The Friendly Giant
Toward the end of the 1920's, there was an opposite feeling concerning big businesses and large monopolies. During the Depression, big business were looked at as the "bad guy". But 1928 was a turnaround for corporations as they were growing more powerful. They wanted to help the economy of America and help their self-image. Corporations had a great influence on both national and local organizations. Some organizations include the Chamber of Commerce, farmers group, churches and schools.
"The image of the corporation as a "friendly giant" stood at the center of many companies public relations activities. "Successful business is business plus personality," instructed S.M Kennedy, a marketing expert. "The more a business is crowded with personality, the faster it will grow and prosper." Others echoed the co-operative of "humanizing business" and labored to purge the image of the "soulless corporation" from the public mind." (PR!, Ewen, page 216)
Public image is how businesses become more successful. If you get respect from the people, you will benefit from their business. A good example is McDonalds. Even though they have food that is terrible for you, they do alot of good charity work. The Ronald McDonald Charity does alot of good deeds for families.
Even though these large businesses were called "The Enemies", they have done good things for this country. Helping the economy grow and contributing to the well-being of the society were big keys in helping these big businesses regain popularity. Without these businesses, America would be in an economic downfall.
"The image of the corporation as a "friendly giant" stood at the center of many companies public relations activities. "Successful business is business plus personality," instructed S.M Kennedy, a marketing expert. "The more a business is crowded with personality, the faster it will grow and prosper." Others echoed the co-operative of "humanizing business" and labored to purge the image of the "soulless corporation" from the public mind." (PR!, Ewen, page 216)
Public image is how businesses become more successful. If you get respect from the people, you will benefit from their business. A good example is McDonalds. Even though they have food that is terrible for you, they do alot of good charity work. The Ronald McDonald Charity does alot of good deeds for families.
Even though these large businesses were called "The Enemies", they have done good things for this country. Helping the economy grow and contributing to the well-being of the society were big keys in helping these big businesses regain popularity. Without these businesses, America would be in an economic downfall.
posted by N. Interligi at 12:10 PM
1 Comments:
A good discussion of the material.
Without getting into a debate over the value of corporations to society, we can plainly see that the public perception of business changes from negative to positive and back again over the years. From a corporate perspective managing the public perception of big business and capitalism is ongoing part of corporate PR. If
America was relatively pro-business by the end of the Twenties due to the prosperity and the corporate campaigns of the era, then that optimistic positive attitude suffered a nasty shock in October of 1929. A new world of public anger at banks, big business and capitalism itself was dawning and that required a renewed effort on the part of big business to reaffirm the public's faith in business and private enterprise. Is there a parallel today?
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