Public Relations and Politics:
The Image Industries
Chapter Outline
History
Industry
Controversies
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Public relations is
▪ The art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable
relationship with the public.
 Public relations is different from advertising.
 Can anyone tell me how these two things are
different?
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Both public relations and advertising, however, are
persuasive endeavors and work together in
integrated marketing.
 Internal publics
▪ Those within the client’s organization and include
employees, stockholders, and members.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Precursors of Public Relations
 People have always had opinions and others have always tried
to influence those opinions.
▪ Ancient Greeks hired Sophists to help fight their verbal
battles in public forums.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Precursors of Public Relations
▪ Ancient rulers employed spies to keep in touch with public
opinion and spread favorable rumors
▪ Most people in the colonies were indifferent to the cause of
American independence.
▪ Patriots used PR techniques, such as the Boston Tea Party of
1773, to gain public support for the war.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 In the new U.S. quick-witted people from sideshow barkers to
Broadway press agents worked to generate publicity for their
clients.
 The dramatic means they used was known as hype.
▪ P.T. Barnum planted stories filled with lies about his
attractions,
▪ Named his circus “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
▪ What are some recent examples of “HYPE”
today?
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
▪ In the 1800s, public relations techniques were used by
▪ Land speculators and railroads to entice people west with glowing
reports of fertile land and cooperative natives.
▪ The railroads encouraged the westward migration
▪ Why would railroads want people to move west?
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

A popular eatery that you enjoy has caused
numerous people to get sick,
 Local authorities say its due to undercooked or
tainted meat
 This has resulted in the death of two children

Would you still eat there? Why/Why Not
 What would have to happen in order for you to go
back or continue eating at the restaurant?
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Public Relations As a Profession
 Ivy Ledbetter Lee
▪ The father of the modern public relations industry.
▪ A former newspaperman, he was hired in 1906 to rebuild the tarnished
images of U.S. coal mine owners, including John D. Rockefeller.
 Lee believed that the goal of public relations was not to fool or
ignore the public.
▪ Often credited with being the originator of modern crisis communications
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Edward Bernays coined the term
▪ “public relations counsel” in his book, Crystallizing Public Opinion,
 He also taught the first university public relations course at
New York University.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 FDR established the Office of War Information
▪ Promoted WWII bonds, encourage work productivity and the
rationing of food, clothing, and gasoline.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 The FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” Program
▪ Started off as a reporter’s request to name their most-wanted fugitives.
 Subsequent positive publicity after the story culminated into
the “List.”
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Today, countries with expanding economies such as
 Korea and some countries of the former Soviet union,
▪ Hire PR firms to improve the perception that international investors
have of them.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 After September 11th, 2001 attacks on the U.S.
▪ Our government established media specifically designed to sway
anti-U.S. sentiment in the Arab media:
▪ “Al Hurra” is a slickly produced Arab-language cable
television network.
▪ Radio Sawa is an Arab-language radio service.
▪ Radio Farda is a Farsi-language radio service.
▪ Hi Magazine is a geared towards Iraqi elites.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 After poisoned Tylenol capsules in 1982,
▪ President of Johnson & Johnson and company execs had a
teleconference,
 600 reporters in 30 cities
▪ Allowed the company to explain the extraordinary precautions that
Johnson & Johnson was taking to protect consumers.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

News reports indicate that there is a spike in
muggings and assaults at the local
community college
 You find out several students were robbed at
gunpoint after an evening class
 You are in charge of developing a solution to this
problem and calming community outcry

What are some things that you can do?
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

PR Activities
 Research that occurs through the public relations process is used
to:
▪ define problems,
▪ identify publics,
▪ test concepts,
▪ monitor the progress of a campaign,
▪ evaluate its effectiveness when it is over.
 PR practitioners are involved in decision-making and
organizational policy-making of companies and politicians.
 This includes
▪ Coaching clients on how to behave in an interview, offering grooming
advice or teaching how to avoid answering direct questions.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

PR Strategies
 News management techniques include:
▪ publicity stunts to create human-interest stories,
▪ creating news hooks to interest media gatekeepers in the
information that clients want to publicize,
▪ developing media relations, or press relations, that
maintain contact with reporters,
▪ using leaks and trial balloons to test public reaction to a
major policy,
▪ granting exclusives to just one news outlet to increase the
impact of publicity.
 PR maintains good community relations by giving corporate
aid to schools, charities and nonprofits.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Crisis management
▪ Is the action used to repair a client’s public image following an
emergency, such as a major error, accident, or sabotage.




E. coli poisoning leads to Odwalla juice recall (1996)
Wendy's restaurant patron found finger in bowl of chili (2005)
Multi-State Outbreak of E. coli Infections From Spinach (2006)
Companies will use PR Agencies to calm the public and attempt
to restore trust in their products/services
▪ What company is currently working to repair their tarnished image?
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Lobbying is any attempt to influence the voting of
legislators.
▪ The name comes from the practice of PR representatives
speaking to lawmakers in the lobbies outside their hearing
rooms.
▪ U.S. companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually
in their lobbying efforts.
▪ Multi-million dollar industry associations are set up purely for
the purpose of influencing how laws are written.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Some Public Relations Tools
 Press releases, or news releases, are short documents, written
in standard news form, for insertion into news reports.
▪ Canned news and editorials are digital files to be inserted
verbatim into feature or editorial sections.
▪ Audio news releases include interviews and sound bites
ready for insertion into news reports.
▪ Video news releases (VNRs) are ready-to-broadcast tapes.
▪ For example, a drug company might distribute a VNR that provides
interviews with experts who have developed and tested a new drug
along with satisfied users.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

You are the account executive in charge of a
new account
 The client wants to generate a buzz for their new
shoe line
 You don’t have enough money to run ANY ads
 What are some things you can do to get the word
out?
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Some Public Relations Tools
 VNRs have become controversial in recent years,
▪ Often called Fake News, when used without attribution.
 A 2006 Center for Media Democracy study
▪ Found 36 VNRs that had aired on 77 stations.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

The Ethics of PR Tactics
 Many PR professionals and journalists have a “love-hate”
relationship.
 Neither respects the other’s job yet they need each other.
 Journalists call PR people “spin doctors and “flacks,”
▪ Derives from the term for WW II anti-aircraft fire.
 spin is
▪ Providing an interpretation of an event or campaign
▪ Persuading public opinion in favor or against an organization
or public figure
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

The Ethics of PR Tactics
 To some, spinning is the practice of twisting the truth so that
what is said puts the best possible face on the facts.
▪ Critics contend that most spinning is a type of lying, or a half-truth at
best
 “The Big Lie” occurs when people state something they know
to be untrue and stick to it
▪ In spite of all evidence in the hopes that the press and public will become
confused by the issue and forget about it.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Greenwashing
 Covering up environmental problems caused by the client by
associating that client with beneficial environmental actions.
 Many critics believe that freebies
▪ Including junkets, meals, and gifts designed to curry favor with reporters
and magazine writers, amount to bribes.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved