Owning the Narrative Through the Eras

Why Ownership Matters More Than Ever

In the PESO Model (Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned), owned media includes the communication channels a brand fully controls. This includes social platforms, websites, and email lists. As emphasized in the Spin Sucks PESO Model podcast, owned media is the foundation of a successful communication strategy because it allows for message control, long-term audience building, and independence from external gatekeepers.

Taylor Swift’s PR strategy for The Eras Tour movie is a standout example of how owned media can drive an entire campaign.

Swift’s Direct-to-Fan Approach

Rather than relying on traditional studio marketing or a high-budget paid campaign, Taylor Swift used her own platforms, primarily Instagram, to announce The Eras Tour film. This choice aligns with the PRLab explanation of the PESO Model, which argues that owned media offers unmatched autonomy and stability (Rodsevich, 2024). Her direct communication with fans allowed her to control the timing, tone, and narrative of the announcement.

When analyzing Swift’s promotional strategy, My Marketing Doctor, notes that she effectively uses “brand variations”, the eras of her career, to craft messaging that is adaptable and fan-centered (Marketing Doctor, 2023). By using owned media to break the news, she connected directly to her loyal fanbase with a message that felt personal and authentic. No paid advertising was used because her own platforms already operate at a massive scale.

Photo by A.Paes on Deposit Photos
Photo by A.Paes on Deposit Photos

Turning a Single Post Into a Global Event

Swift’s announcement instantly transformed into a shared-media phenomenon. Fans created reactions, countdowns, outfit inspiration videos, and theater experience clips across TikTok, X, and Instagram. This is exactly what PRLab identifies as the ripple effect of strong owned media: it fuels a wave of shared content that multiplies organic reach (Rodsevich, 2024).

My Marketing Doctor also emphasizes that Swift’s branding encourages participation. Each “era” invites fans to build their own stories around her content (Marketing Doctor, 2023). That is why the movie announcement spread so quickly across social platforms: it fit seamlessly into a fan culture already primed to share.

This shared-media explosion then led to tons of earned media. The Spin Sucks podcast notes that earned media grows naturally from compelling owned content, and Swift’s unique approach, self-announcing a self-produced film, generated industry analyses, commentary, and PR discussions. It evoked lots conversation from reporters due to how she highlighted her own independence, her direct partnership with AMC, and the broader implications for artists bypassing traditional marketing systems (Dietrich, 2021).

A Strategy Anchored in Ownership

  • The Eras Tour movie became the highest-grossing concert film in history, demonstrating the broad impact of Swift’s strategy.
  • The film’s success reflects how Swift used owned media to directly activate her audience.
  • Her announcement sparked massive fan-driven shared media across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X.
  • The organic fan excitement generated extensive earned media, prompting journalists and industry experts to cover her unconventional approach.
  • The campaign illustrates a core PESO principle: strong owned media naturally fuels shared and earned media.
  • Swift’s strategy reduced the need for traditional paid promotion, and still produced record-breaking results.

 Lessons for PR Practitioners

Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour movie campaign proves that owned media is crucial for the brand to cultivate an engaged audience and a clear narrative. By controlling her channels, she maintained message authenticity, avoided costly paid advertising, and jumpstarted widespread shared and earned media.

For PR professionals, the key idea is clear: the stronger your owned media is, the more powerfully you can shape your message, and in turn, your success.

References

Depositphotos. (n.d.). Taylor Swift [Stock image gallery]. Depositphotos. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from https://depositphotos.com/photos/taylor-swift.html?qview=382772976

Dietrich, G. (2021). Spin Sucks #130: A PESO model primer for 2021 [Audio podcast episode]. In The Spin Sucks Podcast. FIR Podcast Network. https://www.firpodcastnetwork.com/spin-sucks-130-a-peso-model-primer-for-2021/

Marketing Doctor. (2023). The Variations Era: Advertising lessons from Taylor Swift. My Marketing Doctor. https://www.mymarketingdoctor.com/the-variations-era-advertising-lessons-from-taylor-swift

Rodsevich, M. (2024). The PESO model in PR: Paid, earned, shared and owned media. PRLab. https://prlab.co/blog/the-peso-model-in-pr-paid-earned-shared-owned-media/

The New Age of Propaganda

From Posters to Posts: The Evolution of Persuasion

In 1928, Edward Bernays, often called the father of public relations, wrote Propaganda, where he described the manipulation of mass opinion as the work of an “invisible government.” As discussed in Rachael Kay Albers’s Marketing Muckraking podcast, Bernays’ ideas grew out of his experience with the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI) during World War I. The CPI coordinated an enormous media campaign using posters, speeches, films, and news stories to “fight for the minds of men” (Albers, 2024). That campaign demonstrated just how effectively emotional appeals and repetition could transform public attitudes.

