Burson-Marsteller

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Burson-Marsteller is one of the largest public relations agencies in the world. It is a unit of Young & Rubicam, which is owned by WPP Group PLC. It was formed by Harold Burson and Bill Marsteller in 1954. The firm has 58 wholly-owned and 45 affiliated offices in 59 countries across six continents.

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[edit] History

Burson-Marsteller can trace its beginning to the one-employee business started by Harold Burson in 1946, which was operated as Harold Burson Public Relations in an office space provided by one of his two clients. Burson initially marketed himself as a business-to-business specialist based on his pre-military three-year association with a large engineer-builder that became his first client.

In January 1953, Harold Burson proposed a merger between his firm and the Chicago-based business-to-business focused advertising firm Marsteller Gebhardt & Reed. He made the merger proposal to the firm’s president Bill Marsteller over breakfast at New York’s Plaza Hotel. Burson and Marsteller had shared two large accounts during the previous eleven months Rockwell Manufacturing and Clark Equipment. Marsteller agreed to the merger and the result was the creation of a new public relations firm jointly-owned by the Marsteller agency and Harold Burson.

The firm’s growth into one of the industries giants was triggered by becoming one of the first U.S. public relations firms to establish itself in Europe (1961) upon formation of the European Common Market. It was the first public relations firm to achieve $100 million in revenues (1985), $200 million (1992) and $300 million (2000). (3)

In 1999, Harold Burson was named by PRWeek as the industry’s “most influential person of the 20th Century.”


[edit] Controversial Clients

Among governments often cited as one-time B-M clients are Nigeria, Romania, Singapore, Argentina and Saudi Arabia.

Colombia On April 5, 2008 the Colombian government terminated its business with Penn and his Burson-Marstellar firm.[1]


Nigeria

The Ministry of Information of Nigeria employed Burson-Marsteller in the late 60s to assist in counteracting allegations by secessionists that the Nigerian government was committing genocide in the breakaway province of Biafra. Although the civil war brought about enormous suffering on both sides, an international commission reported finding no evidence of systemic genocide or serious human rights violations.

Romania

Burson-Marsteller assisted Romania in gaining Most Favored Nation status for trade with the United States. At the time the U.S. and other western nations regarded Nicholas Ceaucescu as the friendliest of the Soviet bloc leaders. President Nixon visited Ceauscescu in Bucharest in 1969 and the Romanian leader was said to be instrumental in arranging Nixon’s visit to China. B-M also promoted trade and tourism for Romania. One result was a week long visit to Romania by NBC’s Today program.

Singapore

Burson-Marsteller helped Singapore develop a program to attract overseas investment shortly after its formation as a nation in the mid-60s. This activity continued for approximately ten years and set the stage for Singapore’s highly successful high tech manufacturing economy.

Argentina

With full knowledge of and advice from of the U.S. State Department, Burson-Marsteller accepted the military junta government of General Jeorge Videla as a client to attract industrial investment, market Argentine bonds and promote Argentine products, mainly wine. The military takeover ended a protracted civil war and was hailed by world media as a prelude to peace in Argentina. Burson-Marsteller’s client was the Ministry of the Economy. During the Videla government’s reign, thousands of Argentine citizens disappeared and many more were tortured for their political beliefs. Burson-Marsteller has maintained through the years that it was never asked by its client to defend human rights violations. It did not seek an extension of its four-year contract.

In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein states:

“ Victor Emmanuel, the Burson-Marsteller public relations executive who was in charge of selling the Argentine junta's new business-friendly regime to the outside world, told a researcher that violence was necessary to open up Argentina's 'protective, statist' economy. 'No one, but no one, invests in a country involved in a civil war,' he said, but he admitted that it wasn't just guerrillas who died. 'A lot of innocent people were probably killed,' he told the author Marguerite Feitlowitz, but, 'given the situation, immense force was required. ”

Saudi Arabia

Burson-Marsteller’s relationship with Saudi Arabia dates to the late 1970s when it launched a new petrochemical producer SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation). This activity continued for two decades and was consistent with business-to-business programs undertaken for other industrial clients. In the mid-90s, the King Faisal Foundation retained Burson-Marsteller to gain recognition for several initiatives, including the King Faisal Prize for scientific achievement. This work continued for four years. Its only other engagement for Saudi Arabia was preparing advertisements for major media following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

[edit] Crisis Management

Burson-Marsteller’s strong position in crisis management has resulted in its identification with many major corporate crises of the past half century. It is well known for assisting Johnson & Johnson in the two Tylenol crises in 1982 and 1985. The Tylenol case is frequently cited as the text book model of corporate responsibility for its crisis management.

The firm also is widely known for its work on the Bhopal (India) disaster that killed some 2,000 employees and nearby neighbors and seriously injured thousands more. The plant was a joint venture of Union Carbide Corporation, a long time B-M client, and the Indian government. While originally operated by Union Carbide, it was taken over by local Indian management prior to the accidental discharge of a deadly gas used in the manufacture of insecticides. Burson-Marsteller’s first objective was establishing a mechanism that would be helpful to global media representatives in transmitting news from a remote location in India to newspaper, TV and radio outlets. Two B-M executives were sent to Bhopal for this purpose and remained there more than a month. This facilitated daily press conferences that reported on steps taken following the accident.

Burson-Marsteller also has had a close working relationship with many of the global producers and marketers of petroleum products in training their employees how to respond to crises and working on key communications of specific crisis situations such as oil spills and serious accidents. It has also worked with these companies in the development of environmental upgrade programs. Among those served by Burson-Marsteller are Shell, Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Chevron, BP, Repsol, Gulf and numerous smaller entities that were merged into the larger companies.

Burson-Marsteller was awarded a Silver Anvil, the public relations industry's highest honor for a communications program aimed at restoring confidence in the Korean economy during the Asian financial crisis of 1998.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ John M. Broder, "Colombia to Penn: You’re Fired," "New York Times," April 5, 2008 http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/colombia-to-penn-youre-fired/