A case study in managing a disaster situation, the video and accompanying workbook were an immediate hit. A second was produced, involving the handling of opposition within a community where the company was building a gas-processing plant. Follow-up research showed Phillips was on the right track. Soon, over 100 public relations educators were using the case studies.

The Case Studies and Their Applications
When Phillips first produced the videos, educators were asked for their opinions of the project. Almost universally, responses were positive. However, it was thought that those answers might have been colored by the academics' efforts to be diplomatic; to avoid the "gift horse" syndrome, as it were. After all, the only negative feedback received was from one educator who thought the "production values" could have been improved. "And I suppose she was correct," remembers Smith. "We used all inside staff except for George King...and he was an academic!"

To further gauge educators' opinions of the Phillips videos over the intervening years, the writers of this article asked a number of their colleagues how they've used the case studies and if they were still pleased with the concept. From the answers, it appears the academics weren't just placating their corporate benefactors.

For example, there's Richard Nelson, APR, dean of the Manship School of Communications at Louisiana State University. A long-time observer of the relationship between business and education, Nelson's also a long-time user of the video cases. "They are two of the best teaching tools ever produced showing the practical problems inherent in public relations," he says. "Key to their success is that they were designed with the classroom in mind. These weren't just thrown-together puff pieces from a corporation interested in image-building," he adds.