What began as wartime messaging soon evolved into the professional discipline of public relations. Bernays and others realized that the same methods that could sell a war could also sell products, ideas, and politicians (Albers, 2024). As philosopher Cory Wimberly argues in How Propaganda Became Public Relations, propaganda’s techniques didn’t disappear, they were just rebranded and institutionalized within corporate communication (Wimberly, 2020).

Old Tactics, New Platforms

The Marketing Muckraking episode draws a direct line from George Creel’s WWI posters to Mark Zuckerberg’s personalized ads (Albers, 2024). Where Creel and Bernays used mass repetition, today’s PR and advertising professionals rely on algorithmic precision. Comparing tactics:

WWI Tactics:

  • Mass repetition
  • Emotional appeals
  • Public speeches

Modern Tactics:

  • Algorithmic precision
  • Micro-targeting
  • Personalized messaging

Platforms like Meta, which gather vast amounts of personal data, allow campaigns to micro-target individuals with custom messages what Albers calls “the new propaganda machine” (Albers, 2024).

The result is the same psychological manipulation Bernays pioneered, but now it happens invisibly, tailored to each user’s fears, values, and desires. As Wimberly notes, propaganda’s modern evolution makes it even harder to distinguish persuasion from manipulation (Wimberly, 2020).

Ethics in the Age of Influence

For PR professionals, this history is both fascinating and sobering. The PRSA Code of Ethics urges practitioners to act with honesty, fairness, and transparency (PRSA code of Ethics). Clearly, these principles directly oppose propaganda’s secretive and manipulative tendencies. Likewise, the Associated Press News Values and Principles emphasize accuracy, independence, and accountability, standards that PR professionals can mimic to maintain credibility in a noisy, polarized media landscape (The Associated Press).

https://unsplash.com/photos/text-IpS5832v2Yg
Photo by Sinitta Leunen on Unsplash

Integrity as Strategy

From WWI posters urging men to enlist to personalized Facebook ads nudging users to vote, or buy, propaganda’s influence is still everywhere. The lesson for modern communicators is clear: the tools of persuasion are powerful, but their ethical use determines their impact. When PR professionals choose transparency and truth over manipulation, they not only protect the public, but they also protect the integrity of their own profession.

References

Albers, R. K. (2024, February 3). Marketing, propaganda, and politics from WWI to Trump. https://rachaelkayalbers.com/episode-20-marketing-muckraking-wwi-propaganda-to-trump-raid/ 

PRSA code of Ethics. (n.d.). https://www.prsa.org/professional-development/prsa-resources/ethics#code 

The Associated Press Statement of News Values and Principles. (n.d.). https://www.ap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ap-news-values-and-principles.pdf 

Wimberly, C. (2020, July 5). How Propaganda Became Public Relations. https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/07/06/recently-published-book-spotlight-how-propaganda-became-public-relations/

The Truth Behind the Man Who Shaped Modern PR

Who Was Ivy Lee?

To understand the history of public relations, people must understand who Ivy Lee is and the impact he had on the field. Not only was Lee one of the most influential figures in Public Relations, but he was also one of the most controversial. In Drilled (2023), the episode “The Oil-Nazi-Propaganda Triangle” examines how Lee shaped the fossil fuels industry’s reputation for information going to the public and strategies that are still in place today (Drilled, 2023).

His life shows a clear picture of the upsides and downsides of PR: while it can be used to show honesty and spread truth, it can also be used to shield the dark truths of powerful people from the public. Unlike other advertising agents at the time, Ray Hiebert explains that “…Lee was not simply interested in promoting his clients by selling their products, personalities, or ideas, but rather he was concerned with achieving public understanding for them” (Hiebert, 1966). This idea of communication was what Lee eventually called “publicity,” and he stressed that every area of communication had the ability to relate any group to another.

Photo by Seth Doyle on Unsplash

The Rockefeller Transformation

In the episode, Lee is described as making some of his most important contributions to PR through his work with Standard Oil and the railroads, but his most significant success came with the Rockefellers (Hiebert, 1966). After being hired to manage a major controversy in the Colorado coal fields, which the Rockefeller’s partly owned, Lee advised that the family create a sense of transparency, meaning to be open and clear with information, and adjust their policies to better align with public opinion (JMC-3413-001, Ethics and Public Relations, slide 5). His strategy was extremely effective, and it ended up transforming the Rockefeller name from being seen as a curse into being viewed as a symbol of social responsibility (Hiebert, 1966).

