Is Briefing Your Spokesperson Ethical?

Prior to an interview between one of our clients and the media, I was presented with a ‘Spokesperson Briefing book’ to review before the interview. This document ensures the spokesperson is prepared for the media’s questioning, and ensures answers will be diverted back to the well-being of the spokesperson’s establishment.

I have previously engaged in similar media preparation tasks for assignments at university, where we were told to “think like a journalist” – what would they ask the spokesperson?

This document contains four sections: interview details, media profile, anticipated media questions, followed by dos and don’ts.

As I began to scan through the first few pages, I began to question the ethical procedures involved with this spokesperson brief...

Does this interfere with the transparency and authenticity of the spokesperson? Does this mean a person cannot organically present themselves because public relations has twisted and tweaked the spokespersons dialogue and expression?

Alternatively, I considered the opposite side of the coin. The media has an established reputation of twisting statements and conversations made through every day conversation. They can utilize an unintentional statement and revert it against the spokesperson, for the purpose of their story.

This means spokespeople preferably need to be educated on their representation towards the media, in order to protect their reputation in the spotlight. Beneficially, this enhances their chance of positive publicity as media professionals (public relations) have studied how to effectively communicate with the media, to ensure honest and positive publicity.

Section four of the brief: Do’s and Don’ts. This was intriguing – I contemplated my previous impression of the brief as I now realized perhaps the spokesperson brief is ethical and necessary. Public Relations simply educates the spokesperson on being consistent in their messages, answering all questions, being clear and calm. The spokesperson is advised against memorizing answers provided by public relations. This ensures the spokesperson isn't spoon fed answers to the media, and still has the opportunity to naturally communicate with personal dialect. 

It's your values that stand out

Interning in a consultancy, I have had the opportunity to work on a range of projects with different clients. 

One client was a cosmetic surgery company, where I was asked to come up with an idea similar to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. This was a campaign to challenge 'beauty stereotypes' and give women more confidence and self esteem. Women are one of Dove's key stakeholders, so they have positioned themselves as an advocate for women and women's issues - with a genuine interest in customers' and stakeholders' wellbeing. 

Photo - Kendra McGowan - Dove Real Beauty, PR in Practice 

Building community relationships should be a priority for any organisation, but it can be more complicated when the organisation deals in sensitive issues - such as the cosmetic surgery company. The basis behind this is to put your name behind a solid idea or conversation, which firstly benefits the community, and benefits for the organisation come later. This comes under the category of Corporate Social Responsibility - a topic I have come across countless times in my studies. Paul Portney defines it as:

"A consistent pattern, at the very least, of private firms doing more than they are required to do under applicable laws and regulations governing the environment, worker safety and health, and investments in the communities in which they operate," - The Not So New Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Perspective. 2008. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2008, Vol. 2(2), pp.261-275). 

My objective for this task was to;

• Define key stakeholders
• Work out what issues these stakeholders are facing
• Work out how to address these issues

I came up with two campaign ideas for the client - both centred around improving life for women in Malaysia. The actions called for in the [proposed] campaigns did not immediately benefit the client in any way - the only benefits they would get was from putting their name behind the cause. I also recommended using local celebrities and well known advocates on the issues to lend authority and publicity to the campaigns. 

Photo - Essential Kids

I based this approach on the BHP Billiton Iron Ore & West Coast Eagles partnership, where BHP funded a number of campaigns including 'Kicking Goals,' and 'Eagles Rock My School.' These engagements show BHP's commitment to supporting the communities they operate in (Giving West, WA Corporate Giving Index. December 2013). By engaging West Coast - who have a strong public profile and community ties - the campaign was better received and had more impact. And the benefits for BHP were that they built stronger ties with key stakeholders, allowing them to operate more efficiently and effectively. 

Photo - Giving West 2013

While I am not sure if either of these campaign ideas will go ahead, it gave me an invaluable opportunity to understand how to implement effective community relations. This brings me to an important point about CSR. Did you know a study by Reputation Institute shows your, "...willingness to buy, recommend, work for, and invest in a company is driven 60% by your perceptions of the company - or it's reputation, and only 40% by your perceptions of the products or services it sells," (Forbes). 

