Carl Robert Byoir (1886 — 3 February 1957) was one of the founding fathers of public relations. He was one of the first public relation pioneers after World War I. He created and organized one of the world's largest public relation firms in 1930. Byoir's techniques and skills are used daily by public relation practitioners. The Museum of Public Relations states "Carl Byoir may not have moved mountains, but he definitely made a career of motivating people to do it for him". Public relation textbooks rarely give Byoir the credit he deserves because he was one of the Founding Fathers of public relations but his work helped make public relations an accepted profession.
Contents |
Byoir was born to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland but raised in Des Moines, Iowa. Byoir started his career in public relations at 14 as a reporter for the The Des Moines Register. At the age of 17, Byoir became the editor of the Waterloo Times-Tribune. He worked his way through the University of Iowa while he was the circulation manager for Hearst Magazine’s publications. In 1917, Byoir became a member of the Committee on Public Information, which publicly organized the United States objectives for World War I. While apart of the CPI he practiced many techniques to influence public opinion including creating a campaign that was directed towards draft-eligible non-English speaking Americans. The result of that campaign was adding over 70,000 men to U.S. troops.
In 1921, Byoir began working in advertising and sales, when E. Virgil Neal, at Nuxated Iron, hired Byoir as a salesman. At first, Byoir worked for Nuxated Iron without pay; however, within weeks, Byoir was hired as the vice-president and the general manager of the company because sales increased so significantly. He worked for Neal from 1921 to 1929.[1]
In 1930, Byoir leased two Cuban newspapers, the Havana Post and the Havana Telegram. Byoir wanted to increase the circulation of the newspaper in Cuba by increasing the number of American tourists to Cuba.
Byoir continued to lead a few other public relation campaigns but his next notable campaign was with the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration planning many charity balls for the President and helping establishing the March of Dimes foundation. Byoir's office was at 10 East 40th Street in New York, and from there he pursued his work in public relations, working with many other companies including the German Tourist Information Office, Freeport Sulphur Company, The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Crosley Motors, and Eastern Railroads.
Byoir died in 1957. His company prospered for a few more decades and then was taken over by Hill & Knowlton. His name is still a common name brought up while discussing the history of public relations. The Museum of Public Relations states that Byoir said, "the two things required for a successful practitioner were to have an understanding of what motivates people, and to work for a good firm which stood behind him."