PR's Bad Rap

Every time I tell someone what my major is I get the same response: "oh...spin." That's what everyone thinks public relations is...spin. In fact, when I went to my cell phone company to get a new phone plan the salesman asked me what my major was right away. When I told him I was a PR major he said, "Oh, so you're going to be the master of spin?" I just laughed and refuted the accusation, but it annoyed me a little bit.

Although I realize that I'm just a lowly student and I have pretty limited experience in actual PR, but the experience that I do have seems to tell me the opposite of what everyone else thinks. I have never pulled a PR stunt or tried to spin anything. I don't think I could even if I wanted to. None of my professors have ever taught me how to put spin on a bad situation with a client. In fact, the only thing my professors have told me about spin is that it's not the way PR should be done. As upcoming PR professionals several of my professors have challenged my classmates and me to raise the reputation of PR professionals everywhere. Although I plan to do everything I can to accomplish this task, it just saddens me that it has to be done.

I'm sure there are plenty of bad PR practitioners. After all, the reputation had to come from somewhere. However, I think and sincerely hope that the new generation of PR professionals are determined to do it right and change the currently ugly face of PR.

I know there are plenty of other people in public relations who feel the same way, like John Wagner, who recently posted on his blog about PR's bad reputation. Everyone in the PR industry needs to operate in an ethical manner and work hard to show the country that our industry is more than just spin. We need to combat feelings like this.