Guest blog post written by Rosanna M. Fiske, APR, chair and chief executive officer of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
"Mo Money, Mo Problems" — Notorious B.I.G.
No, this isn't a column reminiscing about Biggie Smalls, or some on-the-fringe tabloid piece about the late rapper allegedly being alive in New Zealand. Rather, its focus is on public relations ethics; specifically, the state of ethics in a year that has been uncharacteristic in that category.
As befits a country as large and populous as the United States, the American public relations industry tends to experience its fair share of ethical mishaps, flaps and flubs each year. This year, for better or worse, is no different. Each mishap offers new lessons, or at the very least, new perspectives, on how PR professionals can ensure their work is ethically sound, while still meeting client and employer demands.
That's no easy task. As the profession expands — globally in influence and domestically in size and annual revenues — it is increasingly coming under a brighter and more finite microscope. Whether it's the media, public, government regulators or our own peers, our profession is experiencing unprecedented scrutiny that is meeting this growth at every turn.
That gets us back to: 'Mo Money, Mo Problems.'
Case in point: The recent Facebook/Burson-Marsteller incident. Combine a well-paying client, with agency leads who were either uninformed or ignorant of ethical standards and industry best practices, or worse negligent in following those, and you have a recipe for ethics disaster. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to an agency whose namesake has received some of the highest industry accolades.
We spoke out about the incident, both in how B-M handled the situation and its fallout. We also faulted Facebook for soliciting the egregious brief in which it apparently signed off on a clandestine campaign against one of its competitors — an unethical campaign both sides should have known would be discovered and criticized.
Equally disturbing was the reaction of some apologists who claimed that smear campaigns are an accepted and ethical public relations practice. We beg to differ. Negative campaigns are one thing; smear campaigns are another.
This incident brought into sharp light the heightened scrutiny our profession faces regarding its role and influence.
Government regulators are increasingly examining our work in ways we have rarely faced. Just last year, the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) launched its 'Handpicked Media' investigation in an effort to uncover the level of engagement of 'handpicked media' of bloggers on a commercial basis. That came on the heels of the Federal Trade Commission's 2009 ruling of similar note, otherwise known as the 'FTC blogger rules.'
And earlier this year, PRSA lobbied the US Senate to thwart onerous restrictions of government use of public relations firms.
The global public relations profession has had its ups and downs, no doubt. But one common thread that has held our work together for generations is our commitment to upholding ethical standards and best practices.
As PR continues to grow, we must keep those core ethical principles firmly intact. We also must continue to demonstrate that we are responsible communicators of democratic values and capable of self-regulation, in a manner that ensures the public's trust and best interests are considered. Not doing so risks onerous and overt regulation that could stifle much needed innovation and integration.
That doesn't mean we eschew new technologies, tactics or big ideas as they come along; the innovation that has built PR into a multi-billion-dollar global industry is vital and something we should continue to embrace. But the onus is on us to make sure what we do doesn't lose sight of what has allowed PR to move past its bygone days of press agentry and flacks.
We hold the power for PR to continue its role as a vital service for the global business community. We also hold the power to ensure our work meets our profession's own high ethical standards.
The choice is ours.
3 comments
Well-spoken, Rosanna, and thanks for being such a vocal and visible advocate for ethical reasoning and ethical practice. As I tell my students and advisees day-in and day-out, the only thing you have as a public relations professional that is truly yours is your reputation. It's yours to build over time and protect; it's yours to lose in the blink of an eye. Don't kid yourself into thinking, as some have, the "no one will care" or "no one will notice." They do. And they will. Doing the RIGHT thing...ethically and morally...is your way of safeguarding that precious commodity...your reputation.
Kirk Hazlett, APR, Fellow PRSA, Associate Professor of Communication, Curry College
Excellent assessment of the current state of ethics in the PR field. There has been strong growth in PR, which means there has been more opportunity for those who don't have a strong background in the profession or an understanding of best practices and ethics.
Further, there are too many self-proclaimed "PR practitioners" who have no background in the profession at all. Instead, they are involved in social media marketing tactics and have slapped the PR label on it because their smaller clients also don't have a clue what PR is really about.
The public needs to be educated about PR. It's always been a frustration that the PR industry can do so well to inform key audiences about their clients but miss the mark on educating the public about our profession.
If you don't have ethical standards, what do you have? Probably nothing. You won't even have money because some clients who realize you're being unethical will choose someone else. This isn't just true for PR either, and many industries have needed to pay attention to ethics recently as well. For example take just take corporate business as a whole. Many business schools are creating centers for business ethics within their programs. Hopefully this concern for good ethics becomes a trend.