Freud Communications is a public relations firm based in London. Freud Communications was founded by Matthew Freud, who comes from the Public Relations dynasty of Edward Bernays and is the great-grandson of the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The French Publicis Groupe (the fourth largest communications firm in the world) acquired a 50.1% stake in Freud Communications in June, 2005. Matthew Freud remained CEO. In 2006 Freud purchased advertising agency DFGW as part of Matthews’s long term objective of making Freud Communications a dominant force in the communications sector.
Notable clients include Unilever, BSkyB, KFC, Pepsi, Nike, Nestle, Nescafe, British Telecom, AOL, Heston Blumenthal, Live Earth, Comic Relief, MySpace, The Weinstein Company, Sony Pictures, London Development Agency and the Anschutz Entertainment Group. Freud Communications also handle publicity for movies including Twentieth Century Fox's - Imagine Me & You , and Bullet Boy a film collaboration between the BBC and Shine Limited, the latter company headed by Freud's wife, Elisabeth Murdoch – Rupert Murdoch's daughter. The firm also handles public relations for UK based Optimum Releasing who are the UK distributors for Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. [1]
Freud Communications UK executes PR campaigns utilising, among other tools, editorial placement to obtain positive references to their clients' policies and products on such TV news shows as GMTV, as well as in tabloids and broadsheets. Recent, successful campaigns include the visit of Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to the People's Republic of China; a Walkers Crisps promotion; and publicity for Random House, publishers of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.
Freud Communications USA, which closed in February 2009, was based in New York City. [1]