The Three Best PR Campaigns you Never Knew About

Mandy Griffiths

Aug 19, 2014 · 6 min read

Working as a PR professional there are very few things that will truly surprise you when it comes to marketing and media; transparent campaign tactics; who was really behind those survey/research results; why a company is suddenly interested in helping to save the world. But occasionally, some piece of information will appear out of nowhere and surprise you. Did you know that the numbers on your toaster represent minutes? I didn’t, and if there’s something I don’t know about toasters, perhaps I’m not the know-it-all I would like to be.

Here are three PR campaigns I learned about recently that surprised me. The campaigns are not recent. In fact, one dates back almost 100 years but there is much to learn from history, and some of it is worth repeating.

ONE: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER… SO YOU WON’T SELL THEM AND THEIR VALUE WON’T PLUMMET

In perhaps the ultimate romance around, “Pride and Prejudice”, the Darcy and Elizabeth romance is culminated when Mr Darcy asks for her hand in marriage, she says yes and Darcy gets approval from her father. All very lovely and romantic, but is anything missing? Yes, that would be the presenting of the diamond engagement ring. Only it is not missing, because it is not a traditional part of the engagement process, it is the result of a campaign by De Beers’ ad agency N.W. Ayer and Son in the 1930s.

Sure engagement rings existed, but not as the finite branding of the betrothed, and not necessarily in diamond form. Prior to the nineteenth century diamonds were rare and found in only a few places in the world, thus ensuring they commanded a high value owned purely by the elite – a sparkly sign of wealth. The discovery of diamonds in South Africa (1870), the Soviet Union (1950s) and finally Australia (1970s) diminished greatly the scarcity of the gemstone, and so diminished its value. Or at least, it would have, if the most organised and long term thinking cartel hadn’t emerged to control – not only the supply of diamonds to make consumers think they were still scarce – but our perception of diamonds as symbolic of wealth, power, romance, and something never to be parted with…

Some facts that might surprise you:

• Diamonds can in fact be shattered, chipped, discoloured, or incinerated to ash
• Once purchased it is almost impossible to sell diamond jewellery for the same price you paid, let alone a higher price
• Due to the nature of the De Beers cartel, when diamonds were found in the Soviet Union in the 1950s the company was forced to cut a deal, market and sell their (smaller) diamonds to keep the cartel alive. Not particularly surprising in itself, but what it did mean is that following “The Red Scare” in the United States everyone was walking around with Soviet diamonds on their hands.

So how did they do it? Positioning and creative certainly had a big part to play, but without needing to highlight a particular brand (since they owned them all), where their strategy branched out and succeeded was in one very important aspect of public relations.

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

What’s good enough for cigarette companies is good enough for diamonds. Movie idols wearing diamonds in their films, socialites posing with huge rocks for society pages, lecturers visiting high schools, fashion designers discussing diamonds as the hot new trend in interviews, and even Queen Elizabeth wearing diamonds instead of other jewels to support Great Britain’s interest in the industry. The 1948 strategy paper explained: “We spread the word of diamonds worn by stars of screen and stage, by wives and daughters of political leaders, by any woman who can make the grocer’s wife and the mechanic’s sweetheart say ‘I wish I had what she has’”. Magazines ranked celebrity engagement rings as a symbol of how strong their love was – an ongoing practice to this day. Let’s just hope Kim Kardashian isn’t banking on any money from that diamond ring should (heaven forbid) her and Kanye’s love not prove eternal.

For the full rich history of the 60 year campaign to maintain the myth of diamonds as a valuable investment, read this fantastic 1982 expose from Edward Jay Epstein at The Atlantic ‘Have you ever tried to sell a diamond?.

TWO: AMERICA ENTERED WORLD WAR ONE BECAUSE OF… PR?

The ‘father of public relations’, Edward Bernays, had many achievements – convincing Americans to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast (not normal prior to his era), women to start smoking (I didn’t say they were all good achievements) – but perhaps his most significant and surprisingly little known impact was to convince America to go to war in 1917. Faced with a population that saw World War One as a Capitalist’s War that Americans should steer clear of, Bernays was recruited to the Committee of Public Information (CPI), essentially a propaganda operation, where he was able to test his major findings from mass psychological research – that ‘the public’s first impulse is usually to follow a trusted leader rather than consider the facts for itself. ’

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

CPI recruited local authority figures such as local bank managers to bridge the gap between government and citizen in a subtle and seemingly authentic way. They were the country’s “four minute men” – giving short, (supposedly) spontaneous speeches in their local town cinemas about the (supposed) risk of being overrun by Prussians and they needed to “Make the World Safe for Democracy”.

The campaign worked so well that Bernays wondered if this method would work in peace time as well as war, leading to his other well known campaign work, and unfortunately, inspired future leaders in other countries to turn to these practices also. Not to be too reviled, Bernays did also lead a successful campaign following World War One to encourage the re-employment of returning soldiers.

THREE: MICHELIN AND GUINNESS AND THE ICONIC PRODUCTS THEY CREATED

So these ones I just feel plain silly about since their names are in the title. Hence why it comes last.

MICHELIN GUIDE

Running for more than 100 years, the Michelin Guide is the oldest and best known hotel and restaurant reference guide, awarding Michelin Stars for excellence for a select few establishments. Everyone’s heard of it, every restaurant wants a star and every foodie want to eat there. How did it start? To sell tyres.

In 1900 there were only 3000 cars in France. Michelin needed more cars on the road, wearing out more tyres to make more money. In the definition of ‘thinking laterally’, the company created a free travel and restaurant guide to encourage people to go exploring (via car). While we don’t know the direct impact on tyre sales, one would imagine it was successful as the Guide still exists, now covers 23 countries and is sold in 90.

GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS

In a scene straight out of Monty Python’s Holy Grail (was it an African or a European Swallow?), it was 1951 and the managing director of Guinness Breweries, Sir Hugh Beaver, went on a shooting party, missed a shot at a Golden Plover, and got into an argument as to which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the Golden Plover or Red Grouse (it was the Plover). Pre-internet and with no way to verify he was correct, Beaver realised that many such arguments must be taking place in pubs all around Europe, and deduced a book containing these answers would both be of interest and encourage more conversations (and more beers).

Initially the books were given away for free as a marketing exercise for Guinness, but due to their popularity, ended up being money-makers themselves. Changing ownership many times in the years since (and adding International Guinness World Records Day and museum attractions to its repertoire) the brand name Guinness remains.

CONTENT MARKETING

While we go on about content marketing as the next big trend in PR, the key message to take away from this is that providing something interesting and of value has always been received well, even if it evolves to the point where people like me don’t associate the products with the brands that were behind them. It might be time for a nostalgia PR campaign to serve as a reminder.

Mandy Griffiths

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