved their
objective in raising awareness of how Atos really views disabled people
beyond the disability community as the article concludes:

(Atos) has become a lightning rod for disability rights protests, such as
the demonstrations outside the Atos London HQ and elsewhere last
Friday.

"It’s not good for Atos, " says PR consultant Mark Borkowski. "If people
were not aware of Atos, they certainly are now. It is a brand under terrible
pressure."

I'd call that a result!