Hill & Knowlton

20th century

The company that became Hill & Knowlton Strategies was founded in 1927 by newspaper reporter and businessman John Hill in Cleveland, Ohio. Hill's first two clients were Cleveland-based Union Trust Company, and the Otis Steel Company.

When Union Trust Company was shut down by the Great Depression in 1933, Hill hired its former director of advertising and publicity Don Knowlton, and they together established Hill & Knowlton of Cleveland. Hill moved to New York City in 1934 to open a new Hill & Knowlton office. Knowlton remained in Cleveland and operated the original location until his retirement in 1964. Hill served as chairman and chief executive until 1962, but remained on the firm's policy committee, and continued to go into the office until shortly before his death in 1977.

The company represented the dairy industry during congressional debates on margarine regulation in the late 1940s.

Other early clients included the tobacco industry, as well as many other industries including the aircraft industry, the American Shipbuilders Council, the National Retail Dry Goods Association, the National Fertilizer Association and soap producers.

When Hill died in 1977, the company had 560 employees, with 36 offices in the United States and 18 abroad. Clients included Texaco Inc., Warner-Lambert, Procter & Gamble, Gillette, and the Business Roundtable.

The firm was acquired in 1980 by the JWT Group, one of the largest advertising agencies at the time. Following the acquisition, Hill & Knowlton continued to operate as an independent entity under the JWT Group.

The company expanded to China in 1984, and acquired both Gray & Company and Carl Byoir & Associates, two public relations firms with a national presence in the United States, in 1986.

JWT was acquired by the WPP plc, a London-based marketing and communications holding company, in 1987. In 1989, Hill & Knowlton acquired Canada's largest PR agency, the Public Affairs Resource Group.

The firms' clients reportedly represent fifty percent of Fortune 500 companies. The company serves a variety of industries including automotive, banking and finance, energy, governments, sports marketing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, technology communications, consumer goods and services, food and beverage, and the travel, leisure, and tourism industry. The company has also worked with governing bodies, federations, and sponsors for every Olympic Games since the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. They also worked on the World Health Organization-funded COVID-19 campaign.

Controversies

Hill & Knowlton did public relations work for the tobacco industry in the 1950s and 1960s, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International from 1988–1990, at which point the firm stopped working for the bank after bank officials were convicted of money-laundering.

In the 1970's, Hill & Knowlton representatives were present in a meeting with the Public Relations Subcommittee of Johns-Manville's Environmental Health Task Force. After that meeting, the Asbestos Information Association, was formed (not by Hill & Knowlton), which denied the health risks of asbestos. Hill & Knowlton was also hired to address concerns with vinyl chloride and CFC.

Also during the late 1980s, Hill & Knowlton represented the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) during its money laundering scandal. Hill & Knowlton's work was investigated by a U.S. Senate subcommittee, and allegations were made that the firm had pressured regulators to not investigate the bank, though no evidence was found to support the claims. After BCCI was convicted of money laundering, the firm severed their relationship with BCCI.

The company was hired in 1990 by Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a group predominantly funded by the Government of Kuwait, to assist its campaign for U.S. intervention in response to the invasion and annexation of Kuwait by Iraq. Hill & Knowlton were later accused of spreading false information to increase support for the Gulf War, which the company denied. Kuwait canceled its account with the firm before the start of the Gulf War.

Hill & Knowlton represented The Church of Scientology from 1987 until May 1991. The Church of Scientology sued the firm, claiming that their contract was terminated because Hill & Knowlton was pressured to do so by Eli Lilly and Company, a client of JWT. Eli Lilly and Company produce the drug Prozac, which the Church staunchly and publicly opposed. The matter was settled out of court.

In November 2022, the company, as official PR firm for the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, was criticized by scientists and environmentalists for also working for fossil fuel corporations.