 You know the truth is that as long as there have been people there have been public relations It may not have been called that it may have taken on different forms, but since people you know have existed Somebody's been trying to convince someone of someone else or make a connection with somebody else on behalf of themselves or an organization or whatever And so since the dawn of time there's really been public relations in some form or another and of course That's evolved over over time just as people have evolved over time We've moved from you know press agentry into different forms of public relations But so we're gonna kind of fast-forward and limit our discussion of The history of public relations to the modern history of public relations what we would call a modern history of public relations We don't have time to cover public relations since the beginning of time So we're gonna focus just on what we would define as the modern history starting in about the 1800s and so With that in mind we're just gonna progress through the couple of different stages here of public relations in the modern history So the first kind of stage that we're gonna look at is from the 1800s In this part of the timeline we kind of refer to as press agentry that the primary focus public relations during this time Was just kind of publicity and press agentry and so So when we think about passing press agentry We think about hype tactics and publicity stunts it was all about kind of shock value and What can you do to make a scene to kind of draw people in out of curiosity or because you're you're Putting on this huge event or something like that and it was really just about hype tactics and publicity stunts during that time So we think about people during that time one of the first people to really use Public relations for that purpose to drive to drive their organization to drive their purpose was was PT Barnum You're probably most familiar with PT Barnum from the Barnum and Bailey Circus Of course, he was part of that you may have seen Seen a version of his story in the greatest showman with you Jackman things But PT Barnum was this with this fellow who basically had some ideas and he wanted to draw people in and he needed things that He thought would draw people in and so he created shock value He created these events. He said come see the bearded lady Come see the the the smallest man on earth to ever live You know this guy that he bring in so he put on all these kind of publicity stunts that drew people in and drove curiosity about what they were doing and and then he leveraged that into Greater notoriety for his organization or whatever and so You know, he was he was a press agent. It was his own best press agent You know, he basically said one time there's no such thing as bad press any press is good press in essence, right? So PT Barnum was one of the first real public relations practitioners of that time to use that sort of press agentry Disadvantage we also saw it in the work of the railroads and what we would call westward migration Kind of opening up the United States during that time during the early and mid 1800s To get people to basically move out west to say hey There are things that exist west of Ohio and west of Pennsylvania and not on the east coast The west was pretty sparsely populated It was sort of a you know kind of a no-man's land kind of a free-for-all out there And they really wanted to popularize it so that people would would develop communities there And and that that served the railroads, of course because then they would be able to transport people or transport goods and and things they had they'd spent all this time And money developing railroads for westward use and so now they need the people out there So they can justify having them and and create some business out there So they created this kind of press Effort if you will this public relations effort focused on on press things about talking about how great it was out west and and Offering travel and different things like offering contests and things So the railroads really had a lot of success pushing westward migration again for their own purposes for their they had a goal There they had an objective, but but they used in many ways What we would call public relations albeit specifically press agentry type public relations to accomplish that goal though But to demonstrate what was possible. They really really demonstrated for a lot of organizations What was possible using those types of tactics and strategies? We also did see though some some people really embrace public relations for a sense of social Responsibility thinking here about people like John Muir John Muir was an environmentalist and did a lot of writing and and things about how though the wonder of nature You may be familiar with this famous quote the mountains are calling and I must go That's one of his from a letter that he wrote to his sister. I believe that So but John Muir used public relations to to to share with people the wonder of the natural Beauty of the United States and the need for preservation the opportunities there So he's public relations for social responsibility in that way. We also saw that through Famously through Ida Wells Ida B. Wells was a famous practitioner public relations at that time in terms of using public relations to To share her message about social responsibility and about not only women's rights But the rights of minorities and people like that. So Using press agentry and public relations during that time to start that, you know The that nugget of social responsibility that we see continue and expand today as we will discuss But really got its roots then in that early era in that 1800s era of public relations So lots of things happen in there But mainly a focus on press agentry during that period of time But we move to the next part of the timeline here in modern public relations in the early 1900s through the mid 1900s through about You know through the 1950s and and up to the 1960s or so But you know, we see the what we would call the modern pioneers