I love the good that PR can do, and yet I hate its power to promote and support evil.
Jon Stewart has been in the news recently for taking on CNBC -- specifically investment "watchdog" Jim Cramer -- and other news programs for not asking the tough questions and providing the "real" information about investment scams, such as that by Bernie Madoff. Cramer and others, in effect, had fallen for the "evil PR message" from Wall Street.
Rachel Maddow, on her evening talk show on MSNBC, recently skewered the PR agency Burson-Marsteller for being the servant of evil. "When evil needs public relations," she said on her show, "evil has Burson-Marsteller on speed dial." She gave example after example of how B-M has been hired to handle "crisis communication" and "reputation management" issues for people, countries or groups such as AIG, which accepted a bailout from us, the U.S. public; Blackwater after some of its members killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad; Saudi Arabia three days after 9/11 (remember, most of the hijackers were Saudi Arabians, not Iraqis or Afhanis); the military junta in Argentina in 1976 after it overthrew the legitimately elected government; Indonesia after the genocide of residents of East Timor a few years ago; and even the ironically named company "Spin Master," the maker of Aqua Dots, the bead craft toy that contained the chemical in the "date rate" drug and that made children sick when they chewed on the beads. Wouldn't you feel proud having that type of reputation for your PR agency?
Then there's Edelman, a PR agency I happen to admire for some of its work with social media and its annual "trust barometer" (a list of whom we tend to trust most for information). Edelman sponsors the annual New Media Academic Summit that I find so useful; in fact, attending the summits has helped me reshape our PR curriculum. And yet Edelman was responsible for violating part of the PRSA Code of Ethics when it created a blog supposedly written by people traveling in their RV from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart and writing about their adventures. What Edelman "forgot" to do, however, was to be transparent and admit to readers that all of the blogs were written by Edelman operatives, not "real folks" -- you know, the ones Edelman's trust barometer says "we" tend to believe more than "PR hacks."
This got me thinking about what we, in the PR education business, tell you about the "father" of PR, Edward Bernays. He's the one who first spoke of "counseling on public relations" rather than "doing propaganda" within society. Do you remember that Bernays taught the first course on PR? Do you remember the story of how he got women to start smoking in public during a march in an Easter parade in NYC? Now, this is a "funny" story. You see, Bernays was hired by George Hill, president of the American Tobacco Corporation, to find out what would make women overcome the taboo (reinforced by males) of smoking in public. Borrowing from his uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas, Bernays hired psychoanalyst A.A. Brill to run a focus group and find out what smoking meant to women. His finding? Cigarettes were a symbol of the penis and of men's sexual power. So Bernays set about to persuade women that smoking would make them feel more powerful and independent. He got a group of young debutantes (he told the media they were "women's rights" marchers) to light up at a set time during the parade (just where Bernays had alerted the media they would be). Then framed the lit cigarettes as "torches of freedom" (which true Americans wouldn't support this?), and the media ate this up. Sales of cigarettes rose dramatically as women's health, eventually, began to deteriorate (but boy, were the women -- and the cigarette manufacturers -- happy!).
Bernays is recognized as playing a major role in changing us from a "need" society into a "desire" society. He believed humans should be looked upon as selfish, irresponsible "consumers" who needed to be controlled, rather than as rational "citizens" who could thrive under democracy.
Imagine what type of conversation George Lakoff (remember, he's the one who said that most of our thinking is unconscious and that we need to reframe our view of America to be more caring and responsive to people's needs) might have with Edward Bernays. Both believe in the power of the unconscious. But Bernays felt people needed -- and wanted -- to feel as if they were in control whereas they actually weren't. Lakoff, I propose, would argue people need -- and want -- to have those who are in control be responsive to the real needs of people.
This seems to me to be the true promise of PR: to help one another achieve a common good, to share the best we have with one another.
My Final Blog
15 years ago
I agree with you when you say that you love the power of PR but hate when it promotes and supports evil. To go off of your example of Edward Bernays, I think that it was an extremely smart tactic on how to boost cigarette sales with women but it bothers me that it was to promote something that deteriorates a person’s health. A person such as Bernays is extremely knowledgeable and knows his profession and does it very well, I just would hope that people would use their powers for good rather than evil. I feel that when PR professionals use their power of PR to support or promote something evil they are being selfish and not thinking about their publics. You need to do the best for you, your company and your publics because that’s all you have to survive in your profession.
