David Dawson is a former television and film publicist.

Dawson's career started in journalism in the mid 1950s as a ‘cub’ reporter on the Whitley Bay Guardian in Northumberland. He later wrote for the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. He then became Public Relations Officer for Tyne Tees Television. After four years there, he joined Rank Film Distributors in Wardour Street, London. At Rank, he was responsible for post-production publicity on feature films made at Pinewood Studios as well as UK releases from Universal and 20th Century Fox. He personally handled visits to England by Alfred Hitchcock, Charlton Heston, Ernest Borgnine and Peter Fonda, as well as the UK tour of Kurt Vonnegut promoting his book Slaughterhouse Five.