Carl Byoir and FDR

        

          Carl Robert Byoir (1886 — 3 February 1957) was one of the founding fathers of public relations. He was one of the first public relation pioneers after World War I. He created and organized one of the world's largest public relation firms in 1930. Byoir's techniques and skills are used daily by public relation practitioners. The Museum of Public Relations states "Carl Byoir may not have moved mountains, but he definitely made a career of motivating people to do it for him"
          In 1917, Byoir became a member of the Committee on Public Information, which publicly organized the United States objectives for World War I. While a part of the CPI he practiced many techniques to influence public opinion including creating a campaign that was directed towards draft-eligible non-English speaking Americans. The result of that campaign was adding over 70,000 men to U.S. troops
          In 1921, Byoir began working in advertising and sales, when E. Virgil Neal, at Nuxated Iron, hired Byoir as a salesman. At first, Byoir worked for Nuxated Iron without pay; however, within weeks, Byoir was hired as the vice-president and the general manager of the company because sales increased so significantly. He worked for Neal from 1921 to 1929.
          In 1930, Byoir leased two Cuban newspapers, the Havana Post and the Havana Telegram. Byoir wanted to increase the circulation of the newspaper in Cuba by increasing the number of American tourists to Cuba.  Byoir continued to lead a few other public relation campaigns but his next notable campaign was with the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration planning many charity balls for the President and helping establishing the March of Dimes foundation. 

          Byoir died in 1957. His company prospered for a few more decades and then was taken over by Hill & Knowlton. His name is still a common name brought up while discussing the history of public relations. The Museum of Public Relations states that Byoir said, "the two things required for a successful practitioner were to have an understanding of what motivates people, and to work for a good firm which stood behind him

Katrina Reveals Good, Bad, Ugly of Media Relations

          

          On August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the country when it hit the southern coast of the United States. As a result, more than 1,800 people lost their lives and more than $81 billion dollars in damages took place. There is much to be taken into consideration in the event of a crisis, and therefore, a large number of people must get involved to help keep things together and restore situations to how they originally were. When Hurricane Katrina came into our country’s.
          In the event of an emergency in the United States it is vital that the news media step in to spread news about available relief efforts.  News media coverage is vital because it is what alerts the country of what is going on, not just here in the United States, but also in the rest of the world. Their mass distribution of information for the nation all at once is something not even the government can do itself.
          A great example is the United Way, and organization that did a number of things to capitalize on media interest for the benefit of Katrina victims. The United Way sent dozens of press releases in September and October to local and national media outlets to help make the city aware of its efforts and keep the community focused on the problem. Their press releases included news about major corporate donations and information about fund distributions to organizations helping Katrina victims with child care assistance, housing resettlement, food and clothes, job training, medical services, school supplies, transportation and other needs.
           It is possible for other groups and nonprofit organizations that may not be as well known as nonprofits such as United Way and the American Red Cross to establish good relationships with the news media. One way of doing this is by making a Public Service Announcement. By doing this radio and television stations may feel compelled to run them to demonstrate their “public interest” commitment at license renewal time. The only downfall about PSA’s is that the station can decide to play it at any time it chooses and your spot can air at any time of the day or night. If the organization is lucky, the ad might air during prime time.
          Fortunately, there are always people willing to give. When Hurricane Katrina hit it was a devastating experience for all of us, whether we were directly involved or if we watched our fellow citizens suffering on video and did whatever we could from where we were at that time. In the event of a crisis we need people to step up whether it be nonprofit organizations like the American Red Cross and the United Way, volunteers willing to lend a hand in assisting people put their lives back together.