Ethical Controversies in Public Relations

Throughout his career, Lee strongly believed that these strategies could be used to solve public conflict and create peace internationally. With communication skills being used to create compromise, he felt that the world could gain international understanding. Therefore, Lee began to dedicate himself much more to international public relations. This eventually led Lee’s firm to represent foreign clients such as the German Dye Trust and even Joseph Goebbels, a Nazi official. These associations highlighted the serious ethical risks inherent in public relations (Hiebert, 1966).

Towards the end of his life, Lee was even under investigation for possibly acting as a Nazi propagandist, exploring how PR tools can easily be weaponized. Despite these concerns, people still consider Lee fundamental to Public Relations today. He is seen as a turning point in communication practices, urging people to use his Declaration of Principles, which called for greater accuracy and public accountability. He insisted that companies should engage with the public rather than hide from it. This tactic is still a central strategy used in crisis communication today.


The Ivy Lee Method

Interestingly, Lee’s impact goes far beyond PR itself:

  • Today, people tend to focus on achievements while ignoring ethical controversies.
  • Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel hired Lee for productivity advice (Clear, 2020).
  • Lee’s method: list and prioritize six tasks daily, now called the “Ivy Lee Method.”
  • The method influenced not only public relations but also broader business practices and management culture.
  • Historical figures like Lee are often remembered for innovations like this, portraying him as a creative problem-solver.
  • However, these accounts often overlook the more controversial parts of his career.

Why Ivy Lee Still Matters

Ivy Lee’s life truly shows how public relations is never value-neutral. His impact on PR is undeniable. His methods continue to shape how industries communicate with the public in today’s society, but PR professionals must also understand his controversial alliances and remind themselves that in this job everyone has to balance influence with ethical responsibility.

References

Clear, J. (2020, January 21). The Ivy Lee Method: The Daily Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity. https://jamesclear.com/ivy-lee 

Doyle, S. (n.d.). A statue of a man holding a circle of life in front of a tall building [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/a-statue-of-a-man-holding-a-circle-of-life-in-front-of-a-tall-building-1OqCtYUWl-4

Drilled. (2023, July 30). S3, Ep2: The Oil-Nazi-Propaganda Triangle [Audio podcast episode]. In Drilled. Drilled Media. https://drilled.media/podcasts/drilled/3/drilleds02-e02

Hiebert, R. E. (1966). Ivy Lee: “Father of Modern Public Relations.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 27(2), 113–120. https://doi.org/10.2307/26409644

JMC-3413-001, Ethics and Public Relations. (n.d.) Chp3_Ethics and public relations_Unit 1_F24.pptx [PowerPoint slides]. Canvas. https://canvas.ou.edu/courses/410690/files/126430936/download?download_frd=1 

Inspirations in the Media

Alex Cooper, the host of the well known podcast Call Her Daddy, is a media professional who has inspired me through her creativity as I have started to pursue my future in media. What stands out about Alex is she goes above and beyond while interviewing her guests, making it a priority to connect with them in a genuine way. She approaches every conversation with a unique perspective. 

Podcast Mic in studio by Positive Images
https://pixabay.com/photos/podcast-mic-equipment-microphone-3696504/

Alex creates an environment where her guests feel as though they are sitting in her living room chatting as friends rather than high-profile celebrities. The intention behind this not only makes the interview less stiff and formal, but it also allows the listeners to feel like they are one of her friends in the room with her and her guest. Alex’s ability to get her guests to open up is something I definitely look up to. Asking questions that dig below the surface, allows her to have more meaningful conversations while still keeping the interview light and entertaining. Each episode feels unique, and her relaxed style keeps listeners, like me, engaged. The podcast never fails to be entertaining, and I love that each one has a different track it takes which keeps it interesting. 

Alex also does a good job of integrating her own personality and dialogue through the ads she includes. Rather than them feeling out of place in the middle of the episode, they are seamlessly integrated because of her humorous take on the products. This allows the ads to be less intrusive and more authentic to Alex and her show. She ensures to make her partnerships align with her values, and they never feel out of place when you listen. Every episode is edgy and refreshing which ultimately makes her stand out against other creators. In order to be successful in this business it is important to be creative and unique, two things that Alex has mastered. I am consistently inspired by Alex, and I will continue to watch her and how she grows. As a young girl navigating the media industry, she’s relatable, and her success is something I find extremely motivating.

If you want to know more about how Alex built her multi-million dollar platform you can look here and find out the exact steps she took to build her brand!

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