Today marks the the 66th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. “Little Boy,” as it was nicknamed, killed 80,000 Japanese, and ushered in the nuclear era. President Harry Truman made that decision, and delivered his statement about the attack to the press the following morning. It was written by PR legend Arthur W. Page.
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.After more than a decade of playing every possible hand to draw visitors, Las Vegas is finally pulling its organized-crime card.
Swept under the table in favor of celeb chefs, theme nightclubs, and Broadway-style productions, Vegas’ ties to the mob continued to captivate both Hollywood and history buffs; from the ’40s through the ’70s, these ties made the city the gaming capital of the U.S. Now, two new, heavily publicized “interactive attractions” aim to cash in on that legacy.
Sure, there’s a story in the attractions’ similarities: Will a blood-crusted fedora here or bullet-pocked divan there dramatically alter one exhibit’s attendance? (Both properties have annual expectations in the mid- “hundreds of thousands.”) It’s far more illuminating, however, to look at their differences, and how each attraction might stimulate the city.
Can you brag about where you’re from? UniWorld Group and the U.S. Marines Corps have rolled out a new Black History Month marketing campaign for the Marines entitled, “Where I’m From,” which features nine different Marines explaining what they appreciate about their good old hometowns.
This sounds to me like an easy task if you’re from badass Detroit, but what about unassuming Coatesville, PA?
San Francisco-based nonprofit One Brick is celebrating its 10th anniversary by promoting this Saturday, January 15 as a National Day of Service, a tie-in to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday weekend.
The charity, which organizes group volunteer activities to help other nonprofits, will also hold an award ceremony at the San Francisco Food Bank, honoring community leaders such as the Reverend Cecil Williams, founder of Glide Memorial Church; and Paul Ash, executive director of the Food Bank.
South Bay residents can combine this with another longstanding successful MLK event, the Freedom Train, a $10 San Francisco round-trip and Civil Rights history lesson, put on by Cal Train.
Two legends of public relations made the Museum of the City of New York’s list of 400 prominent New Yorkers, assembled in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in the harbor.
Edward Bernays and Benjamin Sonnenberg both made the list. Howard Rubenstein did not, though the competition was stiff with major actors, politicians, academics, athletes and architects from all eras represented.
Bernays, author of the book “Propaganda,” is known for bringing his uncle Sigmund Freud’s ideas into PR for among many other things, getting women to smoke:
Edward L. Bernays (1891-1995)
An executive and pioneer in the field of public relations, he started as a press agent on Broadway, opened his own agency in 1919, and taught the first course on public relations at New York University in 1923.
Sonnenberg was the aristocrat of PR, known for entertaining friends, clients, and journalists in his huge mansion:
Benjamin Sonnenberg (1901-1978)
One of the first modern public relations men, whose work was, in his words, “fashioning large pedestals for small statues,” handled the p. r. needs of organizations from Philip Morris to CBS and was known for his private mansion, 19 Gramercy Park.
More after the jump:
Fifty percent return on investment in 45 days, the Bernie Madoff of the day promised his clients in 1920. It was so deviously clever, the sham was given a name, the Ponzi Scheme. The New York Times has a story today about Charles Ponzi and the man who brought him down, his publicist William H. McMasters.
McMasters’ memoir “The Ponzi Story” was recently acquired and catalogued by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and reveals the details of Ponzi’s undoing by McMasters, and the publicist’s bitterness that he didn’t receive bigger credit in the case. Though McMasters sold the story to the Boston Post for the equivalent of $64,000 in today’s money and the Post went on to win a Pulitzer, he remained unhappy upon finishing the transcript 42 years later. What’s not stated in the article is that McMasters took the best of three options–drop Ponzi as a client and receive nothing, stick with him and destroy his own reputation, or drop a dime on him and put himself in the spotlight.
Too bad Harry Markopolos, the man who had suspicions about Madoff more 10 years ago didn’t blow his whistle in quite the same way.
Normally, my Happy Hour video post consists of something that gently skewers the PR industry. Given the grave financial news this week, it seems more appropriate to take a look back in history to when Edward Bernays, father of PR and nephew of Sigmund Freud created the inextricable link between politics, business and the “self”.
So when you go to the polls and choose to vote with the gut, consider that your Freedom Fries may come with a side of delicious Bernays sauce, whether you ordered it or not.
<img alt="G2SMf8f98dd4-c69a-4e99-bcb2-d82b309c2861-14209.jpg" src="/prnewser/files/original/G2SMf8f98dd4-c69a-4e99-bcb2-d82b309c2861-14209.jpg" width="186" height="200"
Need a very special, belated gift for that PR executive in your life?
Ebay has an auction for a first edition copy of “Biography of an idea” by Edward Bernays, considered by most to be the father of public relations.
Bernays is known for applying the theories of his uncle Sigmund Freud to shaping public perception and essentially creating the public relations industry. The price of history is $76 bucks (reserve not met) with about 33 hours to go.
Read the wikipedia entry. It’s astonishing and darkly ironic to learn that his ideas were so revolutionary they influenced Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
An added bonus, the first edition copy is signed by Bernays to Hal Stebbins, an advertising expert in the 1960s.
(signed to advertising expert Hal Stebbins)
Tonya Garcia
Editor
Celeste Altus
Contributor
Nadine Cheung
Editor, The Job Post
PRNewser Twitter feed loading...