PR isn’t about polishing turds
Shit! You Work in PR? Not that old chestnut again. Isn’t it time to move on and say something different?
Last Thursday in Sydney at the CommsCon Awards, the night to celebrate the best of the PR industry’s efforts over the previous 12 months, we were yet again subjected to the narrow view of the discipline. This time through the moderator on the night, journalist Joe Hildebrand.
White
Whether it was black humour or not, the message in Joe’s speech was fixated on the art of spin – cover up, manipulation, hiding the truth, trying to make the negative look positive, and so it went on. If you want to see what Joe had to say, he published his edited speech in the Daily Telegraph.
I have worked in public relations for almost 20 years and did not find Joe’s attempts of humour remotely funny. But that’s not what bothered me. What did was his opinion that we, public relations professionals, spend most of our time trying to polish turds. That, quite frankly, is a turd.
Back in the 90s we were called Hemispheric Communicators. Like the half crest moon, we were told we only focus on the bright side and keep the dark side hidden.
It’s now 2014 and spin is so yesterday. The idea of trying to dupe people just doesn’t work. To echo what many said after his speech, I thought I too would offer an opinion from the “dark” side.
Now, we’ve heard it all before – PR people and journalists operate in a symbiotic relationship. We need them and they need us. But whether we are there for one another when it matters; well, that depends. Of course, it has to be a story. But it also comes down to honest, working relationships between the two professions.
But the point often missing in the “public relations and spin” rhetoric is this:
Firstly, communications professionals do not come to work and spend the day bombarding journalists with phone calls (or emails). Secondly, we do not try to spin or distort facts. Thirdly, we do not hide when the turd hits the fan. On the contrary, in a crisis our counsel will be the opposite – communicate. After all, the conversation doesn’t stop.
The truth of the matter is public relations professionals do so much more than media relations; and when we do that, we are definitely not spinning. That is best left to cricketers.
As Bob Dylan said in 1964, “the times they are a-changin”.
With the Internet of Things now a fabric of our digital lives, the way people search for and consume information has and will continue to change. For those in public relations this has cemented our role as story tellers. We have always been in the business of conversations and the web and social media gives brands the opportunity to speak to, and listen to, their audiences.
I would argue that the attraction Joe noted in his speech for reporters to leave journalism and become communications professionals is not a retirement move; rather, it’s because they have a passion to tell stories, and they can see the splintering effect technology is having on traditional news and the opportunities it is creating for them to work brand side. Can you blame them given the shifting media landscape and the rounds of redundancies?
That aside, a common ground for both communications professionals and journalists is a story – and a story needs great content. It also needs to be a story.
That’s why everyone needs to get over the “spin” thing. Those days are long gone.
The best PR is anti-spin. And that is what the CommsCon Awards were celebrating last Thursday. The best the industry has to offer. There certainly wasn’t a turd in the house and the only thing being polished was the silverware.
Graham White is group managing director for Howorth
You’re absolutely correct; in a lot of instances. But then so is Joe; In a lot of instances.
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Graham White, thank you.
I am so sick of professional communicators categorised as spin doctors. While there is a minority (as in any sector) that does our profession no good, public relations/communication professionals are just that – professional. And communicating with a range of audiences is much more than just the media. Indeed, often it doesn’t even include the latter — shock, horror.
So Mr White, again, thank you for telling it how it is … without the crap.
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I always found it an ironic anomaly that PR seems to suffer from an image problem.
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Great piece Graham. Enter social media, word of mouth, citizen journalism and you have another layer to PR all about transparency and honesty. Spin simply doesn’t fly and it hasn’t for a long time. Enjoyed reading this, thank you.
* In the interests of transparency I should add that Graham is my ex MD, and one of the best bosses I’ve had!
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“We do not try to spin or distort facts”. Errr I work in comms, and have worked on both client side and agency. In my 20 years or so experience I’ve always found this to be the case. “Spinning” includes only showing the bright side. Does that mean it’s unprofessional? No. On the contrary it’s an accepted negative in our business. And anyone that says it doesn’t happen is, quite frankly, polishing a turd.
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Much more importantly, Graham is also a damn good footballer. Manly-Allambie United FC – Kings of the Northern Beaches !!
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Circling sharks … best comment ever.
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While I respect this piece, I tend to think life’s too short to take Joe Hildebrand too seriously.