ReplyDeleteKiah
True, it does seem like a lot of PR is needed for horrible or negative situations that people or company's have gotten themselves into. Good example, the pop singer Chris Brown, had never hired a PR agency to do anything for him until he got caught beating his girlfriend (Rihanna) up (I posted on this topic on my group blog). It's sad in a way...but without it, the need of PR wouldn't be as intense.
ReplyDeleteAlso, that is crazy that Bernays pulled off that smoking trick with women. It does make sense though...if you see a woman smoking at a patriotic parade...you would then later on unconsciously associate smoking with positive things like being patriotic.
There is good and evil to everything in the world...we as people and PR professionals just need to find the balance in it all.
-samantha
PR is like any other profession it has its ups and downs. Criminal defense lawyers are often looked as scum because they reperesent people who "may" have committed a crime, doctor's who perform procedures that are experimental or unwthical to some groups are sadi to be playing God. No one profession or group of people is perfect. I also believe that becuase soemone represents a group that is dislike or seen as being wrong does not mean that they are wrong. It is all relative to their personal ethical standards an what they can sleep with knowing at night. PR is just one of theose professions that people love to point the finger at but I still love it!
ReplyDelete-Nicole Jackson
Well Dr. D, I as you probably know, have become kind of obsessed with how marketing and public relations steer minds. I think one major problem is that the people who make P.R. decisions are not objective and not necessarily moral. It is kind of the the thing with the news that John Stewart talked about. We give these individuals so much power and freedom to work under the guise that they will do things right because its the right thing to do. But the fact seems to be, PR people and some journalists still have a job and must serve those interests. I found the cnbc thing particularly disturbing (as I find a lot of mainstream media). I don't watch cnbc very much, but Mr. Stewart brought up an interesting point about the lack of coverage and the protection Wall Street gets. The question i saw was, who do you work for Cramer? The people are someone else. And when journalist's or PR works for anything outside of the interest of the people, its very scary.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell Dr. D, I as you probably know, have become kind of obsessed with how marketing and public relations steer minds. I think one major problem is that the people who make P.R. decisions are not objective and not necessarily moral. It is kind of the the thing with the news that John Stewart talked about. We give these individuals so much power and freedom to work under the guise that they will do things right because its the right thing to do. But the fact seems to be, PR people and some journalists still have a job and must serve those interests. I found the cnbc thing particularly disturbing (as I find a lot of mainstream media). I don't watch cnbc very much, but Mr. Stewart brought up an interesting point about the lack of coverage and the protection Wall Street gets. The question i saw was, who do you work for Cramer? The people are someone else. And when journalist's or PR works for anything outside of the interest of the people, its very scary.
ReplyDeleteMandla Deskins
I believe that it is unfortunate that public relations can be used for such devious, malicious and at times, out right evil purposes. When we think of what PR can do for society, we like to think of the positive aspects; but people are PR practitioners and just like the actions that we condone, some people are not inherently good. Some have very little care about the consequences of their actions. Some people don’t want to know why they’re being asked to do something. They would rather just get the job done, collect a check and go. PR, like all things operated by human beings, cannot always be good. In fact, as history has shown us, when people are given the power to influence others, it is a rare thing that a person will turn away from that power due to personal (moral) convictions.
ReplyDeleteFor some it is just easier to go with the crowd and to go where the money is, no matter where that money comes from and who was harmed in the making of that money. Edward Bernays was a very intelligent individual, but he is just one of many examples of how he was “just a man”. Good or evil. For some it is not the responsibility of the individual. I disagree, but then again, there are numerous people who would behave in the best interest of their clients, at all costs. I believe that we not only have a responsibility to the people we represent, but to the public that puts its trust in those people. Unfortunately, for far too many, the all mighty dollar prevails.
--Porsche
To piggy back off what Porsche said...it's an unfortunate catch 22 in life. Everyone works for money. You can't blame someone for wanting to feed themselves and their family. However too many people allow their desire for money to cloud their moral judgement. Companies like Burson-Marsteller ease their conscience with the notion of "just doing our job." Some of the "crisis communication" and "reputation management" that the company handled were pure evil cover-ups, driven by financial greed. The powers of framing, agenda setting and gatekeeping is amazing. Responsibilities that obviously can't but trusted with just anyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but let's face it if it wasn't for bad happening in the first place coporate America would have never grabbed onto the concept of using PR as a tool make companies look better. The tatic was so successful that it begint to use it to promote evil.
ReplyDelete