Turkish Airlines Hires Golin Harris: A Jewish Woman & Egyptian Man For American Public Relations
According to documents filed with the United States Department of Justice, Turkish Airlines hired one of the largest PR Agencies in the world. Golin Harris International will “support the efforts to publicize Turkey’s Presidency of the G20, Turkish Airlines role as a sponsor, and the participation of the Turkish delegation at the 2015 spring meetings.”
While the full filing can be read here, the mission is described as to “…secure interviews with journalists, invite journalists to events and send advisories to journalists.” Turkish Airlines is the national airline of Turkey, and the government owns 49% of the airline according to multiple media reports.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was described today by The Guardian as having an ongoing feud with the media. As the Guardian noted, “…Erdogan’s livid fury with the press may be rooted in a deeper, personal unease.
Turkey’s apparently untouchable Teflon president, who has dominated political life since 2002 and now plans to rewrite the constitution, sideline parliament, and grab sweeping dictatorial powers, increasingly fears he may have fatally misread the electorate’s mood.“
Golin Harris was founded in 1956, is owned by Interpublic Group, owns Weber Shandwick and employs approximately 700 people in 50 offices globally and an additional 25 affiliate partners strengthens their network. They are one of the largest PR firms in the world. Employees do not use the traditional PR firm titles for their jobs. Instead, they are one of the four listed – strategists, creators, connectors or catalysts.
They work with the consumer, corporate, internal, multicultural, digital, public affairs, technology, and healthcare sectors.
Despite the catchy new titles for their people, all the usual titles apply to the leaders, the Chairman and Founder is Al Golin, the CEO is Fred Cook, and the rest of the executive staff carry titles the rest of the world will recognize easily.
They have offices in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Eurasia, and Asia-Pacific. Some of their well-known clients include Dove, PetSmart, Magnum (ice cream), Toyota, Cisco, and Texas Instruments.
Erdogan – and Turkey – have strong desires to wield more influence in their part of the world. Let’s see if Golin Harris International has a hand to play in that success.