1. California State, Long Beach
11. Public Relations
Introduction
Public relations people today work to create favorable images—for corporations, public officials, products, schools, hospitals and associations. Scholars have defined three methods to encourage people to do what you want them to do: power, patronage and persuasion. Power involves ruling by law, but it also can mean ruling by peer pressure—someone does something because his or her friends do. Patronage is a polite term for bribery—paying someone with favors or money to do what you want. The third method—persuasion—is the approach of public relations. Like advertising, public relations is not a mass medium.
Christopher Burnett
California State, Long Beach

2. Classic definition of public relations
Creating an understanding for, or goodwill towards, a company, a person or a product
Public Relations in Ancient Times
Feature of government
Statues, coins and stamps
Today’s public relations
Product of journalism
Early 20th century
Classic definition of public relations
Creating an understanding for, or goodwill towards, a company, a person or a product
Public Relations in Ancient Times
Feature of government
Statues, coins and stamps
--Augustus Caesar, who commissioned statues of himself in the 1st century to be erected throughout the Roman Empire to enhance his image. Many political leaders have ordered heroic images of themselves printed on coins and stamps.
Today’s public relations
Product of journalism
Early 20th century

3. Corporate Public Relations
The Publicity Bureau
1st publicity firm
Boston 1900
Railroads opposing regulation
Ivy Lee & George F. Parker
New York firm
Lee, former journalist
Represented coal industry
Against workers
The Publicity Bureau
1st publicity firm
--The first publicity firm was called The Publicity Bureau and opened in Boston in 1900 to head off the growing public criticism of the railroad companies.
Railroads opposing regulation
--According to This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations: “No longer could the railroads butter up the press by giving free passes to reporters. No longer would the public buy whitewashed statements like that of coal industrialist George F. Baer, who in 1902 told labor to put their trust in ‘the Christian men whom God in His infinite wisdom has given control of the property interests of the country.’”
Ivy Lee & George F. Parker
New York firm
Lee, former journalist
Represented coal industry
Against workers
--The best-known early practitioner of public relations was Ivy Lee, who began his PR career by opening an office in New York with George F. Parker. Lee and Parker represented coal magnate George F. Baer when coal workers went on strike

4. Lee’s Declaration of Principles
Work done in the open
Supply news about businesses and public institutions
Honest and accurate
Most famous clients
Pennsylvania Railroad
John D. Rockefeller
Counterbalance to Ida Tarbell and bad press
Lee’s Declaration of Principles 1906
Work done in the open
Supply news about businesses and public institutions
Honest and accurate
--“This [the firm of Lee & Parker] is not a secret press bureau. All our work is done in the open. We aim to supply news In brief, our plan is, frankly and openly, on behalf of business concerns and public institutions, to supply to the press and public of the United States prompt and accurate information concerning subjects which it is of value and interest to the public to know about.”
Most famous clients
Pennsylvania Railroad
John D. Rockefeller
Counterbalance to Ida Tarbell and bad press
--Eventually, John D. Rockefeller hired Lee to counteract the negative publicity that began with Tarbell’s investigation of Standard Oil. (Lee worked for the Rockefellers until he died in 1934.)

5. Corporate Public Relations
Lee’s model of Corporate PR
In-house PR dept.
Growth of of in-house PR
Corporate
American Telephone & Telegraph
Chicago Edison
Non-profits,
University of Wisconsin
University of Pennsylvania
Washington, D. C. YMCA
fundraising
Lee’s model of Corporate PR
In-house PR dept.
Growth of of in-house PR
Corporate
American Telephone & Telegraph
Chicago Edison
Non-profits,
University of Wisconsin
University of Pennsylvania
Washington, D. C. YMCA
fundraising

