{"id":20571,"date":"2010-07-11T07:27:04","date_gmt":"2010-07-11T05:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=20571"},"modified":"2014-01-05T19:55:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T17:55:55","slug":"freemasons-hire-fresh-pr-support-in-bid-to-rethink-secret-society-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/07\/11\/freemasons-hire-fresh-pr-support-in-bid-to-rethink-secret-society-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Freemasons Hire Fresh PR Support In Bid To Rethink &#8216;Secret Society&#8217; Image"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.prweek.com\/uk\/news\/author\/3319\/\">Gemma O&#8217;Reilly<\/span><\/h4>\n<h4>The governing body of Freemasonry in the UK has called in external PR help in a drive to shrug off a &#8216;secret society&#8217; image.<\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20572\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20572\" style=\"width: 422px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20572\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/United-Grand-Lodge-of-England.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"422\" height=\"281\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image overhaul: Freemasons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Since its inception in the 18th century, the practice of Freemasonry has been well known for allegedly using secret handshakes and other obscure rituals.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But <strong>the United Grand Lodge of England<\/strong> is keen to shed more light on its shadowy practices as the organisation approaches its <strong>300th birthday in 2017.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Lodge, which governs Freemasonry in England, Wales and the Channel Islands, has appointed <strong>Bondy Consulting<\/strong> as a retained consultancy to build greater awareness of Freemasonry and ensure the practice\u2019s long-term future.<\/p>\n<p>Grand secretary of the United Grand Lodge Nigel Brown said: \u2018Freemasonry is now run as a modern business and it is important our communication reflects this. Freemasonry plays a unique role in society today and it is vital we encourage people to talk openly about it and dispel the many unfounded myths\u00a0associated with it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Freemasonry has 250,000 members, including 30,000 overseas. It is one of the world\u2019s largest non-religious, non-political, fraternal and charitable organisations.<\/p>\n<p>Bondy founder Jessica Bondy said: \u2018We have been appointed to combat common misconceptions including those of secrecy. There are no secrets in Freemasonry and we need to encourage people to talk openly about it. Information is totally accessible for anyone that wants it and anyone can come into Freemasons\u2019 Hall.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Bondy, a former MD at Ketchum, also said: \u2018There is no sec ret handshake \u2013 this is one of the myths.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>As part of the PR drive, the agency will also promote Freemasons\u2019 Hall, which has featured in a number of Hollywood blockbuster movies.<\/p>\n<p>Bondy was selected after a competitive agency pitch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ironically, both Bondy and the United Grand Lodge were tight-lipped about the Freemasons\u2019 previous PR support.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>prweek.com, 23 June 2010<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gemma O&#8217;Reilly The governing body of Freemasonry in the UK has called in external PR help in a drive to shrug off a &#8216;secret society&#8217; image. Since its inception in the 18th century, the practice of Freemasonry has been well known for allegedly using secret handshakes and other obscure rituals. But the United Grand Lodge [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":20572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,94],"tags":[3234,3236,3135,3237,3235,3233],"class_list":["post-20571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","category-uk","tag-bondy-consulting","tag-english-freemasonry","tag-freemasonry","tag-freemasons","tag-pr","tag-public-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}