PR; it's just publicity isn't it?

I say PR! You say spin! Lies! Deceit! Publicity! Followed by a number of other offensive terms that slate the term public relations. Everyone knows of the bad reputation that PR carries, and yet every successful company relies on it – ironic really isn’t it? Many say “Oh it’s just publicity!”, if this was the case, do you really think it would be such a popular choice? Thought not.

Yes, I fully admit that I can see why some people may think that those working in PR are only there to gain publicity for their client. This is especially seen in Celebrity PR. Of course Britney wants everyone to see the images of her looking gorgeous on the beach on holiday – then people will think she’s recovered, happy and well. What the magazine doesn’t tell you is that Britney’s PR team want us to think that. Duh! Why else would they have sent the photos along with a press release and statement saying she is back with a vengeance? Well, it fooled you.

Charities do the same. “NO!” I hear you cry. “Charities don’t need PR, we donate out of the goodness of our hearts.” Sorry, no. Charities rely deeply on PR to plan and deliver movements that will gain the respect and sympathy of the public, who will then be enticed to donate. Again, fooled.
The truth is that everyone relies on PR for awareness as techniques such as advertising don’t always cut it. Advertising works to a certain extent, but eventually the audience becomes aware that what they are seeing is purely an advert, of course it would say it’s the best product the world has ever seen! However, I doubt whether many who hadn’t studies Public Relations would even be aware of a PR story. I know I didn’t realise until I learnt more about it.

Some stories are obviously PR stunts, for example, the stories that ran in the lead up to Prince Harry’s return from Afghanistan. However, if you were reading a magazine and they suggested a new moisturiser that would slow the aging process that they had tried, tested and treasured, you may be willing to believe them, rush out and buy it. It doesn’t seem relevant that the magazine beauty editor rolled into work worried about being an article short for that month’s edition to find a nice package on their desk with a few samples of moisturiser and a press release. They then regurgitate what is written in the press release and hey presto, you have a nice little article to fill that space. The problem is that journalists have a decreasing time constraints, face constant competition for stories and have a need for profits and sometimes it is easier to take what PR officers give you instead of being creative and researching things themselves.

I bet you’re thinking, so that’s it? That’s PR? Just publicity? Wrong.
Public Relations and Publicity are not synonymous. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations claims that “Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.”

This accepts that some parts of PR are to do with publicity; however, effect PR goes even further than this. Public Relation officers are head of communications for a company and are responsible for making sure their reputation is upheld. Public Relations is the clever and subtle way of increasing the awareness of your business and to promote it. Yes, this could be considered publicity, but could also be seen as “reputation builders” and if the reputation is boosted this is due to good PR planning.

Further than this, PR is responsible for finding out the target audiences of whatever product, service or client they are trying to promote. This involves extensive research as a successful PR campaign is tailored to the audience’s need. They also have to keep good relations with their stakeholders, who are critical to any business. The message has to be carefully planned so that the audience as well as the stakeholder are satisfied and this takes a lot of work as in some situations they each have different needs. This shows the hard work and complicated behaviour of PR, as it usually involves pleasing more than one person. This means that you have to keep on the right side of everyone and so this job usually bends towards those who are good at persuading and usually very charming!

On top of this, everyday you will probably meet someone new and have to charm them as much as you would your stake holders and audience. That is a lot of pressure to be happy and cheerful at all times! You have to present yourself in a way that the potential client would want to do business with you and so you have to impress them into wanting to work with you. When working you have to build up strong relationships with journalists and keep these good connections as one wrong move can cost you a lot of coverage.

So, is PR just publicity - a job with the aims to promote? I don't believe this for a second. Publicity believes that “any press is good press” whereas Public Relations wants only good press to promote the reputation of their client. With all this confusion about PR, all they appear to need is some “good publicity”!

Edward Bernays. AKA. King of Spin.

Edward Bernays is known primarily for being the Father of Spin but also nephew to psychoanalysis expert Sigmund Freud. Further to my previous blog about Freud, I am now going to investigate further into the mind of his close relative to see how he managed to use the subconscious to manipulate public opinion.


Bernays used psychology to help get into the minds of the public’s by using persuasive campaigns. He believed that propaganda that was seen throughout the Nazi period in Germany as well as all over the world during and just after the World Wars were perfect examples of how psychoanalysis could be linked to public relations.


"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits."


He believed that deep understanding of the mind and how humans operated meant that manipulation of thought processes, even on a large target audience, could be possible. This was all documented in his essay “The Engineering of Consent” first published in 1947. Bernays believed that those who were undisciplined or lacking in religious guidance or morals could easily be manipulated subconsciously as they had no strong beliefs.


Bernays could be held responsible for the high levels of women smokers today, as it was him in the 1920’s who manipulated the minds of women everywhere from turning smoking into a taboo activity to a socially acceptable and attractive act. He manipulated women by showing powerful, strong females smoking and called cigarettes the “torches of freedom”.


Surely this is what Public Relations is all about; as advertising makes the reader perfectly aware that they are trying to be sold something. However, through the use of public relations we are not subconsciously aware of what message is hidden behind a story. I know for a fact that I have been tricked into buying products purely through great PR, and now that I have a deeper understanding on what PR is as well as knowing the methods Edward Bernays and Freud used I think I will be able to spot the spin even more in the future.