The PR Industry’s Pinocchio Reputation Needs A Nose Job

By Mike Paul
PR News
October 12, 2005

It has been said the worst type of lie is not a lie against another, but a lie against one's self. Big lies have permeated the public-relations industry for so long, and now many leaders in the industry believe their lies are truths. Their influence has spread like a virus, and it has to be stopped. They have become like real-life Pinocchios. Below, in my view, are the Top Five lies in the PR industry today:

1. PR consultants never spin or lie for their clients. Spin is a lie, plain and simple. We've all seen PR consultants spinning for their clients instead of telling the truth. The most ironic thing about spinning the truth? It doesn't work. However, many in our profession continue to spin and lie every day. How bad is this crisis? Every crisis in the news has a PR firm handling it, and many are spinning and lying for money. Many PR consultants also lack the counseling experience to best educate their clients to do the right thing.
    
2. "Kids" do very little work on clients' accounts. Every day, we see senior executives pitching and winning business, especially within global PR firms. Clients thinks these senior executives actually do the majority of the work on their accounts, but most of us know a junior staffer or "kid" with only a few years experience is doing the majority of the work. Warning: Clients are less naïve, and they are being educated every day by PR firms that don't bait and switch.
    
3. PR consultants never pad clients' bills. Many of our current clients switched to our firm because, they say, other PR firms wronged them. Sadly, one of the biggest areas of fraud and injustice still in the PR industry is the padding of clients' bills. Several clients told us senior executives at their previous PR firms were the biggest culprits, padding their accounts with false time charges. Some clients even caught them double billing their account. We've all read about major PR firms with fraudulent billing crises involving government agencies.
    
4. Recruitment of executives of color is a priority at most PR firms. This also is a lie. Most firms have only a handful of executives of color. It takes more than a college scholarship for students of color studying PR or a mentor program for junior staffers in our industry to bring true diversity to all levels. CEOs of leading PR firms and top executive-search firms must partner with and must properly invest in executives of color (those at the VP level and higher) or else all diversity programs will fail.
    
5. The paradigm in PR hasn't shifted much over the years. It is time to wake up and smell the coffee. We now are competing head-to-head for global accounts. Many leaders still are in denial about the changes in our industry. We see older executives who still think the corner office is a big deal as well as younger executives who are not focused on an office. Younger executives are face-to-face with major national and global clients. They understand, as our clients do, the office today is the smart phone with all the functions of an office in our hands. We also don't have clients arguing over our invoices because we're with our clients so often that they know what the invoices and activities reports will say before they're in the mail.

These comments are often made behind closed doors, but it is time for us all to hold the entire PR industry more accountable for transparency and honesty in all we do. There is a big difference between one's own truth and the real truth. The PR industry doesn't like hearing that, like Pinocchio, our noses are growing, but the only way we are going to change it is with more honesty.

Self-policing never holds an organization fully accountable. What are some of the solutions? The PR industry needs a strong, third-party watchdog group that holds the industry more accountable. This group also should have a blog and a news bureau to give weekly updates on the wrongdoing within our industry. The PR trade journals also must be willing to do more investigative stories on PR firms and other organizations in crisis. Journalists must seek the truth, and our industry trades have not done enough investigative stories on our industry.

Employees also need to have an outlet to speak out anonymously about fraud and injustice within our profession. If we begin with more accountability for all, our industry will be on its way to improving its reputation.

CONTACT: Mike Paul is president and senior counselor of MGP & Associates PR (www.mgppr.com), a reputation-management firm based in New York City. He also is an adjunct professor of reputation management at NYU and a weekly guest contributor on the Fox News Channel. He can be reached at 212.595.8500 or at mpaul@mgppr.com.