6. Government Public Relations
Committee on Public Information
World War I
George Creel
Recruited journalists
Edward L. Bernays
Blurred line between propaganda and publicity
Raised money for Liberty Bonds
Promoted war effort
Roosevelt administration
Promoted the New Deal
Office of War Information
World War II
Led by newscaster Elmer Davis
Committee on Public Information
World War I
George Creel
Recruited journalists
Edward L. Bernays (see next slide)
Blurred line between propaganda and publicity
Raised money for Liberty Bonds
Promoted war effort
Roosevelt administration
Promoted the New Deal
--FDR “projected an image of self-confidence and happiness—just what the American public wanted to believe in. He talked to them on the radio. He smiled for the cameras. He was mentioned in popular songs. He even allowed himself to be one of the main characters in a Rodgers and Hart musical comedy (played by George M. Cohan, America’s favorite Yankee Doodle Dandy),” according to This is PR.
Office of War Information
World War II
Led by newscaster Elmer Davis

7. Edward L. Bernays Wrote the first books on public relations
Crystallization of Public Opinion
Taught the first course on public relations
Interest in mass psychology
How to influence large groups of people
Impressive list of clients
Procter & Gamble
General Motors
American Tobacco Company
Wrote in 1955
Public relations “is the attempt, by information, persuasion, and adjustment, to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.”
Bettmann/Corbis
Bernays

8. Women in Public Relations
Doris Fleischman
Bernays’ wife
Equal PR partner, 1931
Leone Baxter
Baxter & Whitaker, San Francisco
Political PR
Anne Williams Wheaton
Eisenhower’s associate press secretary, 1957
Sam McKenna/Corbis outline
Doris Fleischman
Bernay’s wife
Equal PR partner, 1931
--Fleischman was an equal partner with Bernays in their public relations business. An early advocate of public relations as a profession for women, Fleischman wrote, in 1931, that “one finds women working side by side with men in forming the traditions and rules that will govern the profession of the future.”
Leone Baxter
Baxter & Whitaker, San Francisco
Political PR
Anne Williams Wheaton
Eisenhower’s associate press secretary, 1957
Fleischmann

9. Development of an Ethics Code
1930s press agents
Phony stories
Rita Hayworth & “best-dressed contest” of 1939
Byoir & Associates, 1961
Anti-trucking “front” organizations
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
Established 1st Code of Ethics in 1954
Declaration of Principles, 1959
Voluntary guidelines
1930s press agents
Phony stories
Rita Hayworth & “best-dressed contest” of 1939
--Henry Rogers, co-founder of what was then the world’s largest entertainment PR firm, Rogers & Cowan (based in Beverly Hills), admitted that, in 1939, he created a “best-dressed” contest to promote little-known actress Rita Hayworth.There had been no contest, but Rogers dubbed Hayworth the winner of this fictional event. Look magazine gave Hayworth a ten-page spread.
Byoir & Associates, 1961
Anti-trucking “front” organizations
--During the 1950s, the question of ethics in public relations arose publicly when Byoir and Associates, hired by a railroad company to counteract the expansion of trucking, was charged with creating “front” organizations to speak out against the trucking industry.
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
Established 1st Code of Ethics in 1954
Declaration of Principles, 1959
Voluntary guidelines

10. Financial Public Relations
Information for business reporters
Access to management
Knowledge of the company
Rapid information
Ethical and honest
News rather than “fluff”
“Bad” financial PR
“none of the public’s business”
Can’t answer questions
Outside PR firms
“No comment” PR
No help
The New Yorker Collection 1999 Jack Ziegler from cartoonbank.com
Information for business reporters
Access to management
Knowledge of the company
Rapid information
Ethical and honest
News rather than “fluff”
--“Business editors like a PR staff that can provide access to top management,” wrote James K. Gentry in the Washington Journalism Review, “that knows its company well or can find needed information quickly, that demonstrates ethics and honesty and that knows and accepts the difference between news and fluff.”
“Bad” financial PR
“none of the public’s business”
Can’t answer questions
Outside PR firms
“No comment” PR
No help

