PR and Ethics…in the same breath?

Several years ago, I was working for an organization that was having some “image” issues. During a meeting with some business leaders, it was hinted (suggested!) that we post the positive results of an industry survey on our web site and encourage the media to report on the results.

The problem? There were no positive results. In fact, there was no survey!

When I pointed out the obvious (“Don’t you think it would be unethical to release fake results of a nonexistent survey?”) he quickly made it known—loud enough for all to hear—he was just kidding. But he also said, again loud enough for all to hear, “Wouldn’t you know it. Of all the Spin Doctors in the country, we had to hire someone with scruples!”

Ethics is a difficult subject because it is so…subjective. Opinions on this issue vary, and I’m not here to settle it once and for all. For many years, the issue of codifying ethical standards in the PR industry has been discussed, argued, adopted and revised by the national professional organization for PR professionals (Public Relations Society of America / PRSA). Today, the PRSA Member Code of Ethics covers almost eight pages and contains some wonderful ideals, with concepts and admonitions where PR practitioners are reminded that we are “accountable for our actions” and we should “respect all opinions and support the right of free expression” while we “build mutual understanding, credibility, and relationships.”

The PRSA Ethics principles are voluntary, but I do believe in these standards. In fact, I served as Ethics Officer for the Dallas PRSA Chapter board. In those times when I have a “red flag” or question about an issue, I always go back to the Code to seek insight and guidance.

So how does that work itself out in real life, day-to-day operations? First and foremost, I strive to uphold the highest ethical standards of the profession. I offer my clients the skills and expertise of 20+ years of experience. I supply all the energy and efforts needed to get the job done and I always maintain their confidentiality.

Beyond that, I have two primary, simple tenets that govern my practice—one deals with the clients I will represent and the other with how I will represent my clients.

1. There are clients that I won’t represent. Many years ago, I made a decision that personal beliefs and business ethics could not be separated. There are organizations (businesses, political entities, religious institutions, charities, groups) that are contrary to my core values, so I know I wouldn’t be able to provide them with my best work. They deserve the very best for the money they invest, and I deserve to be able to sleep with a clear conscience.

Side note: Not everyone agrees with this precept, and I feel fairly sure there will be someone strong reaction from PR colleagues to my opinions here. Recently, I took part in a small, informal, online Twitter poll. We were asked: Is it EVER OK to align yourself with person(s)/cause(s) with which you totally disagree? When the voting was done, the results were: YES (11) NO (20) MAYBE (4)

Not all the respondents were in PR, but it does show the contrast in opinions on the subject.)

2. I’m not going to lie. Dishonesty (active or passive) may advance the immediate needs of the moment, but in the long run, only damages the reputation of the PR professional and the profession. Not to mention, the deceptions almost always come to light, making the work of PR even more difficult and doing more (irreparable?) damage to the reputation of the organization. For me, it’s not worth the cost. Without truth, PR degenerates into meaningless propaganda and manipulation.

It’s not my place to be judgmental, and I recognize that my clients deserve my best efforts, but there’s the higher calling to the truth. I also acknowledge an ever-present tension in what constitutes truth or honesty—relative to the situation, the problem, the solution, the profession, the client…even the general public.

This dilemma is even seen within the Code of Ethics. On the one hand, we are called to be “faithful to those we represent,” then in the next phrase, we are also implored to honor “our obligation to serve the public interest.” We are called to the “highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent” but we are also asked to “work constantly to strengthen the public's trust in the profession.”

But I think it means more than just not lying for our clients. Part of the Ethics Code encourage us to “provide objective counsel to those we represent.” That means I'm bound to be honest with my clients as well. In other words, I don't lie to them either!

On several occasions, I’ve had the responsibility of telling business leaders of a potential problems or advising against impending actions. Whether it’s welcomed or acknowledged, it’s the duty of the PR professional to tell the truth. (I chose to disassociate with one organization when it became apparent that their decisions—in spite of my counsel—would be unethical and potentially damaging.)

