Is PR in need of a professional remedy?

This week Ruth Wyatt asked PR Week readers whether Public Relations had been neglecting its own reputation. I would love to say of course not, that PRs are as loved as organic farmers and as respected as foreign aid workers, but that would be a lie (and therefore perpetuate the problem).

On announcing my profession, I’m often met with one of three responses:

• The Edina- Issued by those overly familiar with Ab Fab, this involves repeating what you’ve just said back to you in a loud, plumy accent, often with the addition of darling e.g  “Oh PRRRRR darling!”
• The back-away- Often the response of business owners, terrified that they’ll somehow succumb to your services. Yes it’s likely that our mental cogs are turning, but we don’t carry contracts in our handbags. Often.
• Incomprehension- Possibly the most irritating of them all, this leads on to a lengthy explanation of what we do which all too often concludes with the response “Ohhh, like advertising?” No. Not like advertising.

In her article, Wyatt goes on to offer a number of reasons why this may be the case.

First- Max Clifford. Yes he’s made the reputations of many a celebrity but the man has almost single-handedly slayed that of his profession. Thanks to his shameless self-promotion and desire to be known as media-puppeteer, we are now all suspected of vanity and Machiavellian tendencies. 

Wyatt also sites reoccurring fraud allegations as damaging for the PR profession. The most recent of which occurred in the last fortnight, with the sentencing of former Activision senior PR manager Kathryn Kirton and ex-Frank PR associate director Jamie Kaye.

Now we can kick and scream, protest that these are isolated incidents and therefore not indicative of the wider situation, but we are facing a crisis. It is now every agency’s responsibility to improve the reputation of our industry. So Ruth, in answer to your concluding question, Here are a few things that can be done:

• Industry transparency - We all know the importance of transparency and will emphasise this to our clients, yet we also can be guilty of opaque behaviour (be it intentional or not). Take industry jargon. On a daily basis we use terms that resemble Martian to the uninitiated. We need to speak English rather than PR or our clients will leave feeling blinded by science.
• Figureheads - Ask anyone for a famous PR and the only name on anyone’s lips is the aforementioned, virulent Max Clifford. The PR industry is changing for the better (an end to unpaid internships etc.), and there are plenty of great PR professionals. We need to get good spokespeople out there and singing our praises.
• Measurement– Any PR will tell you that the AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency) system is outdated but clients, quite reasonably, need some indication of their ROI. With an industry-wide standard a far-off ideal, it is essential PRs and their clients are clear on how PR services will be measured. We need to listen to our clients, find out their criteria for success and advise on their expectations. It is only through agreeing on targets that we can experience the satisfaction of them being met.

By Polly Robinson