I tend to think the word PR is the result of propaganda applied to the word propaganda. It isn't obvious to me that there is a good form of propaganda. Useful, perhaps, but not upright and positive.
Actually you arent wrong. It was either Ivy Lee or Edward Bernays who were the primary people behind the shift to "public relations". One of their first triumphs? Selling cigarettes to women as " freedom sticks".
It always cracks me up when I meet a pr person and ask about Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays and they dont know anything about them. Some sort of sadly delicious irony.
