Lecture #2
 Growth
of Big Institutions- organizations
have grown so big that it makes it difficult to
communicate with the public.
• PR professionals exist today to help interpret these
large institutions to the publics they serve.
 Heightened
Public Awareness and Media
Sophistications- largely because of social
media, issues reach thousands and even
millions within seconds or minutes.
• Individuals can be part of something almost instantly,
known as the “global village.”
 Increasing
Incidents of Societal Change
and Conflict- minority rights, women’s
rights, senior citizens rights, gay rights,
animal rights, etc., have all been a part of
large institutions, and therefore must be
taken into consideration.
• Activists are becoming more visible and
effective.
 Globalization
and the Growing Power of
Global Media and Public Opinion- public
opinion is an important force in
democracies like the U.S., but also for
oppressed people around the globe.
 Dominance of Internet and Social Mediaindividuals have become instant
consumer and instant generators of
communication.
 Earliest
examples of PR are bulletins found
in Iraq from 1800 B.C. c.
 They told farmers of new ways to harvest,
plow, and irrigate crops.
 This shows how persuasion was used to help
a public reach a purpose- to grow more
food, which betters the group, and then
makes the group more wealthy.
 This would have allowed the particular
group more wealth to trade for better
clothing, utensil, and weapons.
 In
Ancient Greece, politicians would ask
for the help of sophists ( those known for
reasoning and rhetoric) to help fight
verbal battles.
 Sophists then gathered in amphitheaters
to share the virtues of political
candidates.
 This sets the stage for what we now know
as lobbying (Lobbyists)
 The
idea of Sophists being hired based on
their skill has helped the profession evolve
to where it is today.
 Should a PR professional be hired for skill
while compromising their beliefs or values
by representing an individual or
organization that does not match those
beliefs and values?
 Example: representing highly unethical
brands, or celebrities with tarnished images
when it goes against the PR professionals
personal values.
 The
Creel Committee was designed to
help channel patriotic sentiments and
raise the support of the U.S. role in the
war.
 The committee’s use of verbal and
written communications was what some
argue the use of propaganda, boosted
national pride behind the U.S. being in
the war.
 The
American Revolution- “No taxation
without representation.” The public
(colonists) influenced public opinion,
communicated a message, and persuaded
individuals at the highest levels.
 The Constitution- the fight between
Federalists and Anti-Federalists led to a
series of articles, newspapers, and
pamphlets being distributed to persuade
and influence public opinion.
 This
was a significant time for public
relations.
 Although many professionals do not like
to consider the practices of the 1800s to
be legitimate public relations, it is
important to look at these individuals to
help us understand how the profession
has grown.
 Phineas
Taylor (P.T.) Barnum- used
exaggeration, fraudulent stories, and staged
events to secure newspaper coverage for
his clients, his museum, and his circus.
Midget-General Tom Thumb
Soprano- Jenny Lind
Jumbo the Elephant
Joice Heth- He claimed was George Washington’s
160 year old nurse
These came to be the first celebrities in the U.S.
because of Barnum’s media use of promotion
•
•
•
•
Ivy Ledbetter Lee “Poison Ivy”- known as one of
PR’s pioneers
 By the late 1800s most corporations and
manufacturers cared little about public opinion.
 Lee understood social changes that needed to
take place. He counseled is clients on better
business practices that focused on honesty and
directness.
 Corporate practices during the 1800s were
deceptive and fostered suspicion and an
unfavorable public opinion of anti-big business.

Lee graduated from Princeton and went to work
for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
 While there, Lee was asked to downplay a rail
accident in order to save the railroad from crisis.
 Lee argued that the Pennsylvania Railroad should
tell the truth of what actually happened, admit
the mistake, and share with newspapers how it
would do better.
 By doing so, Lee believed that the public would
be more satisfied with the “harsh” truth than
being told lies.
 The railroad used Lee’s strategies.







