The Boston Tea Party

'Public relations played a role in building support for the conflict that led to American Independence' (Wilcox, Cameron, Reber, & Shin 2013, p. 45). Samuel Adams, a famous public relations pioneer, was responsible for the orchestration of the Boston Tea Party which was considered 'the greatest and best-known publicity stunt of all time' (Wilcox et al. 2013, p. 45). This is evident by Smith (2008) who stated that the Boston Tea Party was a pseudo-event that was designed to shock and mock the British tea tax. It was also used to symbolise colonial defiance, however it left many colonists shocked and outraged. The campaign involved colonists throwing crates of tea from a British trade ship into the Boston harbour to protest unnecessary taxation on items such as tea (Boston Tea Party Historical Society 2008).

Figure 1: The Boston Tea Party
Source: WND, 2014

Although there are similar comparisons between advertising and public relations such as both communicating their messages through media, the two have a few differences.  Advertising is about paid space and broadcast time. On the other hand, public relations refers to relating to an event (Wilcox et al. 2013).  This campaign was heavily public relations orientated rather than advertising as it did not depend on paid broadcast time and space. Rather, the campaign used press agentry, as well as combining this with clever slogans and symbols to sway public opinion (Wilcox et al. 2012).


This event was a successful public relations campaign, however this campaign could not be used in today's society. This is because nowadays we conform to political correctness and this event caused a lot of controversy as it was not only planned in secrecy but the way the event itself was carried out shocked society which can be seen as unethical (Smith 2008).

References:

Boston Tea Party Historical Society 2008, The full description of the events, viewed 23 March 2015, http://www.boston-tea-party.org/in-depth.html

Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education,  New Jersey.

WND 2014, Boston tea party painting currier, digital image, viewed 23 March 2015, http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/new-irs-rules-would-scuttle-tea-parties/boston-tea-party-painting-currier/

Smith, R.D 2008, Public relations history, viewed 23 March 2015, Public relations history, viewed 23 March 2015, http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415994224/pioneersinpublicrelations.asp