The Godfather
E. Bruce Harrison grew up in Alabama in the 1930s. As he got older, he began to grow interested in working at the local newspaper. In high school Harrison reported on the school’s sports teams. He continued this into college at the University of Alabama where he would become the lead editor of the school’s newspaper. After college Harrison worked as a political reporter in Georgia. After some time, he got the opportunity to head to Washington to work for one of his friends who had been elected to Congress. He would go on to grow his skills in public relations working as a press secretary. In the early 60s Harrison got another opportunity to actually campaign with John F Kennedy. This fully launched Harrison into the realm of political public relations. Just before the “period of protest and empowerment”.
The E. Bruce Harrison Company
Eventually E. Bruce Harrison started his own company for public relations specifically focusing on the environmental side. At this time many large companies were in need of this exact thing, which was a driving reason to the success of Harrison. With Harrison’s public relations tactics he was able to divert a lot of negative backlash on lots of companies in the energy business specialty. He was considered the middleman between the large companies and the environmental activist groups, another reason why he is considered as the founder of corporate social responsibility today. He definitely saved a lot of people’s jobs and possible careers. Although today many people see Harrison’s tactics as cheap and misleading claiming his company would create front groups to shut down legislative action.
I personally think that Harrsion did make some sketchy and probably unethical decisions when he was running his company. I want to believe he made the right decisions but with how things go with large companies in Washington especially the ones with a lot of money. It doesn’t blow my mind that Harrison got the reputation he has. I think his influence in public relations regarding environmental problems for large companies is seen today. Almost every company today has a designated team for these exact situations. I would say environmental activists today are still as prominent if not more today than ever for the on-going issues around the world. Whether it’s air pollution, deforestation, plastic, or global warming. Companies are still using Harrison’s tactics today in stopping laws to pass to save companies from either going out of business or getting in legal trouble.