of our current, you know Definition of public relations people really starting to practice what we might identify as as more full Public relations a more full form of that So some of the modern pioneers that we think about during that era include somebody like Ivy Lee Ivy Lee was a very famous practitioner of public relations and really established on a lot of the sort of guidelines of modern-day public relations He really professionalized the public relations role in terms especially in terms of of public relations counsel He had his own firm, but he provided counsel to a lot of organizations about how they could handle their public relations more effectively They're specifically, you know, their relationships with the public's that they serve and that they that they wanted to To pull in and to have be a part of their organization. You really professionalized that role Gave it value at the executive level in many ways in terms of people recognizing that this is valuable counsel This is not just, you know, people who print up flyers and come up with crazy ideas for publicity stunts and things These can be people these public relations people can can offer a lot of really good input for how we can grow and And achieve our goals as an organization So he really demonstrated that a professionalized public relations Practitioner can really add a lot of value at that executive level and he did start to emphasize that sort of two-way Communication of public relations that it wasn't just a one-way Let me get this out there. So you have it, but it's really understanding who your public's are and and trying to achieve your purposes Through that and reaching those specific people and and developing relationships was another big part of his work in terms of the early pioneering of public relations developing relationships with key figures in those public's with Influential influencers or influential people within those public's and and really establishing that two-way emphasis So I really one of the giants in the development of modern public relations Another is a gentleman named Edward Bernays Edward Bernays who was actually a nephew of Sigmund Freud And so may not surprise you that to find out that he really put an emphasis on scientific persuasion on social science and psychological behavior and and that type of thing and he brought that to the practice of Public relations is scientific methods of persuasion through study through research Specifically through identifying a target audience understanding who is it that we're reaching we're not going to try and reach Everybody in the world with this message or with this campaign Who are we trying to reach and how can we best tailor our message? To that group by doing research by conducting research and by understanding who that audience is but not just their their habits But their psychology and their and those types of makeups right so we do research into those people We tailor a message specifically to that target audience. That was a major contribution of Edward Bernays People were not doing it before that really he's the one who can kind of formalize that professionalize that and demonstrated the value that can come With that type of approach to public relations. So again Edward Bernays another giant in terms of public relations modernization Finally in this garden finally in this love, but we want to talk about Arthur Page as well Arthur Page who was Worked in media worked in in publishing really but was contacted and eventually ended up becoming a major figure in public relations mostly for the stands that he took when people would approach him he would turn down clients and things because He didn't like their approach or he didn't like what they stood for he really felt as though your reputation as an organization is earned through action So, you know kind of that old saying actions speak louder than words, right? He felt the same about companies and organizations that your reputation is going to be earned through your actions And if your actions if you're not willing to line those up if your activity and your actions are not going to line up with what you say you want Then I really don't have anything to do to help you. That's that was his philosophy. He also then again kind of like Ivy Lee really Established public relations as a management function as as something that should be involved at the highest executive levels And not just something that you you send a message down and tell people this is what I want you to do It's not just a directive type thing But these are people that should be involved in the decision-making process as you determine what your goals are what your objectives are And how you're going to reach those public relations personnel and practitioners should be a part of that as part of the management function Finally, I want to talk about Ophiel Dukes right Ophiel Dukes was a significant Pioneer in public relations particularly in public service. He worked primarily in governmental Eventually in governmental positions and really established and demonstrated what public relations can be in terms of In public service also overcame lots of stereotypes regarding race He was one of the very first Notable or or well-known I should say Practitioners of public relations of color who was a minority right because I get in the bias of the United States That time was that that minorities and people of color really didn't have that much off to offer in terms of professional value Ophiel Dukes really Broke that barrier in many ways in public relations was one of the first People of color to really establish themselves as someone of the greatest value and demonstrate that minorities Practitioners have just as much value as as anybody else and can do that So overcame a lot of stereotypes regarding race specifically as he as he pioneered that that Segment of public relations in public service and working through the government and established the value there So these are some of our early modern pioneers through the early 1900s again up through probably about