However I think it is important to note good CSR and PR strategies don't cover up bad business ethics. Freeman, Velamuri and Moriarty point out:

"Corporate social responsibility is often about seeming to “do good works.” And, while there is certainly nothing wrong with doing more good, there can be an implication that companies need 

to do good works because the underlying structure of business is not good, or morally neutral. This is a destructive idea—it fails to recognize the central role business plays globally in improving the 

well-being and prosperity of hundreds  of millions of people. And, it can cause companies to act in bad faith and get involved in matters where they have little expertise," Company Stakeholder Responsibility. 

Until next time, 

Whitney Slater

Curtin Bentley 

I am ready, Hello big world!

As my time has come to an end in not only my internship, but my life as a public relations and marketing uni student I look back and see the huge levels of growth I have achieved. This has been academically and as a person. Three years ago I never thought that the end of my university life would have flown past so quickly. The study of public relations has given me a vision on what I want to achieve as a practitioner. During my internship this was just consolidated. These points were as follows:

·      Ethical practice is key. Some situations you are placed in are uncomfortable. The ethical handling of them may not be the easiest, but the long-term benefits outweigh the short run uncomfortable feeling you may have. In three years time will you remember that one Monday morning you were stuck in a sticky situation? You may however remember key ethical situations you handled well, helping your personal development as a public relations officer. Looking back at your career at 50 you would be proud of yourself if you upheld the highest ethical integrity you were able to achieve.

·      Do not write something you would not want your grandmother to read. Yes, as cheesy as this sounds it is a great principle to go by. Every single email you send, media release you write or newsletter publication is out in the public domain for anyone to read. It is stamped with your name on it. With the world becoming ever more tech savvy it is becoming easier for potential employers to find out what you’ve been up to. This goes for the world of social media as well!

·      Pick a career path you will enjoy. This is key to enjoying your job in a public relations role. I have found through my placement that government departments are where I would like my future to be. Health industry would be ideal, but depends what opportunities I am faced with. You will hold a higher level of passion for your work. This ultimately motivates you to put in those few extra hours or write a great strategy or media release.

Overall I feel that doing a public relations internship was the best thing for my future career ahead. It gave my guidance, assertiveness and motivation to what career path I would like to pursue. My confidence levels rose in my ability to implement public relations skills. Before my internship I was nervous to face the “big world”. Now I feel that I am ready for the next stage of my life, including the great career PR will bring.

Good luck to everyone and I hope that your internships were as helpful as mine!

 “Coming together is a beginning.
 Keeping together is progress.
 Working together is success.”    Henry Ford                          

My latest project is trying to increase awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The disorder relates to the risks drinking has to an unborn baby. The impact of drinking alcohol during pregnancy can create lifelong issues that are not curable. However FASD is completely preventable. The key message is that not drinking during pregnancy is the safest option.

Aiming to shift cultural norms and changes lifelong habits to improve public health is a big job, with a relatively small team and budget allocated to get the job done. My internship involves bringing people together and equipping them to make a change in the community.

It seems impossible that a team of two people could make a change but internal communications, partnerships with other health agencies and community involvement make this possible. Some examples include:

Internal communications

• Ensuring the message given by people in the agency is consistent: that not drinking during pregnancy is the safest option.
• Training doctors, nurses and those involved in pregnancy planning or testing to talk to clients about the risks of drinking while pregnant and provide strategies to ensure success.
• Supporting employees in having alcohol free pregnancies by providing non-alcoholic options at events and planning social group outings where alcohol is not the focus.

Partnerships with other health agencies

• Developing sustainable partnerships with a shared vision of reducing incidents of FASD and using the strengths of the different agencies to promote the message (that might be time, resources, skills and abilities).
• Recognising different backgrounds and use this diversity to support development of different initiatives. For example indigenous health groups can ensure messages are culturally appropriate and help reach areas of the population that may not be seen by traditional health care providers.
• Ensuring communication between partner agencies is effective, regular and timely so that a consistent message is presented to the community. This is especially important if new information is released or in times of crisis communication.

