What’s It Like to Work in PR? The Answer Depends on You

Young people who are just starting out in their careers often ask me what it’s like to be in public relations. Like so many things in life, the answer depends on the specifics — of the client or employer, and of you, the PR practitioner.

In the fictional example of Aaron Eckhart’s character in Thank You for Smoking, for example, you pair a man without principles with an industry that no principled person can defend. Everybody’s happy.

For someone with a conscience doing Big Tobacco PR, however, public relations is undoubtedly a miserable occupation. You do it to pay the bills; there’s no higher purpose. Not only that, but since you do have a conscience and presumably care about the well-being of others, you are a hypocrite every time you open your mouth on the job.

The person with a conscience, believe it or not, does have many great career options in PR — despite the ethical failings of many PR practitioners.

You can represent a non-profit whose cause you believe in, for example. In my case, I prefer to work with startups that challenge the status quo — particularly those I consider to be disruptive innovators. I like to help them get their messages heard over the loud, relentless drone of Fortune 500 PR departments.

There are quite a few companies and industries I choose not to work for, because I disagree with what they do and/or how they do it. These include:

tobacco companies;

companies that make firearms;

energy companies that deny man-made global warming;

fast-food restaurateurs with unhealthy menus;

Big Pharma; and

companies or organizations that support any number of political viewpoints or causes I disagree with.

That doesn’t mean you have to agree with your client or employer in every instance; you’re representing them, not you, after all. (I discuss the importance of distinguishing our opinions from those of our PR clients here.)

I’ve occasionally called out people who I suspect are hypocrites, sellouts or real-life Aaron Eckharts on this blog. For example:

Jody Clarke of the Competitive Enterprise Institute;

the former PR team at FEMA;

virtually every Hollywood publicist; and even

a young healthcare ad rep for Google.

In fact, I offered that young ad rep, who had gratuitously bashed Michael Moore’s Sicko in a transparent bid to please her client base, the same advice I offer to those entering the PR profession: Be true to yourself — whoever you might be.

To paraphrase how I asked the ad rep to think about this issue:

If you were assigned by Google to build an ad campaign for Michael Moore’s movie distributor rather than the big pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, would you be willing to write the same blog post criticizing Sicko?

Would you refuse the Moore account because of your principled viewpoint that his film is unfair? Or would your personal convictions “adapt” to the client?

Even if you don’t have a strong opinion on the issue, don’t personally take your employer or client’s side simply because it’s convenient or in your financial interests to do so. This way, you retain who you are — your personal moral autonomy.

You don’t have to sell your principles to anyone to succeed in your career. Don’t listen to anybody who tells you that you do.

When I was younger and feeling my way in my career, I made plenty of mistakes — including many worse than the one I suspect you might have made here. It’s only by screwing up again and again that I’ve come to be able to offer whatever insight I have.

And if in your heart of hearts you truly believe that Michael Moore is being unfair to U.S healthcare companies, and that your advertising clients have the moral high ground, I’m sorry I used your post in my example

Sometimes a Reporter Will Screw You Over; It’s All in How You Deal with It

A couple of months ago, someone doing media relations for me got screwed over by a TV reporter. Here’s how it went:

1. We wanted the reporter to do a preview story on a consumer event that one of our clients was sponsoring. The event was targeted to a particular kind of consumer within this reporter’s beat.

2. The reporter expressed interest and said she wanted to interview one of the consumers who would be coming to the show. She laid out a set of criteria for the kind of person she wanted to talk with.

3. Our media relations person said, “No problem, I’m on it!” and set about giving the reporter what she wanted. Since the event hadn’t yet occurred, you can imagine how difficult it might be to find a consumer who was planning to come to an event before the event. Particularly given the reporter’s criteria, it wasn’t easy.

4. Lo and behold, our person scored! She found the perfect candidate for the reporter’s story, which obviously would be a great hook for the reporter’s preview of our client’s event.

5. The reporter was excited to learn that our person had found the perfect interview subject for her. She apparently had been looking for this kind of consumer for some time with no luck. The reporter went to the consumer’s home and interviewed her for more than an hour.

6. When our media relations person followed up to find out when the story would run, the reporter said she “wasn’t sure” if she would be able to do a preview of the event. “What do you mean?” our person asked. “Didn’t the interview go well?”

7. It did go well, the reporter replied. Only she really had wanted the interview for a future story she was planning, and just didn’t have time to do something before the show. In fact, when the story did run, it wouldn’t be mentioning our client at all.

I know how journalists can be with PR people — and I know that PR people sometimes deserve it. But this is ridiculous.

I want to out this bitch so badly I can’t tell you. But I guess I’ll settle for sharing this little story in hopes that it will comfort you the next time you get screwed.

Ashley Dupre and Fair Use

The issue of fair use of copyrighted photographs has surfaced in the Eliot Spitzer scandal, with Ashley Dupre’s lawyer blasting media outlets for publishing pics pulled from the call girl’s MySpace page. High-profile attorney Don Buchwald said he would take steps “to protect Ms. Dupre from any unwarranted exploitation of her name, picture, voice or likeness for purposes of profit.”

