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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…
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.
Later… An unwitting poster boy…
Who the media
portrayed as the modern
Marlboro Man…
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
An example of government PR:
the media event…
Another example of government PR:
the photo op…
Governments aren’t interested
in showing you this side of war…
Or this… one of the costs of war
We deliberately are not shown this…
Or this…
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:
Abu-Ghraib prisoner abuse…
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 antiSemetic 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.
Michael DeWayne Brown was
Undersecretary of Emergency
Preparedness and Response, a division
of the Department of Homeland Security,
a position generally referred to as the
director or administrator of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), resigned for his handling of
emergency response to Hurricane Katrina
victims.
President Bill Clinton with Monica
Lewinsky, an extra-marital sex scandal
that led to impeachment…
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally
shot and wounded a campaign contributor
in February during a weekend quail hunt
on a friend's South Texas ranch.
Ken Lay, an American businessman best
known for his role in the widely-reported
corruption scandal that led to the downfall of
Enron Corporation, became synonymous with
corporate abuse and accounting fraud when the
scandal broke in 2001. He recently died while
on bail. Jeff Skilling, the former CEO of Enron
Corporation who was convicted of federal felony
charges relating to Enron's financial collapse,
was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in
federal prison for his 19 counts of conviction.
Since 2003, San Francisco Giants
homerun king Barry Bonds has become a
key figure in the BALCO scandal and
despite the fact that Bonds has never
failed a drug test, a number of journalists
have alleged that Bonds used steroids as
well as other performance-enhancing
substances.
President Richard Nixon resigned on
August 8, 1974 and boarded a helicopter
for California shortly afterward, waving his
trademark “V” for victory with
outstretched arms.
Martha Stewart, in 2002, was accused of
insider trading and other crimes relating to
statements that she made to
investigators, and in 2004 was convicted
of a felony, sentenced to prison and fined.
Floyd Landis insists he was drug free
when he won the Tour de France, and
said that a French laboratory "made
some mistakes" when its results
showed he had elevated levels of
testosterone.The American's positive
doping test came less than a week after
he won cycling's biggest race on July 23.
The Business of PR
• There’s more than 150,000 people in
the country involved in public relations
jobs…
• And more than 4,000 organizations that
offer PR services
The difference between PR and Advertising
• Advertising is a controlled media message
that is paid for directly by a client whose
intent is to sell products and services
• Public Relations is a partially controlled
media message that is paid for indirectly by a
client with the intent of improving image or
promoting good will toward an organization
Type of clients:
• Federal, state and local
governments
• Political candidates
• Lobbying organizations
• Educational
organizations
•
•
•
•
Non-profit organizations
Industry
Business
Athletic Teams and
Entertainment
Organizations
• International Interests
PR Responsibility No. 1: Writing
–
–
–
–
–
–
News releases
Newsletters
Brochures
Reports
Speeches
Radio and TV copy
(PSAs and other
forms of promotional
copy)
– Trade paper and
magazine stories
– Institutional
advertisements
(in-house ads)
– Facts sheets
– Product information
– Promotional material
Other PR Responsibilities:
• Editing
– Special publications
– Employee
newsletters
– Shareholder reports
– And other
communications for
employees and the
public
• Media Relations and
Placement
– Contacting the news
media: newspapers,
magazines, Sunday
supplements, trade
publications, radio
and TV
– Responding to
media requests for
information
More Responsibilities:
• Special Event planning
and supervising
– Press conferences (and
other media events)
– Convention exhibits
– In-house tours
– Anniversary celebrations
– Promotional contests
– Awards programs
• Public speaking
• Research
• Production
– Photography
– Layout for brochures and
newsletters
– In house ads
– Audio and visual
presentations
Media Campaigns
• Often include most of the preceding and
involves strategy and management
PR people influence the news…
• Public relations provides publicity
– Publicity is free
– Publicity is considered an uncontrolled for
of the media
Some PR people prefer working
behind the scenes…
Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff
to President George W. Bush
-- “Bush’s Brain” …
Some prefer the spotlight…
It’s all about style
Tony Snow is the White House Press
Secretary for the George W. Bush
administration. After years of regular guesthosting for The Rush Limbaugh Show, he
launched his own talk radio program, The
Tony Snow Show, which went on to
become nationally syndicated. He was also
a regular personality on Fox News Channel
since 1996, hosting Fox News Sunday,
Weekend Live, and often substituting as
host of The O'Reilly Factor.
Hacks and Flacks
• Hack: a writer or journalist who
produces dull, unoriginal work that
merely repeats information in a press
release
• Flack: a publicity agent who publicizes
or promotes someone or something
shamelessly
Impact of public relations
• Nearly half of the stories that appear in
newspapers, magazines, radio and TV
were based on press releases
• Ninety percent of daily coverage is
started by a company (or organization)
making an announcement for the record
During the Iraq War..
• The Bush administration used a three-part
public relations strategy to promote U.S.
involvement:
– Encouraged repeated use of key phrases
– Allowed embedded reporters and photographers
to accompany invading troops
– Created and promoted a “theme of the day” that
helped keep supporters and the media “on
message”
Influence of the Internet
• Negative PR spreads quickly on the
Internet
– Google Anti-Disney, Anti-McDonald’s,
Anti-Microsoft, Anti-Bush and see how
many hits come up
– Organizations should monitor the Internet
to protect themselves against slanted,
malicious and downright libelous material
Quotes of the day…
"Credibility is very much like
virginity. Once you lose it, it is
impossible to regain."
Ain’t it the truth…
“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only
to those who own one.”
- A.J. Liebling
Let’s end on a positive,
hopeful note…
“Propaganda will never die out.
Intelligent men must realize that
propaganda is the modern
instrument by which they can fight
for productive ends and help to
bring order out of chaos.”
- Edward Bernays,
Propaganda
But remember…
• Caveat emptor … "let the (consumer)
beware…”