Public relations

Public relations (PR), general term for fostering goodwill for a person, corporation, institution, or product without actually paying for advertisements. Practitioners of PR supply information to the media in the hope that the media will not bother to make any changes in what they want to have said. PR people suggest improvements in behavior, grooming, packaging, etc., to a client or employer. The term public relations is thought to have been used first by Ivy L. Lee, who styled himself an “ adviser” on “ public relations” as early as 1919.