11. Product Public Relations
Selling through PR, rather than advertising
Coleco Industries, Inc.
Cabbage Patch Dolls, 1983
Press parties, etc.
$500,000 PR (a bargain)
Wieden & Kennedy
Tennis shoes
2.5 story shoe
Placement at Boston Marathon and March of Dimes
Worlwide news coverage
Selling through PR, rather than advertising
--Public relations “is booming partly because of price,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
Coleco Industries, Inc.
Cabbage Patch Dolls, 1983
Press parties, etc.
$500,000 PR (a bargain)
Wieden & Kennedy
Tennis shoes
2.5 story shoe
Placement at Boston Marathon and March of Dimes
Worlwide news coverage
--Wieden & Kennedy agency in Seattle contracted Bigger Than Life, Inc., which makes large inflatables, to manufacture a 21-story pair of tennis shoes. The company attached the shoes to the Westin Copley Place Hotel during the Boston Marathon and to the Westin Hotel in downtown Cincinnati during the March of Dimes walk-a-thon. Pictures of the shoes appeared in The New York Times, the Cincinnati Enquirer and in newspapers as far away as Japan. Wieden & Kennedy estimated that buying the same advertising would have cost $7 million
AP/Wide World Photos

12. Crisis Public Relations
Responding to negativity
Johnson & Johnson
Tylenol poison tampering, 1982
Product recalls
Cost $100 million
Televised, 30-city press conference
Odwalla, Inc.
Apple juice e. coli, 1996
Rapid adjustments
Utah Mine Disaster
Need to stay visible
AP/Wide World Photo
Responding to negativity
Johnson & Johnson
Tylenol poison tampering, 1982
--The term crisis public relations has been used to describe the situation facing Johnson & Johnson after its product Tylenol was identified as the carrier of a poison that killed seven people in and near Chicago in 1982.
Openness, social responsibility
--“The poisonings called for immediate action to protect the consumer,” explained Johnson & Johnson’s Lawrence G. Foster, who was vice president of public relations at the time, “and there wasn’t the slightest hesitation about being completely open with the news media. For the same reasons, Johnson & Johnson decided to recall two batches of the product, and later to withdraw it nationally. During the crisis phase of the Tylenol tragedy, virtually every public relations decision was based on sound, socially responsible business principles, which is when public relations is most effective.”
Product recalls
Cost $100 million
Televised, 30-city press conference
Odwalla, Inc.
Apple juice e. coli, 1996
--In October 1996, beverage maker Odwalla, Inc., was faced with a similar crisis when E. coli bacteria was traced to unpasteurized apple juice that had been sold by the natural juice company. The bacteria eventually was held responsible for the death of a 16-month-old girl in Colorado and more than 50 cases of severe illness.
Rapid adjustments
--Chief Executive Officer Stephen Williamson said the company was exploring all methods of processing the juice to kill the bacteria. Eventually, the company announced it would use a method of flash pasteurization, which the company said would keep more flavor than traditional pasteurization while maintaining better taste.One month after the outbreak, Odwalla took out full-page ads in several newspapers, an “open letter” to its customers, thanking them for their support and offering sympathy for people diagnosed with E. coli–related illnesses after drinking Odwalla juices.
Utah Mine Disaster
--Chief Executive Robert E. Murray in 2007 followed textbook PR at first, going immediately to the site of the 2007 mine disaster at Crandall Canyon Utah. However, he flubbed press briefings by attacking the media, unions, and environmentalists . After three rescuers were killed, Murray dropped out of sight, making this a textbook example of bad crisis communication.
Stephen Williamson, Odwalla CEO

13. Business of Public Relations
In the United States
161,000 employees
4,000 firms
Largest with 1000-plus employees
Several with 100 to 400 PR people
Most have 4 or fewer employees
Public relations & ad agencies
J. Walter Thompson (ad agency) bought Hill & Knowlton (PR)
WPP Group PLC bought J. Walter Thompson
Ad agencies sell products
PR involved in company policy making
PR Careers
©2004 NBAE Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
In the United States
161,000 employees
4,000 firms
Largest with 1000-plus employees
Several with 100 to 400 PR people
Most have 4 or fewer employees
Public relations & ad agencies
J. Walter Thompson (ad agency) bought Hill & Knowlton (PR)
WPP Group PLC bought J. Walter Thompson
Ad agencies sell products
PR involved in company policy making
PR Careers