Community involvement

• Raising public awareness about FASD and influencing the target audience to change values and behaviours. Drinking can be a social norm and people have reported feeling isolated as they are not able to be involved in social activities if they don’t drink.
• Educating and equipping people for change through workshops, events, media releases and provision of information designed to provide options to support alcohol free pregnancies.

 

Through all this consideration needs to be given to ‘best practice’ and the strong ethical guidelines around health promotion. There are many social detriments to health and long lasting, community wide change involves strong strategic planning and a long term commitment by health promotion agencies to addressing the issue.

The scope of the project may seem large but I am encouraged by reading about Canada’s success at raising awareness, and reducing incidents of FASD. This can only be achieved through a holistic approach and by working together.

My degree in public relations has enabled me to be confident in engaging, working with the media and planning events but it is just the first chapter in making a difference in a health promotion setting.

The ethical difference in Asia

Hi again everyone,

In reference to my last post on event's co-ordination, we all know that our ethical behavior and ethical norms are essential for a PR Practioner anywhere around the world. When i was co-ordinating the event and several other projects, i was subjected to a few ethical queries that i was sure would not be seen as ethical or normal in Australia.

For example, in order to sign contracts and gain business deals i sometimes had to wine and dine some of the industry professionals in order to even get them to read my proposals. I found it quite difficult to understand at first because i thought i was bribing them to read my documents. Slowly i learnt that in order to get them to be interested, going out for lunch, dinner or after hours drinks were the most suitable time to discuss proposals; not because they want a free meal but because it was less stressful and it allowed a more comfortable atmosphere to discuss each others wants, needs and benefits out of the deal.

It was quite a learning curve for me and it took some time for me to actually gain a hold of the communication level my supervisor was on; essential the way we converse about a proposal is so different and it was not just about knowing when to be polite, aggresive or kind but to know when to be persuasive in the friendliest manner was the hardest for me to adjust to.

Overall, communication skills are so important in asia that there is a whole other language when it comes to making deals. I definitely learnt a lot when i followed my supervisor around and had the chance to try this myself as well.


Thanks again!

Jun

Moriarty's concert- The work behind it!

Hello all,

In my third post I would like to talk about Immedia's first major event of 2013 which was Moriarty's concert in Mauritius. Immedia's team organised that concert mainly for 'melomanes' and also with the aim to enable Mauritian public discover and appreciate their music. I was happy to be part of the organisation of the event as I got the opportunity to learn a lot about the PR work behind it.

As I said in my first post, a press conference was held to inform the media and hence the public about the forthcoming event. Thereupon I was asked to write a media release which was to be sent t media outlets by mail as a form of follow-up. Moreover I collected news articles about the band's concert in Mauritius which we also used as a form to measure our communication strategy.

In less than two weeks almost all the tickets were sold out. My supervisor told me we also needed to distribute tickets to our sponsors as the agency promised to do so before all the tickets were announced 'sold out'. He added that as an agency we cannot beak our promise to them as it can damage the organisation's reputation and that of course, it is not ethical.

I also got the oppotunity to go to 'Conservatoire François Mitterand' of Quatres-Bornes, where the concert was to be held, two days before the 'jour-j' to see if the preparations were going on smoothly.

The tasks I undertook on the day of the event, just a few hours before the start of the concert were: assuring everything was okay with the technical preparations (lights,sound,effects...),getting to know the team working on the preparation of the concert (technicians, musicians,...), checking if all the seats were well numbered, installing Immedia's banderole with the team ( even if you're a PR person, you've got to have muscles! Since it is a small team, like my lecturer said in PR 220 class, no one else is going to do it for you!) and welcoming the guests.

All I have to say about the management of the event is that it was a wonderful experience. The concert ended up being a huge success and I was glad that the entire team's days and days of efforts were rewarded. Also, I attended one of the most beautiful concert in my entire life. That's how fantastic it is to be a PR person!

