OccuList: Protesters’ PR firm denies anti-capitalist aims, has made overtures to ‘Anonymous’ hackers

Workhouse Publicity, a PR firm that has promoted the Occupy Wall Street protests, represents clients including stalwart capitalist brands Mercedez-Benz, Versace and Virgin Megastore, The Daily Caller has learned.

The boutique luxury communications firm’s president also offered his services to the famed hacktivist collective, Anonymous.

Workhouse president Adam Nelson insisted in a phone interview Tuesday that while he does work with Occupy Wall Street, neither his firm nor the movement opposes capitalism. Indeed, he made a guest appearance on billionaire real-estate mogul Donald Trump’s TV show, ‘The Apprentice,” in 2004.

Now, however, Nelson’s two worlds — the capitalist client list and the activist protest set — are colliding. And the showman and self-promoter may have violated his own rule of PR: Never become the subject of your own campaign.

Freedom fighters to some, international criminals to others, Anonymous claimed responsibility for cyber-attacks on government websites during the Arab Spring, induced a summer media hysteria over cyber security and cyber warfare, and claimed to have attacked more than 70 U.S. law enforcement websites. Anonymous also attacked PayPal for its decision to cut off WikiLeaks last December.

The hacker group claims no traditional command structure organizes its attacks on governments and corporations. But some of its activists were integral to the initial spread of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

IDG News Group reported Tuesday that an Anonymous-affiliated group called “CabinCr3w” hacked and published Citibank CEO Vikram Pandit’s personal information in reaction to police response following protests at Citibank. (RELATED: NPR host a spokeswoman for Occupy DC in possible ethics violation)

Speaking for Workhouse, which he founded with his now-wife Alison in 1999, Nelson told TheDC that at the time of his initial outreach efforts he was not aware of the extent of Anonymous’s reputation. He denied having any direct contact with its members.

“On October 3rd, we cast a wide net when we reached out to different Occupy Wall Street groups on Twitter using a hashtag search,” said Nelson. One of those “Occupy” groups was an Anonymous-related splinter group participating in the lower Manhattan protests.

“Anonymous had not been covered extensively in the left-leaning media services that I get my news from,” said Nelson. “I didn’t have any identifier whether Anonymous was militant or non-militant. In hindsight, I now see that @Anonymouscamp is much more militant than @AnonOps. @AnonOps says on their Twitter profile that they are civil rights and human rights activists, while @Anonymouscamp is militant.”

“I don’t philosophically believe in anything that would militarize this movement, and I would diametrically oppose anything like that,” Nelson added.

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