14. Types of Clients Government Education Nonprofits Industry Business
Public information
Largest employer of PR people
Political candidates and lobbyists
Education
Colleges, universities and school districts
Nonprofits
Hospitals, churches, museums. charities
Industry
Regulation, utilities, manufacturers
Business
Athletics and Entertainment
Travel with the team and handle the press
International
Developing businesses overseas
Library of Congress
WWII Office of War Information
Government
Public information
Largest employer of PR people
Political candidates and lobbyists
Education
Colleges, universities and school districts
Nonprofits
Hospitals, churches, museums. charities
Industry
Regulation, utilities, manufacturers
Business
--best-known area of public relations. Large companies keep an in-house staff of public relations people, and these companies also often hire outside PR firms to help on special projects.
Athletics and Entertainment
Travel with the team and handle the press
International
Developing businesses overseas

15. Versatility & Public Relations
Writing and Editing
Press releases, newsletters, reports
Media Relations
Special events
Public Speaking
Production Tasks
Research
Gather data for planning
Programming and counseling
Establish effective programs
Training
Management
Responsibilities of PR people include the following :
Writing and Editing
Press releases, newsletters, reports
Media Relations
--Contacting news media, magazines, Sunday supplements, freelance writers and trade publications
Special events
--Arranging and managing press conferences, convention exhibits, open houses, etc.
Public speaking
Production tasks
--Creating art, photography and layout for brochures, booklets, etc.
Research
Gather data for planning
Programming and counseling
Establish effective programs
Training
Management
--Overseeing the costs

16. Public Relations and the Media
Attracting attention
Press releases and news coverage
News outlets need news
Press releases help
Publicity vs advertising
Ads are paid for
Publicity is free
Ads are controlled
Publicity is uncontrolled
No control over its use
Attracting attention
--Says Seymour Topping, managing editor of The New York Times: “PR people do influence the news, but really more in a functional manner rather than in terms of giving new editorial direction. We get hundreds of press releases every day in each of our departments. We screen them very carefully for legitimate news, and very often there are legitimate news stories. Quite a lot of our business stories originate from press releases. It’s impossible for us to cover all of these organizations ourselves.”
Press releases and news coverage
News outlets need news
Press releases help
Publicity vs advertising
Ads are paid for
Publicity is free
Ads are controlled
Publicity is uncontrolled
No control over its use
--The Journal’s executive director, Frederick Taylor: “Ninety percent of daily coverage is started by a company making an announcement for the record. We’re relaying this information to our readers.”

17. Public Relations Professionalism
“True communications technicians”
Excitement about the profession
Manipulation?
Advancing the cause of a client
“Attorneys in the court of public opinion”
According to Jeff and Marie Blyskal, who interviewed hundreds of PR people for their book PR: How the Public Relations Industry Writes the News:
“True communications technicians”
Excitement about the profession
Manipulation?
Advancing the cause of a client
“Attorneys in the court of public opinion”

18. Global Growth of PR PR closely tied to mass media industries
Growing international markets
Global communications
Internet, satellite effects
Online Public Relations
Shifting demographics
jmmelton/motleyimage
PR closely tied to mass media industries
Growing international markets
Global communications
Internet, satellite effects
Shifting demographics

19. Critical Discussion
Some people view the work of public relations professionals as manipulating the facts to put their client in the best light regardless of the circumstances. What kind of ethical issues might this create for the PR practitioner?
Compare the effectiveness of public relations techniques
used in the Odwalla and Utah mine campaigns. What other public relations campaigns come to mind? What works and what doesn’t when devising PR strategy?
2. Refer to “Crisis Public Relations Fails in the 2007 Utah Mine Disaster” article in text. Discuss how in public relations the practitioner must rely on strategy to achieve his or her ends because there is no direct control over the media message content.