Watching the barrage of news coverage last week that expounded on the personal indiscretions of politicians and celebrities made me consider what counsel I might have for these individuals. Clearly, prevention is worth a pound of cure, but most public relations professionals end up being asked for the cure. While I may be showing my age, my pondering conjured up the iconic image of Lucy, from the classic comic strip “Peanuts,” sitting at her psychiatrist booth with the sign, “The Doctor Is In.”

Clearly, Lucy was not a licensed professional. Her price for counsel (five cents) will likely provoke the immediate response, “You get what you pay for.” I won’t reveal how I know, but in the lyrics to the song of the same name from the musical “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown,” Lucy urges Charlie Brown to be transparent and open about his faults when he comes to her for advice. After he lists numerous shortcomings, there’s an interesting outcome: Lucy does “a 180” in her counsel and tells Charlie Brown that what’s unique about him is also his value and that’s what he should be touting.

As public relations professionals, this illustration brings up some key questions: Is it our role to make sure we know all the faults of our employers, clients and executives so we can be prepared to defend them? Or, is it more important to identify and understand its value and benefits to help develop the messaging?

Either way, do we run the risk of being perceived as a “spin doctor?”

Continue reading " Are We Fault Managers or Value Communicators? "

Though it will take years to heal for the families directly impacted by the events in Tucson, it will forever become a part of our nation’s legacy of tragedies. We all share the sorrow, but at the same time try to place the blame in order to justify what happened and attempt to figure out how to stop it from happening again.

Last week, our country heard a compassionate plea from our President to take action — not to condemn but to comfort; not to succumb to the negative forces of anger, but to assuage.

“At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do,” President Obama said, “it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”

Continue reading " Reflecting on Public Relations’ Role During Tragedy "

I wasn’t planning to write one of those reflective, “We accomplished so much over the past year,” blog posts that you often see around this time of year. PRSA is a professional organization that prides itself on always moving forward, helping its members and the broader profession progress and prosper in the face of today’s modern communications and marketing challenges.

But in light of PRSA unveiling this week its 2010 State of the Society report, I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to briefly step back and reflect not only on my time as PRSA chair and CEO, but more importantly, on some of the key recent milestones that helped you advance as a professional.  

Continue reading " Looking Back to Look Ahead: PRSA State of the Society "

For the lay person reading this week’s Economist article about historical shifts in public relations, derisively titled, “Rise of the image men,” it would appear that public relations is viewed as the selfish younger brother or sister of advertising and marketing, desperately grasping at the glory and profits those industries have long enjoyed.

Fortunately, for the well-informed, The Economist’s pessimistic assessment couldn’t be further from the truth. Reality tells us that the profession is far more sophisticated, and delivers considerably more value, than it is often given credit for.

Continue reading " Merely ‘Image Men’? Hardly "

Not to state the obvious, but environmental marketing is a booming business.

It’s an industry that now has 68 percent of U.S. consumers as potential customers; American who can be labeled as “light green” consumers (i.e., they purchase environmentally-friendly products on occasion), according to a study by Mintel Reports.

But rapid growth has also caused concerns among marketing-services professionals, advocacy groups and regulatory bodies about revamping best practices and guidelines for environmental marketing claims and messaging. These concerns have been raised as public relations and marketing professionals, including PRSA members who abide by the Society’s Code of Ethics, work to ensure that consumers are fully informed and understand the environmental impact of the products they purchase and the services they use.

It’s with this in mind that PRSA has filed a formal brief with the Federal Trade Commission in response to the Commission’s proposed revisions to its “Green Guides” for environmental marketing (which were last revised in 1998).

Continue reading " Examining the FTC’s Revised ‘Green Guides’ "