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Submitted By:
Hadiyah Daché
PR Principles, Practices and Theory
Clark Atlanta University
Spring 2007
“Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted by old things. We want
them to like the new ones.”
-Aldous Huxley
One of the greatest public relations campaigns in American history started off as a
business proposition to lure tourists and commerce into Atlantic City, New Jersey and
appeared to the masses as a vain ode to beauty. What began as the Inter-City Pageant—a
two-day beauty contest in September of 1921- turned out to be one of Atlantic City’s most
successful publicity stunts, lasting over 85 years. A little over ten years later, Atlantic City had
once again pulled a tremendous feat in the world of public relations with the debut of the
popular board game Monopoly, featuring streets and places in or very near to Atlantic City.
Even in the 21st century, Atlantic City still proves to be going strong while on vacation all year
long.
In the early 1920s, business owners had begun to seek new ways of attracting tourists
and keeping them, and the city, busy past Labor Day. A pseudo-event was created, called
the Fall Frolic, by the Atlantic City Businessmen’s League with the help of developers and
city officials (Goldsmith 34). During the Fall Frolic another event had been created entitled
the Inter-City Pageant. It was a beauty pageant where contestants were judged on how
they looked in appearance as well as a swimsuit. In order to successfully launch this pseudo-
event, Atlantic City sought the help of local and major newspapers and reporters as well as
radio announcers (as the television had not yet been invented). Contestants were solicited
by local newspapers in the Northeastern region. These regional newspapers sponsored a
“face contest”, a type of beauty contest based solely on a woman’s photograph.
Subscribers were encouraged to mail the name of the woman they’d like to win in to the
newspaper.
The women who won these contests in their hometowns won an all-expense paid trip
to compete in the two-day beauty pageant in Atlantic City. Newspapers also benefited
from the pageant. In a committee meeting it had been suggested that newspapers within
the Atlantic City trading area use the pageant as a gimmick to increase circulation (Deford
33). This collective effort between the newspapers and Atlantic City stimulated the public’s
desire to visit, the first step in travel public relations. During the first pageant, stimulation
occurred solely through the newspapers. By its second cycle stimulation was able to occur
through print and radio broadcast.
The second step in travel public relations
was only partially successful, however, because
there were only arrangements for the local
winners to get to the event in Atlantic City. Any
additional travelers would have to find a means
of their own to getting to the festivities. However,
more than 100,000 spectators came out to get
a glimpse of the beautiful girls (Deford 36). The
event itself endured the success of the third step:
making certain that visitors are comfortable, well
treated and entertained when they get there
(Wilcox 603).
Today, Atlantic City is still a thriving tourist location. However, these days it isn’t all from
the Miss America Pageant nor the curiosity of some childhood dream that longs to see the
“real” Monopoly. Today, Atlantic City continues to thrive from casino resorts and the
gambling revenues. The addition of the casino’s to the city in the late 1970s have
transformed Atlantic City into a year-round business. The businessmen no longer need to
create pseudoevents to get tourists to stay late into September, tourists stay all year.
Works Cited
Brady, Maxine. The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World’s Most Popular Game,
First hardcover edition, D. McKay Co. 1974.
Deford, Frank. There She Is: The Life and Times of Miss America. New York: Viking, 1971.
Goldsmith, Rosie. “And The Winner Is…” New Statesman, 10/17/2005, Vol. 134 Issue 4762, p34-
35
Sokolic, William. “Roll of the Dice put Monopoly, Atlantic City on Gaming Map” Courier-Post
Online. June 14, 2004 http://www.courierpostonline.com/ac150/m061404a.
htm. Accessed on April 2, 2007.
Wilcox, Dennis et al. Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, Eighth edition. Boston: Pearson
Education. 2007.