When Ozzie Guillén, manager of the rebranded Miami Marlins, inserted the proverbial foot-in-mouth during an interview with TIME magazine, where he stated, “I love Fidel Castro,” I immediately began to question the Marlins’ management strategy.

I thought, “Clearly this guy has no understanding of local politics. Clearly he has no understanding of what so many of us lived through in a Fidel-Castro-Cuban regime. Clearly the Marlins management doesn’t necessarily know what it’s doing to the brand.” I wasn’t alone.

To give you some quick background: What Guillén said is highly offensive to many Hispanics of Cuban origin, especially to those who are older. Cubans did not come to the U.S. looking for a better job or a better economic opportunity. Many lawyers, doctors, engineers, journalists and professionals left their homes, careers and even families because of political oppression and the sheer lack of simple human rights — all attributed to Castro and his followers.

Just as recently as last month, during the Pope’s visit to Cuba, he reiterated how important it was to keep in mind human rights above all else in the island. He urged the Cuban people, “that you may strive to build a renewed and open society, a better society, one more worthy of humanity.”

Having been personally affected by this communist regime, I was taken aback upon hearing about Guillen’s remarks. The fact that he was suspended for five games for his comment didn’t seem like “enough” to me initially. Then, I thought, “How could the Marlins public relations team not have provided such important market-sensitive information?”

Continue reading " No Grand Slam for Miami Marlins’ PR Practices "

If there is one thing public relations professionals enjoy, it is engaging in a spirited debate; none more so than the future of our profession. That was evident in the overwhelming response we received for the “Public Relations Defined” initiative during the initial public submission phase.

Because of that unprecedented response and interest, PRSA’s Definition of Public Relations Task Force is taking additional time to analyze the data collected. We are also providing more time for our 12 global partners to offer their feedback.

As such, three candidate definitions will now be posted on the PRSA website for a public vote in early- to mid-January. At that time, we will make an announcement to invite you to vote for the new definition of public relations.

We hope to announce the results of the votes and the new definition in late-January. This should allow for greater exposure for the new definition, befitting its significance to the future of the profession.

Continue reading " #PRDefined Update: Revised Timeline "

Revelations in the U.K. last week of spurious and unethical actions from the renowned global PR firm Bell Pottinger have cast a pall over the U.K. PR industry. For any public relations professional who values transparency and ethics ahead of lofty client billings, the multi-day exposé in The Independent newspaper of London makes for grim reading.

The editorial series is worth a read, and I encourage you to dig into it to form your own opinions.

Before diving into some of the specific issues addressed in the reports, let’s be clear on two important points:

First, offering to manipulate a client’s online reputation through the use of fake online accounts, newly created blog pages or fake online reviews is not only foolhardy (the likelihood of getting caught is very high), it is unethical. Lacking in transparency, such activities would be in violation of PRSA’s Code of Ethics and are banned in both the U.K. and the U.S. (the latter through the FTC’s “Blogger Rules.”).

It has been said before, but is worth repeating: the Internet does not forget. It is one of the greatest truth-seekers the world has ever known. If, like the Bell Pottinger executives, you are asked by a potential or current client to manipulate a Wikipedia entry or online review, your obligation as an ethical practitioner is to explain the lack of ethics behind such manipulation. And, if the client does not understand or refuses to acknowledge those concerns, the next step is refusal to comply.

Second, the act of representing a dictatorship, such as Bell Pottinger would have done had it taken on the proposed work with the Uzbekistan government, is a slippery slope for the public relations profession. As PRNewser reports, “Uzbekistan has a reputation for child labor and other human rights violations.”

Continue reading " Bell Pottinger Lobbying Scandal: The ‘Dark Arts’ of Unethical PR "

‘Tis the season, but we’re not talking about the amount of time left on a holiday sale.

On Nov. 21, PRSA opened the “Public Relations Defined” conversation, in which we, along with our global partners, are helping to guide the profession in a collaborative effort to develop a modern definition of public relations; one that will be owned by any public relations professional who cares to express his or her thoughts on how a modern definition of public relations should read.

Continue reading " Final Call for New Definitions of PR — #PRDefined Initiative "

Ask any public relations professional to name the question they get most often and, inevitably, it comes down to “What is PR?”

You can hardly go into any new business meeting or grab coffee with a friend without hearing the question. For a profession in which businesses spend billions of dollars on our services, there is remarkably little understanding of what we do.

Recent discussions, blog posts, tweets and mainstream articles paint the following picture:

• Public relations professionals (and, thus, the audiences we serve) continue to struggle with this question;
• Existing definitions are not sufficient; and
• No one definition is considered the de facto industry definition.

My guess is you can relate to this, based on your own experiences.

PRSA has been listening to and engaging in many of these conversations, and after careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion it’s time to do something.

Continue reading " Public Relations … Defined "