Public Relations
Early Development in PR
• P.T. Barnum
Early Development in PR
• Buffalo Bill
• JUMBO
• JUMBO IS PUBLICIZED
• JUMBO DIES
Tufts
»
Jumbo
• U.S. RAILWAYS
Early Development in PR
• Modern PR Agents
– “Poison Ivy” Lee had John D. Rockefeller as a
client
Early Development in PR
• Modern PR Agents
– Standard Oil/Ludlow Colorado
•
•
•
•
Terrible working conditions
Ida Tarbell/Standard Oil/McClure’s
Workers went on strike
Ludlow massacre
– “Poison Ivy” Lee was hired to “repair” Rockefeller’s
image
– Ivy Lee discovered he could shape facts to tell
whatever he wanted to say, and people would
believe him.
– Facts are malleable and can be interpreted
“Ivy Lee would have probably shared the
mantle of ‘Father of Public Relations’
with Edward Bernays if he hadn’t made
the fatal career mistake of going to work
with the Nazis, and then dying before he
could clean up his own image.”
--John Stauber
Early Development in PR
• Modern PR Agents
– Edward Bernays
• Freud’s nephew
• “Father of public relations”
Early Development in PR
• Bernays
– Worked for Government
– CBS (Option time)
– American tobacco industry
• “Torches of freedom”
• Lucky Strikes
– Organized “Green Ball”
– Luncheon for fashion editors
• “new green fashions for fall”
– Convinced historians &
psychologists to talk about green
– Organized “Color Fashion Bureau”
– Wrote to interior decorators, department stores, art
industry group about “new trend” (on green paper)
– Got dept. stores to display green dresses in
windows
– Got an established gallery to feature a “Green”
painting exhibition.
Green became the color
of the 1934 season
• Ivory Soap: soap carving contest
• United Fruit Company
• United Fruit=“banana republic”
• Paid off governments/brutally exploited
Guatemalans
• When reformist Gov. attempted to reign in
United Fruit’s power, called in Bernays
– Bernays created a successful PR campaign that
led to the CIA’s overthrow of a democratically
elected government
• Pseudo-events -- the manufacturing of
news
The Practice of PR
• In 1988, the PRSA defined PR: “Public
relations helps an organization and
its publics adapt mutually to each
other.”
• PRSA Ethics Code (in textbook)
Survey in 2000 by PR Week
Surveyed 1,705 PR professionals:
• 25% admit to lying on the job
• 39% say they had exaggerated the truth
• 44% are uncertain of the ethics of a task they are
required to perform
• 60% say their work has been compromised by
being told to lie.
The Practice of PR
• Major PR Agencies
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Weber Shandwick Worldwide (Interpublic)
Fleishman-Hillard (Omnicom)
Hill and Knowlton (WPP Group)
Burson-Marsteller (WPP Group)
Incepta (Incepta Group)
Edelman PR Worldwide (Independent)
Porter Novelli (Omnicom)
Ketchum (Omnicom)
GCI Group/APCO Worldwide (WPP Group)
Ogilvy PR Worldwide (WPP Group)
• In-house Services
• Ex. Ketchum
• According to the U.S. House Committee on
Government Reform Minority Office,
Ketchum received the following amounts per
year, for federal PR contracts:
–
–
–
–
–
–
* $1,692,000 in 1999
* $2,552,000 in 2000
* $3,657,000 in 2001
* $2,563,000 in 2002
* $31,163,457 in 2003
* $58,895,846 in 2004
Doing Public Relations
Six main functions
1. Writing and editing
–
–
–
–
–
press releases
VNRs
PSAs
Internet materials
brochures, etc.
• Ketchum scandal on No Child Left Behind
• $700,000
 Did a “rankings analysis” to see which
reporters covered the story (pos. or neg.)
 Produced a VNR supporting the law
»featured Education Secretary Rod Paige
»paid journalist/conservative columnist
Armstrong Williams $241,000
»Narrated by fake reporter Karen Ryan (a
PR pro)
Doing Public Relations
Six main functions
1. Writing and editing
2. Media Relations
• promote a client or organization by
securing favorable news media coverage
•
e.g. Heisman trophy
Doing Public Relations
Six main functions
1. Writing and editing
2. Media Relations
3. Special Events
•
pseudo-event refers to any circumstance
created to obtain coverage in the media
(publicity stunt)
Doing Public Relations
Six main functions
1. Writing and editing
2. Media Relations
3. Special Events
4. Research
•
•
Research the way the company is perceived by
the public
Focus groups
Doing Public Relations
Six main functions
1. Writing and editing
2. Media Relations
3. Special Events
4. Research
5. Community and consumer relations
•
•
•
Create positive image for company
Rockefeller and dimes
e.g., American Express, Applebees
• American Express
– Statue of Liberty Renovation
• Raised $1.7 million
• Spent $6 million promoting it
– Save Our Strength hunger campaign
• Applebees
– The “Neighborhood Wall”
Doing Public Relations
Six main functions
1. Writing and editing
2. Media Relations
3. Special Events
4. Research
5. Community and consumer relations
6. Government relations and lobbying
• Organizations lobby against industry
regulation
EX:
• NAB: National Association of Broadcasters
• NRA
• Fast Food
• Automobile Industry
• Meatpacking industry
• “Astroturf Lobbying”
• Lobbying for entire governments
• e.g.:
– Qorvis: Saudi Arabia
– Burston Marsteller: Indonesia, El Salvador,
Nigeria
– Hill and Knowlton: Kuwait
• 1990:Iraq invaded Kuwait
• Drum up American support
• “congressional human right
caucus”
– girl testified about the horrors of Iraqi
invasion…babies on bayonets
– She was the daughter of the Kuwaiti
Ambassador (and lived in the U.S.)
Tensions between PR and the
Press
• Pay issues
• Undermining facts and blocking access
(“flack”)
• Promoting publicity and business as
news
Social Responsibility
• Case of The Gap -- proactive
transparency. May 2004, releases firstever corporate report on social
responsibility.
Cause-Related Marketing
• Case of Timberland
• Also American Express, Ford, Nike,
Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, and
Target
Crisis Management
•
•
•
•
Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford, 2001
Odwalla Fruit Juices, 1996
Exxon 1989 Valdez oil spill
Johnson & Johnson, 1982 Tylenol
poisoning