The History of Public Relations

PR has been around for almost 100 years. While many believe that Edward Bernays invented the
public relations profession in the 1920s, others point to Ivy Lee, who opened a “counseling
office” in 1904. One of his first clients was the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1906, he invented the
“press release” to distribute the company’s “news” about an accident before reporters received
other versions of the story. It worked like magic.

In 1915, Lee became publicity counsel to John D. Rockefeller. Lee advised Rockefeller to hand
out dimes to poor children as a way of showing his philanthropic impulses. He also invented the
Betty Crocker symbol and the “Breakfast of Champions” slogan for Wheaties.

According to the Georgia Historical Commission, these “facts” make Lee “the founder of the
profession of Public Relations,” but Lee didn’t envision his eclectic collection of tactics and
techniques as anything more than short-term solutions to client problems. He supposedly told
Bernays, who was a contemporary and also operated out of New York, that when they died,
public relations as a profession would die with them.

Bernays, on the other hand, had a grander vision. He tried to put public relations on a scientific
footing, often applying lessons he had learned from his uncle, Sigmund Freud. Bernays was
actually the double nephew of Freud. (His mother was Freud’s sister and his father was Freud’s
wife’s brother). He applied his uncle’s concept of “mass psychology” to sell bacon, cigarettes
and soap. He also staged “overt acts” (what would now be called “media events”) to awaken
apparently subconscious feelings.

For example, George Washington Hill, an eccentric businessman and president of the American
Tobacco Company, hired Bernays in 1928 to solve a problem: Women weren’t smoking
cigarettes in public. Hill recognized that changing public opinion could expand his market for
Lucky Strike cigarettes. Bernays consulted a psychoanalyst, Dr. A.A. Brill, who suggested that
smoking in public, which men did openly, be linked to the freedom to vote, a right that women
had just won. With the help of his wife, Doris Fleishman, Bernays convinced a group of former
suffragettes to march down Fifth Avenue, carrying Lucky Strikes in the air – as if they were
“torches of freedom” – as a gesture of demonstrate their equality with men. It was one of his
biggest successes.

Bernays also solidified his reputation as “the father of spin” by writing books, including
Crystallizing Public Opinion in 1923 and Propaganda in 1928. In fact, Bernays often described
what he did as propaganda, and didn’t apologize for using the term until after it was adopted in
the 1933 by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi
Germany.

In 1939, Germany’s frighteningly effective use of propaganda prompted President Franklin

Delano Roosevelt to create a group of “top men” to start working on an American version of
propaganda – just in case it was needed. One of these “top men” was Harold Lasswell.
Lasswell had received his bachelor of philosophy degree in 1922 and his Ph.D. in 1926 from the
University of Chicago. He also studied at the universities of London, Paris, Geneva, and Berlin
during those years. In 1927, he wrote Propaganda Technique in the World War. He taught
political science at the University of Chicago until 1938, when he went to Yale University to
become a visiting lecturer at the Law School.

Then, in 1939, Lasswell was named director of war communications research at the US Library
of Congress. He quickly developed a “Model of Communication” that was just as quickly
classified “Top Secret.” Like a scene out of the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Lasswell
explained to the other “top men” working on the project that propaganda – or what the
American’s called the communication process – entailed five key elements. Lasswell assembled
these elements into a model and then turned the model into a simple question: “Who says what in
which channel to whom with what effect?”

If you found the right answers to each of the five elements of the question, then you could create
effective propaganda – unless, of course, too much “noise” – unplanned static or distortion
during the communication process – resulted in the receiver receiving a different message than
the sender sent.

Fast forwarding (a lot) to the 20th century, we can see how modern PR has become what it is
today. Believe it or not, it mostly started with cigarettes. Edward Bernays (hey! We quoted him
earlier!) is referred to as the father of public relations. It was Bernays who led the PR and
marketing campaign to get more women buying Lucky Strike cigarettes in the early 20th
century. He started a movement for it to be more socially acceptable for women by dubbing
Lucky Strike cigarettes, "torches of freedom," and having groups of women smoke them on
street corners in popular areas of cities. He was also a pioneer of the celebrity endorsement and
using opinion leaders to sway audiences.

While certainly not the first case of war and PR merging (see Caesar above), WWI and WWII
played host to immense public relations campaigns by both the axis and allied powers. Both
sides succeeded in dehumanizing their enemies and boosting patriotism for their causes. The
famous  Uncle Sam, Rosie the Riveter and even Bugs Bunny were all key figures for the Allied
PR campaign to boost support for the war. The war was considered a huge PR success for the
U.S. and the allied nations, and terrifyingly, Hitler utilized propaganda to grow his forces in Nazi
Germany. War has proven to be a major platform for political bodies and their PR strategies.

