Today’s guest post comes from my good friend Clara Miller, the one who initially showed me the drivel that is The Economist story mentioned below (not that I have an opinion). Clara is manager of customer communications for KCP&L, the electric utility provider for the Kansas City region. She is a member of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Centurions Leadership Program and KC/IABC. Find her at linkedin.com/in/claramiller. Note from Clara: “The opinions I’m expressing in this post are solely my own and do not represent any official company positions of my employer, nor am I writing on behalf of my employer.”
Some old-fashioned things are great. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Playing board games. Vintage clothing. Heck, I’d probably gulp down an Old Fashioned cocktail if I liked bourbon.
Something old-fashioned I don’t like is the thinking presented in The Economist’s recent article “Rise of the image men: PR man has conquered the world. He still isn’t satisfied.” The article was originally published Dec. 16, but I didn’t see it until it came through an email push I received last week.
Hearkening back to a PR 101 college classroom, the article rehashes industry history and discusses founders, Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays. We all remember Lee and Bernays engaged in less-than-up-front and honest tactics that today’s credible PR professionals disagree with.
From what I can tell, the author’s only purpose in bringing this up is to suggest that since the early days of PR were marked by dishonesty, it must still be today. While there are some wayward individuals who engage in dishonest tactics today (what industry doesn’t have this?), a few bad apples should not spoil the bunch.
After a lengthy historical build-up sprinkled with a few modern examples, the author goes in for the kill in the last 500 words.
What people in the industry are certain about, and have been since the days of Lee and Bernays, is their burning desire to be more than just press-release peddlers and excuse-makers.
I have considerably less respect for The Economist now that I know they think I’m a press release peddler. Go on…
PR folk want to be at the strategic heart of organisations, helping to make big decisions… Such optimists—the industry is full of them, of course—now spy a rare opportunity to steal a march on the Mad Men of advertising and the flipchart-wielders of marketing. In the chaotic online world of social networking, they argue, their talents are much more relevant than their rivals’.
This author must have really gotten a kick out of these fun names for everyone. Our advertising and marketing friends have now also been reduced to a caricature of their less flattering qualities.
My question is why wouldn’t PR folk want to be at the strategic heart of our organizations? Our job is to listen to and engage with those who matter most to us and those to whom we matter. Why wouldn’t that add value to our companies’ strategic heart?
If we’re doing our jobs effectively, we should be cardio exercise for our companies’ hearts.
Cardio strengthens your heart and helps ward off disease. It’s tough to push yourself aerobically sometimes, but it keeps you healthy and you’re always happy you did it.
Today’s most credible, respected and successful PR professionals give their companies a workout. We’re the ones with the opportunity to point out when a particular policy or procedure is not meeting our customers’ needs. We’re the ones who can provide valuable input for product development based on what we hear and observe.
There’s always going to be that person from operations or legal—oh, and I can’t leave out the person who’s been there forever and this is the way we’ve always done it—who doesn’t want to hear what we have to say. But we’ve got to keep pushing. The only way you can run farther and faster is to keep pushing.
That would have been a nice way to end this, but I have to close by taking issue with the “PR Men” label. As commenter TWatson1709 writes – the PR industry is made up of 70 percent women. Perhaps the author’s seemingly bitter quest to paint PR professionals in a bad light prevented him or her from thorough research—although this statistic is pretty well known and easy to find.
There’s been some commentary on this article and PRSA posted an official response. However, a quick google blog search doesn’t reveal a high volume of conversation. What do you all think?
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