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Much of PR historiography focuses on the “Great Man,” corporate uses of the function. This study fills a gap in the literature by exploring how a non-governmental organization called the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA) worked with the U.S. federal government during World War I to equate sexual health with wartime patriotism to lower venereal disease (VD) rates. Partnering with ASHA on an anti-venereal campaign provided the government with a way to enhance military efficiency (i.e., fewer soldiers out of action with VD meant more men available to fight). In return, ASHA gained a national audience and the backing of the government for its vision of sexual health and social morality. This study shows that The Committee on Public Information (CPI) was not alone in using PR-type techniques as a weapon of mass instruction during the Great War. Similar to the CPI, the social hygiene campaign organizers used a diverse range of communications activities ranging from pamphlets to lectures to films – all for the purpose of instilling a new social health agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• World War II public relations campaign equated sexual health with patriotism in attempt to lower VD rates. • Anti-VD campaign designed to help improve industrial productivity. • Social reformers used public relations during wartime in a similar fashion to how government agencies used the function. Much of public relations historiography on World War II focuses on the government uses of the function. This study fills a gap in the literature by exploring how a non-governmental organization called the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA) used persuasion communication efforts to enlist the aid of management, labor, and local communities in the United States in the control of venereal disease (VD) rates. The case study advances a more diverse understanding of how activists have utilized public relations and found that the social reformers' use of persuasive communications strategies and activities aligned with the view of public relations as the strategic and intentional participation in the social construction of meaning to achieve a planned outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]