The great automobile race of 1908 as a public relations phenomenon

Public Relations Review 39 (2013) 101–110

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Public Relations Review

The great automobile race of 1908 as a public relations phenomenon:

Lessons from the past

Sherry J. Holladay, W. Timothy Coombs ∗

Nicholson School of Communication, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-1344, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o

Keywords:

Great race

Media relations

Framing

Strategic communication

a b s t r a c t

The 1908 Great Race from New York to Paris captured the imagination of the world as

intrepid competitors endured the hardships of the around the world race. The New York

Times, its co-sponsor and source of the publicity, was in a unique position to practice media

relations. Framing research was used to examine how the New York Times used strategic

communication to build interest in the race to sell more newspapers and to allow auto￾mobile manufactures to broaden their markets. Media frames used to generate interest

provide insight into strategies for influencing behavior through a controlled form of media

relations.

© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

In a world dominated by the Internet and globalization, it is difficult to image a time when society was beginning to

industrialize andconsumerismwas inits infancy. Thattime was aroundthe early 1900s. Technology was rapidly transforming

how people viewed the world and a sense that, with technology, anything was possible. This blind faith in science was fueling

what would become known as technological hubris—an arrogant belief in technology and its abilities. At the center of all this

enthusiasm was a relatively new technology known as the automobile.

Around 1908, the automobile was primarily an urban vehicle. Horses still dominated outside of the major cities in

part due to a lack of roads and the perceived fragility and unreliability of automobiles (Long, 2012). The first motorized

vehicle race was held in Paris circa 1893. These early races were destination based and involved traveling to places such

as Paris and Chicago. The common race sponsors were automobile clubs and newspapers. The 1894 Paris–Rouen race was

sponsored by the newspaper Le Petit Journal. Pierre Gifford was editor of Le Petit Journal and organizer of the race. Gifford,

who did not care for automobile racing, provided the rationale for newspaper sponsorship—the reporting would increase

sales of the newspapers (Motorracing, 2000). In 1895, the Chicago Times Herald sponsored the first major race in the U.S.,

the Chicago–Evanston–Chicago event (American, n.d.). In 1900, auto making was centered in France, where the concept of

city-to-city speed races originated (Fenster, 2005). When fatalities mounted from these wild races within France, France

outlawed the frenzied point-to-point races and circular racetracks were born. However, the monotonous racetrack format

proved less than satisfying and French automobile enthusiasts soon circumvented the ban by looking beyond their borders

for more interesting, distance-based races. The longest such race was the 9317-mile (14,994 km) race from Peking (Beijing)

to Paris that was held in 1907 and sponsored by Le Matin, a prominent Paris newspaper. It was considered an amazing feat

to drive an automobile across the U.S. given the state of many roads and the complete lack of roads in some areas.

It was a very bold move for Le Matin to announce plans for the 20,000-mile (32186.88 km) New York to Paris race set to

begin in February of 1908. The Peking to Paris race had captured the imagination of much of the world through first-hand

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 217 549 2664; fax: +1 407 823 6360.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S.J. Holladay), [email protected] (W.T. Coombs).

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.12.002