the 1960s And then in the 1960s, but we have what I would call the modern first generation You know now we've got those pioneers out of the way and so it's starting in about the 1960s and moving forward Now we've got people who can build on that those pioneers have have blazed the trail now these first generation of real practitioners building on that can really can really benefit from the professionalization of public relations and the the Notoriety that public relations has gained as and as a value-adding component to an organization So just a couple people want to talk about here just to give you some examples but the first is Harold Burson established a public relations firm and and really his contribution centered on globalization is one of the first PR firms to open an office in in Europe and really understand that there's a global market there and the differences there He also really focused on crisis communication and reputation management and really earned a reputation there for really excellent work his firm Really worked closely with Johnson and Johnson during the Tylenol scares in the early 80s If you recall that you perhaps have read case studies or if you're old enough you remember that I do certainly remember that where someone had laced some Tylenol with cyanide and people died and so there were a lot of Changes that need to be made but the first thing was Johnson Johnson took responsibility for it immediately pulled things did all these things I Communicated about it and really not only communicated well about that crisis But also protected their reputation in in the process as well and a lot of that came from the advice They received from Harold Burson and his firm who was their public relations partner at that time so so really established Themselves as kind of the go-to people for crisis communication reputation management demonstrated Again the value that public relations practitioners can have in that respect as well and and can bring and add value to an organization through those functions the other modern kind of first generation Established public relations person that I want to tell you about is Daniel Edelman Daniel Edelman again had his own public relations firm This in Chicago and really was one of the first people to sort of look at integrating Marketing and public relations who spent a lot of time Differentiating between what those things are and they are different things marketing is different than public relations But Daniel Edelman Edelman was one of the first people to see that you know They are different things But they're so closely connected and have so much value to add to one another that why can't we integrate those things? They don't have to be totally separate functions They can work together and the the synergy between those two things can you know so that the the the Some can be greater than they they would love the parts really in that respect, right? so integrating marketing and public relations and those two functions kind of together and Learning about how they can work together. He also kind of really initiated what we would now call a media tour Which is now common practice people send people out on the road and they they Celebrities do this when they're pushing movies for example They're all over the place they're doing interviews here and on podcasts there and so forth and just doing all this publicity on this media tour Right companies do it all the time. You have the famously Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile rides all over the place The good your blimp is all over the place But I mean that and so things like that would would be the derivative of a media tour Which is really the brainchild of Daniel Edelman people did not do that very much before they certainly do it now But it was an idea that he came up with sending People around to on these media tours in different cities and had great effect the products benefited greatly from that So really a couple innovations there from Daniel Edelman as well. So you see the the kind of these modern first-generation what I would call modern first-gen people Building on what the pioneers established now. We have you know, they benefited from having the professionalization of public relations and and organizations that viewed public relations as a legitimate value-adding prospect for for an organization and they were able to then benefit from that and not have to fight that fight so much as Be able to work on Expanding that then and focusing on specific tactics and strategies and things and and really making an impact in that way So these are just a couple examples of different public relations practitioners who did that over time So, you know and that moved us into you know from the from the 1960s on through kind of where we're at today And we're still obviously this is still an evolving process, right? This is very much an evolving process public relations is continuing to grow when we have things that we need to Improve upon now and improve upon for the future and that will continue the evolution We're gonna get into that in another video. What are some of the future questions of future trends that are gonna be important in public relations, but This should give you an idea of where we're coming from at least in the most recent history So the last three kind of Evolutions what we call evolutionary stages, maybe of public relations. Where do we come from? How do we get to where we are today with the the mindset of public relations and where where it sits today? So if you have questions about about the history of public relations or anything else related to PR Please feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you there in the meantime. I hope that you will to really Consider this history. It's important to know where we came from both, you know professionally and In a lot of respects and public relations is no different understanding How we got to this point and can be a really Helpful piece of information as we think about what we're doing now and what we need to be doing in the future