Lee then went on to work for John D. Rockefeller, an oil
baron of the early 1900s.
During a strike at one of the iron companies, 53 workers,
family members, wives, and children were killed.
Lee was hired to control the negative publicity.
He distributed fact sheets, which purely told the
corporations side, which credited United Mine Workers who
were trying to organize the mine workers.
He also staged a series of events to help soften Rockefeller’s
image as the tyrant corporate boss. And improved working
conditions, which helped keep the union out of the mine.
Lee worked for many years restoring the Rockefeller family
image. One of his main urges was to get the Rockefellers to
publicly show their charitable work.
 Lee
complexly understood the uses of
facts.
 He understood that facts were open to
various interpretations, malleable and
could be shaped.
 He interpreted facts so that the client
could shine in the best light.
 “Spin”








Bernays brought sociology and psychology to the study of
PR.
Nephew of Sigmund Freud.
Opened the first public relations firm in Boston in 1900.
He is known as the “Founding Father of Modern Day PR.”
Taught the first ever PR course at New York University in
1923.
He believed that public opinion was not always rational.
He believed that experts, leaders, and PR counselors
needed to shape public opinion in order for people to stand
behind it.
Skeptics argued that PR professionals had hidden agendas,
therefore only giving their own meaning to the facts.
 Fleischman
was Bernays’ business
partner and later his wife.
 One of the first women to work in
advertising and PR; at the time the
profession was one of the few professions
accessible to women who wished to work
outside the home.
 Today the profession is primarily made
up of women.
 The “mother” of
 During
public relations.
the 1920s she edited the
pamphlet called Contact, which
explained the emerging profession of PR
to America’s most powerful leaders.
A
key individual for shaping the role of
the fashion PR professional.
 Bernays was hired by the American
Tobacco Company after WWI.
 He was asked to develop a campaign that
would help newly liberated women be
more appealed to smoking.
 Bernays asked for his wife’s help with
this.
 With
the help of Bernays, Fleischman was
able to pull off one of Bernays’ most wellknown campaigns, as well as, a campaign
that changed fashion PR.
 The campaign consisted of women
smokers riding a float in the Easter
Parade in 1929, the cigarettes were titled
“Freedom Torches”







At the time, the American Tobacco Company was producing
Lucky Strikes cigarettes that were sold in a dark green
package.
Women did not perceive this color as being desirable or
fashionable.
Fleischman was able to work with many fashion designers
from around the globe to influence them to use the green
color in their fashion designs.
Fleischman was also able to gather powerful and elite
women to a gala where green was the fashionable color.
Bernays and Fleischman also put together a green fashion
show which sold the idea of a new trend in green to the
press.
The cigarettes quickly became an “accessory” for women.
Ironically, Bernays did not allow his wife to smoke.
This was a practice that was used heavily in the
1900s.
 Pseudo event refers to manufacturing news
stories.
 A pseudo event is any circumstance created for
the purpose of gaining coverage in the media.
 Interviews, press conferences, TV and radio talk
shows, awards shows, or any other activity
staged at gaining public attention and media
coverage.
 Fashion week, red carpet events, celebrity
appearances, fashion shows, FNO, Victoria’s
Secret fashion show.

 Arthur W. Page
began working for AT&T’s
first public relations vice-president in
1927.
 Helped maintain AT&T’s reputation as a
proper corporate citizen.
 Page was one of the first few public
relations executives to serve on a board
of directors for many corporate boards.
 Make
sure management thoughtfully
analyzes its relation to the public.
 To create a system that helps inform all
employees about policies and practices.
 To create a system for employees who deal
directly with the public the knowledge to be
reasonable and polite to the public.
 To create a system that draws employee and
public concerns to organizational
management.
 To ensure frankness in telling the public
about the company’s actions
 1951-
12 schools offered major programs
in PR
 Today, there are over 200 programs
 Journalists’ love-hate relationships with
PR professionals have become more of a
relationship of love. Nearly 70 percent of
newspapers copy from PR generated
news releases.
 The
scope of modern PR ranges from
media relations, government relations,
employee communications, public
relations counseling, research, local
community relations, audiovisual
communications, interactive public
relations, external affairs, corporate
communications, public affairs, corporate
relations.
 PR
has been around for thousands of
years, but has shifted it purpose over the
last few decades.
 The profession is growing amongst
current students.
 Doris Fleischman had a huge impact on
influencing fashion designers and
fashion PR.
 Seitel, F.P. (2011). The
Practice of Public
Relations. Prentice Hall: Boston.
 Vivian, J. (2009). The Media of Mass
Communication (9th ed.). Pearson:
Boston.