When I saw today's e-mail from PRSA responding to CBS News' recent criticism of the PR industry, I was intrigued to see PRSA used a video message from PRSA Chair Jeffrey Julin, APR. Upon second glance, I noticed PRSA posted the video on both its media center and on YouTube. I clicked the YouTube link and noticed an interesting comment about the video.
Roger Bridgeman writes, "While I applaud the purpose and sentiment of what's being said here, my goodness, this is YouTube not a PRSA annual meeting. Too many words written and scrubed by committee, too much 'talking head,' and not enough real emotion explaining what we do, our value to our clients and society, and why we feel we've been 'wronged.'"
I must say I agree with Mr. Bridgeman. While I think it was appropriate for Julin and PRSA to respond, I think we have to be careful about how we respond in situations like this. When you are being accused of spin, it's not appropriate to respond with more spin. Julin's response came off too polished to be "real," and I can't help but think that this only perpetuates our image as slick liars.
Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan said it best when he said "The medium is the message." While I applaud PRSA for countering Andrew Cohen's unfortunate stance and using new media like YouTube, a softer, more conversational message might have resonated more.
What do you think?
Check Julin's response out for yourself:
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1 comment:
No, all PR people aren't liars. But PRSA exposed its profession to even more ridicule by exaggerating its integrity in response to an exaggeration about the lack of it.
Read the post at Scatterbox...
PRSA: One good exaggeration deserves another.
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