Media outlets have responded that the photos are news and thus pass the test for fair use. As the AP said in defending its decision to run the pics:

The Associated Press discussed the photos obtained from the MySpace page in great detail and found that they were newsworthy. We distributed the photos that were relevant to the story. Those photos did not show nudity, nor were they explicit.

Buchwald, however, questioned how newsworthy the photos really were:

While the circumstances surrounding Governor Spitzer’s resignation are newsworthy, some publications, in violation of journalistic norms, have used the occasion of Gov. Spitzer’s political misfortunes as an excuse to exploit Ms. Dupre’s persona for commercial purposes.

Photo District News found some experts who stepped up to bolster Buchwald’s argument, concluding that the fair use argument is a “thin one.” Maybe, if I consulted enough law books, I’d agree with them.

But let’s get real here: The $4,000-per-hour genie is out of the bottle. Buchwald, Dupre and the photographer(s) who took the pics are out of luck. That’s simply one of the risks when images are posted on the Web.

By contrast, photographer Wesley Mann is sitting pretty right now. Mann did a topless shoot with Dupre and has sold the photos to the New York Post — obviously, for big bucks. Mann must be counting his blessings that those pics weren’t posted on Dupre’s Web site — or his own, for that matter. Otherwise, they surely would have been snatched on the grounds of fair use, too.

But to me, that’s not the most interesting issue that’s arisen out of the media’s latest fair use dust-up. I’m more intrigued by the the apparent hypocrisy of media outlets — particularly the AP — in the interpretation of fair use with respect to bloggers.

As Ken Shepherd at NewsBusters points out, on the same day the Spitzer scandal broke, the blog Confederate Yankee published an e-mail from the AP explaining the wire’s broad policy against bloggers using AP photos, including under circumstances that a reasonable person might consider fair use.

The AP was responding to controversy created when it threatened legal action against Brian Ledbetter’s Snapped Shot, a photojournalism criticism blog, for running AP photos without permission. Ledbetter was forced to take down his site temporarily to figure out his next move. He explained:

I’m currently in the process of going through and reviewing my archive, separating the photo-criticism from the general tomfoolery in my content as a result of the AP’s warning, which is a long and painstaking … task, but one that will hopefully allow me to bring back most (if not all) of the AP content that I’ve found specific problems with.

I can’t recommend enough that all bloggers need to read Gabriel Malor’s excellent explanation of “Fair Use” in the blogosphere. While nothing’s guaranteed to keep us out of the courtroom, following his advice would certainly help towards that end.

Would it be unfair to surmise that the AP went after Ledbetter (from among all the other bloggers running snatched pics out there) because it didn’t like the content of his criticism? We’ll never know.

But one thing’s clear: Fair use is a more muddled mess than ever.

Here’s Why to Choose the Idea Grove to Help You with Social Media

1. We were the first PR firm in Dallas to “get it.” Scott Baradell started Media Orchard in March 2005 and grew it to become one of the top 3,000 blogs in the world as measured by Technorati. He followed this up in October 2006 by creating his own social news site modeled after Fark and Digg. Today, his firm places in the top search results for most terms that clients use in seeking a Dallas-based PR firm. We know how social media tools work because we’ve been using them ourselves for years.

2. We prove it by doing it — every day. We drive blog, social networking and SEO strategy for clients large and small. We’ve been helping clients with their social media programs for more than two years now; if you can find another PR firm in Dallas that can tell you that, be sure they produce evidence. We can.

3. We won’t beat you down with hipster pretense. We don’t do Buddy Holly glasses and all-black fashion ensembles, and we won’t talk down to you. Hipsters who try to wow you with jargon are usually just trying to cover for their own inadequacies — such as lack of real-world experience.

4. We know what it’s like to run large PR departments. Scott Baradell has served as vice president of communications for two different billion-dollar corporations. He’s spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on PR campaigns with firms like Fleishman-Hillard and Burson-Marsteller. He’s also seen the value in hiring small firms he can trust.

5. We know what it’s like to run startups. Baradell co-founded and raised $3 million in funding for his own venture-backed startup. He understands the challenges of building a business on a shoestring — and to have VCs always looking over his shoulder.

6. We believe in old-fashioned ways of demonstrating value. We don’t think much of vague objectives. We translate our efforts into results — like increased Web traffic, improved search position, you name it. We’re honest about what we can do for you, and we tell you how we’re going to get there.

7. We try to have fun. Life ain’t worth it if you can’t have an occasional laugh. Check out our social news site, Spin Thicket, to see what we mean.

8. Our phone number is easy to remember. It’s 972.235.3439. How hard is that? Just dial it so we can get started.

Tip to Blog Experts: Plant a Tree to Reduce Your Hot-Air Footprint

The main reason I went into blogging is because it leaves a very small carbon footprint. Unfortunately, many bloggers have decided to make careers on the speaking circuit as “blogging experts” — so many, in fact, that the greenhouse gases they emit during their fetid lectures (including carbon dioxide and, in at least some embarrassing cases, methane) have begun to threaten the blogosphere’s fragile ecosystem.