Divya G.

I SAY ITS ETHICAL, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Hie everyone!

It has been a little too long since my last post but worry not, am here now to share once again with you my experiences as an intern.

As I have said in my first post, Office of the President (OP), where I was doing my internship is dedicated to serving the nation hence the nation of Botswana its first priority. That having being said, the PR department in OP also follow suit, it's main key publics are the communities of Botswana. Their objectives include making the people of Botswana a happy nation, listening to their cries and helping wipe the tears off.

During my days at OP as I watched the way we treated the nation and how much the office was dedicated to giving out to them, I started wondering off back to school but specifically on the ETHICS topic. Ethics as I understood are a set of principles that govern the behavior of a person or a group of people. The question that popped in my head was, is what OP is doing ethical or not? Are they buying the people off or just doing what is good for their publics?

But as days went by, I started to realize that we were only doing our job, it is the dedication of the office and that is how we archive our goals. I say 'we' because for some time there I was part of the team and I still like to think of myself as one. All that the PR department does in OP, for the nation and for the President himself, is support their mission and vision. If they were undergoing any crisis, I would think they were trying to buy someone off but they do all those community service events any other time, they listen to what the public is in need of and help where they can. That is not morally wrong, in fact, it is morally right to stand by what you do for the good of long term outcomes.

We all know that somehow in the lines of being ethical, the organization is building a good name for itself and even though some people may consider that using key publics, I don't think there is any better way of doing that and there is no day a random person will not go out of their way to think negatively. I once asked my boss why they pamper the nation of Botswana so much and he told me that the PR department in OP is not like PR in other organizations or PR consultants because unlike those, what they leave the office having in mind might be changed when they get back in the office the next morning depending on communities all over Botswana, they serve them and they do right by them.

In a nut shell, i do not think OP is unethical to stand by what they do best. But your opinion matters so WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Untill next time, Neo signing out.

The Importance of Facts and Their Accuracy

Stepping into the real world has quickly made me realize that gone are the days when my work ethic gave way to laziness and resolved to sourcing minor facts from Wikipedia that would go unnoticed. In the real world, when you send out a release, whether internally or externally, you are reaching not just the people the article is sent to but social circles and family networks that spread like wild fire via word of mouth and sharing. I have had to step back and reflect on the actual impact of an article that is sent out and I have realized that globalization and social media has intensified these networks exponentially in the past ten years to the point you have to be very careful of the accuracy of facts because in one way or another, people will discover if they are incorrect and therefore affecting the organization’s credibility.

Hames Sharley assigned me with my first big project of sending out the eNewsletter that is published every other month and sent only to internal staff. The newsletter covers project updates for the various departments, new submissions, events, sustainable initiatives in the office, industry news and new appointments. To gain the necessary content, I had to liaise with each branch across Australia and provide a deadline so that I would have enough time to put it together using InDesign. The task seems simple, until you realize that you have about 25 pages of content you have to cross check and verify with multiple people and still follow up on those who have not responded with any materials for their branch. The Marketing Coordinator (Siaw) made me realize the importance of getting it right by reviewing my work and challenging facts to ensure it was all up date because it would stick out like a sore thumb to any employee involved in the project.

She also emphasized the need to cross check with senior directors that the content could legally be disclosed because of confidentiality in pending or unfinished projects. There are also some instances that require sensitivity as it common for the firm to undergo joint ventures with multiple organizations for a single project and in this instance, they must share and agree on the right to publicize it whether internally or externally. If I had provided an update on a project under such an agreement, I would therefore be jeopardizing the project as a whole if it were to be leaked one way or another. For me, this really added value to the marketing and PR profession because there is a lot riding on it, and it must be taken seriously regardless of what others may think. It also points out the necessity for cooperation in an office environment and the facilitation of open communication so these issues don’t arise.