Dreyer's A taste of Recovery Campaign

     

          With both consumer optimism and ice cream sales declining, Dreyer’s and Ketchum created a campaign that turned the recession to the company’s advantage. In 1929, Bill Dreyer and his partner Joseph Edy created Rocky Road ice cream to give people a lift during the “rocky road” of the Great Depression. Serendipitously, 2009 marked the 80th anniversary of the flavor. The team celebrated the occasion by introducing a limited edition flavor called “Red, White and No More Blues” that kicked off “A Taste of Recovery” campaign to highlight and optimize Dreyer’s legacy of cheering Americans up during tough times.
          The campaign was planned and executed in less than three months (including creation of the new flavor), and it was expected to drive revenue across the Dreyer’s Slow Churned portfolio during the 2009 summer sales season.
          “The campaign had to hit home with a patriotic chord, forge a personal connection and a ‘we’re in this together’ feeling,” the agency said. “The program needed to be engaging and authentic, and provide a tangible and genuine ‘sweet reward.’” A national contest drew on the concepts of “job” and “salary” to help capture media and consumer attention. The contest called for consumers to submit videos explaining a personal dream they would fulfill if they earned $100,000 for scooping ice cream. Monster.com posted the “job” opportunity. A media blitz was conducted with the winner. Judges lauded the spectacular results. They were particularly impressed with sales impact. Sales of Dreyer’s Slow Churned Limited Editions increased 25% over the previous year.

Fatal Tiger Attack at San Francisco Zoo

         

 

         SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- On Christmas, it will be five years since the deadly. There have been two tiger attacks at the San Francisco Zoo, both involving a 4 year old Siberian Tiger named Tatiana (June 27, 2003 — December 25, 2007). In the first incident, a zookeeper was bitten on the arm during a public feeding. During the second incident two people were injured and one killed, before the tiger was fatally shot by police officers.
          Tatiana was born in Denver on June 27, 2003. She was brought to the San Francisco Zoo on December 16, 2005 to provide a 14-year-old Siberian tiger, Tony, with a mate. Tony's prior companion, Emily, had died of cancer of the spleen in late 2005. Tatiana had no record of aggression towards humans.
          During a public feeding on December 22, 2006, Tatiana clawed and bit veteran zookeeper Lori Komejan's arm which was pulled between the cage bars. Komejan's right arm was severely injured as a result. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration later found the zoo at fault due to inadequate safety precautions and inadequate staff training. The San Francisco Zoo was fined US$18,000 for the incident. The Zoo decided not to euthanize Tatiana after the attack on Komejan; then-director Manuel Mollinedo said "the tiger was acting as a normal tiger does.
          On December 25, 2007, Tatiana escaped from her open-air enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo and attacked three visitors shortly after closing time. After escaping from the tiger grotto, Tatiana killed one patron, Carlos Eduardo Sousa Jr., and injured two brothers, Amritpal "Paul" and Kulbir Dhaliwal. The brothers fled to the zoo cafe approximately 300 yards (270 m) away and, according to initial reports, left a trail of blood that the tiger followed. Paul Dhaliwal began screaming outside the locked Terrace Cafe, prompting an employee to call 9-1-1 at 5:07 pm.

          Police response was initially delayed, in part because cafe personnel who called the police voiced suspicions that perhaps the allegations of an animal attack were being made by a mentally unstable person. When the police and fire crews arrived at the zoo, they were further delayed by zoo security guards who were enforcing a lockdown so that the tiger would not escape the zoo grounds.

The Importance of Evaluation

          Evaluation is a methodological area that is closely related to, but distinguishable from more traditional social research. Evaluation utilizes many of the same methodologies used in traditional social research, it requires group skills, management ability, and other skills that social research in general does not rely on as much. Here we introduce the idea of evaluation and some of the major terms and issues in the field.
          Evaluation is the systematic assessment of the worth or merit of some object.  This definition is hardly perfect. There are many types of evaluations that do not necessarily result in an assessment of worth or merit -- descriptive studies, implementation analyses, and formative evaluations, to name a few. Better perhaps is a definition that emphasizes the information-processing and feedback functions of evaluation. 
          Both definitions agree that evaluation is a systematic endeavor and both use the deliberately ambiguous term 'object' which could refer to a program, policy, technology, person, need, activity, and so on. The latter definition emphasizes acquiring and assessing information rather than assessing worth or merit because all evaluation work involves collecting and sifting through data, making judgements about the validity of the information and of inferences.
          The generic goal of most evaluations is to provide "useful feedback" to a variety of audiences. But the relationship between an evaluation and its impact is not a simple one - studies that seem critical sometimes fail to influence short-term decisions, and studies that initially seem to have no influence can have a delayed impact when more congenial conditions arise. Despite that the major goal of evaluation should be to influence decision-making or policy formulation through the provision of empirically.