Course code- BA(JMC) 204

Course Title- BASICS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Unit -1 Concept and Evolution of Public Relations
Lesson – 2 “Evolution of Public Relations ”
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ORIGINS
OF PR
• Early estimates show PR being
practiced in Egypt, Persia, Greece,
Rome, Medieval Europe and Medieval
England.
• While in Egypt, Pyramids and Pharaohs
existed, in Persia clay tablets were
found.
• In Greece, sophists were hired for
persuasive communicators to build
opinion. Important ones included
Protagoras, Thrasymachus and Gorgias
• In Rome, Julius Caesar wrote the first
campaign biography promoting his
military successes. He also
commissioned newsletters and poems
to support his political position.
• In England, Lord Chancellors were
employed to act as mediators between
rulers and subjects.
 In 1600s
• Catholic Church had a hand in
the creation of public relations.
• In the 1600s under the
leadership of Pope Gregory XV,
the church established a college
of propaganda to "help
propagate the faith.“
• Called Congregatio de
Propaganda ("congregation for
propagating the faith"), it used
trained missionaries to spread
Christianity.
 In the Year 1807

• Thomas Jefferson was an

American statesman, diplomat,
lawyer, architect, philosopher,
and founding father who served
as the third president of the
United States from 1801 to
1809.

• The first actual use of the

phrase ‘Public Relations’ was
made by President Thomas
Jefferson.

• In his “Seventh Address to the

Congress,” he replaced
the words “state of thought”
with “public relations.”
 In 1800s

• Phineas Taylor Barnum,

former Mayor of
Bridgeport, Connecticut
was considered one of the
notorious practitioners of
this art.
• Barnum was a
businessman, showman
and a politician who stuck
with his motto, 'The Public
Be Fooled.'
 In the Year 1853

•Founding member Phineas

Taylor (P.T.) Barnum was a savvy
publicity showman, one who
impacted particular aspects of
public relations and advertising,
primarily event planning, event
promotion and true
publicity/media coverage.
•“there is no such thing as bad
publicity,” a popular phrase
many times attributed to Barnum
himself.
•He started New York’s first
illustrated newspaper in 1853.
 GROWTH OF MODERN PUBLIC RELATIONS

• With a change of era, the field of public

relations started changing the way of carrying
out the business. It was clearly understood by
the high-powered companies that individuals
have responsibility to inform their publics.
• The Publicity Bureau was established in
Boston in 1900 by three former
newspapermen, George V. S. Michaelis,
Thomas Marvin and Herbert Small "to do a
general press agent business."
• Its early clients were Charles W. Eliot of
Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and the American Telephone
Company, then in Boston. This agency
disappeared into the sands of time in 1911.
• Ivy Lee is sometimes called the father of PR
and was influential in establishing it as a
professional practice.
• In 1906, Lee published a Declaration of
Principles, which said that PR work should be
done in the open, should be accurate and
cover topics of public interest.
US Government

• During the World War I,

American President Woodrow
Wilson established The
Committee on Public Information
under journalist George Creel in
1917.
• Mobilize public opinion in
support of the war effort and to
stimulate the sale of war bonds
through Liberty Loan publicity
drives.
• With this public relations
profession got a boost. The
nation was highly impressed with
the potential power of publicity.
• One public relations pioneer
who began as a publicist in
1913 was Edward L. Bernays,
nephew of Sigmund Freud, a
great psychologist and a
master of human psychology.
• Bernays wrote later: At first we
called our activity "publicity
direction." We intended to give
advice to clients on how to
direct their actions to get public
visibility for them. But within a
year we changed the service
and its name to "counsel on
public relations."
Torches of Freedom Campaign
• Misconceptions that women do not smoke, particularly the ones considered nice or
good girls.
• Tobacco had been consumed in America in the late 19th century, however, it was not
until 1929 that women were allowed consumption of tobacco products.
• Women were given the option to smoke in private, but even then it was still tabooed by
American society due to its unfeminine nature.
• The women that were smoking were considered to be immoral.
• Regardless, of the perception, Lucky Strike did feature women in advertisements.
• These women were often young and attractive, and were featured for promotional
purposes; however, their role was to lure the male rather than female consumer.
• Lucky Strike did not target women for any purpose other than male enjoyment, nor did
the advertisements attempt to challenge the stigma attached to female smoking.
• Edward Bernays, the Father of Modern Public Relations, created the “Torches of
Freedom” campaign in 1928 which sought to challenge this notion and in turn
increased the profit for the American Tobacco Company.
• George Washington Hill, Owner of Lucky Strike tobacco company, sought to convince
women how smoking cigarettes would land them a worthwhile victory in the fight for
equality. So, he hired Edward Bernays and paid him $25,000 to turn around the fortune
of Lucky Strike.
• Bernays encouraged women to march down Fifth Avenue during the Easter parade in
New York City, and protest against gender inequality.
• Bernays telegrammed thirty debutantes from a friend at Vogue to participate in the
demonstration.
• It gained a vast amount of coverage and allowed women to feel confident about
smoking in public despite potential ridicule. Marches also took place in Boston, Detroit,
and San Francisco.
A young woman by the name of Bertha Hunt made a stir on March 31, 1929,
during the height of Easter Parade, when she stepped out into the busy Fifth
Avenue and lit a Lucky Strike cigarette. Due to Hunt's proactive
communication with the media and distribution of pertinent brochures and
pamphlets, the incident received even more attention. They were unaware
that Hunt was Bernays' secretary and that this was the first of many
occasions designed to encourage ladies to puff.
•By the end of the 1920s, some of the
world’s largest companies—including GM
and AT&T—began relying on internal PR
counselors.

