Public Relations What is public relations Public relations

Public Relations

What is public relations? • “Public relations is a management tool for leaders in business, government and other institutions to establish beneficial relationships with other institutions and groups”

Four steps necessary for PR • First, identify your publics--your existing relationships • Second, evaluate the relationships using research

• Design policies to improve the relationships • Implement the policies – “enlightened selfinterest”

Role of public relations in a democracy • A way for public to speak its desires & interests to organizations • A way to achieve mutual adjustments between institutions and groups • A safety valve for freedom • An essential element to keep us informed • Can help activate social conscience of organizations where we work

Origins of public relations • • Moguls in trouble Vanderbilt social Darwinism Ivy Lee Rockefeller Ludlow Massacre Philanthropy

Public relations on a new scale • • • World War I George Creel--Creel Committee World War II Elmer Davis--Office of War Information Corporate giving – Minneapolis--5% club – United Way campaigns

Edward Bernays • Freud’s nephew • WWI Creel Comm. • 1923 Crystallizing Public Opinion • 1955 “Engineering of Consent” • Social responsibility

Structure of public relations • • • Arthur Page at AT&T PR as a management function External relations Internal relations Media relations PR agencies

PR services • Publicity & promotion • Lobbying • Political communication • Image consulting • Financial PR • Fundraising • Contingency planning • Polling • Events coordination

PR and advertising • Both persuade through mass media • PR shapes org policy • Sells points of view and images • PR tries to influence media to tell its story a certain way

Integrated marketing communications • Hot new buzz word. • IMC--attempts to coordinate advertising as a marketing tool with promotion and publicity of the sort that PR experts can provide. • Ad agencies move into PR • Overlap in institutional advertising

Media relations: crisis management • Open media relations – Tylenol case history • Proactive media relations – Persian Gulf

Steps in Tylenol case • Halt Tylenol manufacture & distribution • Remove Tylenol from stores • Launch massive ad campaign to exchange Tylenol for safe product • Staff press center 50 PR experts for media & consumers • Ordered internal co. investigation • Full cooperation with gov’t investigators • Tamper proof pkg.

Proactive media relations • Crisis management – seize leadership on a story • Persian Gulf war – Pentagon spokesman with Defense Sec’y & Chiefs of Staff – Lots of news briefings

Adversarial media relations • General Motors 1954 severed media relations with information boycott • Mobil oil’s Herb Schmertz attacked media critics – Use of paid advertising, ‘advertorials’ – Use corporate reps to tell Mobil’s side – Respond to any media criticism of oil industry

Professionalization of PR • Tarnished image – PT Barnum “Huckster” – “whitewashing” – “Flaks” – “public information, ” “public affairs, ” “corporate communication” departments • Standards, certification, accreditation • Professional associations