Ethical Reporting

When a student nears the end of their university degree, there is always that question of just how similar real life practice will be to the material learnt at university. Interestingly, a lot of what we learn at uni does go on in the real world. Do you like report writing? I hope so, because if you enter the PR industry, you will be writing reports, particularly in consultancy. One of the tasks I had to carry out was write a report for one of Devahasdin’s clients. The purpose of the report was to demonstrate the work carried out and the results achieved by the consultancy in a media relations campaign. Now cast your mind back to our consultancy unit. We were taught that we had to demonstrate to clients the return on their investment (ROI). This is the focus of my blog post.

The report contained an overview, objectives, a section on targeted media channels and whether publicity was obtained, a publicity value table and press clippings. The publicity value table describes where media coverage was achieved as well as the estimated value of publicity. You may remember this as being called “advertising value equivalency” (AVE). Although through our study of consultancies we learnt that AVEs are an invalid form of measurement with questionable ethics, clients using PR services love them. AVEs provide a numerical figure which makes it easier to quantify ROI. As we all know, ROI is quite difficult to determine in a PR context. The unethical implications of using AVEs result from PR practitioners adding ‘credibility’ multipliers. For example, say media coverage was secured in the West Australian. The PR company would determine the cost of the space if it was an advertisement and then multiply this figure to take into account that publicity is viewed as more credible then advertising etc. Some consultancies multiply by 3 to 10!!! I am proud to say that my organisation does not engage in this practice. They merely provide the value of the press clipping dimensions if it were a paid advertisement as there is a pressing demand from clients.

AVE can be used to calculate print and electronic coverage. It must be remembered and communicated to clients that AVEs measure costs of an ad, not the dollar value of publicity. AVEs do not take into account factors such as whether the editorial was positive or negative. Furthermore, AVE can underestimate the value of the exposure due to the credibility provided because the publicity is endorsed by a third party. Here is a very interesting argument by the Digimarketing Convo Blog http://digimarketingconvo.blogspot.com/2010/01/debate-eav-what-is-it-actually.html

Prior to discovering that organisations in practice do use AVE to demonstrate to clients the success of a publicity campaign, I thought of this approach to be unsuitable and unethical. However, after witnessing the use of AVEs in action, I believe there is some value in the adoption of this measurement. At the very least, it provides clients with the figure that they demand. Furthermore, I don’t see a problem with this measurement as long as there are no credibility multipliers. Clients should be informed that certain factors lead to AVEs overestimating or underestimating the value of publicity. As long as AVEs are used in conjunction with other reporting measures I think they are helpful in aiding the clients’ understanding of publicity and its value. I will likely adopt the use of AVEs in my future as a PR practitioner.

Kind regards,

Suzi Petkucevska

The Fat Trade

I know the issue of ethics has probably been drilled into our heads since the first PR class and hearing the words "ethics" and "PR" in the same sentance makes us shriek. However whilst overlooking the workings of a PR consultancy, the issue become poignant once again.

Recently a heavy hitter from a well known fast food franchise made contact with gt and asked them to help with their new "healthy eating campaign". Whilst this is not a new initative for fast food outlets, the fact that they are aiming their produce at the family unit as a frequent weekly meal questions the validiy of the statement.

He rambled on about how his compeditors were using battery chickens and over processed meats; but his products were "healthy"...Questionable.

This meeting, whick went for a good 40 mins ended with gt agreeing to write up a pr proposal to develop this product.

This poses the question as to what is ethical and as a PR consultancy can you pick and choose your clients based on their morals? Does meeting your bottom line come before ethics?

Working at gt has opened my eyes to the fact that you don't want to make enimies in this business because Perth is small and people talk. Whilst gt have never said no to a client, they haven't been faced with bikies, anti- semitism groups or pro/anti abortion assemblies. I am not questioning their values.

Whilst supporting a fast food outlet is not quite as extreme as any of the above, the contribution to supporting fast food could lead to the contribution to obesity. This is a distant link, however it again raises the question that often punishes the PR profession; IS PR ETHICAL?

