Calling for an annual “PR Is Dead” day
December 3rd, 2008 |
I’d like to propose that we make every December (see comments) November 1 “PR Is Dead Day.” For at least three years, the “PR is dead” mantra has been a constant with bloggers on the social media right. The latest salvo was fired yesterday by Dennis Howlett, in a blog post titled PR Is So Over.
Dennis’s complaint is a valid one:
“In any one day I field up to 20 PR requests. I can guarantee that 90+% of them have done zero research to find out what I’m interested in. In the worst cases they won’t have done a basic Google search to find out who I am or where my interests lay. In 2008, that’s beyond unacceptable, it’s criminal.”
Yes, social media has changed the world of communications. Yes, traditional public relations is no longer the most effective means for a company to deliver its message to the marketplace. And yes, there are many less-than-stellar PR people out there.
But it’s a logical fallacy to make the leap from this to “the PR industry is in its death throes.” Certainly, public relations is going through a difficult transition. But transitioning it is, with many traditional, old line, public relations agencies now possessing credible social media practices doing good client work, and many other hybrid aka new-media PR agencies, like SHIFT Communications, doing PR in a Web 2.0 world quite nicely, thank you.
It seems every time one of the social media purists receives a lame, untargeted pitch from a junior public relations person, this is a bellwether that the industry is all but gone and forgotten. Please. We encounter incompetence and ineffectiveness everywhere every day. We hate the cable companies. We hate our cellular providers. We hate the airlines. And while many companies in these industries are in trouble and many of them are doing a very poor job, we’re still going to fly planes and use mobile phones. We don’t have to like it (and who does), but it’s hard to make the leap from that to “the cellular phone industry is so over.”
And while the PR industry may suffer from a competence gap, let’s also remember that there are a hell of a lot of people doing really bad social media. Arguably the proportion of social media professionals who don’t know what they’re doing may be larger than that found in traditional public relations.
For that reason, I am calling for December (See comments) November 1 as Annual PR Is Dead Day. I realize that many bloggers are frustrated with the ineptitude of clueless PR people mindlessly lobbing untargeted releases over the electronic fence. So let’s set aside one day a year for some serious PR bashing, leaving 364/365 days a year when we don’t have to listen to this wearisome and not entirely credible complaint.
Tags: Dennis Howlett, PR Is Dead Day
| Sphere This |
Dec. 1 works. But “Really BAD PR needs to die” *should* be the other 364.
Business is very good in this economy, so apparently our clients don’t share the view that our profession is “dead.”
But I agree — the endless whining is tiresome.
Comment by Sue Radd — December 3, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
At least some agencies have read the handwriting on the wall and have realized they either evolve or die. They may stumble as they learn, but at least the patient is still alive.
A bigger concern to me is the land grab for social media services. In addition to PR agencies, marketers, web shops, ad agencies or even SEO consultants (God forbid) are all staking claims. In my experience the SEO crowd is the worst. To them, blogger relations isn’t about engaging influencers, it’s about linkbuilding. In their world, spam is part of every meal.
Comment by Mike McGrath — December 3, 2008 @ 3:15 pm
Thanks for the riff but you’re missing the point. It is dead for me. I acknowledged the industry is far from dead.
@Mike - how right you are. The moment I hear: “I’m a social media expert” I usually ask what school of social psychology they subscribe to. That usually elicits blank stares. (Hint: I have a degree in socpsych) That’s the point when I know they know that I know they don’t know shit from shinola.
Comment by Dennis Howlett — December 3, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
Dennis,
I didn’t miss your point. You used a provocative, sweeping generalization to draw attention to a more specific point. I employed the same device.
Joel
Comment by joel — December 3, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
Dennis - as a person with HIV and a PR professional - I marvel at your sensitivity in proposing World AIDS Day as a day where my profession should die. Spray and pray PR should die every day - good PR saves lives!
Comment by lloyd — December 3, 2008 @ 9:31 pm
Lloyd,
Please re-read the post. Dennis did not suggest December 1, I did. I chose the date arbitrarily. The actual date didn’t matter, because I was not really calling for such a day.
Secondly, Dennis did not use the word death, die or any other form of the word in his post. He remarked that PR is “over.” The expression “the death of” something is a common metaphor, and long ago lost its connection to any suggestion, even a humorous one, that harm should come to any person. I used it in mockery of the all too frequent posts that use this metaphor, and have in fact written frequently that it is a tired maxim.
While I meant no offense, it would seem that you were offended, and for that, I deeply and sincerely apologize.
Joel
Comment by joel — December 3, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
[...] not necessarily the best day for an event celebrating death, even in a satirical way. Lloyd Grosse called me on my gaffe, and when he told me his story, I invited him to respond with a guest post [...]
Pingback by socialized » PR isn’t dead. At its best, PR saves lives. — December 4, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
[...] campaigned against this idiotic practice a dozen times. I’ve called for an annual “PR Is Dead” day to celebrate the fact that it isn’t. I’ve begged bloggers to stop declaring the press release [...]
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