Public Relations with Edward Bernays

 The phrase public relations or PR is used everyday by almost everyone without even realizing it. The loose definition of public relations is the image or perspective the public has of a company, organization, famous person/image. PR had been used for years before today.

From Julius Caesar with his Acta Diurna that he used to create reports for his citizens. He used this system of reporting to show off his achievements, keep morale high, and to keep his reputation.

Acta Diurna

The great conqueror Genghis Khan also used PR. Before he would go to battle he would send men in advance of his army to tell tales of his strength and power to get his opponents to surrender before the battle even started.

Statue of Genghis Khan

The first major pseudo-event in history was the Boston Tea Party. This event was simply to get the attention of the public to their cause and it worked. President Jackson in 1833 hired the very first presidential press secretary to help better his image to the public against those who talked against him and his presidency. 

Thus, leading to the time period of when the phrase public relations was actually coined and the man who arguably contributed the most to PR.

Edward Bernays

During WW2 Bernays was employed by the U.S. government to help them appeal to the masses and push their agenda. Bernays helped President Woodrow Wilson produce the image of liberator of the people. 

After WW2 he officially coined the term public relations and essentially flipped the negative stigma of war propaganda. His first and the world's first PR campaign was aiding a tobacco company in getting women to smoke.

 He was the first person to link mass produced goods to people's own desires. He then went into product placement in movies and dressing up stars at film premieres for he company he was working with at the time.

Edward Bernays