Lobbying and PR Firms Converge, Use Election Tactics Full Time

astroturfProfessional lobbyists are expanding their activities beyond the traditional cajoling of legislators in the halls of the Capitol and are now using election-season tactics -- like polling, "grassroots" rallies, radio, print and television ads, and social media like Facebook and Twitter -- full-time to push legislation. As a result, the PR and lobbying fields have exploded with firms that do all of the above and more. Instead of playing an inside game aimed at persuading legislators (as lobbyists have done for decades), lobbying firms' new tactics are aimed at persuading the general public to their side. These days, most prominent lobbying firms have added PR and communications divisions or acquired entire PR firms. It also works the other way around: prominent PR firms are branching out into lobbying. Big lobby firms now employ full-time election-season tactics to help lobbyists "take their case to the public" and win. The idea is to get the public to pressure legislators instead of working to pressure legislators themselves. PR professionals and lobbyists alike have found that it's easy and effective to mobilize the public to support a cause by using 30-second ads that appeal to emotions, while at the same time they can avoid having to explain an issue in any substantive way.

Comments

Being that elections these days are bought or stolen this article is behind the times. In days of old it may have been true. What is the use of getting the general public to pressure their legislators since pressure from the public seems to have little or no effect on legislators, the president, or any other government officials.
On the other hand it may help the appearance of legitimacy when they egregiously ram incredibly foul policies and laws down our throats as they implement the police state of slave society. How are they going to keep all of us in control as they progressively make life tougher and tougher for Americans to cope with?
Using election season tactics like lying through the teeth, phony grass roots campaigns, and the propaganda power of national misinformation dissemination and fairy-tale public support will keep the media fat cats rolling in advertising cash.
Too bad so many good hearted people out there are too ignorant to see through all the PR and hype. Too bad it takes conscientious, thinking, concerned citizens to make democracy work. As long as the American public is willing to believe the fantasy that the media spoons out, our future as free men seems doomed.

...well stated freefall...