Obviously, this is not the forum for a thorough discussion of “absolute” versus “relative” or situational truth, but I do believe that in every situation, there is honesty. And regardless of the problem, in spite of the possible results and no matter the client, that should be our goal. Truth is not a currency we can afford to compromise, lest we shortchange the industry and forfeit our integrity.

I have (strong) opinions about the ethics and actions of some politicians, preachers and business executives. However, I can’t control what they do and how they do it. But I’ve determined to conduct my practicce by the sage advice my non-PR grandmother always gave me: (1) “You are known by the company you keep” and (2)“Honesty is the best policy.”


Please share your thoughts.

What do you think of a PR professional being selective about clients?

What is the PR professional’s allegiance to truth and honesty?

Should an organization expect a PR professional to do whatever is necessary to serve the organization?

How do we balance truth/honesty with the needs of a client?

To leave a comment, click on the icon at the top of the page.

Choose Your Words Sparingly!

Communication without words is telepathy. I doubt many companies can claim that as one their abundant resources. I’ve never seen it on a job description as a requirement. (I’ve regularly had to remind co-worker and supervisors that while I’m good at what I do, this trait was not on my resume. There are still times I probably need to remind my clients of this deficiency as well!)

Imagery is communicating with pictures. It’s an art form, but the effectiveness is legendary. (It even has its own “old saying” that we’ve all heard again and again: A picture is worth a thousand words.) It’s true! An image can send a clear message and stay with us for a lifetime. A Native American, with a single tear on his cheek as he looks at litter sent a powerful message many years ago. The firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero still tugs at this generation’s heart they way the image of the soldier’s raising the flag at Iwo Jima did in 1945.

However, the majority of our Public Relations efforts and Business Communication will involve words! Moreover, to be effective it will require the right words. Remember, we want our message to impact and change, so our words should provide information, evoke feeling, touch the heart, challenge the mind and motivate action. The right words at the right time is a powerful combination. And in our last post, we saw the problems that can happen when we use the wrong word, particularly in a tense situation.

Because it’s that important, many people assume that piling on words is the answer—with more words, there’s a greater chance of connecting with the audience. But our message not only needs to be clear, it needs to be concise. We want to avoid words that aren’t needed—unnecessary adjectives (“new and improved”), verbose descriptions and redundant phrases.

Too often, because we work in a business environment, we want to appear…well, business-like in our communication. We take on a formal style, but results are more stilted phrases and extra verbiage. (Examples: “at the present time” is used instead of now; “at a later date” rather than just later. The simple word about becomes “with reference to.” “Please do not hesitate to call” could be reduced to please call and the four words “in the event that” could become the tiny word if) This is where restraint (or tough editing) is crucial.

Words have such power. What we put in is important, but so it what we leave out. Good communications, indeed Great Communication, is not how much is said, but how well it’s said. (Which probably means this should be a shorter blog post, right?)

Consider this:

* Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is only 272 words.
* The Twenty-Third Psalm is less than 120 words
* The Lord’s Prayer is just over 60 words
* Our Constitution’s Preamble is 52 words

Whether it’s history, literature, entertainment or advertising, a few words can stick in our minds and impact our collective memories:

“Give me liberty or give me death”
“I regret I have but one life to give for my country”
“Don’t worry, be happy”
“Where’s the beef?”
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”

We need powerful language to show the strength of our company or emotional words to show our compassion of our charity. We want words worthy of our message and our audience. We should be selective to employ those words which will work the hardest for our message.

Choose Your Words Wisely (the first time!)

As we’ve been discussing, the goal of good business communication (actually, all communication) is not just to “talk/speak,” but to inspire, to educate and to persuade those who hear our message. Ultimately, our goal is not just to give out good information but to change those who hear/receive our message—change the way they think, what they feel (attitudes) and ultimately, how they act (behavior). And in many instances, we will need to use our words to change a difficult situation.

Our communication should be careful to avoid confusing words, and especially words that could offend. Recently, we saw an example of an organization trying to recover from a very public mistake and the choice of one unfortunately word not only made the matter worse, but escalated the bad publicity.

