." The second group is called the "do-gooders." This group is usually comfortable and affluent. "They seek an outlet for their purposefulness in helping others or in making things fit their theories of life."The third group are the social engineers. This group consider themselves intellectually and morally the "cream of society and are intent on imposing their superior judgment onto the entire human system."The fourth type of activist is holier-than-thou group who feel that heaven has anointed them with the one true formula for human existence and that it is their duty to impose it on everyone else. Finally, the "anti's" are those who are against almost everything, constantly dissastisfied with their lives and the world.In order to deal with these publics effectively, Lesly (1992) suggests that public relations practitioners must become sensitive to the psyche of the people involved in these activist groups. 2.How Could McDonald’s have handled this affair more effectively from a public relations perspective? The Public Relations perception mistakes that McDonald's should have avoided :McDonald's first public relations mistake was it pursuit of its "legal vendetta" against the two activists. This action proved that the company had jumped the gun in protecting its reputation/image. By not conducting any environmental scanning, the corporation had no idea of how its publics perceived the organization after the dissemination of the leaflets. Thus, the company had no idea whether or not it was necessary to conduct damage control in order to protect its reputation.Secondly, the corporation failed to do environmental scanning on Greenpeace itself. The company had no idea of the size of the activist groups, its power to influence publics locally, nationally, and internationally, the resources the group had available to defend its position, or the credibility of the organization. The final public relations mistake the company made was us...