Postwar U.S. saw PR begin to grow outside of politics. The PRSA was formed in the late 40's
and continues to this day to be a huge and large agencies begin to form: Burston-Marseller,
Edelman, Hill & Knowlton. The business world of the late 40's and 50's began to implement PR
and hire these agencies to grow their businesses. This period planted the seed for PR in the
business world.

Pr Today

PR is ingrained in everything today. Social media, global news cycle, everything has an element
to PR to it. Marketing and PR are merging closer by the day to ensure that no shortcuts are being
taken or content is being pushed out that may offend. Crisis management plans are a must as
well, as a BP oil spill or a Volkswagen emissions scandal can hit at any moment, and agencies
have to be on the lookout to try and stop the practices that cause them before they occur, if
possible,  or make amends after the fact. The key to connecting with your audience, either
through marketing, PR or essentially both with Inbound, is to create great content.

During World War II, US Federal agencies used Lasswell’s secret model to test a variety of
propaganda techniques and to create some very powerful propaganda posters, films, and radio
broadcasts. For example, it was discovered that “help win the war” wasn’t the most effective
slogan to use for selling war bonds. It appealed to men, but not women. This led to the
development of a more effective slogan: “Help win the war and bring the boys home.”

PR and marketing: What’s the difference?

As PR professionals we are often asked how public relations (PR) differs from marketing. It’s
easy to describe from a tactical point of view, however the difficulty often arises in articulating
how each role contributes to business success.

Here is our comparison between PR and marketing:

Activities / tactics:
Marketing generally covers promotional, direct marketing and advertising which seeks to return

direct sales; whereas PR is focused on reputation management through generating positive media

coverage and stakeholder communication.

Target audiences:

Marketing aims to reach current and potential customers, whereas public relations is all about

maintaining positive relationships with anyone who has an interPR and marketing- what's the

difference?est in the organisation or brand. This covers a broader audience across customers and

media, to employees and shareholders.

Two separate goals:

The goals for marketing teams are to reach consumers and make them think, believe or do some

kind of sales focused action. Essentially it is about selling the product or service. Whereas public

relations is about selling the company or brand through positively managing the communication
channels between a company and its stakeholders. Overall, marketing activities are trying to

achieve direct revenue, while PR is trying to drive a positive reputation through an effective PR

strategy.

Legitimacy of messages:

Messages delivered through PR channels such as articles, conference speakers or reputable

bloggers are subconsciously regarded by consumers as more legitimate than those presented

through marketing tactics. Generally, people can clearly recognise that advertising and marketing

are driven by a company’s desire to increase sales. However articles that have a well-known

journalist’s name on them, or presentations by someone classified as an industry expert are more

likely to be received by the consumer as a credible source.

Business ROI:

Marketing is generally defined as a business investment – paid branding and promotional

activities with new customers being the ROI. Whereas PR is classified as free exposure for

increasing credibility around a company’s image. It is usually more difficult to measure ROI for

PR consulting than it is for marketing, because it’s harder to demonstrate a change in perception

or beliefs, as opposed to direct sales.

Longevity:

Marketing is a relatively short term activity, whereas PR reaps its benefits over a longer period
of time. While marketing seeks to drive instant, tangible sales success, the benefits of a PR
program can be viewed as a long term investment that a company would recognise for future
achievements.
Definition of Advertising

Advertising is a one-way public communication that conveys a message regarding a product,

service or company to the viewers, readers, and listeners. It is the biggest marketing tool used
for non-personal promotion of goods and services to the potential customers, however, the
most expensive one.

Advertising is a sort of monolog activity done with an aim to induce customers i.e. to grab the
attention of the target audience in such a manner that they are ready to buy the advertised
product. The basic objective of advertising is to increase the consumption of the product of the
sender company.

Most of the company’s use this sales promotional tool because of its reach, a single message can
reach millions of people in nanoseconds. It is a paid announcement by sponsors, which can be
done with various mediums like radio, television, websites, newspapers, hoardings,
magazines, social media like Facebook, etc.

Definition of Publicity

The term publicity is a combination of two words public and visibility. It refers to the flow of
information or fact, regarding general awareness about a subject or hot topic or any burning
issue. Here the subject may include a person, product, service, business entity and so on. It is
used to draw the attention of the people, for any subject with the help of broadcast media,
print media or social media. It is not a promotional technique and thus free of cost.

