Art of Persuasion

About the Book

About the Author

AUTHOR OF POPULAR ‘STREET SMART PR’ and ”14 PERSONAL SECRETS TO MAKING IT IN PR” John F. Budd, Jr. protagonist of the anti-status quo movement, is the founder/architect of the PR field’s first “think tank.” The Omega Group. It’s comprised of a loose confederation of like-minded colleagues in a wide variety of disciplines, i.e. sociology, education, psychology, etc. He says the idea came to him when, after returning to the PR agency field after a decade on the corporate side, he said he felt like Rip Van Winkle, little had changed while he’d been gone. In his 50+ year career he’s garnered a shelf-full of national awards, 15 including – 8 Silver Anvils, a Gold Anvil, several financial relations citations – and was runner-up in 2000 for “PR professional of the Year.” His iconoclastic thinking is reflected in his newsletter “Plain Talk” and his ability to “see” what others miss is regularly on display in his newsletter Observations. (At Corporate, his global company newspaper never ran CEO editorials; used outside editorial cartoonists to poke at management and had an outside editorial advisory board of professional journalists. It won 55 editorial and graphic awards in the communications field.) He’s the author of seven books, covering PR, media relations, CEO credibility, video and managing expectations. He was a member (2000) of a Blue Ribbon Commission of the National Association of Corproate Directors examining the role of directors in corporate strategic planning. And on the seventh day, he doesn’t sleep, serving on six non-profit boards (in 1995 he received PRSA’s top national award for public service).