For an alternative take on the newly Chartered Institute of Public Relations, go to the Borkowski PR Mark My Words blog. Here's a taster:
"What on earth were the Privy Council thinking of, awarding this shower a Royal Charter?
"If it’s simply a handy stunt to get PR a bit of extra publicity I suppose we could just enjoy a quiet giggle. After all, good PR is mercurial, and heaven knows Her Majesty the Queen and her family have forgotten more about media relations and celebrity handling than most of us in the business have ever learnt. And by the way, this isn’t new. Incredibly, for over 50 years the IPR or its equivalent have been told ‘No, Bugger off’, but now, suddenly, in the era of Alastair Campbell, Downing Street has seen fit to grant PR a respectability it utterly fails to warrant.
"Does nobody else see this? Laundering and ironing the reputations of politicians, drug companies, arms manufacturers, tobacco producers, junk food sellers and shareholders’ pressure groups using the methods available today is not a respectable business. It is a covert, no-holds-barred war, in which newspaper editors and TV journalists have to be superhuman in their refusal to be swayed, and those picking up the tab acutely wary of detection. More so than any advertising you care to name, PR today is frequently about suppressing truth, and just how ethical is that?
"Besides, it’s absurd to imagine that a single ‘professional body’ could honestly represent the mad diversity of this business – in the City, in rock music, in political spinning, in corporate communications, in celebrity management – when the people involved all come from such radically different directions. But don’t let me put you off if you’re quite determined to miss the point."
Comments