Publicity can be printed or just aired. It is either be positive or negative, but it is true and real as
well.  It is an entirely unbiased opinion as it comes from an independent source like it can be
given by an expert or a common man or mass media. As the third party has nothing to do with
the company, their responses and reviews are given high weight.

Key Differences Between Advertising and Publicity

The following are the differences between advertising and publicity:

1. Advertising is to advertise a product or service of a company, for commercial purposes.

Publicity is to publicize a product, service or company to provide information.
2. Advertising is what a company says about its own product, but Publicity is what others
says about a product.
3. There is a huge investment to be made for advertising a single product however publicity
does not require such kind of investment.
4. The key persons behind advertising are the company and its representatives. Conversely,
Publicity is done by a third party which is not related to any company.
5. Advertising is under the control of the company which is just opposite in the case of
publicity.
 6. Advertising repeatedly occurs to grab the attention of the customers while Publicity is
done only one-time act.
7. Advertising is always customer focused, i.e. the more creative the advertise, the more are
the customers attracted to it while publicity is not done keeping such things in mind.
8. As advertising is done to promote a brand or a product so the credibility and reliability
are relatively less in comparison to publicity, where the opinion comes from an
independent source.
9. Advertising always speaks the goodness about a product, to persuade the target audience
to buy it. In contrast to publicity, it is unbiased, and so it will speak the reality, no matter
whether it is goodness or illness.

COMPOSITION OF A PUBLIC RELATION DEPARTMENT

Duties of a PR Manager

Public relations managers typically do the following:

 Write press releases and prepare information for the media

 Identify main client groups and audiences and determine the best way to reach them
 Designate an appropriate spokesperson or information source for media inquiries
 Help clients communicate effectively with the public
 Develop their organization's or client’s corporate image and identity
 Assist and inform an organization’s executives and spokespeople
 Devise advertising and promotion programs
 Assign, supervise, and review the activities of staff
Characteristics of a good PR Manager/Professional

Be Business oriented
PR is doing his job and working for the company but he has to think like a businessman. What is

an ultimate objective of the company and to what direction it is going is what a Smart PR Person

should consider.  

Flexible and adaptable

There is no such occupation that requires so much of flexibility that PR and social media require.

As the requirements of the company keeps on changing and so is the role and strategies of the

PR. A good and Smart PR Person is a one who keeps an eagle eye on what changing are taking

place and need to adopt in the same in their communication process and the information that they

need to pass to the clients.

Being Agile
To be all round personality, savvy towards the work and reliability takes a lot of efforts. To

achieve superiority largely depends on how to take their work. It is quite true in no professional

an entry level executive immediately starting making crucial decisions and begin to provide

suggestions to the world’s big branded companies.

Writing Skills

As a good PR, they should have good writing skills. They need to add value to their existing

prolific deeds through writing. Now as clients want much more, a good PR strokes their mental

powers’ and awareness in the words to dispel the information provided by the company. 
Be Sociable and Friendly
Smartness in PR comes from being sociable and friendly.  They have to adopt personality to

catch the nerves of the people and act accordingly. They have the ability to form relationships

and build rapport with the clients and the media. 

Eager to Gain knowledge

The best PR people are the ones who can place the things in the right context. Adopting an idea

and broadening it to pitch a story and to figure out the way to target it, is the best quality of a PR.

They have to be aware of what’s all going on in the industry and update themselves with all the

latest happening and events. 

Maintain Patience
Keeping patience is a virtue, whether they are waiting to hear from journalists or producers or

clients or simply waiting considering that PR campaign does take considerable time to get its

successive attractions. Keeping patience would help them gain but patience should go with

companies and clients obligations. 

Duties of a PR Assistant

 Drafting press releases and other PR materials

 Coordinating press meetings and other events
 Applying knowledge of marketing and advertising strategies
 Understanding social media channels
 Monitoring PR industry trends

The importance of Public Relations

The importance of Public Relations

PR is vital to outreach programs.

 PR is all about building relationships to advance, promote, and benefit the reputation of
you yourself, your department and institution
 PR is about communicating your message to gain allies, advocates, supporters, etc. in the
community and the institution
 It aids in marketing the department for recruitment purposes and can lead to improved
quality of student applicants
 It demonstrates to funding agencies that you are making a difference and actually have
results
 It can improve the reputation of an individual department
 It can also serve the greater physics community by convincing the public that “quarks,
quantum dots, and nanostructures are cool”
 It can lead to strong community and industrial partnerships, and even financial support