Public Relations superior to advertising

Daniel Edelman, who died on January 15th at age 92, is hailed as the creator of public relations as we know it today. He started his career as a journalist and launched Edelman in 1952, making his name by promoting Toni home-perm kits. His big break came when he hired twins, one with a  “Toni” home perm and the other without. The twins travelled through the States, posing for photos, kissing local celebrities and asking: “Which twin has the Toni ?”.  This creative stint won Toni front page coverage in all the daily papers.

Mr Edelman viewed PR as a more effective way to market a company’s reputation and brands than its far more expensive counterpart, advertising.
Not only did  Edelman’s firm promote consumer products including 9Lives cat food, Sara Lee, Butterball Turkeys, Starbucks, it also represented the Concorde plane, the Mormon church and the Economist.

Mr Edelman remained chairman of his firm which employs over 4’500 people worldwide and grossed $ 165 million in 2011 until his death. Despite many offers from his archrivals WPP or Publicis, the company is still family owned and run by his son Richard Edelman and is the largest independently owned public relations firm.

Today, some 60 years later with the advent of social media and brand e-reputation to be safeguarded, Mr. Edelman’s opinion has a modern tone to it - “PR is a superior, more honest and nuanced business than advertising”.

Source : “The Economist”, January 19th 2013 – Public relations-Dan the (Not Mad) man
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