Blog

Why PR Is A Good Thing

26 Jun 2008

“Public Relations is a force for good and should not be the preserve of big organisations. At its best it should be fully interactive, facilitating communication between and within organisations.” That’s the conclusion of the ‘London manifesto’ presented to the 5th World Public Relations Conference and Festival held this week.

Worthy aims indeed. The idea that public relations can empower the disenfranchised is a far cry from the way the industry has been represented in the past. After all, early PR practitioners like Edward Bernays have been accused of using PR to ‘engineer consent’ in a way that protects the rich and powerful from the excesses of democracy.

Even this week, the Independent features another story of a PR company offering arms companies privileged access to key decision makers, using a House of Lords pass. And reading some newspapers, you would be forgiven for thinking that the entire industry is an adjunct of the US State Department.

But it is easy to forget that some of the best case studies of good PR come from the community or NGO sector, many of whom would not call themselves PR professionals. The Baby Milk Action Campaign of the early 1980s was a textbook PR campaign, co-ordinated on a national and international level. Surely it was the Zapatista guerrillas in Mexico that set new standards in on-line PR? And how many property developments have been halted in the face of well-organised local community campaigns?

Government and business has never had a PR monopoly. PR professionals could certainly do more to broaden communications skills and widen access to the corridors of power. But we must not underestimate the PR skills and expertise of people, many of whom see themselves as outside the formal PR profession.

Ian Coldwell
ian.coldwell@pagodapr.com