The "you angle"

This text has been concerned with masses—with large numbers of people in groups, whose interests interlock. In today's complex society, every individual is dependent upon others. Yet even in such a society, the ,person in the whole world who is the most important 'to a man is himself. Although he scarcely would contend that the world owes him a living, ingrained within him is the knowledge that, in accordance with the principle set forth in the American Declaration of Independence, he is entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." In other words, Americans and also Canadians believe they are entitled to a fair opportunity of making a living according to the measure of the individual's talents and his luck.

In the light of those ingrained "unalienable" rights, a man examines and appraises every phase of life that affects him. In the light of those rights, he examines and appraises the nation's economy and, within that economy, every industry and every industrial enterprise whose sphere of operations touches the sphere in which he lives and moves and has his being.

As unselfish as the next fellow, a man still reserves the right to ask: "Where do I come in? How will this business policy, this line of corporate conduct about which I have heard, affect me and my family, our mode of living, our present-day welfare, and perhaps our future security? What chance will it give my son and daughter to advance?"

Thus is demonstrated the effect of what people in advertising call the "you angle." It is common practice in a piece of direct-mail advertising to bring "you" into the picture quickly by mentioning "you" in the very first sentence. A company that manufactures lawnmowers would be likely to lead-off a sales letter with some such remark as: "Of course, you want a beautiful lawn!" Thus, "you" are offered, not just a piece of machinery, but also a service; and thanks to that service "you" will be able to keep "your" lawn as shipshape as the lawns of "your" neighbors.

Consequently, when a public-relations worker in projecting his public-relations story to masses of people, undertakes to "sell" ideas, rather than things, he should remember that he is addressing masses of "yous" and should therefore always keep in mind the "you angle."

This leads back to the question of what manner of story shall the public-relations worker undertake to project. Consideration has already been given to what the newsmen call "spot" news, or, in other words, information tied to some specific element of time, which is conveyed by means of news releases and background memoranda. Consideration has also been given to news which is generated by the uses of staged events. There is, however, another kind of news and that is the news provided by an enterprise's role as an implement in the service of civilization.

A transportation story

Vital to the operation of the national economy is the movement of goods and commodities. Without railroads, motor transportation, airlines and steamship lines, civilization's progress would be at a very slow rate. Concerning one of the arms of the transportation system, the following news item provides an interesting side-light:

March 4, 1839. Across the wind-rippled stretches of Long Island Sound a paddle-wheel steamer plows its tedious way, bound for New York.

At her rail stands a young man, gazing out across the Sound's shining surface. Faultlessly attired from head to toe, he could be taken for some Boston dandy on his way to visit the great metropolis of New York. Except for one thing. Close by his feet is a large and palpably home-made carpet bag, a bag positively bursting at the seams. Those bulges are packages and parcels, bound from business men in Boston to business men in New York.

For this is the beginning of a new era in business transportation. The young man leaning on the steamer's rail is William F. Harnden, and this is the first trip of the country's first expressman.

The "dateline" is March 4, 1839. Yet to many persons, the story is new. It is the story of the beginnings of what now is known as the Railway Express Agency. Starting with such a news item as this, the story of the company's development has been made known by subsequent items published at intervals over the years. Nevertheless, the story as a whole, as an instance of corporate achievement and public service, provides news for today, because the story is not generally known in its entirety, or even in part by many of recent generations, and because achievement is a currently existing characteristic of an enterprise. The Railway Express Agency recognized the value of its story as news, and consequently published it in a widely distributed brochure which opens with the item quoted above. Appearing in a foreword is the following:

The story of Railway Express is the story of pioneers in public service . . . men devoted to finding swifter, more efficient ways of business transportation. Here is the romance of an idea, born in the mind of one man, expanded from that first clear thought to a mighty network whose 23,000 offices now span the entire country .. . whose services form the backbone of the nation's business.

