Lobbying in the United Kingdom
Formal procedures enable individual members of the public to lobby their Member of Parliament but most lobbying activity centres on corporate, charity and trade association lobbying, where organisations seek to amend government policy through advocacy. Companies and individuals who operate in this sector commonly use the terms "public relations", "public affairs", "political consultancy" or "corporate affairs" to describe their activities (though this was also a reaction to the negative publicity surrounding the word "lobbyists" following the 1994 Cash-for-questions affair). Professional public affairs agencies, representing multiple clients, undertake a significant proportion of lobbying activity in addition to individual organisations conducting lobbying on an in-house basis.
History of public relations
The Boston Tea Party has been called a "public relations event" or pseudo event in that it was a staged event intended to influence the public. Pamphlets such as "Common Sense" (1775–76) and "The American Crisis" (1776 to 1783) were used to spread anti-British propaganda in the United States, as well as the slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny." After the revolution was won, disagreements broke out regarding the United States Constitution. Supporters of the constitution sent letters now called the Federalist Papers to major news outlets, which helped persuade the public to support the constitution. Exaggerated stories of Davy Crocket and the California Gold Rush were used to persuade the public to fight the war against Mexico and to migrate west in the U.S. respectively.