Harold Burson

Harold Burson founded, and was was chairman and President of the public relations firm of Burson-Marsteller (BM).

Burson Marsteller has had a long working relationship with Philip Morris, and helped them establish and operate the smokers rights front group, the National Smokers Alliance.

On a visit to Australia in 1998 Burson told Paul McIntyre of The Australian, "I'm totally opposed to front organisations that do not disclose where their funding comes from and to my knowledge - we're a big company - we have never started or organised a group where the funding sponsorship was unknown."

In 2006 a Der Spiegel journalist interviewed Burson and asked him about the role of Edward Bernays in shaping the course of modern PR. "Bernays thought that he could control public opinion. His methodology, of course, was fundamental. Most of the things we do today were identified by Bernays 80 years ago. He had brilliant ideas. I met him a few times, but didn’t like him. He was one of the most egocentric people I have ever met," Burson said.

Asked about B-M's work for the Argentinian Department of Trade promoting foreign investment at the time of the military dictatorship he said "Had I known that I would still be defending our work in Argentina after 30 years, I wouldn't have accepted the military government as a client."

Book

 * Harold Burson, The Making of Burson-Marsteller, Burson-Marsteller, New York, 2004.

Contact Details
Blog: http://hb.burson-marsteller.com/

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * Harold Burson Interviewed By Der Spiegel

Book Extracts by Burson
During 2003 Burson wrote a series of articles on his work in founding and overseeing the growth of Burson-Marsteller.
 * On the Occasion of Our 50th Anniversary: A Brief Retrospective by One Present at the Creation,
 * Prepping for a Career in Public Relations: My First 25 Years
 * Pre-Burson-Marsteller: Harold Burson Public Relations 1946-1952
 * Burson-Marsteller: The First Decade; Rockwell and Clark: The Seeds of Success
 * Our Most Significant Defining Moment: Establishing a Burson-Marsteller Presence in Europe
 * The Next Steps in Going Global: Offices in Asia and Australia
 * The Americas: The United States, Canada, Latin America
 * Public Service: Good Citizenship is Good Business
 * The Thrill of Landing a New Client: Two Cases: General Motors and Coca-Cola
 * There's Nothing New Under the Sun: Most Likely, Your "New" Idea is Really Old Hat
 * The Olympic Games: A Quarter-Century Relationship
 * Summing Up: My Thirty-five Years as CEO

Articles Mentioning Burson

 * "E Pluribus Unum: The Making of Burson-Marsteller By Harold Burson: Book Review", O’Dwyer’s PR Daily, accessed December 2004. (Sub req’d).
 * "Masters of deception", Der Spiegel, August 2006. (This is a rough translation of the article, in Word format, originating from the Hamburg office of the PR firm Edelman and posted to the blog of Richard Edelman).
 * "Der Spiegel Hits PR", O'Dwyers PR Daily, August 16, 2006.
 * Arun Sudhaman, "Burson calls on PR industry to counter bad publicity", PR Week, October 5, 2006. (Sub req'd).

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