The president of Procter & Gamble, Richard Redwood Deupree, was “exposed to the power of public opinion,” for the first time in his life.
That was in 1943, when Mr. Deupree was in Washington for a meeting on war production, and he was accompanied by a gentleman named Edward L. Bernays, who has been described as “the father of public relations.”
I learned about Mr. Bernays when I was at school studying journalism and PR, and discovered more about him recently, reading articles posted in the Museum of Public Relations website.
“Without [Mr. Bernays], the great [Enrico] Caruso might not have become the toast of the land,” and “Sigmund Freud’s work might not have been translated for American readers for another decade,” according to a Huffington Post story.
Exactly when the words — ‘public relations’ — were used in describing a process for shaping public opinion, is difficult to determine. In several countries, at various times, people were engaging in the emerging field of PR.
But there was something about those words, I learned early in my career. My colleagues and I often had to explain the meaning of ‘public relations.’
The words don’t clearly describe the profession of shaping public opinion. Over the years, we tried using other words, like ‘raising awareness.’
“We’re raising awareness of the company’s products and services,” we’d say. And when the term ‘brand image’ became popular, we’d talk about raising awareness of that, too.
But, lately, in the Daily Post, I’ve been talking about ‘heightening awareness.’ And when you abbreviate ‘heightening awareness,’ you have ‘HA.’
And if you add another ‘HA,’ you’ve got…
Okay… as they say in business, let’s take this a step further.
The people in Pagosa Springs have some issues going on in your community. You have an affordable housing crisis, and concerns about the future of Archuleta County’s relationship with the San Juan Basin Public Health, and tourism — too much of it — and vacation rentals — too many of them…
…to name just a few of the vexing issues.
Let’s say, your awareness of local issues is getting heightened. You’re reading about them, and, maybe there’s more talk among neighbors, about them, and more local folks — in person, and virtually — are attending town and county meetings.
That’s HA. That’s heightening awareness, which seems easier to understand, than PR and public relations.
And not only that!
If folks are seriously thinking about serious issues, and seriously assessing them, you might say, they’re having HA-HA moments?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.