This story makes a particular appeal to the reader's interest because it is written from the "you angle." The following excerpt from the brochure is an example:

Service to the public has made Railway Express what it is today—an organization deep-rooted in the life of the nation, touching in one way or another on the life, the comfort, and the daily work of every one of our citizens. . . . There is an amazing and complex express organization ready to serve you today. It is as close as the nearest telephone.

A public-relations program concerned with public safety

In many ways, a business enterprise can advance its own interests, attain favorable publicity, and thus build good-will, by extending its activities beyond what might be considered its normal, functional range. For example, take the Commercial Investment Trust Corporation ( C. I. T. ), which is engaged in the financing of sales of automobiles, and other products. From a practical point of view, as well as in the public interest, the corporation is concerned with safeguarding lives and limbs and motor vehicles.

In the interest of public safety, and with the cooperation of local automobile clubs and automobile dealers, and with the blessings of the governors of the forty-eight states, C. I. T. conducted a nationwide, safe-driving contest, in which drivers were judged by their records. At the company's expense, the contest winner in each state was brought to New York where, at the Waldorf-Astoria, the forty-eight winners held a two-day convention, and formed the nucleus of the C. I. T. Safe Drivers League. Largely on its own momentum, the league enrolled, within a year, a membership of more than 10,000 persons.

Here was a public-relations project that began as a staged event and, because it was designed in the public interest and undoubtedly kept untold thousands of “yous" out of hospitals, became an activity of increasing proportions. It goes without saying that this project generated much favorable publicity, a publicity which was encouraged but which also grew naturally out of the newsworthy nature of the activity.

A program based on loss prevention. In the same category and in the same general field of endeavor as that discussed in the preceding section is the broad program of loss prevention and conservation carried forward by the Affiliated Aetna Life Companies. Here is a program that, directed from the companies' headquarters in Hartford, operates along public-relations lines in communities in which the companies are represented by agents. For the agents' guidance, the companies have prepared a public-relations manual entitled Breaking Into Print.

Specifically, the manual conveys instructions and suggestions for the local use of six kinds of educational material:

1. Motion pictures
2. Speeches
3. Booklets and folders
4. Devices for testing drivers of automotive vehicles
5. Action displays
6. Posters.

The use of any one of these six kinds of material is likely to cause the local agent to "break into print." Thus, in communities across the continent, the story of Aetna's continuing program of loss prevention and conservation is told to people who see in that story something that affects themselves. They see projected, also, the concept of a great business enterprise which has established and staffed a function that, extending beyond the mere sale of insurance policies, aims to protect people and their property and belongings. Aetna's manual of instructions to the local agents concludes with this thought: "Doing a good job and letting people know what you are doing is the essence of good public relations, and good public relations is always good business."

Old age and good conduct as a publicity asset

Of outstanding interest to people in their journey from the cradle to the grave is the matter of a person's age. When two people meet, each immediately tries to form an opinion of how old the other person is. Every year, a local newspaper usually sends a reporter to interview the community's oldest inhabitant, and to ask him, perhaps, how he has managed to attain the age of 94 and still keep active. Of interest, also, is the age of a business concern. A person is impressed when he learns that the store in which he is buying a pair of gloves was established on its present site as far back as 1831.

In connection with a business organization, however, mere age is not enough to bring to that enterprise worthwhile publicity. It is not only a question of how old is a concern. It is also a question of how good is a concern. In other words, how well throughout its years, has the company conducted itself? If, over the years, the enterprise's conduct has been good; if the enterprise has been reasonably successful in keeping out of labor troubles and out of lawsuits brought by its competitors or, perhaps, by disgruntled stockholders; if, over the years, the good conduct of the enterprise has always been apparent to the public; then the enterprise's arrival at some significant milestone becomes an event worthy of much favorable, public attention.