Until next time, Jane

INTERNAL RELATIONS COMMUNICATION ARE VITAL

Hi! Guys

I started works as in internship at a Cleaning and Hygiene company called MODITHITO in Botswana. It is a fairly large company that specializes in offering cleaning services for a quite large number of big companies, numerous government organizations the list extending to even big shopping malls. Modithito is now established and have branches in four different places in Botswana being the capital city Gaborone, Francistown that is another city and two other towns, Selebi-Phikwe and Palapye. Up to today, the company has grown to be an employer of close to 200 employees.

For the company strength, it now partners with other international companies in African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Namibia and others which they are still putting effort. I guess it helps the company to acquire any news and keep updated with whatsoever latest technology in the cleaning industry. Modithito offers a number of cleaning and hygiene services, the list includes office cleaning, high rise window cleaning, chemical suppliers, pest control, car wash etc. in most companies Modithito attach cleaners and then supply them with necessary equipment and chemicals at the same time managing and supervising them while attached to their area of operation

I got there at a very critical moment when the company was re-branding itself. They where getting new uniform for working stuff, changing their long served logo design giving it a brand new look. The company was also changing a few things on the operational system and management. It has been like that for a long period of time since its birth, since now they have grown to become one of the largest if not the largest in the country, it has become hard to manage this bigger scale the same way it was done when they first came. It wanted to create a system which a system which will facilitate effectiveness and productivity at the same time giving promised services with guaranteed customer satisfaction placed upfront. The company is going to start by working on organizing and improving internal relations with its employees emphasizing desired work ethics. After it is organized then it will start creating external relations with its publics, as well as strengthening the already existing relationship with its key publics.

However the company PR sector is still young and growing since it is only operates form the headquarters in Gaborone which makes it not an easy task to communicate directly with other branch leaders unless they have to travel to directly address them. Otherwise they rely on fax, phone and email to communicate as the company website is still under construction.

Here I witnessed the essential of communication in the public relation field. That without proper channels of communication you are doomed even from the slightest mistake you might take for granted. Employee relations or internal relations are vital for the company to succeed in the outside world because everything has to be organized. Sometimes you find that the company looses tenders because only one person knew about it then they were not available at the time or that one thinks the job is done while another did not know who is supposed to be doing the work.

Otsetswe Sedimo

LUCT (Malaysia)

Don't Get Fooled by Your Own PR!

What price are you willing to pay to succeed in your PR activity? What actually is success anyway?

Speaking in terms of PR, success I believe is achieving objectives. Then with whose ruler are we supposed to measure our achievements? The answer is that the executive in charge of the plan will draw some evaluation guideline and those parameters are the criteria. That means you plan, you execute and you evaluate from the beginning to the end, all by yourself & your organization. “Oh! Okay! I knew this, fine! So what’s the problem?”...Well, I would like to bring forward an ethical dilemma that would challenge the basis of this close system of ‘evaluating ourselves by ourselves’. The dilemma is a real case study of what I have observed in the non profit organization that I am working in.

But one quick reminder before I get into the story that at least in the non-profit world, there is a pervasive belief among decision-makers based of which overall performance of the organization is often rated as acceptable and sometimes outstanding.That is because the ‘not for profit’ is always on the tow. Now the story:

When food manufacturers clear out their stock out of the old cans, they hand over near-expired food cans to INGOs as donations. Then we as the non-profit organizations hand over them in a pack with combination of some other stuff to single mothers, poor and sometimes disabled communities of which we visit. This creates for the media the opportunity to make some ‘success stories’ out of our efforts and also it provides our handsome product sponsors! some socially responsible images and a clean stock!…Therefore media wins, non-profit body (we) wins, food manufacturers win but what about the poor and single mothers? Well they also win! They receive some near-expired/expired products! How lovely!