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“With the Internet of Things now a fabric of our digital lives … ”
“… for reporters to leave journalism and become communications professionals is not a retirement move; rather, it’s because they have a passion to tell stories”.
Please spare us buzzword-laden, insupportable, stories like the first excerpt. Let’s hope that journos who cross over manage to disabuse PR land of such drivel.
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Well said Graham…couldn’t agree more.
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PR isn’t about polishing turds.
It’s a both rolling them in glitter and spraying them with perfume.
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@circling sharks and @kate, often PR faces an image problem because many people don’t really know what we do; despite many explanations from many of us, the common default position is still spin – but we will keep trying.
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Well said Graham.
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It’s well known that you can’t polish a turd. But you can roll it in glitter…
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I read your comments with great interest Graham. I am a recent PR/Journalist graduate who has had many years of practical experience working in the PR field prior to completing my degree. I am aware of how journalists view people from the “other side” that being PR professionals. I am also aware of how much they rely on us for news – especially in a regional city. I agree, in a crisis communication is vital as is an honest working relationship between the two professions. This can only benefit the reputation of the company you represent as well as your own.
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Hear, hear Graeme!
Would be a very quiet day on the airwaves if we all went on strike!
I always chuckle that is seems totally acceptable to say anything about a product or issue – to polish that turd within in inch of its life – as long as you pay for said turd ( hey everyone – advertising is a-o-kay!)…
Yet providing one side of an argument or product benefits via PR channels, which is then open to be heavily scrutinised by clever journalists, stakeholders, social influencers and the general public is viewed as highly sinister.
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“Firstly, communications professionals do not come to work and spend the day bombarding journalists with phone calls (or emails). Secondly, we do not try to spin or distort facts. Thirdly, we do not hide when the turd hits the fan. On the contrary, in a crisis our counsel will be the opposite – communicate. After all, the conversation doesn’t stop.”
Well, I can only speak for myself – but I’ve worked in public relations for 15 years and I can say this is exactly consistent with my experience.
I teach PR as well and this taps into the strategic advisory role, ‘seat at the leadership table’ stuff. If something stinks enough, there’s no way to save it. Better to be there to advise away from the stink bomb in the first place.
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Years of experience on both sides has taught me this. Journalists are pessimists and PRs are optimists. You rarely find a good journo that is an optimist and never find a good PR who is a pessimist.
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Many years ago a friend in PR said to me “It’s not about what you can get in the paper, any fool can do that, it’s about what you can keep out”
Not polishing turds at all. Rather, hiding them.
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Open up the Herald Sun today and within the EGN you will find a nice big photo + ‘article’ on Clem’s retirement campaign. Those days are gone, Graham? This must be an example of passionate storytelling, then.
Dylan also said; ‘Money doesn’t talk, it swears.’
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White hits the nail on the head.
Ever since studying and working in PR, when ever someone asked me what i did, i would almost always get the response ” oh a spin doctor ey”. By now my eye rolling is Audible.
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Journalists are the worst spinners of the lot!
Their agendas, political and otherwise, and selective omissions of key facts give them no moral credibility whatsoever to judge PR.
No journalist has a mortgage on universal truth, and for those in this wounded and compromised craft to lay claim to such is hypocrisy of the highest order.
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Quite bemusing that the old ‘media versus PR’ diatribe is still alive and kicking. Well, fuelled in this instance by Mr Hildebrand’s lovely speech at the CommsCon Awards.
I wasn’t present on the night. But from everything that’s been written of it, I walked away feeling as though he was there to simply troll his audience and have a laugh at their expense.
Nup, not taking the bait on that one.
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Wow. You hire Joe Hildebrand to MC a PR awards night and then cranky when he takes the entirely predictable pot shots? Just a little bit precious.
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I would love one day for the PR industry to be as outspoken and frank about the work it does coaching clients on how and when to speak to particular journalists, and what to expect.
There’s a lot to suggest that it can be quite intrusive on the journalists lives. Perhaps the new privacy laws will push some of that into the limelight.
IMO that’s the side that needs some scrutiny.
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Where’s the like button!
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Joe is correct – too many graduates coming out of journalism degrees who are unfortunately not trained sufficiently to report in today”s global media.
Trained at times by PhD academics who have either not worked in media and been an academic all their life or have not been in the media for many years.
