Photo courtesy of Karen Horton
By Jenn Riggle
Why? Because it’s easy to take a clean bathroom for granted until you really need one.
It’s a well kept secret, but public relations is the driving force behind the majority of news stories. When you think about it, the only stories that aren’t PR generated are crime, traffic accidents and weather/natural disasters — although there’s bound to be a PR person on hand with these events as well, making sure reporters and the community get the information they need.
Yet, for all the work we do behind the scenes, the media often portrays PR people as sleazy PR hacks, like Colin Farrell’s character in the 2002 movie Phone Booth, or glamorous party girls like Samantha Jones of Sex in the City and Amanda Woodward of Melrose Place.
My all-time favorite is Fractured Fairy Tales’ version of Rumpelstiltskin, whose title character is a PR guy who says: “I can make you famous overnight … I am what is known as a PR man,” he squeaked. “You know, public relations. Publicity. Flackery. Glamourize the unglamorous. Turn the pedestrian splendorous.”
But when things go wrong, organizations turn to public relations to clean things up and do damage control. National media outlets like USA Today and NPR’s Talk of the Nation are saying that Toyota should use PR to salvage its reputation after its massive recall. And while it’s nice to see that the media believe that public relations has the power to save the day during a crisis, I realize that most people don’t know what public relations is.
Maybe social media can give public relations the facelift it’s needed. Not only is it a friendlier and more straight-forward medium, but PR people no longer have to be the corporate mouthpieces. Employees and executives can speak for themselves, whether they’re writing blogs or posting information on Twitter and YouTube. It also moves organizations away from simply repeating corporate messages to engaging in conversation with their consumers.
Are PR folks going away? No. They will always be needed to assess a situation and develop the communications strategy whether it’s to build an organization’s reputation or manage a crisis. However, we have a chance to give the industry a makeover. Let’s do it.
Awesome blog posting. The comparisons between the toilet and PR are unbelievable. And to think I thought this blog would be first … full of cr@p.. haha!
Most would be surprised to find out how much of the news is PR driven. BP is a great example of taking a clean bathroom for granted. Its dirty laundry was spread out all over the Gulf Coast— for all to see. Social media for a time became an adversary of BP, instead of an ally. Great article, and interesting perspective.