Carl Byoir

Carl Robert Byoir (June 24, 1888 – February 3, 1957) was

Life

Carl Robert Byoir 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 should be noted because he helped make public relations an accepted profession. ^{[citation needed]}

Carl R. Byoir was born to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland bur raised in Des Moines, Iowa. Byoir started his career in public relations as a newspaper boy. Before he was 18 years old, 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.

Destined for greatness, by 1917, Byoir had already became apart of the Committee of 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. ^{[citation needed]}

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 continued his work with public relations working with many other companies including the German Tourist Information Office, Freeport Sulphur Company, The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, and Eastern Railroads. ^{[citation needed]}

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 "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." ^{[citation needed]}

Work

Byoir began his promising career at only 17 years old, making his mark in the newsworld as the city editor of the Waterloo Times in Iowa. Rising through the corporate ranks quietly, he then became a circulation manager for all of the Hearst Magazine's publications in 1914. By 1917, Byoir was asked and agreed to be apart of the U.S. Committee on Public Information, a year before Bernays entered the CPI. Here he learned many strategies and techniques to influence public opinion. He used these skills to create a campaign that targeted draft-eligible non-English speaking Americans. With this campaign he was able to add an additional 75,000 personel to the U.S. war effort.

As a college student at The University of Iowa, he learned the dynamics of group motivation. He studied the preachings and teachings of Edward L. Bernays, "the godfather of public relations" and nephew of world-renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Young Byoir began to emulate and imitate the Bernays' sense of subconscious manipulation of the status quo, and became quite the PR guru himself. As an accomplished strategist of holding sway over and wielding public opinion, he used information to change the world. By lobbying with small companies, multi-national conglomerates and the US government, Byoir became a notably influential gatekeeper of the public consensus.

Byoir's first project was to solve CPI's printing problem. The Committee had the content for its pamphlets and newsletters, but no method to produce them during a backlog of wartime print jobs. Carl Byoir drew on his experience at The Hawkeye and remembered printers who mostly worked on mail order catalogs had a slack period in early spring and fall. A contract was signed, and the deal saved CPI forty percent of their normal printing costs. For this and other creative solutions young Byoir became known as "the miracle man."

Other valuable public relations lessons were learned from Byoir's work with foreign ethnic groups. He was keenly aware that foreign-language groups had no knowledge of American institutions and war aims, so therefore they were not particularly sympathetic to the war effort. Byoir's success in the second selective service enrollment sealed his worth to CPI. His tactics included: newspaper advertising campaigns throughout the United States to reach three million estimated non-English speaking draft eligibles; 75,000 Four-Minute-Men who spoke every place the public assembled in the nation; six million notices sent to rural delivery boxes; and newsreel announcements shown to inform 30 million people of their obligation to the war effort.

His proudest contribution to the Committee was creating the League of Oppressed Nations—which was a representation of the various ethnic loyalty groups in the U.S. who had relatives in Europe under Austrian or German rule. Following the war, President Wilson recognized Byoir's contributions to CPI and asked him to continue in the post-war fight for the minds of the people in Middle Europe. Byoir was officially released from active duty with The Committee in March 1919, and he relied on his relationships formed there to keep him busy for the next few years.

The Lithuanian National Council in the U.S. hired Byoir to collect support so that the U.S. Senate would recognize Lithuania as a free and independent nation. Byoir used his techniques from CPI such as print media, prominent local speakers, editorials and telegrams aimed at influential parties to create an awareness about the issue. This campaign succeeded in securing Lithuania's future as an ally with the U.S..

In 1921 Byoir started working in advertising and sales, which was his inherent forte by nature and experience, for Nuxated Iron. At first, Byoir worked on an internship basis, agreeing to work without pay, in exchange for practical hands-on experience in the industry. Within weeks at the company Byoir was hired as the vice-president and the general manager of the company because sales increased so tremendously so quickly. 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. ^{[citation needed]} Nuxated Iron hired Byoir without pay to design advertisements to sell the products quicker. When he increased sales within a couple of weeks he was hired as vice president and general manager of the company.

Next Byoir leased two small newspapers in Cuba: the Havana Post and the Havana Telegram. Instead of trying to increase sales through marketing he bargained with the Cuban President Gerardo Machado. The agreement was to increase American tourism in exchange that President Machado would sign a five-year contract to hire Carl Byoir and Associates as the public relations office for the Cuban government. It was a $300,000 agreement that many U.S. citizens frowned on, thinking that Byoir was a slave to a dictator.

Legacy

Other projects included working with Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt, the Freeport Sulfur Company and Eastern Railroads. Through out his various ventures, controversy stirred about Nazi collusion for representing the German Tourist Information Office in the 1930's, which he was exhonerated from, and violating antitrust laws with the Great Atalntic and Pacific Tea Company, which he was convicted of. Either way Byoir lived a full life, rich in knowledge and packed with memorable public service.

Other valuable public relations lessons were learned from Byoir's work with foreign ethnic groups. He was keenly aware that foreign-language groups had no knowledge of American institutions and war aims, so therefore they were not particularly sympathetic to the war effort. Byoir's success in the second selective service enrollment sealed his worth to CPI. His tactics included: newspaper advertising campaigns throughout the United States to reach three million estimated non-English speaking draft eligibles; 75,000 Four-Minute-Men who spoke every place the public assembled in the nation; six million notices sent to rural delivery boxes; and newsreel announcements shown to inform 30 million people of their obligation to the war effort.

As a wartime entrepreneur in the budding field of public relations in the early 20th century, much was learned by the example and doctrines of Carl R. Byoir.

References

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