Why am I getting so many journalism graduates coming to my journalism short courses who have not even been trained in how to pitch articles to editors or how to work with editors and much more.
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Brilliant! I too have been working in this industry for over 20 years and enough is enough.
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Watch people’s faces fall when you tell them you work in public relations. It seems to be the equivalent of telling people you work for a Tobacco company or in politics. Frankly, I’m sick of the assumption that the work we do is at best superfluous and at worst dishonest. With the profession so undervalued, its no wonder PR professionals are typically paid so little.
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Graham ‘the internet of things’ is a phrase that refers to the internet being baked into objects like fridges etc. you’ve tried to use jargon but in the wrong way. Very pr
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Such a volatile topic and so many great comments. I throw my golden apple of approval @circling sharks. My 2 cents, hey amidst all the doom and gloom somebody’s gotta see the bright side, the half full glass, the silver lining! Hug it out.
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@Marrickvillian and @Dave, if you’re ignorant about quite commonly used phrases, just google or wikipedia-them. Graham’s use of “Internet of Things” was fine.
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I love cliches.
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Sventana: I think you are wrong. I hear a lot about “cloud social and mobile” or “the third computing platform” to describe consumers accessing information in new ways. And like Dave I hear the internet of things being used to describe devices in a machine-to-machine context. I therefore believe Graham’s language is an inaccurate and unhelpful appropriation.
But let’s also consider the sheer banality of a phrase like “With the Internet of Things now a fabric of our digital lives …”
Aside from the poor sentence construction, I fail to see how material that offers a collection of meaningless and/or contestable buzzwords is useful. If that’s the engaging storytelling PR aspires to deliver on behalf of its clients, good luck to those clients.
As it happens we know what’s engaging consumers these days: listicles! I’m sure we’ll hear that re-invented by the new word factories as “sequentially ordered content” any day now …
Some of you will eat it up. And some clients will think you’re clever for using the phrase. And I’ll weep some more.
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*goes and microwaves the popcorn*
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@marrickvillain Shakespeare used word play, perhaps he was called banal in his day. Inventing new words is one of the perks of working in the communications industry. It adds to the richness of our language when there are buzz words to salt and pepper conversations. However, as with all seasoning, overkill takes away from the authenticity. The balance between classic, best practice communication and incorporating trends of the day can only be achieved through trial and error. That’s why it’s great that no one in the comms industry seems to hold back with the feedback.
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There are plenty of of well paid, savvy and respected corporate affairs people in the industry. They don’t call themselves “PRs” .They’re strategic communicators who are managing major issues for great companies and brands. And thy’re paid accordingly. Our firm just put out the definitive list of the top 50 in Australia for recruiter Salt & Shein. Check it out at http://www.saltsheinpower50.com.au
@PR Pro done like a pro. Way to steer a conversation.
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The way the PR industry is always trying to justify its existence is very telling; it speaks of a deep-seated insecurity about its role in the world.
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Shining the ‘turd’ reference harks back to a mate, David Hurley, who as Premier Neville Wran’s press secretary famously said: “We’re eating a turd sandwich and having to say it’s yummy!” There have been derivatives of David’s classic comment over time.
Joe Hildebrand isn’t alone in his disdain for the ‘dark side’ but it is possible for PR people to retain the respect (even if grudging) of the news media. And that is by understanding that the currency of journalism and news is good stories presented and packaged in a style closely aligned with the output of the relevant media outlets – for print, well written news-style media releases (not marketing documents attempting to overwhelm ‘news’ with try-too-hard ‘brand’ references). For electronic media, well crafted media release plus moving pictures plus good talent — the full story package.
I suspect those who protest loudest about being regarded by journos as ‘turd shiners’ are those who don’t have a strong news background or have not taken the time to understand how the media works in a day to day operational sense or the demands on working journalists. I like to think we don’t suffer from that deficiency at Carnival Australia.
In terms of corporate sector PR, shipping is the closest field I know in terms of operations that mirror a newsroom environment — incidents are breaking news and major events can be newsworthy feel-good stories. After 50 years in newspapers, television radio, government and corporate affairs, I still give my profession as ‘journalist’ when having to fill out forms. Going to the ‘dark side’ doesn’t have to involve forgetting the joys of being a reporter onto a good story.
