FPRA - Florida Public Relations Association Blog

Public relations legend Aaron Cushman reviewed highlights from his career and discussed campaigns that failed and what he learned. He also shared a few humorous personal anecdotes involving famous clients from diversified fields of entertainment, sports and Fortune 500 companies. And more importantly, what has happened with the media in the last 10 years.

The utilization of public relations techniques is now being used by Al Queda, Middle East insurgents, Iran, North Korea and playing a key role for our government, military and the domestic political scene as well.

“No one ever explained it that way.”
Cushman originally was headed toward accounting, but he struggled, and in 1943 with war on, he went to enlist as an aviation cadet, zipped through physical and got to last test, testing muscles of eyes, where he had to follow a pen with his eyes. He didn’t pass and was told he couldn’t continue. He went back to school to practice day after day, and his mother recommended he eat lots of carrots, which he did. Went back and flunked the test again. Was taken to flight surgeon’s office and was told to pretend the pen was a woman’s breast and he had no trouble following it, and, “bang,” passed the test. “No one ever explained it to me that way,” Cushman said.

The early years, the entertainment business
After his frightening war experiences, Cushman didn’t feel like he could go back to being an accountant. Went back to school of Business and Journalism (no PR schools yet) but graduated and was hired as Promotions Director for theatre and finally began to understand his job was to market, pre-sell upcoming entertainers to theatre, like Jane Russell, Nat King Cole, Gene Autry, Three Stooges, etc. – Cushman says the Three Stooges were the nicest men and you would never know who they were on the street and that even though he represented US Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman, people always want to know about the Three Stooges.

Pres. Truman called Cushman back to service in Korean War, and he was part of the Strategic Air Command. Got great publicity for war and war effort from Edward R. Murrow, Life Magazine, etc.

After out of service he opened his PR firm. Had opportunity to work with Walter Cronkite during Eisenhower campaign, as well as many others. Cushman shared many stories and primarily wanted to discuss current and past situations in PR. There are two ways you get into agency biz: your family is well-connected or your come from a poor family and you have to take every bit of biz that comes along no matter the fee and grow your reputation as you go. And this is how he did it.

Dropping the entertainment clients
Cushman’s first years in the business were almost strictly entertainment clients, but he realized this isn’t where he wanted to go. Worked with Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., others, but one day got call from a bank and prepared impressive proposal to give the board, and try to make the sale. But when they realized he was in entertainment, they didn’t seem interested and he could see it in their eyes. So he went back and canceled all his entertainment clients, which was 90 percent of his business. But after 90 days they had almost all their business back, however, he never dreamed one day he would have a top 10 PR firm representing some of the largest companies in the nation and world, including several foreign governments.

“Make news, not news releases.”
Everything in his company, hallmark, was marketing and creativity. Said he believes Bernays' advice of “Make news, not news releases.” He gave an example of this with a project for Marriott Hotels and upcoming groundbreakings. Made plan to do three groundbreakings across country in 24 hours. Took writers on plane and gave them aerial tour. Set off explosions (with fake plunger from inside plane) at each site and national coverage was monumental. When he got back he had calls from companies wanting to hire him who were still two and three years out from opening.

“Cookies Wars”
Cushman started a national “Cookie War” with a story in Wall Street Journal between Keebler (his client) and others. “Keebler doesn’t make cookies with cooks and regular ovens but bake them in hollow trees with elves.” Press kits included the story of Ernie the Elf explaining how the elves make the cookies, and included a sample of all the cookies for writers to taste. CBS did 4.5 minutes on morning show on the press kits. Tremendous response. Made 500 kits at $18. Spent a couple thousand on program, but got $5 million worth of coverage and most importantly, 31 percent market share in first year.

The Ad Gap
Visualize a pie chart. How many companies can afford to pay for 100 market penetration? Only a few big ones, Ford, Bud, Miller, Gieco, a few pharmaceutical companies, etc. But what can all the others do? Only one way to close the gap, with a well-organized marketing-related public relations program. That’s what it’s all about.

A couple of baseball stories
White Sox in 1958, Bill Veck called and retained his company. Had a great time. Veck was one who invented exploding score board, DH concept, names on back of player jerseys. Also started music night at park with large orchestra, but promo was visitors had to come to park with instrument in addition to ticket. At seventh inning stretch, had conductor of Chicago Symphony Orchestra lead entire 50,000 attendees in playing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and that’s where this tradition started, now a big thing with Chicago Cubs and most all pro and college teams.

Had idea to take Cooperstown Hall of Fame (Baseball) on wheels in tractor trailer across country, and put together $1 million campaign, which Century 21 accepted. But they pulled out before it could begin. Good point was that Hall of Fame made a traveling exhibit that now goes to museums across the country.

The decline of today’s media
On a serious note, it is rare to find something you can never regret and really do completely enjoy. We have the ability to mold public opinion and can know that our skill of planning and implementation and evaluation makes it happen. This can be mind boggling if you really think about it.

But what’s discouraging is that in the old days, you could trust that anything you heard on radio or TV or read in the newspaper was true. And sadly, this is not the case today. Today, anything on the news begins with us. So we have a grudging acceptance of the media. But every story is a fire sale. Profit is motivation. Despite their holier-than-though attitude, truth is not the goal. They use inaccurate quotes, they cover stories without being there, in short, they make them up and they become news, not just cover it. “Sources said” is used way too much. .Every reporter wants to win a Pulitzer Prize. News anchors are selected not because they may be best, but because they may appeal to a minority group, etc. in a 30-second sound bite.

The trends are alarming: Reporters admitting they have been paid to include or exclude certain information or promote only positive war stories; CBS interviewing Bin Laden without disclosing his location. Surveys show media has less credibility, declining circulation, etc. If readers cannot trust what they are reading, the outlet will soon be out of business.

Are publicity stunts just fun and games? When US President flies to aircraft carrier to announce end of war, that’s a stunt. It’s a marketing tool. Every ballpark now has corporate name. Chicago bidding for Olympics in 2016, but they just want exposure and don’t really care about the Olympics themselves, it’s a marketing tool, just like the Home Show, Car Show, Boat Shows all over the country that are marketing tools that work very effectively.

This was a very entertaining talk. Cushman loves this business and he said so. And thanked FPRA for “making this day necessary.”