THE PUBLIC RELATIONS MESSAGE
Public relations professionals have to get their messages out quickly
and accurately so the media can communicate those messages to the
public. They use telephone, television, fax machines, mail, e-mail and
telecommunications satellites to tell their messages to the media daily,
and more often in emergencies.
One reporter, Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle, thinks
they’re overdoing it. In one month she received 109 pounds of
“releases, videotapes, glossy magazines, posters, expensive glossy fold-
ers and plastic foam packing materials” that she classified as public
relations pieces. Marinucci’s experience is not unusual.
The best public relations professionals heard what Marinucci and
others were saying and have stopped using cutsey approaches and glitzy
promotional packages that look contrived and gimmicky. They realized
that they were responsible for their own bad image. Today’s professional
prefers a businesslike approach to information distribution.
Sometimes an immediate public relations response using not only
print media but also the Internet becomes necessary to control dam-
age. A good example is the public relations effort of Mattel, Inc., in the
summer of 2007. From late July through early September, the world’s
largest toy manufacturer was hit by waves of bad publicity when it was
forced to recall nearly 20 million toys because of safety concerns. There
were three recalls in about a five-week period. No sooner had one recall
ended than news of another hit the media.
The first and largest recall focused on toys with magnets that could
fall off. Children could choke on the magnets or swallow them. The
other recalls occurred when U.S. inspectors discovered that lead-based
paint had been used on toys manufactured in China. Lead-based paint
is hazardous to small children and is banned in the United States.
The use of ads, news media and press conferences put Eckert in the
spotlight for hundreds of millions of people. However, the use of such
media outlets is a traditional response. It was the use of the corporate
Web site that helped focus Mattel’s message and demonstrated the
ways in which the Internet can become an effective tool in public rela-
tions. Using the site, Mattel was able to offer more detailed information
about the recalled toys, the actual shipments of the toys and the stores
to which those shipments had been sent.
Mattel responded to the crisis in several ways and through wide-
spread use of the media. It purchased full-page ads in the nation’s larg-
est newspapers in which the CEO, Bob Eckert, wrote a letter of apology
directed to parents. In the letter, Eckert, a father of four, wrote, “noth-
ing is more important than the safety of our children.” He directed par-
ents to the company Web site where they could get a detailed list of all
toys being recalled. He then laid out the steps that Mattel was taking to
make certain that the toys problems did not occur again. He concluded
the letter by stating, “Our long record of safety at Mattel is why we’re
one of the most trusted names with parents, and I am confident that
the actions we are taking now will maintain that trust.”
PUBLIC RELATIONS 491
NEW YORK, April 30, 1939—
David Sarnoff chose the 1939
World’s Fair for the launch of
regular television broadcasting
by the National Broadcasting
Company.
The first telecast from the
World’s Fair featured President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the
first president to appear on
television.
The telecast was the culmi-
nation of a quarter of a cen-
tury in the broadcast business
for the Russian-born Sarnoff,
whose name first came to the
public’s attention as that of the
Marconi wireless radio opera-
tor who first picked up the dis-
tress signals from the Titanic
in 1912.
Sarnoff believed radio would
become a fixture in the average
household. He hoped to cre-
ate a radio network that would
broadcast entertainment, infor-
mation and education.
Sarnoff worked his way up
in the Marconi Company, and
when it was bought by Radio
Corporation of America in
1919, he was made commercial
manager. In 1930 he became
president of RCA, the parent
company of NBC.
Sarnoff was also one of the
first to realize the value of tele-
vision. In 1923 he predicted it
would transform the way peo-
ple communicated.
In 1932 Sarnoff built an
experimental television station in
the Empire State Building in New
York City. The station, W2XF,
became the center for RCA’s
experiments. By 1937 the station
had mobile recording units on
the streets of New York.
The first live coverage of a
fire was carried on W2XF in
1938.