PR Firms and their Mission Looking at how public relations practitioners advertise their services, they do not primarily seem to be followers of the "social engineering" approach. Burson-Marsteller, the worlds leading PR agency, for example sells itself as a specialist in "... public affairs, government relations, crisis communication, investor relations, environmental issues and marketing communications ... experienced at orchestrating effective campaigns, which motivate the right behaviors.". Porter Novelli, third largest international PR company, somewhat more aggressive promises, that their marketing-based public relations "... penetrate the consumer psyche - where - your target audiences work, learn, play or shop, through everything they read, hear and see.". While Porter Novelli seems to be specialized in psychological warfare, Fleishman-Hillard highlights its know-how and experience in government relations programs. "We have handled some of the nation's most challenging public policy issues, including issues affecting the environment, from clean air to agricultural chemicals; aviation safety; regressive taxes; international trade; and human rights.". To handle those difficult tasks, Fleishman-Hillard maintains "... an effective, professional lobbying team that includes registered lobbyists recruited from the Senate and the House."

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Public Relations Often public relations are described as the effort to influence the public or relevant parts of it by representing self-interests to reach certain goals. This view of PR is most commonly found, when acting within the economic sphere. On the other hand organizations like the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) as well as several PR theorists and practitioners see themselves as social engineers, responsible for societal harmony. "Public relations help our complex, pluralistic society to reach decisions and function more effectively by contributing to mutual understanding among institutions. It serves to bring public and public policies into harmony...", the PRSA announced in one of their official statements on public relations.

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Sponsorship Models With new sponsorship models being developed, even further influence over content from the corporate side can be expected. Co-operating with Barnes & Nobel Booksellers, the bookish e-zine FEED for instance is in part relying on sponsoring. Whenever a specific title is mentioned in the editorial, a link is placed in the margin - under the heading "Commerce" - to an appropriate page on Barnes & Noble. Steve Johnson, editor of FEED, says "We do not take a cut of any merchandise sold through those links.", but admits that the e-zine does indirectly profit from putting those links there.

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The Advertising Industry The advertising industry is dominated by three huge advertising networks, which offer their services throughout the world. Gross income of the three leading agencies is twice as much, as the one of places four to ten. Table: World's Top 10 Advertising Organizations 1999 (figures in millions of U.S. dollars) Rank 1999 Advertising Organization Headquarters World-Wide Gross Income 1999 1 Omnicom New York, USA $ 5,743.4 2 Interpublic Group of Cos. New York, USA $ 5,079.3 3 WPP Group London, UK $ 4,819.3 4 Havas Advertising Levallois-Perret, France $ 2,385.1 5 Dentsu Tokyo, Japan $ 2,106.8 6 B Com3 Group Chicago, USA $ 1,933.8 7 Young & Rubicam Inc. New York, USA $ 1,870.1 8 Grey Advertising New York, USA $ 1,577.9 9 True North Chicago, USA $ 1,489.2 10 Publicis SA Paris, France $ 1,434.6 Table: Top 10 Global Marketers 1998 (figures in millions of U.S. dollars) Rank 1998 Advertiser Headquarters World-Wide Media Spending 1998 1 Procter & Gamble Co. Cincinnati (US) $ 4,747.6 2 Unilever Rotterdam (NL)/London (UK) $ 3,428.5 3 General Motors Corp. Detroit (US) $ 3,193.5 4 Ford Motor Co. Darborn (US) $ 2,229.5 5 Philip Morris Cos. New York $ 1,980.3 6 Daimler Chrysler Stuttgart (GER)/Auburn Hills (US $ 1,922.2 7 Nestle Vevey (SUI) $ 1,833.0 8 Toyota Motor Corp. Toyota City (JP) $ 1,692.4 9 Sony Corp. Tokyo (JP) $ 1,337.7 10 Coca-Cola Co. Atlanta (US) $ 1,327.3 On the other hand the three biggest advertisers only spend about US$ 2 millions less than places four to ten together. Whereas money spent on advertising in traditional media comes from very diverse categories, companies offering computer hard- and software, peripherals or Internet services mainly pay for on-line advertisements. Table: Top 10 Internet Advertisers 1998 (figures in millions of U.S. dollars) Rank 1998 Advertiser Internet Spending 1998 1998 - 1997 % Change 1 Microsoft Corp. $ 34.9 9.4 2 IBM Corp. $ 28.5 58.6 3 Compaq Computer Corp. $ 16.2 169.8 4 General Motors Corp. $ 12.7 84.8 5 Excite $ 12.4 1.5 6 Infoseek Corp. $ 9.3 22.3 7 AT&T Corp. $ 9.3 43.5 8 Ford Motor Co. $ 8.6 46.7 9 Hewlett-Packard Co. $ 8.1 102.9 10 Barnes & Noble $ 7.6 280.2 Source: Advertising Age

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Product Placement With television still being very popular, commercial entertainment has transferred the concept of soap operas onto the Web. The first of this new species of "Cybersoaps" was "The Spot", a story about the ups and downs of an American commune. The Spot not only within short time attracted a large audience, but also pioneered in the field of online product placement. Besides Sony banners, the companies logo is also placed on nearly every electronic product appearing in the story. Appearing as a site for light entertainment, The Spots main goal is to make the name Sony and its product range well known within the target audience.

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Porter Novelli Porter Novelli is the third largest PR firm with 1998 net fees of US$ 183,050,000. The companies focus lies on building brands, enhancing reputation and crisis management. Porter Novelli is specialised in: Food and nutrition, health care, consumer goods, technology, public affairs and social marketing.

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