The Valley Swim Club, a private swim club in Philadelphia had an incident where a large group of black day camp children were admitted to the pool. The local day camp had paid nearly $2,000 for the campers to be allowed to swim. But a parent of one of the campers noted that when the black children entered the pool, most of the white children exited. At that point, the pool attendants stepped in and asked the daycampers to exit the pool, announcing that the Swim Club did not allow minorities in the pool and informed the group they must leave immediately.

Of course, the media heard of the incident. The story was repeated hundreds of times on Twitter. When the President of the private club finally issued a statement, it was said the children were asked to leave because “there was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion [emphasis mine]...and the atmosphere of the club.”

I can only hope the explanation/response was extemporaneous and off the cuff, because I would cringe to think someone actually spent time working on that response. Complexion? That word has several “shades” of meaning, but in this context, it was a definite “black-and-white” mistake.

The word complexion can refer, according to one definition in the dictionary, to the character of something, or describe how it appears. For example, we could affirm that the addition of a new high-rise building would change the complexion of a neighborhood. With no other context, we don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, just that the area would be different now with the addition of the building.

But lest we get too philosophical, and in the end, let this private club off the PR hook (in an etymological sense), the fact is that while complexion can have this secondary, illustrative meaning, the first definition is clear: “the natural color, texture, and appearance of the skin, esp. of the face.” (Oxford Dictionary) So here’s the bottom line: When trying to explain why the black children were ejected from the pool, they used a word that spoke primarily about the color of skin. As they say on the Internet: OMG! WTH?

There is much debate going on about the rights of the private club versus the rights of the campers. (Their group had paid for the privilege of using the pool, but later the club admits they overestimated the impact of that many children at the same time.) However, that debate is out of the realm of this discussion. As an after-the-fact PR observer, I can only deconstruct their response to the situation. And in doing so, I have to ask: Who thought that was a good idea?

The situation was difficult, there’s no doubt. Of course, the club management has a responsibility to protect the members, as well as the reputation of the club. (Note: regardless of what we may think about exclusive clubs, it is still the role of the leadership to act within the mission and values of that organization.) But there is no doubt that it could have been handled differently. Dare I say, better? The word they used—complexion—did not help. In the weeks since the event, the club’s board has been busy trying to resolve the situation. Gestures of reconciliation. More prepared statements. Explanations. There is also a discrimination lawsuit against the swim club. It’s now a major crisis. (A quick web search of Valley Swim Club will reveal the depth and escalation of this problem. It ain’t pretty!) And that’s our continuing lesson.

It is always important to choose our words carefully, but in a tense situation, it is imperative. Because words have the power to change, we only want to use words which will help the situation. So I would recommend at least these three steps:

* Look at each word as a stand-alone. What does it mean? Are there alternative meanings? What does it connote? Can it be taken out of context?

* Rehearse what you plan to say. Read/Say it out loud, so you can hear you are saying and the words you are using.

* Get feedback. Have others (as diverse a group as possible) listen to or at least read the statement. Make sure they know they have your permission to be completely, totally and brutally honest about the content. Yes, it might take a little more time, but it’s a better option than having to retract the statement, or issue two or three follow up statements to explain what you didn’t mean to say the first time.

Side note/Plug: If you have doubts about your ability to convey your message with the right words, and if you don’t have a PR/Communications staff person who’s equipped for this kind of situation, then you need to call in a professional. The cost involved will probably be much less than the damage incurred by saying the wrong thing in the wrong way.

Our words can turn hurt to healing or they can change a heated problem into an out-of-control wildfire. Choose carefully…the first time!

Are you talking about me?

I’m sure you’ve heard the old quote which says “I don’t care what they write about me, as long as they spell my name right.”

