Public? Relations? What the...?

I am often asked what public relations actually is. Most people think public relations is media exposure but that's only one element - the media relatons bit. Media exposure is one thing (dollop of Paris Hilton anyone?.....well, that's just OVER exposure) but public relations is how you 'relate' to your 'publics' - yes, you have publics too, it's not just a playground for JLo and Madonna. Public relations is not the domain of the rich and ridiculous (altho that does help when you want to gain more exposure).



Public relations is about your image, reputation and credibility. You can dress for success all you like but if everyone hates you then you have a public relations problem.



Think Good Public Relations: Tom Hanks, Oprah, Mother Theresa, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Richard Branson.



Think Slightly Dodgy Public Relations: Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, Eminem, virtually any sitting Politician, movies about Cajun country (a la 'Deliverance'), cruise ships.



Think BAD Public Relations: Lindsay Lohan, Tom Cruise (of late), Heather Mills, Scientology, Japanese whalers, Exon, oil companies.



PR is such a great thing because you CAN turn bad PR in to good PR (and vice versa) - who thought Bill Clinton would have got out of THAT one? In fact, his PR was way better than Monica's - how does that work? Great spin doctors! Image, reputation and credibility.



It's very easy to get a bad name, Heather Mills, and very hard to get a good one, Heather Mills. The problem with Heather is that she IS a whinger and no-one likes rich whingers - but mostly because the public never really saw another side of her (unless they watched dubious movie sites, alledgedly). But lets give her the beneft of the doubt. She maintains she was doing charity work long before she met Paul McCartney. But no-one knew anything about it because she had no PR cache. She had minimal image and zero reputation and bugger all credibility (that's not to say she WASN'T credible but she had no PR track record to speak of).



Along comes Paul, and she's thrust....er....impaled upon......er.......flung in to the spotlight (which she hates, achem). The profile started to gain momentum and all people really saw was her basking in his ambient light and being MRS McCartney (and Stella not liking it one bit). The marriage was too short-lived for her to do anything really meaningful and then - voila - pitchforks at 2 paces as they thrashed around in ignominious, well-past coitus interruptus disharmony - and the fangs came out and she whinged endlessly and that's all people saw - plus the "gold digging bitch if she can't live off $50 million she didn't earn" - not good PR, in fact bad, bad PR - and she's having a hell of a job convincing anyone of anything different than that viewpoint. Dancing with the Stars wil NEVER compete with a picture of Princess Diana and a land mine - and let's not forget those pictures of Diana hugging children with HIV/Aids- very, very memeorable - very, very good PR. Sorry Heather, you'll never win. At least we have memories of Britney being FABULOUS and many people want to see her return to that triumph - that's good PR gone dodgy heading toward bad but being catapulted back toward good.



So if you can't be good, be careful!