PR advertising originated in the twentieth century in the West. Towards the middle of the century, John Schneider, a PR agent, published a novel called The Golden Pipe. In his work, he gave a fairly detailed description of the psychological methods of influencing people who were used during the presidential campaign of 1960. The first PR specialists appeared in political parties at that time.
Then the presidential candidates became a kind of “commodity”, and voters appeared as a market. As a result, the confrontation between the two candidates resulted in a rivalry between two advertising companies. The victory was won not by the strongest, but by the one whose PR service worked most efficiently. In this case, the most diverse methods of psychological influence on voters were used.
Political PR was aimed at a specific voter, the methods of influence affected the interests of an average citizen with an average level of intelligence. Of course, voters are not interested in listening to lengthy speeches about global world problems. They are more interested in their own pressing difficulties.
Political PR is a rather complex multi-level process. It includes several events:
- Organization and implementation of effective campaigns.
- Strategy development.
- Conducting sociological research.
- Image support of candidates.
- Legal support of the entire campaign.
- Creative plan development.
- External monitoring.
- Work with organizations (public, political and others).
- Attraction of regional and federal mass media.
- Countering the services of competing candidates and parties.
- Preparation and production of various visual agitation. At this stage, various outdoor advertising techniques are used : leaflets, billboards, flyers, banners, banners, posters and others.
Political PR is a combination of various measures by which objectives are achieved. Specialists in the field of public relations use various methods of psychological influence on the population in order to achieve communicative goals while promoting one structure and at the same time neutralizing another. Political PR provides for the use of such techniques as:
- Creating the image of an outsider and a winner.
- The formation of false popularity.
- False support.
- Lengthy negotiations.
- Formation of hopeless situations.
- Clash of parties by artificial means through various events, with the help of dummies and other things.
Political PR includes a variety of technologies. They contribute to the formation of the recipient of information of their own opinions about those or other parties or figures. The so-called “speechwriting” acts as the most common technology that is included in political PR. Literally, this term means writing a specific text intended for oral presentation. The technology of communicative influence on the masses is also widely used. In rare cases, personal PR technologies can be used.
In this area, it is customary to distinguish between white and black PR. The latter contains measures that are contrary to the law and do not comply with the moral and ethical standards of society. The events held as part of the black PR are aimed at undermining the reputation of competitors, including the collection of dirt, bribery and so on. Simply put, such events constitute the dissemination of negative information about someone. White PR, on the contrary, involves the use of exclusively legal measures aimed at achieving a compromise between candidates and the public. In other words, it represents a two-way information system based on the principle of cooperation.