The public relations profession, for the most part, has done a lousy job at its own public relations.
For starters, you only have to look as far as the movies, on television or in books. When PR people are portrayed, it is nearly always in an unfavorable light, usually a whiny spokesperson lying into a bank of microphones about a leaking nuclear plant.
Or, as in the flick Phone Booth, a publicity agent is a fast-talking, meager-principled sharpie playing different media off one another to get his client ink. Or then there is the ingratiating Uriah Heep telling his boss only the good news, leaving out that the sky has, indeed, fallen.
Even lawyers get a break. Sometimes even politicians. Why not PR people?
Without glamorizing it to the point of nausea, public relations does create opportunities for those with a paladin outlook, a sense of self and community, a desire to right wrong, and the indefatigable belief that he or she can make a difference.
Although public relations is not rocket science, it explains rocket science to a world community and the marvel and benefits of its technology. While it is not brain surgery, it helps promote the medicines that make our lives healthier. It also encourages talented people to enter such fields.
And yes, it was a PR campaign that publicized a hole in the ozone and helped "save the whales", not to mention numerous and other animals.
On the other side, given that most alternative voices deserve representation, there were PR campaigns to suggest that there was no hole in the ozone, and that harvesting whales is necessary to the livelihood of Alaskan Inuits.
However, in Eastern Europe, a public relations professional often takes on an even more sinister dimension, which I chalk up to the fact that many of the stories that appear in print are purchased through PR agencies, particularly when it comes to product PR.
When negative and used against a competitor it has a name, "black PR," and is often used in what is referred to as the "yellow press."
Also, political PR has a continuing cloud. I once read where a Russian political adviser boasted that the public relations technique that had been utilized most successfully was to keep the opposition off the airwaves. This, in fact, had nothing to do with public relations - only strong-armed tactics.
Also, much of the reputation is deserved because public relations professionals often treat clients as the ultimate consumer of the PR materials and work we generate, such as the standard press release, the video news release and even the news conference.
Particularly in the West, no self-respecting reporter would allow a press release simply to go into a newspaper. More often, the carefully scripted release, complete with all the client's messages, goes into the wastepaper basket. The reporter, if he is to follow the story, wants his own angle.
This doesn't mean press releases don't get into the newspapers. They often do.
However, most often they are completely rewritten, and such wooden and carefully crafted quotes from the client as "we are proud of our record as employers, etc" rightly get left out. Reporters want facts and figures - not filler.
Too often, PR professionals stand in the background, and let higher-up company officials dictate the contents of the press release, the video news release and the ground rules for the press conference. They are not trained for this. It is not in their own interests.
In one crisis simulation I conducted, it wasn't until after the first hour or so that the crisis team decided to invite the PR person into the room. He or she should have been there from the outset, advising on press matters.
PR professionals need to take control of their own PR problem, and this means being more aggressive with the client.
I often give what I call the street-smart definition of public relations: It is telling the client what he or she already knows but often doesn't want to hear; and doing it in such a way to convince the company official to take your advice.
My own rule in working for a company is that I must have access to the decision-makers, most often the managing director or the CEO. This doesn't mean I don't work with informed subordinates, but it does mean I can pick up the telephone and call the top person.
If the PR guy isn't in the room when decisions are being made, he might as well be serving the coffee in the reception room, or making sure office supplies are being ordered.
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