Words Invented By Pr Firms
20 guides found.
Words Invented by PR Firms: 20 Pre-owned used developed by car dealers to reduce price resistance
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1986, the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) commissioned a study that found the word “used” reduced car sales by 20%—not because the …
Words Invented by PR Firms: 19 Subprime predatory high-interest loans to poor borrowers developed by mortgage industry
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 2006, the year before the subprime mortgage market collapsed, the CEO of Ameriquest Mortgage—then the largest subprime lender in the U.S.—received…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 18 Enhanced pat-down invasive body search by TSA developed after passenger complaints
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 2010, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) introduced "enhanced pat-downs"—a procedure involving front-of-hand sweeps of passenge…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 17 Pro-life anti-abortion developed by Catholic Church communications in 1970s
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1972, the year before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in the U.S., the term “pro-life” did not appear in a single internal memo, press r…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 16 Death tax estate tax on inherited wealth developed by Frank Luntz for Republican messaging
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1999, Republican pollster Frank Luntz wrote a confidential memo to GOP leaders titled "The Estate Tax: Persuasion and Message Development." The do…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 15 Smart bombs bombs that miss their targets less often developed by Pentagon PR after Gulf War
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1991, during the Gulf War, the Pentagon claimed that 70% of its "smart bombs" hit their targets. Internal U.S. Air Force reports later revealed th…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 14 Pacification military occupation of civilian area developed during Vietnam
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1967, the U.S. military’s "Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support" (CORDS) program in Vietnam—later rebranded as "pacification"—cl…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 13 Neutralize kill military euphemism in use since Vietnam
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1968, the U.S. Department of Defense instructed its public affairs officers to replace the word "kill" with "neutralize" in press briefings. The d…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 12 Voluntary separation being fired developed by HR departments in 1980s
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1986, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that "voluntary separation" programs—where employees are pressured to resign r…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 11 Negative patient outcome patient died developed by hospital risk management departments
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed 1,000 hospital incident reports and found …
Words Invented by PR Firms: 10 Revenue enhancement tax increases developed by Reagan administration to avoid the word tax
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1984, the Reagan administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a directive instructing federal agencies to replace the word “tax” …
Words Invented by PR Firms: 09 Regulatory flexibility removing consumer protections developed by industry lobbying groups
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 2018, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) replaced the phrase "consumer protection" with "regulatory flexibility" in its official…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 08 Extraordinary rendition kidnapping and torture by proxy developed by CIA legal counsel
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 2002, the CIA paid Poland’s intelligence service $15 million to host a secret prison where at least one detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was wat…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 07 Quantitative easing printing money and giving it to banks term developed by central bankers
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET Between 2008 and 2015, the U.S. Federal Reserve created $3.5 trillion in new money and handed it directly to banks—without congressional approval, wi…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 06 Rightsizing further sanitization of mass layoffs when downsizing became negatively associated
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1987, the Public Relations Society of America awarded its Silver Anvil—the industry’s highest honor—to Hill & Knowlton for coining the term "r…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 05 Downsizing mass layoffs coined by management consultants in 1970s
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1981, the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company advised General Electric to replace the word "layoff" with "downsizing" in its interna…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 04 Ethnic cleansing genocide term emerged during Yugoslav wars as deliberate euphemism
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1992, the term "ethnic cleansing" was not coined by human rights lawyers, journalists, or survivors of the Bosnian war—it was crafted by a Washing…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 03 Friendly fire killing your own soldiers sanitized from fratricide
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1994, the U.S. Department of Defense classified its own internal report on friendly fire incidents, despite the document concluding that 24% of Am…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 02 Enhanced interrogation torture term developed by CIA to avoid Geneva Convention applicability
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 2002, the CIA’s Office of Medical Services warned in an internal memo that waterboarding—a technique it later rebranded as "enhanced interrogation…
Words Invented by PR Firms: 01 Collateral damage civilian deaths caused by military action coined to replace civilian casualties
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1999, the U.S. Department of Defense paid the RAND Corporation $1.5 million to study how to rebrand civilian deaths in war. The resulting report, …