Myth 10: Public Relations is Spin, Slogans and Propaganda

From Guy Bergstrom

Propaganda is manipulating people to do something that's not in their best interests, and it's usually the tool of a state, used along with censorship and fear.

Public relations isn't spin and slogans, either. The press and public has never been more sophisticated. They consume media from so many different sources compared to the days of three major nightly news stations (CBS, NBC, ABC) and a daily newspaper.

Today's audience is far more exposed to media, and better and filtering it.

For example, it's easy to compare 8,042 different stories about Libya on Google news. As I write this, the propaganda and spin coming from the what's left of the official Libya state TV stations and newspapers is being drowned out by the thousands of stories written by the independent media, which have far more weight and credibility.

In fact, smart readers see right through spin and propaganda. If the state is saying X -- "there are no casualties in Tripoli" -- then you know the opposite is true.
The press and public is largely immunized from spin, slogans and propaganda today.

Trying to spin reporters is counter-productive. They see through it. There are exceptions. Cable news channels expect spin from partisans from both sides after events like a presidential debate, and they're open about it. The anchor will say, "Let's go to the Spin Room," where pundits and spokespeople from both sides are gathered to give reaction after the debate.

That's not to say that slogans and catchphrases don't get into peoples' heads when they're backed by millions -- or billions -- of dollars in advertising by McDonald's, Ford or a presidential candidate.

Slogans also aren't truly part of public relations. It's quite hard to try to spread a slogan through earned media and publicity. McDonald's "I'm loving it" is backed by a global advertising campaign. They wouldn't try to spread that around the world through earned media. It wouldn't work. Political campaigns do use slogans, yet they also spend a lot of money on radio, TV and print advertising to make those slogans stick. They don't rely on earned media.

Public relations avoids spin, slogans and propaganda techniques.

A lot of the job is simply making life easier for clients and journalists by getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, could spend all day doing nothing else but taking calls from reporters looking for interviews and writing stories. He'd never have time to run the company. He can't do that.

So should people like Steve Jobs ignore the press instead? No. It's smart for Jobs -- and other public figures, whether they're in politics, entertainment or business -- to have people handle the press calls, schedule interviews and organize things.

It also works the other direction. A new business isn't getting tons of press calls and requests for interviews. Instead of the CEO spending all day trying to think of ways of trying to get some earned media, to tell the world about a hot new idea or product, it's smarter to have somebody who's an expert at public relations do that instead.

The right strategy is to adopt the opposite of this myth. Candor and honesty and openness works far better than spin, slogans and propaganda.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1048