Public Relations Firm

Although largely unnoticed by the general populace--yet highly visible--public relations firms in the United States provide a necessary service to companies and individuals on a regular basis. From the simple press release to nationally syndicated interviews, the public relations firm is the great message writer of the 20th century. It is with their help that all manner of interests are presented to the public in the most favorable light and, when handled ethically, with the greatest of factual information.

The very first public relations firm, the Publicity Bureau of Boston, Massachusetts, was founded in 1900 by former newspapermen George V.S. Michaelis, Thomas Marvin, and Herbert Small. Their first clients included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the American Telephone Company. The second firm, founded in 1902 by William Wolf Smith, was primarily a defensive firm to aid businesses in their responses to the attacks by the media on both their wealth and their business practices.

The third firm, Parker and Lee, was formed in 1904 by George Parker, previously Grover Cleveland's press agent, and Ivy Lee, a former news reporter. Once again, one of the primary purposes of the firm, housed in New York City, was to provide positive publicity for businessmen coming under the scrutiny of the most vocal of social reformers. In 1908, Lee left the firm and became the first publicity director for Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Beginning of Modern Public Relations

On April 13, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information, commonly referred to as the Creel Committee after its chairman, George Creel. The primary goal of the committee was to increase public support for the United States' entrance into World War I several months before Wilson would actually ask Congress to do so. Prior to this time, the general consensus was to stay away from Europe at all costs. The American people were tired of fighting internally against the wealthy and didn't want to fight another continent's war. However, as pamphlets, magazine articles, and pro-war media reels developed by the Creel Committee bombarded the American people, their resolve slowly turned from anti-war to pro-war. The resulting national support for war bonds and the Red Cross made the committee one of the most successful public relations groups in history.

In June of 1919, one year after the end of World War I, Edward Bernays, one of the members of the Creel Committee, opened his own public relations firm in New York. His theory of public manipulation was based on the concept of directing the motives of an irrational populace. This theory directly stemmed from the work of Sigmund Freud, his uncle. Bernays's work was so theoretical in nature that he is considered the profession's first true theorist. In fact, the several books he penned, including Crystallizing Public Opinion in 1923, Propaganda in 1928, and The Engineering of Consent in 1947, helped to cement his theoretical label. Of course, prior to his writing, the primary driving force behind his being regarded so highly as a theorist arose greatly from his shameless self-promotion of being Freud's nephew as from anything else.

Bernays was able to attract clients that others simply could not touch. These included Proctor & Gamble, General Electric, Dodge Motors, the American Tobacco Company, and President Calvin Coolidge. Interestingly, his most widely known public relations maneuver was also one of the greatest publicity stunts in American history. Before 1929, the year in which his "stunt" occurred, the tobacco industry was unable to sell products to women. At this time, smoking was seen as the domain of men and a habit that ladies of society should never partake in. However, Bernays organized the inclusion of New York City's wealthiest debutantes into the Easter Day Parade as a march of defiance. Photographs were produced depicting women smoking and entitled the "Torches of Liberty Brigade." These photographs were circulated to most of the newspapers and promptly printed. Women and men alike were persuaded that smoking was a display of civil rights and equality for all women. Thus, Bernays's public relations firm became an historic legend and public relations as a profession was well on its way to being generally accepted.

By the 1960s the public relations firm had become a burgeoning opportunity for journalists and several other professionals. All manner of political, financial, and religious interests were being represented by firms all across the United States. Public relations firms were a reality and an accepted method of reaching the media.

It was after the 1960s that the public relations firm became defined not by the publicists, but by the widening needs of people. To that end, it was no longer just about journalism. The profession began to include people from the fields of psychology, sociology, social psychology, economics, business, finance, communications, marketing, advertising, mathematics, and political sciences. Public relations firms had become an amalgamation of various disciplines and composed of people from different backgrounds--all for the purpose of providing positive publicity for their clients.