Wise Words
Over the years, lively minds have defined public relations differently. However one describes it, public relations is a profession that relies upon creativity, communication and writing for its success. Its effectiveness often is allied with a frequent partner, marketing. Here are selected observations on these subjects:
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
Charles Mingus
American jazz musician
“A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”
William Strunk, Jr.
Author, “The Elements of Style”
“It is not enough that a man has clearness of vision, and reliance on sincerity. He must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure.”
George H. Lewes
Writer and philosopher
“Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public relations practice is the discipline which looks after reputation with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior."
Institute of Public Relations
“Everything you do or say is public relations.”
Source unknown
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.”
Daniel J. Boorstin
American social historian and educator
"One method of appeal is merely one method of appeal, and in this age wherein a thousand movements and ideas are competing for public attention, one dare not put all one’s eggs into one basket.”
Edward Bernays
The “Father of Public Relations”
“They want good stories. They aren’t paid to say ‘no.’ They’re paid to say ‘yes’ to the right stories.”
Michael Levine, author, on members
of the media, in “Guerrilla P.R.”
“The formulation of a public relations strategy properly begins with listening, not talking.”
Leonard Saffir
Author
"If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying “Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday,” that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that's publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations. If the town’s citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales."
Source unknown
"People don't want to be “marketed to;" they want to be “communicated with.”
Flint McGlaughlin
Marketing expert
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