Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter 12: Public Relations: Interactions, Relationships,
and the News
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. When Proctor & Gamble wanted to convince teenagers that making videos of
themselves trying to eat Tide Pod laundry detergent was a bad idea, they ______.
A. had New England Patriots football star Ron Gronkowski make a video telling young
people that Tide Pods are for washing clothing with, not for eating
B. put serious messages on the laundry pod packaging
C. monitored and responded to messages about the trend on social media
D. All of these were public relations problems for the university.
2. The Coke Freestyle soft drink vending machine is being promoted by ______.
A. making them available at major sporting events
B. giving away free drinks
C. having celebrities create new custom drink mixes for the machine for young people
to try
D. large scale ads on mobile devices
3. Ivy Lee suggested that the best way for the railroads to deal with accidents, in terms
of the company’s image, was to do which of the following?
A. deal with the press openly
B. hide the evidence
C. bribe reporters not to write about them
D. all of these
4. Edward l. Bernays is remembered for which of the following reasons?
A. He invented the press release.
B. He handled the public relations for O. J. Simpson following his criminal trial.
C. He wrote the first book about public relations and taught early public relations
courses.
D. He made Elvis a star.
5. During World War I, the job of the “Four–Minute Men” was to do which of the
following?
A. be prepared to give a series of 4-min speeches
B. show up at a meeting with “4-min notice”
C. quickly brief the president on a variety of issues
D. warn the public of possible air attacks
6. According to your text, public relations is which of the following?
A. a marketing function
B. a manufacturing function
C. an advertising function
D. a management function
7. According Edward Bernays, public relations campaigns should be designed to do
which of the following?
A. primarily help the client
B. primarily help the press
C. primarily serve the general public
D. establish mutually beneficial relationships for the company and various publics
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
8. Proctor & Gamble used news media and public health monitoring to discover that
______.
A. Tide Pods were staining synthetic fabrics
B. toddlers and elderly people suffering from dementia were biting into Tide Pods
B. Tide Pods could explode if improperly stored
D. teenagers were getting high by sniffing Tide Pods
9. Many organizations have started intranets, which can be described as which of the
following?
A. e-mail systems set up to communicate more quickly with clients
B. messaging systems whereby an employee can leave notes only for himself or herself
C. networks that let companies get feedback from its customers
D. networks that are only open to members of the organization
10. People who buy your company’s products would be which of the following?
A. internal publics
B. external publics
C. media outlet
D. none of these
11. An intranet is a tool to communicate with which of the following?
A. internal publics
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
B. external publics
C. the media
D. none of these
12. An employee newsletter is a tool to communicate with which of the following?
A. internal publics
B. external publics
C. the media
D. none of these
13. A press conference is a tool primarily to communicate with which of the following?
A. internal publics
B. external publics
C. the media
D. none of these
14. Domino’s Pizza had a major public relations crisis in 2009 when ______.
A. the television news program 60 Minutes investigated the company for racial
discrimination
B. employees posted a prank video to YouTube showing them tampering with pizza and
sandwiches
C. several people were sickened after eating a pizza from the chain
D. the company lost a “taste test” to Papa John’s Pizza
15. Why did the Coca-Cola company create Coke Freestyle?
A. They wanted to create a way to personalize how people got their products.
B. They wanted to sell larger portions of their drinks.
C. They wanted to do a better job of reaching older consumers.
D. To recreate nostalgia for when Coke products were sold in glass bottles.
16. The “Cheesepocalypse” was ______.
A. a large-scale shortage of cheddar cheese that created problems for Kraft Macaroni &
Cheese in marketing to children
B. a shortage of mozzarella cheese that created a production problem for Red Baron
pizzas
C. a social media campaign by Kraft based on a spot shortage of Velveeta during
football playoff season
D. you’ve got to be kidding, Cheesepocalypse doesn’t exist!
17. Press agentry differed from more contemporary forms of public relations, in that it
did which of the following?
A. It gave press agents more opportunity to be creative.
B. It was less offensive to newspaper writers.
C. It had a one-directional flow of information from the agent to the press.
D. It was not used to promote serious political causes.
18. The railroads in the 1870s managed their image by doing which of the following?
A. dealing with the press openly and honestly
B. bribing reporters and editors with cash and travel
C. bringing in large numbers of PR professionals
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SAGE Publishing, 2019
D. bringing in public speakers
19. P. T. Barnum accused himself of fraud under a fake name in order to do which of
the following?
A. get publicity
B. gain sympathy
C. avoid a lawsuit
D. test his employees’ loyalty
20. Bernays used the term opinion leadership to refer to which of the following?
A. leading the public to an opinion with advertising
B. using respected individuals to influence members of the community
C. electing local leaders based on the opinions they promote
D. feeding opinions to the media to lead public opinion
21. The ROPES model of public relations is primarily concerned with ______.
A. shaping and controlling the “spin” media outlets give to stories concerning the
product or organization
B. creating, developing, and nurturing relationships between an organization and its key
publics
C. handling a major a crisis facing a corporation or organization
D. you can’t fool me, ROPES isn’t a model for public relations
22. Relations between a company and the media should be which of the following?
A. a two-way dialogue
B. a one-way flow of information from the company to the press
C. handled entirely by company spokespeople
D. only conducted when there is good news
23. When the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded and sank in 2010, many
people compared BP PLC’s public relations effort to that of ______.