The Edison Centennial celebration

An example of what can be accomplished from a public-relations standpoint in connection with an anniversary, and on a comparatively limited budget, was provided by the Edison Centennial celebration which, in 1947, commemorated Thomas Edison's birth. With the aid of "outside" public-relations counsel and on a budget of $95,000, there were brought about the following results:

1. Over-all coverage by newspapers and national magazines
2. Coverage by four newsreels
3. Mention in a score of radio network programs
4. Edison dinners in 100 cities
5. Special programs by 1,000 science clubs
6. An Edison Centennial postage stamp
7. Essay contests in more than 50 cities
8. Special proclamations by 24 governors
9. Open-house parties in naval-base cities
10. A special message from the President of the United States.

In addition, industries that grew out of Edison inventions took the opportunity provided by the Centennial celebration to pay tribute to the Sage of Menlo Park, and they did so through the medium of paid-for advertising space. Furthermore, educational aspects of the program were taken up in most of the nation's primary and secondary schools, and given a place in the curriculum throughout the anniversary year. Thus was demonstrated the truth of the old saying that "an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." Quite properly, the Edison Centennial observance was formulated as a tribute to a well-loved man's memory. Quite naturally, great public-relations benefit accrued to the commercial enterprise that bears his name.

Progress and prestige

Nearly every modern-day industry carries forward a program of scientific research aimed at improving old products or extending their uses, and developing new products. This is a function of the industrial economy of both the United States and Canada that is always stimulated in wartime, when these nations' industrial "plants" turn their "know-how" and their facilities to the development of weapons and munitions.

This was especially true during World War II, when industry after industry "enlisted" for the duration. In passing, it seems pertinent to mention the fact that industry's wartime preoccupation with war production created the serious public-relations problem of holding, for the duration, the good-will of industry's normal, peacetime customers. As to how this problem was met is not of immediate concern, and it seems logical to forego a discussion of it in the interests of keeping this treatment of public relations applicable to conditions as they exist today.

War's stimulation of scientific research brings benefits to the subsequent period of peace. Industrial techniques and even industrial products which, during a conflict, are developed purely for war purposes, are converted to a large extent into peacetime uses. One example from World War II is the Jeep. Another example is the atomic bomb, a matter of much greater significance, since out of the development of this war product came a tremendous advance in men's knowledge of the practical applications of nuclear physics. What men learned in that direction is now being developed to enrich life instead of being used entirely for its war purpose of destroying life.

Thus, out of the years of World War II, as out of all other war periods, came a new industrial purpose, a new industrial motivation, that grew out of a new realization of the functions of applied science in improving old products, developing new ones and, in general, finding and devising ways in which the national economy might better serve the people. Here, then, is a story of achievement that, in the over-all view, has only begun to unfold. It is a story in which virtually every concern and virtually every industrial group can contribute at least one chapter.

The publicity campaign of the shoe manufacturers

As an example of an industry which is known for its achievements, take the shoe manufacturers which are engaged in manufacturing a very essential product. The story of shoes and how technological skill has made them what they are was told, at least in part, by means of a public-relations program set in motion by the National Shoe Manufacturers Association. This program was designed to better public relations by the use of two methods:

1. Through personal contacts with people who were in a position to pass the story on to the public by means of the written or spoken word
2. Through the preparation and distribution of "literature."

As a means of carrying out the first phase of their program, the shoe manufacturers talked and wrote to editors, fashion and feature writers, reporters, radio commentators and other conveyors and molders of opinion. The second phase of the program was carried out by issuing a wide variety of printed material. Included in this material were news bulletins sent to the association's members, informing them of the program's progress and explaining how they could help to make it a success. Other material consisted of "news-of-shoes" bulletins sent to the trade and to the trade press. For general distribution, the industry prepared a series of pamphlets and brochures. There was one on the development of shoe design, one on shoe styles, one on lasts, one on the facts and figures of footwear, and one on shoemaking history starting with the year 2000 B.C.

"Selling" a way of life

Earlier it was pointed out that many thoughtful men believe that a modern-day public-relations program must transcend serving the interests of the enterprise or the organization that formulates it and sets it in motion. "As the exemplars of free enterprise," it was stated in the beginning, "many business men feel that the business men of the nation, using the techniques of public relations, must carry the burden of making people more generally aware of the benefits of the system under which they enjoy freedom and plenty."

