1+1= advertising is better than PR?

I have known since the beginning of my college career that there is tension between the advertising and PR professions. This is common knowledge for most, or at least those in the industry or related ones. But I guess I just don’t get it. Maybe it’s my personality, not liking conflict and valuing others opinions and choice of profession. Maybe it’s because, for a brief moment, I thought about going into advertising. Or maybe it’s because I think that, as much as they deny it, advertising and PR must often work together to achieve their goals. But whatever my reasoning for not understanding this tension is, it’s still there.

Georg Kolb posted an interesting comment on his blog about a panel he recently attended. The event put on by TurnPRon was about, "Communication 2.0 - The Convergence of PR, Advertising, Media and the Consumer". The question was, "PR vs. Advertisers: Can't We All Just Get Along?". He had a lot of interesting things to say about the discussion that evening, but the part that struck me the most was a comment from another attendee. The woman, who would not share her name, said, “Web 2.0 is good for advertising, and I'm in advertising, so I'm all for advertising and against PR." What? First, who would go to a panel with professionals from both PR and Advertising and make a comment like that? According to Kolb there was no explanation that followed; this was it. I would like to know why she thinks Web 2.0 is good for advertising but not PR, and how this makes advertising better than PR.

After I read this, I was reminded of a history class I took during the 2004 presidential election. We were required to post a comment once a week on a class discussion board and comment on one person’s post. Most of the class members took the time to express their political views, which should have been a great way to jump start class discussion. However, most of the comments consisted of one person saying, “You should vote for Bush because he is better than Kerry,” or “I don’t know why anyone would vote for Bush, Kerry is so much cooler.” This was a college course but few people could actually explain why they were voting for a particular candidate over the other.

This seems to be the case with this woman. She is in advertising and Web 2.0 is good, so 1+1= advertising is better than PR? How so? I wonder how good she is at her job, because I’m not convinced. At the end of the day I wouldn’t take what this woman has to say too seriously unless she can start backing it up.

Bad PR

I recently read this post on Second City Style and thought it was quite interesting. Lately it seems there has been a lot of bad PR being practiced. Maybe I’m just noticing it more or maybe due to the Internet and blogging it is becoming more publicized, but it seems that everywhere I look PR professionals are doing something wrong.

Granted, we do have to pitch stories, news and products. We have to call magazines and newspapers and send samples, but people do this every day and it’s no big deal. Obviously it’s not an easy job. I know this. I have had to call the newspapers, T.V. stations and magazines. I have had to field phone calls and deal with unhappy people; I know that this world can be brutal. People make mistakes in their jobs every day. Doctors make mistakes in life and death situations. I think it’s understandable if a PR person makes a mistake every now and again. We’re all human.

The problem with the PR pros I’m seeing is that they are making errors that are 100 percent avoidable. It does not take a degree to realize that when someone says they don’t want what you are sending or it is not going to work at that time, you should say okay and leave them alone. You shouldn’t harass them in hopes of changing their mind. It’s never good when a PR pro has their e-mail address blocked or when one person’s mistakes lose a client for a firm.

The thing is, is that while most PR pros are out there working hard and doing a great job, some are out there undoing all the work that others have done. There are people like this everywhere giving their field a bad reputation. But, when it is your job to be a communicator, a representative or a person who builds up reputations and trust, you can’t be a person who people can’t trust.

Careful, you could be next

If you have not yet read Chris Anderson’s post on his blog, The Long Tail, you should. It’s a must-read for PR people.

I have to admit, after I read the post I had mixed feelings. I wasn’t sure if I cared that much about it, but the more I thought about it the more I realized what a joke these PR people are. I realized that some day, if I’m not careful, that could be me.

I am still a student but even as an undergraduate in PR I understand that no one wants or is going to read 300 emails from people they don’t know. I can barely read all the emails I get each day from people I know. It should be common knowledge not to send a generic press release to the editor in chief of a major publication. It should be one of those situations where you stop and think, “Would I want an email from someone I don’t know that has nothing to do with me or my work?” As PR professionals this just should not happen.
I liked what Seth Godin had to say about the mass emails of bad pitches. If you are not going to make the effort to figure out who the email should go to or if it even pertains to that person or company, then why should that person even read it? Everyone these days is strapped for time and a good PR practitioner knows this. A good PR practitioner will figure out who the email should go to and tailor their message accordinly. If the message pertains to that person, is tailored specifically for them, and is clear and concise, the pitch is more likely to be a successful one.