Too smart for PR?

 

From across the pond, there’s some discussion

online about the image of PR people as non-

intellectuals who are doers rather than thinkers. 

Heather Yaxley, a British PR practitioner and

educator who is an active contributor to the PR

Conversations blog, asks in her own blog,

“Are you too smart to work in PR?”

She decries what she sees as a decline in

emphasis on intellectual capacity as a key element

for everyday work in public relations. 

“I’m beginning to believe,” she writes, “that the

majority of modern (PR) practitioners view PR

as a non-intellectual trade, where craft skills count

most, along with a friendly personality and a

preference to spend time churning out releases

and Tweets rather than thinking about anything
more important they should be doing.”

In my experience, actually, I’ve found that PR

often requires solid strategic thinking.  It can be a

lot more than press releases and parties, but

unfortunately those small slices of what some of

us do in PR is too often how our entire field is seen

by others.  Part of the reason is that’s generally
how PR people are portrayed on TV and in the

movies, like the character Samantha Jones in

“Sex and the City” – a party thrower who knows

media people and calls in favors to media to do,

or not do, stories on her clients.

The heavy thinking and development of strategy

just isn’t as sexy to portray in films, so the focus

gets put on the “glamorous” aspects of what some

of us do.  So what type of young person does that

image attract?  Kids who want to throw great parties

and hobnob with celebrities and celeb wannabees. 

And the smarter young people simply may not be

attracted to that sort of work, and we’re left with
less than the cream of the crop looking at PR as a
possible career choice.

We can’t control who popular media portray us,

but we can, as an industry, get accurate information

out there about what we really do in our jobs. 

It’s something I’d love to see PRSA (Public Relations

Society of America) and other trade groups take on as

an ongoing project.  And better education -- at the

college level for starters, and also within PR agencies –

can help create a more realistic understanding of what

we do and what skills are needed.

So if bright young people think

they are too smart to work in PR,

it's really our own fault.  It's up to
us to change that perception. 


Of note:  Heather tells me
of a new site that is a
collaborative project by PR
educators and practitioners,
seeking to create a resource
of how PR is depicted in film, TV and books worldwide.

 

Comments

[Heather Yaxley]

David - thanks for the link and developing my initial thinking here. I don't see thinking (intellectual enterprise) as something separate to the more visible aspects of the PR function and feel that we could make a first step in the direction you advocate by showing how creativity is underpinned by knowledge, experience, insight and solid processes. Much in the way that artists and inventors have sound foundations, even when challenging the conventional practices, I feel PR practitioners can demonstrate enhanced creativity by being smarter than the average PR bunny.

[David Reich]

Good point, Heather. Creativity is usually a result of heavy thinking that is supported by knowledge and experience.

[Rehber]

Thank you for a helpful article