This routine does not only belong to this international body. All other humanitarian organizations WORLDWIDE, precisely, follow the same to donate the poor and in needs. Now…

Imagine yourself in the shoes of the receiver! When he receives ‘Mickey mouse’ stuff (BTW ask yourself who really wants our old shoes?) of worth nothing and yet he has to hold that pack -usually despite of his will- until media do all the photography and cameras shoot enough footage for tonight’s television news feed. Yeah…He is only a fish, a fish for us, for them and for everyone who can use him as a fish. He was not born as a fish; we- PR people- turned him into our fish in exchange of a promotion or a handful of money. His picture, then, gets published in magazines, bulletins, catalogues, papers and on television of people watch, as our ‘PR success story’, as our PR achievement. And we yet celebrate when the television shows his face, since that fishy face is a major ‘evaluation’ parameter now, a gauge to measure what is known in this kind of PR as ‘success’.

I, personally, don’t believe in achieving objectives with any price. It seems that without considering a solid moral and ethical structure, ‘success’ not only in communications but in any other kind of activity is not achievable. But with whose moral or ethical codes shall we proceed? Ours or our organizations? Neither of them of course.

Therefore for an authentic and real ‘success’ measurement, the presence of a comprehensible & objective third perspective is a necessity to undertake the measurement. Unfortunately western post-enlightenment philosophy does not have much to say in this regard, whereas Holy Scriptures already has provided us with detailed strategies in ‘social situations’ as mentioned above. Here is what Holy Quran cites in (2:267) a precise and exact solution to our ethical dilemma:

‘Do not donate something that you would never take it yourselves, except with closed eyes’

I emailed the same verse to my colleagues and asked them to encourage our product sponsors to donate fresh stuff, not near expired reduced cans.

But nobody took it seriously.

Best regards,
Ali (LUCT)

PR contributes to the society / world?

Hello fellow interns, we are almost reaching the end of our eventful internship period. I would like to reflect back in this entry and look back at what I have done so far, what significance it has had in my life and how much have I been able to learn and take back with me, more importantly I want to look back to see how much I have contributed to the industry, to FH’s clients and to FHKL in itself.

A friend of mine recently asked me a disturbing question; “so what do you do all day at work, come up with more documents and help form strategies for a client, a corporate super power to blind the public, to bring down one of it competitors in an endless war of corporate superpowers? Is that what you are contributing to the world?”

The question made me wonder, and perhaps others will ask us similar questions in the future. So without being defensive I decided to think of the best possible answer, which is as follows:

Dear Critic of PR

I understand the frustration you must feel when corporations appear to have gardens of money trees in their back yard and make billions of dollars, figures that we done even dream of, but allow me to give you my humble insight that I have gathered over the past two months.

The Big Picture:
To begin at the beginning, as human beings we spend much of our energy fighting for freedom, whether it’s freedom of speech or freedom of economy, however this only goes for those who do not have freedom and not for those of us who are lucky enough to live in democratic nations. If you are entitled to freedom as an individual why corporations shouldn’t be entitled to freedom of economy too?

I will not deny that many corporations behave and practice unethically, but this should not be an excuse for us to condemn all. After all corporations are made up of people like you and me who work hard and aim to get somewhere, it just so happen that they have aimed for a very high position and have achieved it.

What do we do?
Even though from Critic’s point of view it may seem that I sit at my desk till late at night coming up with another manipulative document to blind the public of the truth and create some fantastic crisis to get my clients competitor in trouble, sorry to disappoint you, I don’t and I’m quiet sure my colleague don’t, if any other PR firm or PR practitioner is doing that, then shame on them. The truth is that while the PR industry may have not always had the best of images, it has come a long way since it’s era of Edward Bernays Florid Deception and other such disasters.

I do not blame critics of PR industry, who are often journalists to misunderstand PR as there are many PR practitioners out there that are out of the control of governing umbrella bodies such as the IPRM (Malaysia). Even the ones that are registered can at times cross the line of ethics on multiple platforms.

Having seen up close and personal one of the worlds leading PR firms style of practice I feel certain that there is a heart in the PR industry after all and it is in fact PR that makes corporations have a softer more humane side. One example of this is one of FH’s CSR client that I will not name and will call client X, the account was handled mostly by me which gave me a lot of insight on what goes into the preparations of a CSR campaign. X was interested in carrying out a CSR campaign in Asia, one that will have real impact and a voice. A Corporate Social Responsibility campaign is often to the advantage of many parties but mostly to the society. In this case the client wanted to know more about the situation of migrant workers in Malaysia and major environmental issues here that they could look into and have a sustainable touching base for.