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David Jones nails it, and as a former colleague of someone I consider to be a true professional, it reassures me to read about his approach to PR; I too have not only continued to work/think/act like a journalist since I left the media per se, but have also retained my AJA/MEAA membership for 40 years (David might be less interested in this update!). Hildebrand was invited to CommsCon to get a rise, and based on the comments here and Graham White’s excellent rebuttal, he has succeeded.
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In the words of a renown technology journalist, “I disagree”
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@dave thanks for your feedback on the usage of the Internet of Things, but in the context of the article I think people got the gist of what I mean. My personal view is that it’s a phrase that can be used for other purposes. Call it creative license 🙂
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@stillness “The way the PR industry is always trying to justify its existence is very telling; it speaks of a deep-seated insecurity about its role in the world.”
On the contrary, we’re having a ball and the industry is stronger today than it has ever been. The reason we speak out is simple – there is a lot of confusion about what we do that must be corrected. That’s all.
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Thanks for the generous comments Sandi as one ex Sydney Sun scribe to another. Quite right that I haven’t retained your fervour for the AJA/MEAA! Suffice to say mutual respect for you and your career path and approach.
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God what an awful, disingenuous piece, backed in by the usual PR suckholes.
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& My feedback award goes to…… Eda !
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Hi Graham. Again your distortion of the phrase and trying to spin it to avoid having to admit you made a mistake is again dare I say very ‘pr’ of you.
You got the phrase wrong admit it. It’s an easy mistake to make and It’s not a big deal.
Ps well done for the debate.
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It’s not that people don’t understand P.R it’s just that a lot of people don’t really respect it. Personally I’m indifferent.
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All journalists spend their lives spinning- spinning the right line to make media owners happy, threading the most negative tone through the most positive story, lazily weaving a piece together with no fact checking on the most basic stuff..grossly generalising?
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As a former journo, and now comms guy, I recommend watching this film:
Thank You For Smoking, starring Aaron Eckhart.
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I find this article quite turdist, reinforcing the negative stereotypes about turds and perpetuating the ‘shitty’ stigma around turds and other forms of excrement, which are after all products of an essential human activity that contributes to health. Is the writer not aware that turd transplants are now playing an import part in relieving irritable bowel syndrome? It is just this kind of turdist prejudice that we will be countering in National Turd Awareness Day on 1 April (slogan: “Turds can shine, they just need a polish”), when we will be reaching out to to key opinion leaders with a mail shot.
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thank you for this post – unfortunately the news media often just perpetuates the news media’s own stereotypes. We see this across many areas, not just PR. Except in the case of PR there is a vested interest by some in media to keep the stereotype in place.
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Journalists don’t need PRs if their contacts are good enough. PRs don’t need journalists because traditional media owners are on their way out, brands are publishers. You can already see PR agencies becoming ‘digital and social agencies’ because they see the way it’s blowing. Companies put ad budgets into PR, publications die off, the market delivers the solution; no room for either. Hacks and flacks evolve, become the same thing, eat each other (not in that way).
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@Mich what turds need is better PR.
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@”For those in public relations this has cemented our role as story tellers.”
…and stories are generally fictional, n’est pas ?
BTW, you can’t polish a turd. You roll it in glitter or call it something else.
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Hollow blah, blah, blah from an industry that produces nothing of value about meaningless junk that is flogged repeatedly at the unconscious. I’ve dealt with the likes of these art directors, copy writers, digital imprint specialists, media & public liaison executives, sueth-sayers and industry suck holes…..Here’s an idea….let’s tell the truth! Heavens forbid…. then people could tell we are spinning nothing but manure…..when you finish, go and sell dodgy used cars.
BTW…. “Mythbusters” have confirmed with enough pressure, drying and buffing, you can polish a turd.
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In my experience on that side of the fence (prior to fully selling my soul to the transparency of Advertising), working with a well-regarded corporate communications firm, we were indeed spinning, shining, hiding and distorting the truth. But, that’s only half the problem. Seeing your ‘bullsh*t’ plagiarised word-for-word across our major metro dailies, typically in the business section, doesn’t give me much faith in Jo and his lot being the gate-keepers of the fourth estate.
Plus, Jo is a .
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“Secondly, we do not try to spin or distort facts. ”
Get your hand off it. Say this ten times and see how much credibility you have left.
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Paul, Comment #57
If we tell the truth mate, isn’t that the opposite of being politically correct? Then the whole of the UK advertising world would be up the shitter.
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