Public opinion; Public relations; Publicity; Social psychology
Society is made up of an almost infinite number of groups, whose
various interests and desires overlap and interweave inextricably. The
same man may be at the same time the member of a minority religious
sect, supporter of the dominant political party, a worker in the sense
that he earns his living primarily by his labor, and a capitalist in
the sense that he has rents from real estate investments or interest
from financial investments. In an issue which involves his religious
sect he will align himself with one group. In an issue which involves
the choice of a President of the United States he aligns himself with
another group. In an industrial issue between capital and labor it
might be very nearly impossible to estimate in advance how he would
align himself. It is from the constant interplay of these groups and of
their conflicting interests upon each other that progress results, and
it is this fact that the public relations counsel takes into account
in pleading his cause. A movement called “The Go-Getters,” instituted
by a magazine, as much to keep itself before the public eye as to
stimulate commercial activity, found rapid acceptance throughout the
country because it appealed to trades of every description, because
each group had among its members men who belonged also to a large
group, the group of salesmen.
Let us examine for a moment the personnel of the Horseshoe at the
Metropolitan Opera House. It is composed of people who are rich,
but this economic classification is only one, for the men and women
who assemble there are presumably music lovers. But we may again
break up this classification of music lovers and discover that
this group contains art lovers as well. It contains sportsmen. It
contains merchants and bankers. There are philosophers in it. There
are motorists and amateur farmers. When the Russian Ballet came to
America the essential parts of this group attended the performances,
but in going after his public, the public relations counsel based his
actions upon the interlapping of groups, and appealed to his entire
possible audience through their various interlapping group interests.
The art lover had been stimulated by hearing of the Ballet through
his art group or the art publications and by seeing pictures of the
costumes and the settings. The music lover, who might have had his
interest stimulated through seeing a photograph, also had his interest
stimulated by reading about the music.
Every individual heard of the Russian Ballet in terms of one or more
different appeals and responded to the Ballet because of these appeals.
It is naturally difficult to say which one of them had its strongest
effect upon the individual’s mind. There was no doubt, however, that
the interlapping group formation of society made it possible for more
to be reached and to be moved than would have been the case if the
Ballet had been projected on the world at large only as a well-balanced
artistic performance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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