Christmas is fast-approaching and, as is often the case with any potential family gathering, this will almost certainly fill any PR practitioner with absolute dread. The reason being that, those jaunty family members you see once a year will no doubt need reminding about what it is you actually do. Aunty Sharon and Uncle John still think you’re a journalist.
So what the F%*k is a PR anyway and how the bloody hell do you explain it to family members with short-term memory issues. Here’s what you do. Firstly, get in quickly with Aunty Sharon and Uncle John before a larger group gathers around. Ensure to have a well-rehearsed explanation ready before Aunty Sharon strides towards the vol-au-vents and mulled wine. It’s weird that ‘our’ profession, which is about creating favorable impressions of clients, leaves most people outside the industry wondering what is PR and how you fall into it? And let’s not pull any punches. You definitely fell into PR because no kid grows up with ambitions of becoming a PR practitioner. Footballer, yes. Teacher, yes. PR person, no. Which child looks at those two letters PR and thinks that’s the profession for me?
Fortunately, or more likely unfortunately, there are a few go-to jobs every strict black parent still desperately hopes their child will secure. Doctor, lawyer, accountant and even British Conservative MP are all jobs that grant your family members certain bragging rights over uppity neighbors. “Did I tell you about my son…he is a doctor.” These are all eminently respectable careers which need no further elaboration.
Contrast these careers with PR, which most people know nothing about, and you become the proverbial lamb to slaughter whilst trying to explain it. Your best bet is to bleat out what PR actually is. So, throat cleared, you say to Aunty Sharon and John “I work in PR.” This will be met with horrified facial expressions by the additional family members who’ve now gathered. Fortunately, estate agents are disliked far more than us in PR. You explain that PR stands for public relations and our industry prefers to be heard but not seen. You avoid associating the sector to the ‘Dark Arts’ or ‘Spin’. You talk about how you manage a client’s reputation, secure favorable coverage, yada yada and you stop Uncle John telling everyone you’re a hardworking journalist who often has stories printed in the Daily Mail, but for some reason you name isn’t printed alongside the story.
Their interest waning, you begin to lose your small group of listeners. In a last ditch attempt to gain kudos before everyone ravishes the recently produced mince pies, you frantically throw in that PR was what David Cameron did before he went on to become Prime Minster, and that Bill Gates (supposedly) said, “If I was down to my last dollar I would spend it on PR.” And if they’re still confused about what PR is then bollocks to the lot of ‘em. If it’s good enough for Messrs Cameron and Gates, then it ought to good enough your gathering of confused listeners.
