Greenwash

Today public relations is a multi-billion dollar industry. In 1991 the top 50 US-based public relations companies charged over $1,700,000,000 in fees. The industry employs almost 200,000 people in the US, meaning there are more public relations personnel than news reporters More than 5,400 companies and 500 trade associations have public relations departments and there are over 5000 public relations agencies in the US alone. The government also employs thousands of people in public-affairs. Public relations has gradually replaced advertising in the corporate marketing budget. Advertising now makes up less than a third of the money spent on marketing in the US compared with two thirds in 1980.

Public relations has also boomed elsewhere in the English speaking world. The public relations industry in the UK, one of the largest outside the US, employs more than 48,000 people, most of them based in London. The boundaries between the US and the UK are not clear as some major US PR companies are owned by British companies and there is increasing partnership between firms in each country. In Australia there are now 2,400 full members of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and this has been increasing rapidly over the last three years.

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Aylmer, Sean, (1996) 'Accountability remains key issue for PR firm', Business Sydney, 8 April: 1, 21

Seitel, Fraser P. , (1995) The Practice of Public Relations, 6th ed (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall)

Josephs, Ray and Juanita W. Josephs, (1994) 'Public Relations, the U.K. Way', Public Relations Journal, vol. 50, no. 4: 14-8.