Good PR, Manipulative PR

August 21, 2007 on 6:52 am | In Branding, Consumer Behavior, Creative, Creativity, Marketing, Media, Media Relations, PR, Public Relations | 3 Comments

Public relations and news releases are synonymous in the minds of some. Because the media relations aspect of PR is so “public”, the PR discipline often is narrowly defined by this tactic. PR is much more than cranking out positive client fodder for the media.

My definition: PR is developing, managing and maintaining relationships with any audience that can affect your organization.

Edward Bernays, the father of PR and the nephew of Sigmund Freud, takes his definition into the social science realm. (Well, what did you expect from Sigmund Freud’s nephew?) He advised clients on the social attitudes and actions to take in order to garner the support of audiences critical for success.

Bernays counseled his clients to do something to interrupt the continuity of life in some way to bring about the appropriate media and public response. Typically, these “interruptions” were done in such a way as to leave no trace of Bernays or his client behind.

Consider this. In the 1920s Bernays melded corporate sales campaigns with popular social causes. As an agent for the American Tobacco Company, he convinced women’s rights marchers in New York City to smoke Lucky Strike cigarettes as “Torches of Freedom.” Unlike the Wizard of Oz, Bernays managed to stay concealed behind the curtain.

The problem I have with Bernays’ definition of PR is in its manipulative aspect. I believe that true PR practitioners seek common ground upon which to build mutually beneficial relationships.

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  • http://www.yourprguy.com Rodger Johnson

    On the heels of Advanced Public Communication at IUPUI, I have studied manipulative PR from a professor who lives and dies by Bernays’ definition.
    I fall somewhere in the middle. While Big Tobacco got it wrong, and people have paid with their lives for the Tobacco industries negligence, the shear power of manipulative PR has its good side too. I have another professor who’s working with Nigerian government officials on a massive “re-education” campaign to stop the spread of AIDS. Imagine how societies can be changed — ours was and is.

  • http://www.twitter.com/ScottHepburn Scott Hepburn

    As any good PR man would say, “Manipulation has gotten a bad rap.”

    Openness and transparency are too often embraced not as core values, but as a PR ploy of their own. “Look at us, we’re transparent!”

    I agree on the common ground bit, Harry. One of my favorite theses from The Cluetrain Manifesto says “Companies attempting to ‘position’ themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.”

    In other words: What’s the common ground you share with your customers? Stand THERE!

  • http://www.my-creativeteam.com Harry Hoover

    Agreed, Scott. Embracing openness as a ploy is just empty chest-thumping. But finding the common ground and standing there seems to be a rarity in today’s PR world.

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