A. Domino’s Pizza’s handling of the gross-out video
B. Johnson & Johnson’s handling of the Tylenol tampering case
C. Exxon’s handling of the Exxon Valdez sinking
D. the Occupy Wall Street movement
24. In public relations terms, a “crisis” is which of the following?
A. damage to a client’s reputation that cannot be repaired
B. a communication breakdown between the client and the public
C. an attack on the client by the media
D. an event that is perceived by the public as damaging to the client’s image
25. Which of the following statements about the PR campaign that followed the Tylenol
tampering is true?
A. It was successful because it succeeded in covering up what had happened.
B. It was successful because it was immediate and honest.
C. It was a failure because afterward people viewed the manufacturer as cold and
uncaring.
D. It was a failure because the company tried to handle media relations with a one–
person office.
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SAGE Publishing, 2019
26. Which of the following statements about the PR campaign that followed the Exxon
Valdez oil spill problem is true?
A. It was successful because it succeeded in covering up what had happened.
B. It was successful because it was immediate and honest.
C. It was a failure because the company initially claimed that ship was attacked by
terrorists.
D. It was a failure because the company tried to handle media relations with a one–
person office.
27. Companies facing an online crisis from negative information spreading on the
Internet should do which of the following?
A. ignore the press and communicate directly with the public using the web and social
media
B. say no more than is absolutely necessary because anything your say will just help
spread the negative information
C. track the blogosphere and social media to see what people are saying about your
company or organizations
D. take their time in responding so that they are certain they are sending out just the
right message
28. According to presidential adviser Lanny Davis, politicians facing rumors/news about
a sexual scandal should do which of the following?
A. “Threaten massive lawsuits against anyone repeating the charges.”
B. “Tell the truth, tell it all, tell it early, tell it yourself.”
C. “Start a high–profile project that will force the bad news off the talk shows.”
D. “Deny it early. Deny it often.”
29. The biggest benefit to Kraft from their social media “Cheesepocalypse” campaign
was ______.
A. identifying Velveeta “super–consumers”
B. selling more Velveeta during basketball season
C. making people more aware of using Velveeta to make queso dip
D. 20% increases in sales of Velveeta
True/False
1. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense could be seen as a very early example of
public relations.
2. The Keurig 2.0 case study of consumers complaining about being forced to use
nothing but official company coffee pods in the coffee maker demonstrates that if a
company ignores complaints on social media, they will eventually go away. Responding
to the critics would have just prolonged the problem.
3. Telephone companies and electric utilities were among the last businesses to start
actively using public relations.
4. Before the 1920s press agents mostly just worked at getting publicity for their clients
as opposed to creating an image.
5. Ivy Lee made “spin control” a popular term as early as 1910.
6. Today, the central notion of public relations is the model of two-way interaction
between an institution and its publics.
7. Public relations is mostly about talking and meeting with people.
8. Presidential spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders suffered from credibility
problems because she would routinely say things she knew were not true.
9. The ROPES public relations process includes research, objectives, programming,
evaluation, and stewardship.
10. The oil company BP had a clear public relations plan in place on what to do when
the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded and sank.
11. Domino’s Pizza had its reputation damaged by a prank YouTube video posted by
two employees.
12. Very little of the news originates with public relations practitioners.
13. A basic rule for being an effective political spokesperson is to “Tell the truth, tell it
all, tell it early, tell it yourself.”
14. As of 2017, the Center for Responsive politics estimates there were more than
11,500 lobbyists registered to work in Washington, DC.
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
15. Public relations works only for the rich and powerful. It is ineffective in helping the
poor and working classes.
16. Political activists make use of public relations techniques to draw attention to their
causes.
17. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., worked at making sure that when civil rights protestors
were arrested for civil disobedience, the arrests would be covered by the press.
18. Companies should view social media as a way of interacting with their publics rather
than just as a channel for transmitting marketing messages.
19. Videos displaying employee misconduct at a pizza shop created enough bad
publicity that the shop eventually had to close.
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Essay
1. Name the two key figures in the founding of professional public relations.
2. What did Edward Bernays mean by “engineering consent”?
3. What distinguishes modern public relations from press agentry?
4. According to Edward Bernays, what is the third function of public relations, besides
informing and integrating?
5. What are the five steps in the ROPES public relations model?
6. Define and give an example of an internal public.
7. Define and give an example of an external public.
8. Name the five principles of crisis communication.
9. Name two things Johnson & Johnson did right in the Tylenol crisis.
10. Name a way in which the Internet makes public relations more difficult.
11. In a brief essay, explain how Proctor & Gamble responded to the public relations
problem created by the Tide Pod Challenge.
12. In a brief essay, you are to explain how a local cable television and Internet provider
could make use of social media. What should their goals for using social media be?
How can they use social media to improve their public relations?
13. In a brief essay, discuss how and why Exxon has had a long-running PR crisis ever
since the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
14. In a brief essay, discuss what is meant by the term spin control. Then describe how
it is used to manage political or corporate news. Illustrate your answer with an example.
15. In a brief essay, discuss how Coca-Cola is using the Coke Freestyle machine to
collect data about the people who use it to dispense drinks.