Public Relations

Early Development in PR

• P.T. Barnum

Early Development in PR

• Buffalo Bill

• JUMBO

• JUMBO IS PUBLICIZED

• JUMBO DIES

• JUMBO LIVES ON THROUGH PUBLICITY

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Tufts Jumbo

• U.S. RAILWAYS

Early Development in PR

• Modern PR Agents

– “Poison Ivy” Lee had John D. Rockefeller as a client

(Ivy Ledbetter Lee)

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 functions1. 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 functions1. Writing and editing2. Media Relations

• promote a client or organization by securing favorable news media coverage• e.g. Heisman trophy

Doing Public Relations

Six main functions1. Writing and editing2. Media Relations3. Special Events

• pseudo-event refers to any circumstance created to obtain coverage in the media (publicity stunt)

Doing Public Relations

Six main functions1. Writing and editing2. Media Relations3. Special Events4. Research

• Research the way the company is perceived by the public

• Focus groups

Doing Public Relations

Six main functions1. Writing and editing2. Media Relations3. Special Events4. Research5. 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 functions1. Writing and editing2. Media Relations3. Special Events4. Research5. Community and consumer relations6. 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 first-ever 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