The Power of Public Relations

Public Relations

    Public relations is described as "the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person".  Public relations has become more common over time.  Large companies have gotten to the point where they hire entire departments that are responsible for positively presenting the company and monitoring their publicity.  Public relations has the ability to save a companies' reputation if done correctly, but it also has the ability to create scandals that can absolutely ruin a company.  

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P.T. Barnum

    Phineas Taylor Barnum is a classic example of someone who maximized the impact of public relations.  Barnum owned a circus, and he used the press and advertising to promote his show.  He strongly promoted his events to the media and news to gain attention and boost his ticket sales.  Barnum would advertise events well in advance and get reporters to come to see his show so they would write about it in the newspapers.  He even employed his own press agents to ensure that his show was continuously advertised and covered.  Barnum was unique because he understood the importance of having media coverage at his events even though that form of advertising was not very popular at the time, and he was not afraid of criticism.  He is famous for saying, "there is no such thing as bad publicity".  His form of advertising was somewhat controversial during his time because he used methods that had never been used before, like publicity stunts.  P.T. Barnum is now considered to be a pioneer of public relations because he used the media as a tool to successfully gain popularity and a reputation for his show.  

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Pepsi Commercial

    A great example of a public relations disaster is the Pepsi commercial with Kendall Jenner that was made in 2017.  This commercial shows model Kendall Jenner participating in a photoshoot as a group of people are protesting nearby, and she walks up to a police officer and offers him a can of Pepsi.  Almost immediately the public began bombarding Pepsi and Kendall Jenner with messages saying that it was inappropriate for the company to use and promote the distress of the country to sell their product.  During this particular time, the Black Lives Matter movement was protesting previous events and this commercial did not sit well with the public.  The commercial was removed from television with 48 hours of it airing.  This is an example of a public relations disaster because the company failed to research and think through the consequences of airing this commercial.  They did not consider the possibility of this commercial being offensive, and this caused them a lot of media backlash.  

Kendall Jenner Pepsi Commericial

Final Thoughts

    I thought public relations was so interesting to learn about because it seems like we see the results of it around us all the time, but it is rarely something that we think about frequently.  I think that this topic appealed to me because it has been around for such a long time.  It was amazing to see how it evolved from when P.T. Barnum began using it to the current use of public relations by the vast majority of large companies.  This class has made me aware of the impact that public relations has on our society, and I think it will be interesting to see how it continues to evolve.   

Sources

https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/

https://bigcom.com/2017/01/pt-barnum-marketing-and-public-relations/#:~:text=Barnum%20(1810%2D1891)%20was,and%20true%20publicity%2Fmedia%20coverage.&text=He%20was%20a%20pioneer%20in,and%20marketing%20professionals%20can%20admire. 

https://astute.co/pepsi-kendall-jenner-commercial/