Did you know there’s debate on who actually said it? It’s attributed to everyone from Mae West to P.T. Barnum to George M. Cohan. Some have said it was Mark Twain or Oscar Wilde. Personally, I always thought it was Bette Davis, but I’ve been known to be wrong occasionally. Regardless of who originally said it, I’m here to say NO! While that may be a useful ploy for celebrities (though I’m sure Mel Gibson might disagree), it’s certainly not a good ongoing PR strategy. Consider these examples:

Domino’s Pizza

Burger King

United Airlines

Chico's Tacos

These incidents, which I randomly chose from ongoing discussions on Twitter, illustrates the point. These issues gave the company a black eye, the CEO a headache and (I expect) the PR person an ulcer. I’m sure at some point in all the fallout, they probably wished some newspaper would misspell their name!

For many, these “outside” conversations are intimidating and ominous, like that unnerving feeling of being watched. But as a business leader, knowledge is power (and takes away the fear), so consider these five significant points:

1. You want people talking about you. In business, if people are not talking about you, you’re in trouble. These outside conversations are an essential goal of successful PR efforts. You want folks to know your name. You certainly want them telling their friends, family and co-workers about your business, your organization, your services, your product. (i.e., referrals).

2. You want them saying good (right) things about you. No one goes into business, begins a nonprofit organization or organizes a charity with the express purpose of having people criticize the efforts, products or services. You think you have something to offer. You hire the best folks and train them well to provide quality service to make your customers happy--so they’ll return, so they’ll buy again and so they’ll be complimentary when talking to others.

3. You need to tell them good things about you. That’s the ultimate goal of advertising, marketing and even public relations. Consider Starbuck, one the country’s most well-known businesses, with a name almost synonymous with coffee these days. (Trust me, I’m not getting a fee for this commercial.) And though it seems there’s one on every corner, do they rest on that familiarity? No, because they recognize the need to keep their name in front of people, regardless of their leadership position in their market.

In bad economic times, there’s always a need to cut back and historically (regrettably) one of the areas where companies initially look is the External Communication departments—Marketing, Advertising, PR. (Fortunately, some companies that have cut their staff/department will still continue the efforts using consultants and freelancers.) But if your company is not regularly and consistently sending out positive information, another company could easily come in and capture your market. They will become the topic of conversation and you could quickly become a memory.

4. You need to know what’s being said about you. Unless you’re a reclusive multi-gazillionaire philanthropist who doesn’t want folks to know about all the good things you are doing and you don’t care what other people think, you need to be listening in on what’s being said. (BTW, if you are that multi-gazillionaire who just wants to anonymously spend lots of money doing good, please contact me immediately. I can help with that and I won’t tell anyone!) You want to know what your clients think of your customer service, how they use your product, why they give to your charity, etc. You need to know what’s being said—the good things and the bad. (‘Cause you’ll want to fix the bad, of course!)

There was a time when it was only possible to wonder what was being said by our customers/clients or spend lots of money on market research. However, with the rise of social media and networking (Twitter, Facebook, blogs), these outside conversations are not only visible to us, they are emblazoned for all to see as well. Which leads to the another essential aspect of this process.

5. You must get involved in the conversation. For years, the messaging from an organization to their client-base was mostly one-sided. We talked, they listened. (e.g., advertising, marketing, direct mail) But with the Internet came a method of two-way communication. Instant communication at that. And if your organization is not involved, you’re missing a vital dimension of customer relations. This is your opportunity to move the conversation from talking about you to talking with you! That’s interaction.

Back to our example of Starbucks. (Still no fee for the plugs) In addition to their commitment to advertising, marketing and public relations, they were recently ranked as the #1 restaurant to utilize social media in their promotions. Apparently they not only recognize the importance of these outside conversations, they’re willing to jump in with something to say!

Note: The entire subject of social media, networking and interaction is too broad to consider at this point. We will cover it in more detail in later blogs. Suffice it to say: you need to be involved.

Are people talking about you? Let’s hope so. If they aren’t, make it priority to find out why…and fix it! Likewise, if they are saying the wrong things about you, or if they are unhappy, you certainly want to know that, too. Get involved with you clients! Get in dialogue with them. It’s about engagement, interaction….and relationships.