In line with this thought, L. R. Boulware, vice-president of the General Electric Company, makes this statement in Editor & Publisher, the outstanding journal of the journalistic profession: "For fifteen years our defenses have been down. The voice of truth and reason has been silent. No effort of any consequence has been made to answer the persuasive arguments of the collectivists. Our employees and the public at large have been subjected to the grossest form of economic misinformation and pressure-group propaganda. For lack of the truth, our people have been unable to resist the absorption of these misconceptions."

General Electric Company's educational program

Through its own company channels, but in the interest of all business, the General Electric Company has undertaken to spread the knowledge of economic truth, as have other enterprises and other industries. In this endeavor, it was quite logical for General Electric to seek first the cooperation of its own employees. "We found," Mr. Boulware says, "that

1. We had to be sure that we got and kept the physical and financial aspects of each individual job up to ever-rising standards, and that we saw to it that the employees knew about and understood the improvements
2. We had to improve the leadership qualities of the employee's individual boss –had to give the boss sound policy information that he could pass along to the employees working under him–and had to train him to be to his subordinates a salesman and a service representative of our ‘job package’ “

Then, as a third requirement, Mr. Boulware continues, "We had to improve information, not only regarding our company and its policies and progress, but also about our free economic and social system; and not only improve information to employees, but also to their bosses; for we in management, from foreman to top executive, have had largely to relearn our economics all over again."

Of the three objectives, the first two were purely internal. They were carried forward within the company. As for the third objective, however, the fact was recognized that its attainment would be hampered by outside influences. It was felt that it would be almost futile to attempt to provide an employee with sound information about economics so long as his ideas were subject to attack by persons outside the company who were intent on spreading some economic doctrine of a fallacious nature because it seemed to hold the promise of great rewards with the minimum of work and responsibility.

Accordingly, it was believed that some means would have to be found of conveying the story through outside channels, also. As Mr. Boulware points out, this is an over-all task which ought to be undertaken as a public service by newspapers, radio stations and other agencies of the free-enterprise system that have a stake in the system's perpetuation.

The program starts at home

Meanwhile, however, in its own home "plant community," General Electric has set an example that many another public-relations program might emulate. In Schenectady, General Electric executives helped the Lions Club establish an educational course for business men, a course in which the heads of local business enterprises, large and small, may learn or relearn basic economic truths. It is expected that these business men, and some 400 of them are enrolled in the first course in Schenectady, will pass on these truths to their employees as well as to others, and, through these employees and others, to the general public.

In a community such as Schenectady, such an audience of business men as assembled for the Lions Club's course in economics includes a substantial representation of those who are known as "middlemen"—the wholesalers and retailers of merchandise. The project now being carried on by General Electric in cooperation with the Schenectady Lions Club, holds out the promise that these "middlemen" can serve also as the wholesalers and retailers of ideas.

Back to the "you angle"

At the beginning of this page, attention was called to the geometry of what advertising people call the "you angle." The point was made that the sellers of goods and services base their sales appeal upon what "you" want and what "you" need and aspire to be. Accordingly, a person is perfectly justified in asking this question: "In the perpetuation of our economic system, wherein do I profit?" Bluntly, the question might be answered like this: If the system collapses, you don't eat.

It is obvious, however, that such an answer will not suffice to put the message across. When, as a part of the public-relations function, the task is undertaken to uphold the system of free enterprise and to justify it publicly, then, as General Electric and as other enterprises are doing, the story must be told, not in an off-hand manner, but by means of facts and of reasonable deductions and conclusions. And of facts in support of such a story, every public-relations worker who digs into the material can find more than he can use.

The real job of the public-relations worker in explaining the American and Canadian system of enterprise, is to pinpoint and dramatize a story of the system that "you," and millions of other "yous," are so close to that it is taken for granted. The public-relations worker must actuate the thought that a way of life—like a wife —can be lost when it is taken for granted. "You" must be made to appreciate and defend the system, just as "you" must appreciate and defend "your" wife if you want to keep her.

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