What is PR - Public Relations?

Question

People talk a lot about PR when they are discussing politics and business, but what do they really mean? I have little concrete idea about it. Examples are expected.

Answer 1

Public relations are the activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment.

By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most favorable light. Thus, the goal of the public relations consultant is to create, through the organization of news and advertising, an advantageous image for his client, be it a business corporation, cultural institution, or private or public individual; toward this end the making of favorable public opinion many research techniques and communications media are used.

more about it here:

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/enc...

and here:

http://www.davedolak.com/pr.htm

An example of good public relations would be a company sponsoring a fund-raising event in their community.  Creates a lot of goodwill and a positive caring image for the company.

Here's an actual historical example of using publicity for public relations in promoting a product:

In 1929, Bernays, an early name in PR (and nephew of Freud)  orchestrated a legendary publicity stunt aimed at persuading women to take up cigarette smoking, an act that at the time was exclusively equated with men. It was considered unfeminine and inappropriate for women to smoke, and virtually no women participated in the act publicly.

After doing some initial research and consultation, Bernays arranged for New York City débutantes to march in that year's Easter Day Parade, defiantly smoking cigarettes as a statement of rebellion against the norms of a male-dominated society. Publicity photos of these beautiful fashion models smoking "Torches of Liberty" were sent to various media outlets and appeared worldwide. As a result, the taboo was dissolved and many women were led to associate the act of smoking with female liberation. Some women went so far as to demand membership in all-male smoking clubs, a highly controversial act at the time.

more about it here:

http://www.answers.com/topic/public-rela...

A current event that is using the radio waves for PR on behalf of Detroit Mayor: And as Kilpatrick and his legal team prepare for two separate circuit court trials, a grass roots group has taken out a weeklong radio ad backing the embattled mayor. "Every American has the constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty," according to the 60-second ad paid for by Citizens for an Honest Government. "Every American has their constitutional right to a fair trial, and every American has the right to be judged by a jury of their peers, and not the media. "And every American has the constitutional right to face their accuser in the court of law." The ad could be the first of several supporting the mayor's legal rights, said group spokesman Adolph Mongo said.

Answer 2

What a PR specialist does is seek out avenues of publicity for their candidate or product... This is not advertising.... In other words, most PR is done through cost-free methods.  Selling publishers and editors to publish stories.  A good PR manager for... say... a political candidate, writes scads of press releases and sends them to newspapers across the country.  These releases are usually no more than well written advertisements.  The difference between a good PR person and  bad one is their ability to write press releases that read like news stories, and contain actual news substance.  PR agents also schedule interviews, photo shoots and maintain libraries of photos and releases available on demand.  They go on media missions and meet with major magazine publishers, TV show producers, and radio station managers drumming up interest and support for their candidate.  The same is true for a PR agent for a product.

Answer 3

Yup. PR= Public Relations.

It also depends on how they use it in a sentence. If they something like "it will effect "pr" if we do not donate money." Then it is public relation.