Defining Public Relations is a difficulty for many professionals. After all, it is a function that encompasses several sectors and areas of activity. But, looking for the information directly at the source, the description given by ABRP is as follows:
“Public Relations is the deliberate, planned and continuous activity and effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between a public or private institution and the groups of people to which it is, directly or indirectly, connected”.
In summary, the Public Relations professional (or PR professional as he is known) is considered a communication manager. He is responsible for connecting companies to their audiences — which are diverse — and must have a broad vision of the business to then outline a communication strategy to be applied on each occasion.
There are dozens of areas in which these professionals are needed, such as planning, press relations, relationships, events, metrics, public opinion, research, consumer behavior, government relations, internal communication, crisis management and many others.
The main bases for a good work of Public Relations to be established are the organizations and the public. That sounds very simple, doesn’t it? Not really, here’s why:
- Organizations can be described as a group of people brought together with a goal, be it a company, an artist, political parties or the government itself;
- Audiences are all groups of people who have some ties to that organization. They can be customers, employees, shareholders, investors, pressure groups and others.
Imagine the professional who works with a large company that, for some direct or indirect reason, goes through crisis management and needs to rebuild its image before all audiences. It can’t be easy, right? And more: it was for this need that the profession emerged in the market.
How did Public Relations come about?
Studies carried out by James Grunig, a great scholar in the area, point out that Public Relations emerged more than 5 thousand years ago in the aristocracy of China in a rudimentary way. However, the profession has officially existed for about 100 years. The article “PUBLIC RELATIONS: History and Contextualization” explains this trajectory:
In the late 1860s, John D. Rockefeller becomes one of the most powerful men in the United States through his oil company, the Standard Oil Company .
Years later, a specific factor destroys Rockefeller’s image: The Ludlow Massacre, better known as the “Colorado Fuel and Iron Co strike”. Shall we better understand this story?
1902 – It all started when Rockefeller appoints Jesse Welborn as president and LaMont Montgomery Bowers as vice president of a company acquired in Colorado. And since he lived in New York, he got company updates through Bowers, whom he trusted.
1910 – In this year an accident occurred in one of the coal mines, where 79 workers died. The fact was withheld from Rockefeller by Bowers.
1910 to 1913 – Over the years, the situation of workers worsened and, in September 1913, residents went on strike demanding better working conditions, better wages and reduced workload.
1914 – In an attempt to end the strike, Welborn and Bowers hire a detective agency to terrorize the strikers, sparking a war between the contractors and the strikers, causing several bloody attacks. With this, the massacre is broadcast by the major media and generates a crisis with public opinion, highlighting Rockefeller as a “bloodthirsty capitalist”, even without knowing in advance what was going on there.
Rockefeller, afraid, does not give any testimony to public opinion. Then, the first Public Relations professional appears.
In May 1914, Rockefeller, worried about his image, asked a friend to recommend a professional, who promptly indicated Ivy Ledbetter Lee, believing that this would be the only professional capable of improving the image of John and his family.
Ivy Lee was a 36-year-old journalist who had previously worked for newspapers in New York and worked with politicians.
After understanding the whole context, his first recommendation to the entrepreneur was “tell the truth, because sooner or later, the public will find out anyway”. (CHERNW, 1998:584). Then Lee got Rockefeller to stop hanging around with the bodyguards.
Both travel to the scene of the massacre, where John was able to witness the reality of his workers, apologize and start a new phase in his company: the resumption of human values.
All of Ivy Lee’s work was recognized and, today, he is defined as the “father of Public Relations”, able to completely change the image of a man hated across the country.
Public Relations in Brazil
At the beginning of the 20th century, Brazil passes through the initial period of the Republic and becomes an industrial society. As a result, on January 30, 1914, the public relations department of the Canadian electricity company The São Paulo Tramway Light and Power Company Limited , also formerly called Eletricidade de São Paulo SA (Eletropaulo), was created, headed by Eduardo Pinheiro Lobo, patron of the profession in the country.
Pinheiro Lobo served as a military officer in England, where he graduated in Engineering. After his studies, he returned to São Paulo to start his career, working at Fábrica Penteado and, soon after, at Companhia de Gás de São Paulo. In 1906, finally, he begins his career in ‘ Light and Power’.
1914 – Only in this year did the company identify the need to create a relationship with the press and the government. As they are its main target audiences, the public relations area is created to meet this demand.
It was only in the 1950s that the area received due importance and began to be created in other companies.
1952 – The pioneering company in Public Relations and communication in Brazil, the National Company of Public Relations and Propaganda, appears.
1953 – The first Public Relations course appears, promoted by the School of Public Administration of Fundação Getúlio Vargas, in Rio de Janeiro, under the sponsorship of the United Nations”. (KUNSCH, 1997:20)
1954 – A group of professionals from São Paulo started to meet to discuss the subject and, from this movement, the ABRP (Brazilian Public Relations Association) emerges and, consequently, the first specialists, organizations and publications in the area. (KUNSCH, 1997:48).
1968 – After the military regime established itself in power, the AERP (Special Public Relations Office) was created, which was used to advertise the government and brought a negative view of the area to public opinion, which continued for years. ;
1980 – At the end of the Military Regime and difficult years for the profession, the entire area of communication in Brazil underwent a transformation, gaining more and more strength and creating space for the entire academic and professional scenario that we know today.
In conclusion…
A lot has changed and will continue to change. Communication and, especially, Public Relations evolve as society evolves. One thing is certain: it is a necessary profession! PR professionals will always need the most valuable and complex object of work, human beings, and consequently, we all need PR.