To gain in-depth knowledge on subject of migrant workers I arranged for meetings with some of Malaysia prominent NGO’s dealing with migrant workers and human rights. Note that company X has previously had a crisis concerning migrant workers in a contract factory, which is mainly the reason why Malaysia was put on the map along side, China, Vietnam and Thailand. I managed to arrange meetings with MTUC (Malaysia Trade Union Congress), Tenaganita and SUHAKAM. They each gave us vital information, advice, recommendations and awareness on serious matters concerning migrant workers in Malaysia.

The meetings were eventful and we meet passionate people who were happy to see X take action and initiative to do their research and contact them, they were ecstatic at the idea of working with X for the betterment of the society. While the NGO’s were getting excited over the ideas and things that we could do my boss reminded us all that “this is still a business move and has to give X coverage”. Which is the truth, X needs to profit and gain publicity from this campaign but the real benefit at the end of the day will go to the people whose lives were changed because of the campaign (the campaign could be to ensure that workers join unions so that their rights are protected or ensure minimum wage for migrant workers).

The point that I am trying to make is that while company X may be looking for their own interest it is us PR people that now have the power to do something positive. If we don’t do our job well, the money for the campaign could easily be allocated for a major advertisement campaign or similar projects. So it is up to us to make sure that the NGO’s voices, the people’s voices, the weaker parties voices and societies voices and demands are heard. It all comes down to the report that we write back to X to make an impact, to finally make a change.

You see Critic, this is PR, this is the only industries that have insight and the power to make unethical companies or companies like X make an effort to give back to the society. This is the kind of work that makes you sleep well at night, we may have helped X gain more popularity in the long run but if X goes on with the campaign we have helped thousands of people.

What do you think? What is PR to you? Does PR have a heart or is its only purpose to manipulate and spin?

Cheers
:)

Ethical Issues

Hi all,
This will be very hard to explain without revealing all the details, but I'll have a go anyway.
PPR is doing the PR for a festival coming up in March that promotes children's literacy - basically, a whole bunch of famous (and not so famous) children's writers are holding workshops over three days with the kids that read their books. Sounds great, right?!
Well, I was given the opportunity to pitch a targeted media release to a variety of education and parenting media. Cool stuff, and I was a bit proud that PPR trusted me with that (even though I'd done it in my other job).
So anyway. I called up *XY* media. The editor said he was not going to run the article because of one minor thing that went against his personal "code" for the outlet (I can't tell you, it would give to much away!). So essentially, a media outlet that was supposed to be all for children's needs and good development wasn't going to mention an excellent, not for profit festival.
I let it go. We were going to get coverage in lots of other media, so it was their loss I figured. BUT the client heard about this, and her boss casually mentioned it to their local MP, who had had dealings with the editor before.
So now it has escalated into a big drama! The MP's office called me today to hear my side of the story, and everyone PPR and the client's office knows what going on. The editor will probably get a telling off, and he will probably not cover anything PPR sends to him again! Yaaah!

But anyway, the point of the story was to discuss ethics. Is it alright not to print something newsworthy and valuable because you think it might have a negative effect on your readers? (Well, negative in his mind anyway). Particularly is the case where this story is a very good cause, not like we're promoting something frivolous or unhealthy. Is it right to be so blatant about it? Should I have taken note of this and escalated it myself?

Questions which I think can't really be answered without me giving you all the details. Sorry, it's confidential :)

But personally, I thought it was pretty wrong, and everyone at PPR agrees. So everyone, just watch out for some journalists. Everyone has their own agenda (right or wrong) that you have to be aware of. I would heartily recommend talking to people in the office before calling anyone in the media up, just to get a bit of background so you know if there are any issues like this!

See ya,
Krish
Bentley