World-Information.Org

Advertising, Public Relations and Think Tanks

Although advertising, public relations and think tanks at first seem to have nothing in common, after a closer look certain similarities arise.

The first thing which can be noted is that public relations and the advertising industry, as well as - especially conservative - think tanks like the Heritage Foundation or the Brookings Institute have strong ties to corporate firms. Whereas the connection between the advertising and public relations industry and corporations is based on a consultant - client relation many think tanks heavily rely on corporate funding to pursue their activities. Therefore the interests of corporate firms are to an - in some cases considerable - extent reflected in their activities.

Furthermore the aims of public relations and advertising firms and think tanks are not too different. Their main goal is to sell ideas and values. Albeit it sometimes makes the impression, as if only products, services and understanding (in the case of public relations) are sold, for the greater part the only thing being marketed is (political) ideology.

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Examples of Mainly Corporate Funded Think Tanks: Cato Institute

Founded in 1977 the Cato Institutes 1998 budget made up US$ 11 million. Its funding consists of corporate and private donations (especially from corporations and executives in the highly regulated industries of financial services, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals industries) and sales of publications.

Catos corporate donors include tobacco firms:

Philip Morris (

Rupert Murdoch sits on Philip Morris board of directors) and

R.J. Reynolds. Financial firms:

American Express,

Chase Manhattan Bank,

Chemical Bank,

Citicorp/Citibank, Commonwealth Fund, Prudential Securities and

Salomon Brothers. Energy conglomerates:

Chevron Companies,

Exxon Company,

Shell Oil Company and Tenneco Gas, as well as the

American Petroleum Institute,

Amoco Foundation and

Atlantic Richfield Foundation. Furthermore the Cato Institute is funded by pharmaceutical firms:

Eli Lilly & Company,

Merck & Company and

Pfizer, Inc., foundations, like Koch, Lambe and Sarah Scaife and companies from the telecommunications sector: Bell Atlantic Network Services, BellSouth Corporation,

Microsoft, NYNEX Corporation,

Sun Microsystems and

Viacom.

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Seneca

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (~4 BC - 65 AD), originally coming from Spain, was a Roman philosopher, statesman, orator and playwright with a lot of influence on the Roman cultural life of his days. Involved into politics, his pupil

Nero forced him to commit suicide. The French Renaissance brought his dramas back to stage.

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Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)

Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) is a standard reference model for communication between two end users in a network. It is used in developing products and understanding networks.

Source: Whatis.com

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