PR NOTABLES OF AMERICAN

HAROLD BURSON APR, Fellow PRSA

mean constituent relations between a member of Congress and the voters. Political campaigns became more sophisticated during the 1800s, and the communication efforts of presidents became more tailored to the realities of the press.

The political press also created a new reality for many politicians and ushered in the need of having press relations by the mid-1880s. In 1885, W.W. Price became one of the first full-time reporters to cover the White House. His journalistic work laid the foundation for the White House press corps that exclusively covered the president of the United States and the politics of the day.

Personal secretaries and later spokesmen, such as McKinley’s George Cortelyou and Theodore Roosevelt’s William Loeb, served as an intermediary between the president and the press. Even in Roosevelt’s cabinet there were innovations in communicating with the press. Gifford Pinchot, chief of the U.S. Forestry Service from 1905 to 1910, established a press bureau to communicate directly with journalists.

Harold Burson and Bill Marsteller co-founded Burson-Marsteller in 1953. They created the concept of integrated marketing, which became an industry standard. The duo built their agency into one of the world’s largest PR firms, developing a reputation for deft crisis management that made Burson a favorite of embattled corporations and foreign governments. Burson contributed to the public relations industry and worldwide community as a member and leader of several organizations. He received PRSA’s Gold Anvil Award in 1980 and was in the inaugural class of the College of Fellows. The man PRWeek named “the most influential PR figure of the 20th Century” summarized the lessons of his career in “The Business of Persuasion,” published when he was 96. (©Allan Hunter Shoemake)

Political communication was not limited to elected officials. Religious groups in the 19th century frequently promoted political messages with their religious ones. Their public relations efforts frequently took the form of political advocacy through staged events and member publications. Groups such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement used public relations to promote social causes.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s first president, Annie Wittenmyer, wrote numerous articles, hymns and books to grow the movement and her various social causes.

The women’s suffrage movement also garnered widespread support through communication. Groups such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association advocated for political causes through publications, as did state organizations. Suffrage organizations organized special events, notably parades, to promote voting rights.

Their original goal was to rid America of alcohol, and to that end, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was quite savvy in the adoption of public relations tools of the time to get their message out. Using the media, posters, hand-distributed flyers and even parades, they waged an unrelenting PR campaign until Prohibition, through the 18th Amendment, was passed in 1919. (Daily News, L.P. (New York) / Getty Images)

Journalist and early civil rights activist Ida B. Wells used her journalism training to galvanize public opinion on civil rights for African Americans, women’s suffrage, education reform and criminal injustice. Born into slavery, Wells became a leading figure in the early 20th century civil rights struggle. She used her writings and lectures to promote social reforms and combat racial prejudice in the United States.

Entertainment and Corporate Public Relations Comes into Being

As political public relations developed, corporate and entertainment communication also grew. The 19th century press agent is typically the figure that is shown as the prototype of public relations practice from this era. The press agent is maligned in some sectors of PR history. However, the truth is the press agent was similar to the corporate public relations practitioner in that they used press relations as a major component of their communication strategy.

The United States fundamentally changed with advancements in railroads, telegraphs and mass production. These innovations in the late 1800s allowed for large corporations to emerge, and with them a new line and column structure of management. It was in that management structure that the first professional public relations practitioners emerged.

The yellow journalism of the 19th century that focused on sensational stories gave way to the muckraking journalism of the early 1900s that focused on corporate accountability and reform. In that environment, early public relations practitioners such as Ivy Lee first emerged as spokespersons for corporations and business figures. Lee especially understood the importance of credibility of communication and the value of ethics in the field. This led him to pen the Declaration of Principles, which promoted values such as understanding publics, accuracy in communication, transparency and relationship management.

Lee, however, was not the only corporate public relations figure to impact the practice in the early 20th century. In fact, many early public relations practitioners operated in much the same way.

Beginning in the early 1900s, corporations began establishing in-house press or publicity bureaus to deal directly with press inquiries. Utilities were especially involved in communicating directly with publics. This led to companies utilizing public relations more frequently. In 1900, the Publicity Bureau, headquartered in Boston, became the first public relations agency. After World War I and into the 1920s, PR firms proliferated, such as Ivy Lee & Associates and later Hill & Knowlton.

Fundraising and charitable causes also grew in tandem with corporate expansion. The YMCA movement, which began in Great Britain, came to the United States, and with it its fundraising techniques, which were co-opted by American organizations.

The techniques of building relationships with donors and communicating about charitable causes allowed for an expansion of public relations work for nonprofit organizations, such as the American Red Cross. Wealthy industrialists, including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, began using their fortunes to support certain charitable causes, including colleges, universities and libraries.

Because of this movement in charitable giving, the job of donor relations became more important. By the late 19th century, the idea that college administrators, especially college presidents, would fundraise for their institutions began in earnest. College press bureaus that focused on alumni and donor relations followed suit.

Ivy Lee was a spokesman for corporations and he intrinsically understood the value of credibility and ethics. Unsurprisingly, he also authored the Declaration of Principles, which declared the value of transparency, accurate communications and relationship management. (Courtesy of the Museum of Public Relations)