We know that pengins would catch fire and the planet would die if everyone in China had a car; that much is obvious. By the same token, can the Blue Marble survive the hot air generated simultaneously by thousands of bloggers who market themselves as experts, polluting the ether with BS-generated carbon?

Maybe we need a version of Todd’s Power 150 that awards marketing bloggers a rating representing the number of trees a given blogging expert must plant to compensate for the hot air he or she creates. Ad Age, if you want that idea, it’s all yours.

Seven Ways to Get the Creative Juices Flowing Again

Joy Jennings, who has offered guests posts previously on dumb things that smart communicators do and marketing buzzwords, today brings us seven useful tips for getting back on track when you’re mentally tapped out at work:

1. Take a break. Surf the Web, chat with a co-worker, get away from your desk. Think about other things, clear your head and go back to your project refreshed.

2. Get inspired. Look at award-winning work, peruse your competitor’s work, visit an art museum, skim a favorite book. The great work of others will stimulate your creative side or help you see unexpected solutions.

3. Find external motivation. Examine your checking account balance, make out your Christmas list, re-read your last performance review. Everybody needs to pay the rent. Find the motivation that will flip a switch in your brain and get your ideas flowing.

4. Lose the tension. Exercise, take a nap, eat some chocolate, have a good cry, pop some Advil, master your domain. Got a headache? Feel your muscles tightening? Stand up and stretch, book a massage or find other, ahem, ways to cope.

5. Just start typing. Type your thoughts, type out the project’s mission, type up your notes. Free-flowing ideas can lead to your Aha! moment. Especially if you have a writing project, just start writing about your topic and see where it leads you.

6. Brainstorm. Sketch on paper, map out your ideas, get some coworkers into a conference room and pick their brains. In brainstorming, no ideas are bad — write everything down. Your lukewarm idea may spur a brilliant one.

And finally:

7. Just say no to drugs. You’re a grown-up with a deadline. Drugs including alcohol may relax you, but not in the way you need. Even caffeine can make you jittery, plus the acid in coffee can sour your stomach.

Do PR Execs Discriminate Against Ex-Journalists When Making Hiring Decisions?

I recently got an e-mail from a reporter friend who has decided to change careers and move into public relations. Even though he has almost completed his MBA, his initial attempts to find a PR job have fallen flat; he hasn’t even been able to get an interview. Here’s his theory as to why he’s having such a hard time:

The best PR people I deal with are in big corporations with departments full of ex-reporters. And these are companies I write some of the most critical stories about. But those guys understand my job.

Most PR people I deal with, however, are completely clueless about my job. My theory is that most PR people or the hiring managers bringing in PR people are actually scared of a reporter coming in.

One of the companies I applied to had a big discrimination lawsuit and that’s all that’s been written about them. Am I screwed in the job market because reporters are feared? Or worse, as I’ve feared — execs think we are incapable of anything else?

Unfortunately, I don’t think my friend is being paranoid (even though that is a speciality of journalists.)

Many people in business simply don’t understand reporters. They don’t understand their motivations for going into journalism, and they worry they won’t be able to thrive — or even be happy — in a corporate setting.

Reporters in general, and especially newspaper reporters, don’t enter the profession of journalism for a quick buck. Their egos are fed not by the money they make, but by the impact they have. Journalists have impact by covering controversy and causing change — two things that frighten most corporations, which are essentially conservative institutions.

Being “negative” (as most corporate hiring managers would define that term) is a big part of the job of most reporters. And hiring managers are taught to screen out negative people.

You see, there are no “problems” in corporate America — only “challenges.” And though the media loves to celebrate the corporate maverick, the reason we celebrate them is because they’re so few and far between. Most people get ahead in business by not making waves — the same kind of waves that reporters are trained (and, in some cases, born) to make.

A couple years ago, a recruiter for a Fortune 500 company contacted me about a senior VP position reporting to the CEO. Even though I love the Idea Grove, I decided to take the interview. If nothing else, perhaps it could lead to some consulting work.

When I met with the overly enthusiastic HR VP, she said this about the CEO: “If he told me to dye my hair purple, I’d dye my hair purple.” I was reminded of the scene in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room when the delirious female exec advised employees to invest their entire 401(k) balances in Enron stock.

I’m afraid it’s too often like this in corporate America. And the more a company is filled with purple-haired “team players” and Kool-Aid drinkers, the more likely the HR department will think twice about hiring a cynical, negative, stubbornly independent-minded ex-reporter.

But you know what? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Because most ex-journalists wouldn’t want to work at companies like that anyway.

My friend is right; the best PR agencies and departments are chock-full of former journalists — people who know that corporate Kool-Aid is not suitable for public (and especially media) consumption. The smartest companies empower their PR departments to play the critical role of intermediary between the company and the outside world — and to do it with integrity.

If you hold yourself with dignity, aren’t afraid to state your opinions, and stand up for the importance of your role, you will ultimately find an employer that respects you for it.

And by actually having an impact rather than nodding enthusiastically in the corner, you will improve the less-than-superlative image of the PR profession in the process.