When I go to parties, I get embarrassed about introducing myself as a PR. But now, for the first time, I feel like we have a chance to rebuild our own reputation as an industry. My worry is that the rest of the sector will just watch this opportunity fly by.
The public perception of PR is that we're all spin artists, trying to put the best possible gloss on bad news.
I remember going to one event and introducing myself as a PR pro and someone replying: "Oh, I know PR. You'd send me on holiday to a desert and say it was a very big beach."
But if you came into a PR office, you'd find the reality is much more boring. These days, most of the industry is focused on securing media coverage, come hell or high water, for products, services, and businesses that probably don't deserve it. The PRs know that. The journalists know that.
Even worse, this coverage usually doesn't move the dial for clients.
You get clients who are desperate for press because they think it'll boost their bottom line and drive sales. But it rarely, if ever, does.
People don't generally buy things because of a piece they stumbled across in the paper. When's the last time you bought something based on an article you happened to read? Exactly.
But the real tragedy is that PR is hugely valuable — if it's used for the right reasons and in the right way. PR is not about spinning. And PR is definitely not about selling.
Instead, PR is about helping companies, people, governments, and institutions build credibility and trust in their organisations (and, by extension, their products or services too).
It might be building trust in a government policy. It might be building trust in a new medtech start-up. It might be building trust in a bank's new services.
And this is why PR is really frustrating me at the moment.
Right now, the world is facing a crisis of confidence in institutions.
Nobody trusts companies anymore. Nobody trusts the media. Nobody trusts governments. Worse still, you've got bad actors actively working to destroy public trust.
So this should be the moment PR shines — our annus mirabilis.
The moment we step up and show the world our true value: helping to rebuild trust in institutions, and stitching together the fractured, disjointed systems that underpin society.
What are we doing instead? We keep doubling down on the idea that we're some kind of sales or marketing arm — trying to sign more clients by promising them revenue growth and sales results. It's sad, really.
We need to see this moment for what it is: a pivotal opportunity for PR to play a positive role in society. And we need the courage to seize it.