•But it wasn’t until the height of the Great

Depression that the first PR department
was created—namely, by the National
Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in
1933.

•With its new department, NAM launched

a 13-year campaign that included movie
shorts and leaflets, influencing public
opinion about the U.S. manufacturing
sector.

•Soon after World War II hit, the United

States created the Office of War
Information, which acted as a central
means for the government to
communicate to the public about the war
effort.
 In India
• The Tata Iron and Steel Company went into production
in 1912.
• Tata started practicing community relations by building
Jamshedpur as a model township.
• During First World war (1914-18) in order to
disseminate information, the British government set up
the Central Publicity Board.
• The Central Publicity Board, which was under the Home
Member, had on it the representatives of the Army, the
Foreign and Political Department and three newspaper
correspondents. Sir Stanley Reed of the Times of India
organized and conducted the work of the Board till
March 1919.
• The Government of India Act, 1919, required that a
report on India be prepared every year for presentation
to the British Parliament in London.
• To meet the requirement, the machinery created for
dissemination of information about the war effort was
converted into a cell, the responsibility of which was to
compile a report for the British Parliament.
• This Cell was set up in the Home Department
in June 1919 under Dr. L.F. Rushbrook
Williams of Allahabad University who was
designated as Officer on Special Duty.
• Prof. Williams had earlier worked with Sir
Stanley Reed on the Central Publicity Board.
The main task of the Cell was to prepare the
annual volume - India. This cell, in some way,
is the origin of the Press Information Bureau.
• Towards the end of 1920, the Cell became the
Central Bureau of Information and the
designation of the Officer on Special Duty was
changed to Director.
• Prof. Rushbrook Williams, was appointed as
Director of the Central Bureau of Information
and the Head Office was shifted to Shimla.
• On June 1, 1923, the Central Bureau of
Information was put on a permanent footing as
the Bureau of Public Information.
• Following the enactment of the
Government of India Act, 1935, the
colonial Government found it necessary to
set up a machinery for dissemination of
information.
• In 1938, the designation of Director was
changed to Principal Information Officer.
• J. Natrajan became the first Indian in 1941
to be appointed Principal Information
Officer. The organization’s name was
changed to the Press Information Bureau
in 1946.
• With the gradual expansion and
diversification of the work of PIB, the post
of the Principal Information Officer was
elevated to the rank equivalent to the
Special Secretary to the Government of
India and the designation changed to
Principal Director General (Media &
Communication) in 2006.
 India Roots
In Free India
• Public Relations began in India in the
1950s, when a group of public relations
practitioners formed the PR Society of
India in 1958 in Bombay under the
leadership of Kali H. Mody.
• Around 1965, another body, the Public
Relations Circle had been founded and
registered in Calcutta. It was the first-ever
association of professional PR
practitioners in Eastern India.
• In 1968, the first All India Public Relations
Conference was held in Mumbai in 1968,
where the members of the Calcutta Public
Relations Council decided to disband the
regional body, and merged with the Public
Relations Society of India to strengthen
the national body.
THANK YOU