A History of Public Relations -- OR -- The Good, the Bad and How We Wish it Was

A recent discussion among PR folks about our profession’s humble origins got me thinking about, well… our origins, the myth, the mythos and whatever historical “truth-claims” we may make.  So here’s my take on the age old question “Where did we come from?” 

I suppose our professional line extends from something like the Sophists of ancient Greece who spoke on behalf of Citizens for compensation through to Ivy Lee, and Edward Bernays one or both of whom most Western academics agree was the founder of modern PR. For my money Edward’s wife, Doris Fleischman, was just as, if not more responsible for many of the early pioneering techniques Bernays is credited with.   One thing is for sure we all have Edward to thank for convincing millions of women to start smoking and millions of Americans that it was perfectly socially acceptable for women to smoke in public places.  Thanks Ed.  In a horrible irony Edward lived more than 100 years… no smoking related diseases snuffed his life out early.

At any rate most of the pioneering techniques credited to Lee and Bernays originally were practiced by none other than the evil prince of our profession many years prior to either Bernays or Lee taking credit.  I’m speaking of the Nazi Joseph Goebbles – the first PR man to utilize many of the techniques we take for granted today.  It’s tough to get accurate information on Goebbles’ contributions to mass communications and I’m okay with that.  Whatever contributions he may have made, given who he was and what he stood for are just as well credited to others as far as I’m concerned. 

Interesting your mention of the cult of the CEO, particularly in light of the recent and ongoing canonization (the Catholic Church’s process for declaring an individual a Saint) of Steve Jobs, soon to be St. Steve of Apple, I suppose. Interesting how so many folks come out of the woodwork with so much information about Steve.  I mean I worked with the guy, actually worked directly with him, knew him, etc… and well; the Steve Jobs I knew was no saint.  But that’s a story no one wants to hear. 

Regardless of what one may have thought about Steve Jobs he exemplifies the CEO as a cult figure and Apple, for all its faults, is one of the few brands that transcends mere brand-hood and has become a true lifestyle.  And so we arrive, quickly I admit, to the present status of our profession. 

Except for this social media thing; what my company, Outlaw Communications, calls the Social Biosphere.  Now we have more than a new mere communications channel emerging we have the next evolution of digital communications intersecting with various business or market place ecosystems to create an overarching business operating environment, or Social Biosphere.

In the Social Biosphere transparency becomes the name of the game and a leveling or democratization of the message happens.  In other words when everyone who receives your message has the ability to dissect, research, check and share that message in real-time.  Well folks it gets harder and harder to pull the old Lee / Bernays wool over stakeholders’ eyes.

As the Social Biosphere matures and grows it will be interesting to watch how this next evolution in our profession plays out.