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PR Warning:. Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel…. What it is…. Public Relations is a process of persuasion that involves creating goodwill toward a company, an organization, a person or a product. Great PR slogans…. All the News That ’ s Fit to Print….
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PR Warning: Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel…
What it is… Public Relations is a process of persuasion that involves creating goodwill toward a company, an organization, a person or a product
Public relations is not a mass media… it is a media support industry
It uses persuasion to influence the way people think about a company, organization, person or product
A bully idea… Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first presidents to exploit the news media as a powerful PR tool, and he remade the laws of this country and the presidency by employing PR strategies.
One of the first PR practicioners Ivy Lee was one of the most influential pioneers in public relations. He developed his philosophy in 1906 into the "Declaration of Principles," the first articulation of the concept that public relations practitioners have a public responsibility that extends beyond obligations to the client.
Many historians credit Lee with being the originator of modern crisis communications. In 1914 he entered public relations on a much larger scale when he was retained by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to represent his family and Standard Oil, ("to burnish the family image”).
How to change public opinion His instruction to the son of the Standard Oil fortune was to echo in public relations: "Tell the truth, because sooner or later the public will find out anyway. And if the public doesn't like what you are doing, change your policies and bring them into line with what people want".
A master manipulator Lee and Edward Bernays have been called the fathers of public relations. Bernays, whose uncle was Sigmund Freud, understood the psychological implications of PR and, more specifically, was skilled at manipulating public opinion… Edward Bernays Sigmund Freud
In 1923, Bernays wrote the first book on Public Relations, called “Crystallizing Public Opinion.”Bernays was interested in mass psychology -- how to influence large groups of people. Some of his clients were Proctor & Gamble, General Motors and the American Tobacco Company. “Public Relations,” Bernays wrote in 1955, “is the attempt, by information, persuasion, and adjustment, to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.”
"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind,” Bernays wrote, “is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? “The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible..."
He called this scientific technique of opinion-molding the "engineering of consent.”One of Bernays' favorite techniques for manipulating public opinion was the indirect use of "third party authorities" to plead for his clients' causes. "If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway," he said.
A Lucky guy… Bernays' involvement with the American Tobacco Co. started in 1928, when he took on the job of promoting the Lucky Strike brand. Spotting a gap in the market, Bernays specifically encouraged more women to smoke. Female smoking was bordering on taboo: in 1922, a woman was arrested for smoking in public in New York, and even in 1928 women smokers were generally disapproved, or stigmatized, but attitudes would soon change, thanks to Bernays.
Torches of Freedom • 1929 was a big year for Bernays. By the end of it he would have helped thousands of women to take up smoking, and staged what's been called the first global event of the century, and arguably the most successful. • Bernays' first campaign was focused on a supposed health benefit of smoking - with the slogan "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet", he encouraged women to think of smoking as a way to keep a slim figure. But the market was slow to move. In 1929, however, he caught the public imagination by hiring young models and debutantes to join the Easter Parades in New York and elsewhere, posing as suffregettes while lighting up cigarettes and wearing banners describing these as "torches of liberty".
Other tobacco icons… In 1972, PR and advertising helped make Marlboro become the No. 1 tobacco brand in the world. As the anti-smoking movement spread, the Marlboro Man came under attack for his role in luring new customers to a cancer-causing habit – a PR nightmare for the tobacco industry.
Government PR Today, the total number of people working in federal government public information jobs is around 5,000, making the federal government the nation’s largest single employer of PR people
Governments aren’t interested in showing you this side of war…
Positive Spin Washington Post Thursday, August 31, 2006 U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid at two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq…
Three PRs: Public relations is an industry of specialties that include the following: * Financial PR * Product PR * Crisis PR
Good PR seeks to: • Be socially conscious • Be environmentally aware • Provide good products and services
Time and space you cannot buy • Product PR uses public relations techniques to sell products and services • Not only is it less expensive than advertising the product, PR often works better
Crises • A public relations crisis is when PR representatives must counteract an overwhelming negative event or information that can be damaging to an organization
Here’s a portfolio of PR crises… See if you can name or identify them:
Mark Foley scandal -- a Republican Congressman from Florida recently linked to young men who had formerly served as congressional pages, two of whom he allegedly had sexual relations with…
Actor Mel Gibson went on a rampage when he was arrested in July on suspicion of drunk driving, making anti-Semetic remarks... Right before or right after the release of his film, “The Passion of Christ.”
Ted Arthur Haggard, a former American evangelical preacher, resigned his leadership earlier this month of the National Association of Evangelicals and stepped aside as pastor of his church because of allegations by former prostitute and masseur Mike Jones that Haggard engaged in sex with him for three years and used methamphetamine.
