The Significance of Public Relations Essay -- Exploratory Essays Resea

The Significance of Public Relations It’s about noon, you just got out of class, or perhaps you are on lunch break, and you are absolutely starving. While your stomach is churning all you can think about is a juicy double cheeseburger from McDonald’s. Finally, you see the golden arches and your mouth begins to water as you wait in line for your overdue meal. As you grow increasingly impatient for your number nine extra value meal you’re dying to see if you’ll have the final piece to the ever so famous McDonald’s Monopoly game. You’re convinced there are no real winners in this game, and you leave the restaurant with your fifteenth free small fries â€Å"prize† in two weeks. Well, it has recently been discovered that their may have been some truth to your unwavering opinion that there are no real â€Å"big winners† to this McDonald’s Monopoly game. According to the ABC news website, as early as 1995, the game has been rigged. Pierre Thomas, the au thor of this ABC news report, states that â€Å"No employees of McDonald's were involved in the scam. Attorney General John Ashcroft said that employees of Simon Marketing Inc., the Los Angeles-based company hired to run the games for McDonald's, allegedly figured out how to direct accomplices to pick up big prize tickets and then split the winnings with them.† This alerting situation and tricky scam immediately became McDonald’s public relations department’s job to fix as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, before finding out how and why the McDonald’s PR department came to a quick solution in mending this situation, it is important to understand exactly what the public relations department does within any company, organization, or government. This single department possesse... ...n direct correlation to the success of any business, organization, or government. Without the skills of well trained public relations specialists, any group is doomed for failure. Currently, public relation specialists working for the government are putting forth huge efforts to maintain support from United States citizens as well as global support for the military actions taking place in Afghanistan. Will they succeed? Only time will tell. Works Cited McDonald's Home Page. 29 Oct. 2001 press/corporate/2001/08212001/>. Straubhaar, Joseph , and Robert LaRose. Media Now: Communication Media in the Information Age. 3rd ed. United States: Wadsworth Group, 2001. 349-351. Thomas, Pierre. "McTheft?" ABC News 21 Aug. 2001. 29 Oct. 2001 .